But before discussing disaster risk reduction strategies with policymakers, humanitarians, and members of the private sector there, she heard from 15 youth leaders from across Indonesia, about the struggles they have faced, implementing climate-related projects in their own communities.
After listening to presentations on projects that ranged from founding digital food banks, to charting air pollution – and launching education courses on sustainable farming – the Deputy Secretary-General said she wanted to relay “the energy, the anger, the frustration, the optimism, and the hope,” of youth in Indonesia, during her meetings with delegates in Bali in the days ahead.
Tectonic plates
Bali is appropriate venue to host the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction. Situation along the volatile Pacific Rim of Fire – where tectonic plates meet along a volcanic fault line – Indonesia recorded 3,034 natural disasters in 2021, according to the national disaster risk agency, which impacted 8.3 million people and caused at least 662 deaths.
Those figures will skyrocket if the world continues on its current trajectory of accelerated global warming towards 3.2 degrees above pre-industrial levels – more than double the 1.5 degrees limit scientists say is essential for avoiding the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
The IPCC’s latest report reaffirms that any rise above 1.5 degrees would lead to a dramatic increase in extreme weather events such as floods, which made up more than a third of all disasters in Indonesia last year.
But acting on climate change is not only a national imperative. In December 2021, Indonesia took up the Presidency of the G20, whose members account for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Indonesia, a ‘well placed’ advocate
As the world’s largest archipelagic nation, Indonesia is “well placed to advocate for the interests of less developed countries and small islands states on the world stage,” says UN Resident Coordinator for Indonesia Valerie Julliand. “That includes holding rich countries to account for their commitment to mobilize $100 billion a year, to help poorer countries deal with climate change.”
Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s appearance at the COP26 climate change conference last year in Glasgow served as an example of how seriously Indonesia takes the issue.
Home to the world’s third largest area of forest after Brazil and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Indonesia pledged to halt or reverse deforestation by 2040 at the two-week climate summit in Glasgow. It also joined Member States in promising to “phase down” coal use.
However, Indonesia has not committed to ending its pipeline of coal generation projects under its current ten-year national development plan. The pipeline, which includes 13.8 GW of new coal capacity by 2029, more than 10GW of which is already under construction, is not compatible with Indonesia’s climate goals, environmental groups argue.
Besides being the world’s largest coal exporter, coal mining employs an estimated 450,000 Indonesians and supports millions more – mostly in economically impoverished areas of Kalimantan and Sumatra.
Helping Indonesia transition from coal to clean energy generation is the focus of the FIRE Dialogue partners, an international platform that brings together UN representatives, ambassadors and diplomats from multiple countries, and organizations such as the Asian Development Bank.
Optimistic for the future
“It is going to be difficult, but I am optimistic”, the Deputy Secretary-General told a UN in Indonesia Town Hall event, following a meeting with FIRE Dialgoue partners on Monday. “We need concerted efforts to accompany this country in the next five years to really make that pivot towards renewable energy and a green and blue economy.”
She added that young people would be at the centre of this pivot, including through making sure critical facts are widely understood, among them, that the green and blue economy, can create three times as many jobs as those coming from the fossil fuel sector.
It was a sentiment that carried echoes of the conversations at the weekend with young climate leaders. After the 15 young activists presented the objects that helped sum up their inspiring work, the deputy UN chief shared some significant objects of her own, which she had brought along to the conversation.
These included a piece of sea glass, and a seashell, with a pale pink exterior.
The shell, she said, represented communication, and specifically, the need to get beyond the shell’s hard exterior to communicate a fundamental inner truth: “human beings picked a fight with nature. Nature fought back. And now we have to make peace with nature.”
NEW DELHI, India, May 23 (IPS) – The year 2019 was not just a time before the world saw the global pandemic, but also a time when the world saw mass political uprisings with women at the forefront. The MENA region in a way led this force, in Sudan women played as drivers of the revolution, protesting decades of corruption, socioeconomic grievances and gendered violence. Nubian queen became the symbol of the revolution in Sudan which finally saw the overthrow of the dictatorship in 2019.
