The Corrupt fear....
The Honest support....
The Heroic join.....
In Solidarity....
11/04/2011 02:26:00 PM
human rights, politics
Nov 4, 2011
Still on my visit to Brazil…
One of the most intriguing discoveries I made during my stay in Brazil was finding out that the country has a ministry dedicated to the prevention of hunger. The ministry is called "The Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger (MDS)." As far as I know Brazil is the only country that has a cabinet level minister whose principal assignment is to fight against hunger.
The ministry was created in 2004 with a mission to promote social development and fight against hunger with the aim of “fostering inclusion and citizenship, ensuring food and nutritional security, a minimum citizenship income and integral assistance to families." This mission statement reflects the country's decision of placing the fight against hunger and social exclusion as a priority in the national agenda. My hosts tell me that the Ministry's mandate is to ensure that all Brazilians irrespective of race, class or economic statues get three square meals a day. They call it the “Zero Hunger Program.”
According to the Ministry, its social policies are integrated in a system of social protection and promotion that currently benefits about 65 million people in situation of poverty, through its several programs, such as: the Bolsa FamÃlia Program of conditional cash transfer; the Continuous Cash Benefit (BPC), the Program of Acquisition of Food of the Small Landowner (PAA); the Cisterns Program; the Program of Integral Attention to the Family (PAIF); and the Program of the Eradication of Child Labor (PETI), among others.”
“By prioritizing social investments, Brazil has achieved significant results in reducing poverty and inequality, and has improved access to food, education, health and infrastructure services. Between 2003 and 2006, 14 million people escaped poverty, entailing a 31.4 per cent decline in the country’s poverty levels.”
The rest of the world is taking notice of Brazil’s fight against hunger. According to a 2009 ActionAid report, Brazil ranks first among developing countries in the fight against hunger. The report assessed 29 developing countries on the basis of legal commitment to the right to food, investment in agriculture and social protection, and performance on hunger and child nutrition. Brazil came in first, ahead of China, Ghana and Vietnam.
Brazil Notes: The “Zero Hunger Program”
11/04/2011 01:16:00 PM
Development, human rights, politics, world
For the past two weeks I have been in Sao Paulo, Brazil as a guest speaker of the "Centromere de Estudo de Cultura Contemporanea" (Centre for the study of contemporary culture). It is my first time in Brazil and I must say that it has been a revelation. In the next few weeks I will be blogging about my random observations of Brazilian society and culture.
Before vising Brazil, I had heard a lot about the social and political changes initiated by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva but visiting the country gives one a real sense of the impact of these changes.
Lula's policies have been credited with creating the conditions for the greatest reduction of the number of people living in poverty in the recent history of Latin America. Brazil is doing in Latin America what China is doing in Asia. With more people moving up the social ladder and with more purchasing power, the Brazilian economy is booming even at a time of global recession. Evidence of the resurgence of capitalist consumerist culture can be seen everywhere from the new city metro line systems to the sprawling American style malls springing up across the city.
The interesting thing about the Brazilian development model as I see it is that the triumph of the capitalist consumerist property model has not been allowed to run a mock as has been the case elsewhere. Great care has been taken to put in place social safety nets to ensure the rights and welfare of the poorest and most vulnerable in the society are protected. Call it capitalism with a conscience.
I ask my host, Dr. Rosanna Reiss of the University of Sao Paulo which of the government’s many social policies she thinks has had the most profound impact on Brazilian society. "Clearly the Bolsa FamÃlia program" She says. The Bolsa FamÃlia is the $150 cash transfer to poor families throughout brazil. " These cash subventions have transfomed the lives of many ordinary people across the country.” They enable the poorest families to invest in education and gain financial security.
When the grants were first proposed, there was the familiar concern that it would lead to the "indolence and dependency of the poor on the nanny state." However, documented evidence shows the contrary. The funds have had an empowering effect of the country's poorest. My hosts tell me of anecdotal evidence of Bolsa FamÃlia program recipients requesting government agencies to discontinue payments to them when their economic situation improve. This challenges the arguments that state welfare programs inevitably foster dependency among the poor.
A true test of the humanity of any society is how well it treats the least of its members. Brazil provides an alternate development model for Latin America and the rest of the developing world. The problem as the Brazilian example shows is not necessarily free market capitalism but the virulent form of avaricious corporate capitalism that currently dominates the global political economy. There is, I think, a place for conscientious and regulated free-market economics that seeks as its goal, not only the unending accumulation of economic surpluses in ever fewer hands, but rather doing the greatest good to the greatest number of people while providing safety nets for the most vulnerable in the society.
Brazil Notes: An Alternate Model of Development
11/04/2011 12:00:00 PM
Development, human rights, politics, world
My reading for the month has been “The Death of the Liberal Class,’ by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges. In it he makes the argument that the “liberal class” which has historically been at the forefront of championing social reforms for the poor and middle class is increasing becoming irrelevant.
Hedges point accusing fingers at five specific groups and institutions in America for failing Americans and allowing for the creation of a “permanent underclass.” These are the Democratic Party, churches, unions, the media and academia.
