You are currently browsing the daily archive for November 20th, 2008.
While the expansion of the typical G8 to a G20 was an important first step towards more equal representation in international economic forums, the meeting convened Saturday in D.C. to address the global financial crisis remained fundamentally flawed. First, it excluded the countries most vulnerable and whose citizens will suffer most from its effects. Second, it failed to question the abuses and miscalculations of the institutions that got us here in the first place. In fact, proposed bailout packages redirect power and legitimacy to the same private regulatory institutions that preach speculatory investment over long-term investment in public infrastructures that improve people’s lives, meet human needs, and protect human rights.
Among these institutions are the previously waning IMF and World Bank, who are now regaining their footing as international lenders to developing countries. IMF and World Bank loans have been notorious for enforcing Structural Adjustment Programs that slash public spending, often eliminating a county’s ability to meet the needs of its population.
This, my friends, is what we call a gross infringement of national sovereignty. Developing countries must be free to pursue the same expansionary economic policies pursued by the wealthy nations that created the current crisis. Especially in a time of global recession, countries must have mobility to meet important social needs.
An appropriate case study is Brazil’s Bolsa Familia—the world’s largest conditional welfare program for the poor. Where families keep their children in school, get them vaccinated, and attend regular health check ups, they receive a monthly stipend of up to $82 USD. The national program serves 11 million families (close to 50 million people), and many of the country’s poorest towns are seeing their first secondary school, health clinic, and even potable water source as a result. While Bolsa Familia still has a long way to go to improve national education standards and job training, it is being studied by dozens of other Latin American and African countries as a model that appears to be reducing poverty and improving certain social behaviors when it comes to education and health—two essential ingredients to development.
So, as the governments of the richest countries act more quickly and decisively to bail out the banks and financial institutions than they have the crisis of poverty, marginalization, and deprivation that continues to afflict nearly half the world’s population, stop and think.
Stop and think about what a global economic structures and policies would look like that put peoples’ needs first, respect and promote human rights, ensure decent jobs, sustainable livelihoods, and essential services such as health, education, housing, water, and clean energy. Public assistance programs like Bolsa Familia are a good start, but they represent only a piece of the solution.
Exploring other pieces of the puzzle is a growing mobilization of international and regional networks and organizations that are asking the world to take lesson and take charge of our democratic (and not so democratic) systems to give people greater control over the resources and decisions that affect their lives.
The world is not flat, and it is not a box. And there are far to many alternatives yet to be discovered to accept life in a box.
With a historic election behind us and the current state of our nation, the country is posed to head in a different direction than it has been for the last eight years. As we speak, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is hosting the Governors’ Global Climate Summit in Beverly Hills, California. Bringing together leaders from around the world, the objective is to provide a framework for the UN Climate Conference held next month in Poland. What is intriguing about this summit is the creation of a bipartisan alliance among governors in our country. Although the federal government has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, 10 states have created an initiative and 902 cities are committed to meet or exceed its standards. Two of the leading governors orchestrating this commitment are both Republicans representing 54.5 million Americans. Governor Schwarzenegger and one of his co-hosts, Governor Charlie Crist of Florida, are leading the American commitment to compact our environmental impact. Schwarzenegger has been criticized for his provisions made to Title 24, an energy efficiency policy for residential and non-residential buildings; however environmental enthusiasts embrace it. Crist made national headlines this year with his purchase of some 181,000 acres of land that will eventually, once again, become a part of the Everglades. In what was known as the U.S. Sugar Deal, it will be one of the largest environmental acquisitions in U.S. history. Today is the second day of the summit and it will be interesting to see what the leaders of today will do for the world tomorrow. In the times in which we live, it is imperative we have the leadership to progress our society toward a collaborative effort that will affect all of humanity.