In Lebanon, the revolution was called ‘feminist’, due to the participation of women in large numbers, who were “shaping the direction and character of the revolution.” The unwavering courage demonstrated by Lebanese women attracted multiple misinformation, serious sexual objectification, misogynist slurs and mocking on various media platforms. Not that it held the women back, they continued to be at the forefront creating history, as always.
In Syria, the wait has been long, it’s been a decade of the revolution and war, the Syrian feminist movement, despite the roadblocks, ongoing war, crisis and patriarchal norms has continued to become stronger and the women defining figures and symbols of the Syrian revolution. Women such as Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Al-Khalil, Mai Skaf, Fadwa Suleiman, are women who will be remembered for their bravery and courage through the Syrian revolution. A decade later, Syrian women continued to fight not just the remnants of the war, but the continued patriarchy in the country.
Feminist movements have always been challenged, not only because they are reclaiming their spaces and power, but also because ‘proximity to power’ threatens misogynists everywhere. Women, however, as seen through these revolutions, have challenged the very idea of dualism, and demonstrated their desire to stay, fight, and have their voices heard.
Ep 3: Roya Hassan | Podcaster | Sudan
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Sudan ranks 151 out of 180 countries in the RSF’s World Press Freedom index. “A military coup d’état on October 25, 2021, signaled a return to information control and censorship. Journalists are working in a worsening climate of violence; threats have intensified in recent years with the emergence of new militias and armed movements. Reporters are systematically attacked and insulted in demonstrations, by both the army and rapid-response forces. The government exploits the private lives of women journalists to intimidate them,” the report stated.
Roya Hassan
Roya Hassan, a podcaster and feminist writer from Sudan in an interview given to IPS News says, “Sudan is a very hard country for women Journalist, there is patriarchy, there is authoritarianism, even the community is very backward, so for us women journalists, as changemakers and feminists – producing knowledge, sharing knowledge, creating knowledge is a very important and valuable tool.”
Earlier this year, according to this report, three press bodies in Khartoum signed a press code of honour along with other documents for the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate demonstrating their efforts and commitment to restore the organization since the head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burham, dissolved all the syndicates and professional unions. In 2019, the head of the Sudan’s journalist union was detained by the military, and Media watchdog RSF had recorded at least 100 cases of press freedom violations during the protests that finally led to al-Bashir’s overthrow in April that year.
“The government does not welcome people discussing human rights, feminist issues, political issues, I didn’t get hurt physically, but I know photographers who have been beaten up, jailed, tortured just for doing their jobs. I have been lucky, but it doesn’t make it any easier for any of us in this environment,” says Hassan.
In an interview given to IPS, Alia Awada, feminist, activist and co-founder of No2ta – The Feminist Lab, said, “I think women and girls in our region deserve to be heard, but we also need to provide them with legal knowledge and understanding of how to deal with certain political issues, family laws, social-economic issues, and make decisions based on them.”
“I have been working on campaigns focusing on women’s rights, child rights and refugees, and other campaigns to fight domestic violence and sexual violence, to call for the rights of kids and everyone else”.
Lebanon ranks one of the lowest countries in the world on the Gender Gap Index, 140 out of 149, and its ranking in terms of women’s participation in the labour force is one of the lowest globally. Women protesters, activists and public figures have often faced serious sexual objectification, followed by massive online trolling against them.
Campaigning, Awada says has been very challenging in the country, “We need to do these campaigns to put pressure on the government, who are overlooking certain issues, like we did in Lebanon through the 522 campaign which was against Lebanese rape-marriage law.”
Through her work, Awada continues to “cook potions and experiments with formulas to shake the patriarchal status quo that has been weighing on the lives of women and girls for too long. “I want No2ta to be a safe space, a strong feminist lab, where we spread the knowledge and produce high quality feminist work that would influence social change and behavior towards of the public towards women,” Awada said.