Hedges argues that for motives ranging from self-preservation to careerism, the “liberal establishment” purged radicals from its own ranks and, as a result, lost its checks on capitalism and corporate power.
Although the book is essentially about American politics and societies, I find the that some of the questions it raises bear universal relevance. Hedges indictment of the academia and its complicity in the corporatization of the global socio-political space is one that I think resonates with many observers. League universities, he argues have become essentially, vocational schools. There has been a “kind of withering of the humanities” in which the liberal education that would normally ask broad questions and challenge structure and assumptions has become corporate. Academic departments now carry the burden of raising their own funds. “This is pretty hard to do if you’re in the classics department,” Hedges notes.
Hedges also faults the “purging within economics departments and business schools of people who challenged what I call the utopian vision of globalization — the idea that somehow the marketplace should determine human behavior and guide human activity.”
Not everyone will agree with the Hedges' blanket indictments in this book, but I think it makes for very thought provoking reading. The books comes highly recommend.
Reading of the Month: "The Death of the Liberal Class"
Oct 9, 2011
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman, who have fought tirelessly to organize women for peace and human rights, share the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.
In awarding the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize to these outstanding women, the Nobel Prize Committee has accorded long overdue recognition to the role of women as peacemakers.
I am one of those who strongly believe that women are crucial to bringing peace and justice to our troubled world. Women are often the most affected by conflict and injustice– they are victims of abuse and rape; they bear the burdens when husbands and chidden are lost to war. For them the cost of war and conflict are painfully real. It is no wonder therefore that women are key to sustainable peacebuilding.
This year's Nobel Peace Prize winners prove this.
Apart from being Africa's first elected female head of state, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has worked to bring peace and stability to Liberia’s war ravaged society. In a continent were patriarchy rules supreme she serves as a role model for millions of African women. She has pursued policies aimed at empowering women, children and the most vulnerable in her country.
Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee has “mobilised and organised women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women's participation in elections. She has worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war." She organized a group of Liberian woman in 2002 to put pressure on the warring parties to end the country's brutal civil war. “They were the mothers, wives and sisters of the men doing the fighting and their victims.”
Yemeni journalist and activist Tawakul Karman, founded Women Journalists Without Chains in 2005. In a country notorious for political repression and state sanctioned human rights violations, she has been a voice and advocate for human rights and freedom of expression. Defying traditional restrictions on women in Yemen's conservative political space, Ms Karman has led rallies in the continuing protests against the rule of President Ali-Abdullah Saleh. She has done all this without repudiating the basic social and cultural values of her society.
These women are models of resilience and commitment to the course of peace and human rights.
Congratulations Ladies.
2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners: A Timely Tribute to Women Peacemakers
10/09/2011 01:05:00 AM
Development, human rights, war and peace
Oct 3, 2011
The Corrupt fear....The Honest support....
The Heroic join.....
In Solidarity....
10/03/2011 03:20:00 PM
human rights, world
Oct 1, 2011
A BBC story highlights the price others pay to make us look fashionable.
Jeans with a distressed, already-worn look are made by blasting them with sand. Apparently, this can give factory workers an incurable lung disease.
One garment factory worker in Bangladesh states: "I have difficulty breathing... When I return from work I feel so tired. My eyes are in pain from all the dust... I know the effects this is having on my health, but I continue to do it because I need to feed myself and my family."
Makes me wonder: What is the real price of fashion?
Sometimes, the true price of fashion is not the just the sticker price we pay at the store but the health and well-being of the many of the world’s poorest.
Read the BBC story HERE
The True Price of Fashion
10/01/2011 09:34:00 PM
Development, human rights
Sep 21, 2011
Today, September 21, is International Day of Peace ("Peace Day").
It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982. In 2002 the General Assembly officially declared September 21 as the permanent date for the International Day of Peace.
The day provides an opportunity for all of us, individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace. On this day, we are reminded to take a take the pledge to end intolerance.
We can't resolve all the many conflicts that plague our world in one day, but we can in our various little ways do more to promote tolerance and inclusiveness wherever we live.
International Peace Day 2011
9/21/2011 04:28:00 PM
war and peace, world
Sep 11, 2011
As the United States and the world commemorate the tenth anniversary of the attack of 9/11, the focus has been on the 3,000 people who died in the attacks in the US on that day. These were the direct causalities of 9/11 and it is proper to remember them on this solemn anniversary. However, we must not forget that these are not the only victims of 9/11. The tens of thousands of innocent civilians who have died in the “global war on terror” triggered by 9/11 are also indirect victims of the attack. According to some estimates, as at 2007, the civilian casualties (“collateral damage”) in Iraq since the invasion is over 200,000. In Afghanistan, the figure is over 50,000.
The 10th anniversary of that terrible attack offers us an opportunity to honour the memory of all the innocent victims by working for peace and inclusiveness in our communities.
10th Anniversary of 9/11: Remembering all the victims
9/11/2011 10:32:00 PM
war and peace, world
Sep 4, 2011
9/04/2011 09:29:00 PM
war and peace
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