Ep 5: Rawan Kahwaji | Feminist Activist | Syria
After 10 years of humanitarian crisis, war and displacement, Syrians are still struggling to put food on the table, nearly one-third of all children are chronologically malnourished, and more than 6.5 million children need urgent assistance. The war brought one of the largest education crises in recent history, with a whole generation of Syrian children paying the price of conflict.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has reported 13.4 million people need humanitarian and protection assistance in Syria, with 6.7 million internally displaced persons. “Millions of Syrians have been forced to flee their homes since 2011, seeking safety as refugees in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and beyond, or displaced inside Syria. With the devastating impact of the pandemic and increasing poverty, every day is an emergency for Syrians forced to flee. As the crisis continues, hope is fading,” the report said.
Rawan Kahwaji
“Lots of efforts have been going on, from the political side, from the social side, from the emergency humanitarian community side, there are a lot of efforts being put in to find a solution that would give justice back to the Syrian people and refugees who have been suffering for the past 11 years,” says Rawan Kahwaji, co-executive manager and advocacy coordinator of DARB in an interview given to IPS.
“However, it is important to remember the role women play, not just in the Syrian society or political level, but also on a social level. Focusing on peace processes, we as NGOs must ensure there are spaces that will be inclusive of women, gender sensitive, we have ensured that when we talk about transitional justice, women and their perspective are included in those discussions, what justice means for a woman and how we can build a more gender sensitive Syria for the future,” says Kahwaji.
One of the big impacts of the war that were thrusted upon women was the role of the provider, which in turn became their source of empowerment, but not easily. According to this report, only 4 percent of Syrian families were headed by women before 2011. That figure has now become 22 percent. Severe economic crisis and not enough food for people to eat has been propelling women into looking for work, but the challenges of human rights faced by women in Syria, whether discriminatory laws, patriarchal culture, exclusionary politics of the regime, continue to a big barrier.
“As someone who has been through this refugee journey, being a refugee is challenging, being a woman refugee even more challenging. We have multiple issues and challenges that we have to face on a regular basis, whether it is legal, economic, social, work or simply places that are unsafe. If you are a widow or lost your partners, or you are the breadwinner of the family, there are difficulties in finding work, in a new country or community. Having no legal rights, or clear legal rights makes it more difficult,” says Kahwaji.
Syrian law abounds with many clauses that are discriminatory on a gender basis, be it law denying Syrian women right to grant citizenship to their children, personal status laws, property laws, the penal code and others. This legal discrimination is thus one of the most “prominent factors that has undermined, and continues to undermine, the status of women as active citizens in society, due to the forms of vulnerability that the law enshrines.”
Within Syria, women are underrepresented both in national government and local councils, because of security concerns, and conservative societal beliefs regarding women’s participation in public life. While efforts to increase women’s participation in peacebuilding and governance have made strides, but only at a local governance level, it still remains stunted overall. This report stated, nationally, women held only 13 percent of seats in parliament in 2016 in Syria, a proportion lower than both the global and regional averages.
Sania Farooqui is a New Delhi based journalist, filmmaker and host of The Sania Farooqui Show where she regularly speaks to women who have made significant contributions to bring about socio economic changes globally. She writes and reports regularly for IPS news wire.
Farmer José Antonio Sosa, known as Ché, stresses the importance of taking into account the direction of the land for planting, and the use of live or dead barriers to prevent rains from washing away the topsoil to lower areas, thus combating soil degradation in Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
by Luis Brizuela (havana)
Inter Press Service
HAVANA, May 23 (IPS) – Thorny bushes and barren soil made it look like a bad bet, but Cuban farmer José Antonio Sosa ignored other people’s objections about the land and gave life to what is now the thriving La Villa farm on the outskirts of Havana.
“The land was a mess, covered with sweet acacia (Vachellia farnesiana) and sickle bush (Dichrostachys cinérea), with little vegetation and many stones. People asked me how I was going to deal with it. With an axe and machete I gradually cleared the undergrowth, in sections,” Sosa told IPS.
Now there are plots of different varieties of fruit trees, vegetables and tubers on the 14 hectares that this farmer received from the State in usufruct in 2010, as part of a government policy to reduce unproductive land and boost food production.
The crops feed his family, while contributing to social programs and sales to the community, after part of the produce is delivered to the Juan Oramas Credit and Services Cooperative, to which the farm located in the municipality of Guanabacoa, one of the 15 municipalities of the Cuban capital, belongs.
On the farm, where he works with his family and an assistant, Sosa produces cow and goat milk, raises pigs and poultry, and is dreaming of farming freshwater fish in a small pond in the not too distant future.
La Villa is in the process of receiving “sustainably managed farm” certification. The farm and Sosa represent a growing effort by small Cuban farmers to recuperate degraded land and use environmentally friendly techniques.
The restoration of unproductive and/or degraded lands is also connected to the need to increase domestic food security, in a country highly dependent on food imports, whose rising prices mean a domestic market with unsatisfied needs and cycles of shortages such as the current one.
At the end of 2021, Cuba had 226,597 farms, 1202 of which had agroecological status while 64 percent of the total – some 146,000 – were working towards gaining agroecological certification, according to official statistics.
Sosa, who has been known as “Che” since he was a child, said the use of natural fertilizers and animal manure has made a difference in the recovery and transformation of the soil.
“It is also important to pay attention to the way crops are cultivated or harvested, to avoid compaction,” the farmer said.
Studies show that changes in land use, inadequate agricultural practices (including the intensive use of agricultural machinery and irrigation), the increase in human settlements and infrastructure and the effects of climate change are factors that are accelerating desertification and soil degradation in this Caribbean island nation of 11.2 million people.
Sosa stressed the importance of paying attention to the direction of the land for planting, and the use of living or dead barriers “to prevent the water from carrying the topsoil to lower areas when it rains.”
These cucumbers were grown using agroecological techniques on the La Villa farm, located in the municipality of Guanabacoa, one of the 15 that make up Havana, Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
Drought and climate change
In this archipelago covering 109,884 square kilometers, 77 percent of the soils are classified as not very productive.
They are affected by one or more adverse factors such as erosion, salinity, acidity, poor drainage, low fertility and organic matter content, or poor moisture retention.
The most recent statistics show that 35 percent of the soil in Cuba presents some degree of degradation.
But at 71 years of age, Sosa, who has worked in the countryside all his life, has no doubt that climate change is hurting the soil.
“The rain cycles have changed,” Sosa said. “When I was young, in the early 1960s, my father would plant taro (Colocasia esculenta, a tuber that is widely consumed locally) in March, around the 10th or so, and by the 15th it would be raining heavily. That is no longer the case. This April was very dry, especially at the end of the month, and so was early May.”
He also referred to the decrease in crop yields and quality, “as soils become hotter and water is scarcer.”
Several studies have corroborated important changes in Cuba’s climate in recent years, related to the increase in the average annual temperature, the decrease in cloud cover and stronger droughts, among other phenomena.
According to forecasts, the country’s climate will tend towards less precipitation and longer periods without rain, and by 2100 the availability of water potential could be reduced by more than 35 percent.
But more intense hurricanes are also expected, atmospheric phenomena that can discharge in 48 hours half of the average annual rainfall, with the consequent stress and severe soil erosion.
Although the least productive lands are located in the east, and Cuba’s so-called semi-desert is limited to parts of the southern coast of Guantánamo, the easternmost of the 15 provinces, forecasts indicate that the semi-arid zones could expand towards the west of the island.
Gloria Gómez (right), director of Natural Resources, Prioritized Ecosystems and Climate Change, and Jessica Fernández, head of the Climate Change Department of the General Directorate of Environment of Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, confirm the government’s intention to promote the use of credits, insurance and taxes as incentives for farmers to improve soils. CREDIT: Luis Brizuela/IPS
Goals
In addition to being a State Party to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, since 2008 Cuba has been promoting the Program for Country Partnership, also known as the National Action Program to Combat Desertification and Drought; Sustainable Land Management.
Likewise, the Cuban government is committed to the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed within the United Nations in 2015.
In SDG 15, which involves life on land, target 15.3 states that “By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.”
According to Sosa, the increase in soil degrading factors requires more efforts to restructure its physical and chemical characteristics.
In addition, he said, mechanisms should be sought to prioritize irrigation, taking into account that many sources are drying up or shrinking due to climate variability.
“In my case, I irrigate the lower part of the farm with a small system connected to the pond. But in the higher areas of the farm I depend on rainfall,” he said.
The construction of tanks or ponds to collect rainwater, in addition to the traditional reservoirs, are ideal alternatives for this Caribbean country with short, low-flow rivers and highly dependent on rainfall, which is more abundant during the May to October rainy season.
But farmers like Sosa require greater incentives: there is a need for more training on the importance of sustainable management techniques, and for economic returns, as well as financial and tax support, in order to make agroecological practices more widespread.
The use of natural fertilizers and animal manure is one of the keys to the restoration and transformation of the once degraded soils covered with thorny bushes of what is now La Villa farm, in the municipality of Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
In 2019, Cuba approved the National Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting Program.
“The guideline foresees implementing new financial economic instruments or improving existing ones by 2030 in order to achieve neutrality in land degradation,” Jessica Fernández, head of the Climate Change department of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, told IPS.
The plan is to enhance the use of credits, insurance and taxes as economic incentives for farmers, based on soil improvement and conservation, and to account for the current expenses destined to environmental solutions to determine the total expenses for soil conservation, the official added.
“We are in talks and studies with the Central Bank of Cuba to gradually introduce green banking,” Gloria Gómez, director of natural resources, prioritized ecosystems and climate change at the ministry, told IPS.
“This service will seek to promote and finance projects that provide solutions to environmental problems through loans with lower interest rates, longer repayment periods, incentives for green products and services, or eco-labeling,” she said.
Since 2000, the Ministry of Agriculture has been developing the National Program for Soil Improvement and Conservation, and in January the Policy for Soil Conservation, Improvement and Sustainable Management and Fertilizer Use came into effect.
At the same time, the Cuban State’s plan to combat climate change, better known as Tarea Vida, in force since 2017, also includes actions to mitigate soil vulnerabilities.
In the last five years, the principles of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) were applied to more than 2525 hectares, while one million of the more than six million hectares of agricultural land in the country received some type of benefit, statistics show.
Other national priorities are related to increasing the forested area to 33 percent, extending the areas under SLM by 150,000 hectares and improving 65 percent of agricultural land by the end of the current decade.
Women in Nigeria collect food vouchers as part of a programme to support families struggling under the COVID-19 lockdown. Credit: WFP/Damilola Onafuwa
by Thalif Deen (united nations)
Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, May 23 (IPS) – Michael Bloomberg, the three-term Mayor of New York city and a billionaire philanthropist, was once quoted as saying that by the time he dies, he would have given away all his wealth to charity – so that his cheque to the funeral undertaker will bounce for lack of funds in his bank account.
Sounds altruistic – even as the number of billionaires keep rising while the poorest of the world’s poor keep multiplying.
The latest brief by Oxfam International, titled “Profiting from Pain” and released May 23, shows that 573 people became new billionaires during the two-and-a half-year Covid 19 pandemic —while the world’s poverty stricken continued to increase.
“We expect this year that 263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours,” Oxfam said.
Billionaires’ wealth has risen more in the first 24 months of COVID-19 than in 23 years combined. The total wealth of the world’s billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9 percent of global GDP. This is a three-fold increase (up from 4.4 percent) in 2000, according to the study.
Asked about the philanthropic gestures, Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International, told IPS wealthy individuals who use their money to help others should be congratulated.
“But charitable giving is no substitute for wealthy people and companies paying their fair share of tax or ensuring their workers are paid a decent wage. And it does not justify them using their power and connections to lobby for unfair advantages over others,” she declared.
Oxfam’s new research also reveals that corporations in the energy, food and pharmaceutical sectors —where monopolies are especially common— are posting record-high profits, even as wages have barely budged and workers struggle with decades-high prices amid COVID-19.
The fortunes of food and energy billionaires have risen by $453 billion in the last two years, equivalent to $1 billion every two days, says Oxfam.
Five of the largest energy companies (BP, Shell, Total Energies, Exxon and Chevron) are together making $2,600 profit every second, and there are now 62 new food billionaires.
Currently, the world’s total population is around 7.8 billion, and according to the UN, more than 736 million people live below the international poverty line.
A World Bank report last year said extreme poverty is set to rise, for the first time in more than two decades, and the impact of the spreading virus is expected to push up to 115 million more people into poverty, while the pandemic is compounding the forces of conflict and climate change, that has already been slowing poverty reduction.
By 2021, as many as 150 million more people could be living in extreme poverty.
Yasmeen Hassan, Global Executive Director at Equality Now, told IPS Oxfam’s report demonstrates systemic failings in the discriminatory nature of countries’ economies and underscores the urgent need for financial systems to be restructured so that they benefit the 99%, not the 1%.
“As with any crisis, Equality Now foresaw that gender would influence how individuals and communities experienced the pandemic, but even we were shocked at how exceptionally and intensely pre-existing inequalities and sex-based discrimination has been exacerbated”, she said.
While billionaires — the vast majority of whom are men — continue to amass vast sums of wealth, women around the world remain trapped in poverty. Wealthy elites are profiting off women’s labor, much of which is underappreciated, underpaid, and uncompensated, she pointed out.
“Economic hardship and inadequate policy responses to the pandemic have eroded many of the hard-won gains that have been achieved over recent years for women and girls. From increases in child marriage, sexual exploitation and human trafficking, to landlords demanding sex from female tenants who have lost their job, and domestic workers trapped inside with abusive employers, women and girls around the world have borne the brunt of the pandemic,” Hassan declared.
The Oxfam study has been released to coincide with the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting—which includes the presence of the rich and the superrich—taking place in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland from 22-26 May. The meeting, whose theme is ‘Working Together, Restoring Trust’, will be the first global in-person leadership event since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020
“Billionaires are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes. The pandemic, and now the steep increases in food and energy prices have, simply put, been a bonanza for them. Meanwhile, decades of progress on extreme poverty are now in reverse and millions of people are facing impossible rises in the cost of simply staying alive,” said Oxfam’s Bucher.
She said billionaires’ fortunes have not increased because they are now smarter or working harder. But it is really the workers who are working harder, for less pay and in worse conditions.
The super-rich, she argued, have rigged the system with impunity for decades and they are now reaping the benefits. They have seized a shocking amount of the world’s wealth as a result of privatization and monopolies, gutting regulation and workers’ rights while stashing their cash in tax havens — all with the complicity of governments.”
“Meanwhile, millions of others are skipping meals, turning off the heating, falling behind on bills and wondering what they can possibly do next to survive. Across East Africa, one person is likely dying every minute from hunger. This grotesque inequality is breaking the bonds that hold us together as humanity. It is divisive, corrosive and dangerous. This is inequality that literally kills.”
Elaborating further, Hassan of Equality Now said women are more likely to be informally employed, low-wage earners, and this disadvantaged position has resulted in higher rates of women losing their jobs, particularly in sectors that were not prioritized in government relief packages.
“Women are also more likely to be primary caretaker and many have had to absorb increases in unpaid duties while schools and nurseries shut down. As a consequence, some women have been forced out of jobs as they found it impossible to juggle full-time work while also providing full-time childcare. This loss of income has been especially catastrophic for women in poverty and has made them more vulnerable to a range of human rights violations.”
She said world leaders must stop pursuing policy agendas that benefit the rich and hurt the poor.
“Instead, we urgently need a committed and coordinated response from governments and policymakers to reduce inequality and poverty, and address discrimination that is holding women and girls back while allowing the super-rich to get richer still,” she added.
The Oxfam study also says the pandemic has created 40 new pharma billionaires.
Pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer are making $1,000 profit every second just from their monopoly control of the COVID-19 vaccine, despite its development having been supported by billions of dollars in public investments.
“They are charging governments up to 24 times more than the potential cost of generic production. 87 percent of people in low-income countries have still not been fully vaccinated.”
“The extremely rich and powerful are profiting from pain and suffering. This is unconscionable. Some have grown rich by denying billions of people access to vaccines, others by exploiting rising food and energy prices. They are paying out massive bonuses and dividends while paying as little tax as possible. This rising wealth and rising poverty are two sides of the same coin, proof that our economic system is functioning exactly how the rich and powerful designed it to do,” said Bucher.
Oxfam recommends that governments urgently:
Introduce one-off solidarity taxes on billionaires’ pandemic windfalls to fund support for people facing rising food and energy costs and a fair and sustainable recovery from COVID-19. Argentina adopted a one-off special levy dubbed the ‘millionaire’s tax’ and is now considering introducing a windfall tax on energy profits as well as a tax on undeclared assets held overseas to repay IMF debt. The super-rich have stashed nearly $8 trillion in tax havens.
End crisis profiteering by introducing a temporary excess profit tax of 90 percent to capture the windfall profits of big corporations across all industries. Oxfam estimated that such a tax on just 32 super-profitable multinational companies could have generated $104 billion in revenue in 2020.
Introduce permanent wealth taxes to rein in extreme wealth and monopoly power, as well as the outsized carbon emissions of the super-rich. An annual wealth tax on millionaires starting at just 2 percent, and 5 percent on billionaires, could generate $2.52 trillion a year —enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough vaccines for the world, and deliver universal healthcare and social protection for everyone living in low- and lower middle-income countries.
The economic and political crisis in Lebanon has left most households short on food. Now, the outbreak of war in Ukraine threatens to send food prices skyrocketing and push basic foods out of reach. Lebanon imports more than 50% of its wheat from Ukraine. Credit: UN World Food Programme (WFP)
Opinion by Rasha Al Saba (london)
Inter Press Service
The writer is Head of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Department at Minority Rights Group International, UK.
LONDON, May 23 (IPS) – In the midst of what has been an incredibly turbulent period for Lebanon, the conclusion of elections last week ought to be hailed as a chance to focus on the future. This, the first election since the mass uprisings in 2019 against what was seen as a corrupt ruling elite, has shown some signs of the drive for change.
Lebanon’s consociational system – power sharing between the three large religious blocks – is effectively the compromise forged with the backing of the international community to establish peace in the country after a long and bitter civil war.
Despite widespread criticism this sectarian influence forged by the Taif Agreement in 1989, has remained firm, creating an elite ruling class, that in subsequent decades has consistently failed to tackle the major problems the country faces.
In the face of what is believed to be one of the worst economic depressions the world has seen in 150 years, an estimated 80 per cent of the population now live in poverty. The rising prices had already in 2019 led to the mass uprising, and the shortages have only got worse as rising fuel prices have put scarce food and medicines further out of reach of the population.
The devastation of the explosion at Beirut’s port in 2020, and the death toll and economic paralysis caused by the pandemic have only compounded issues.
While the headlines all focus on the waning influence of Hezbollah – and by proxy, of Iran, there are other aspects to the election worth highlighting.
Of course, the loss of the alliance between Hezbollah and the Aounist party is significant, mainly because it is hard to predict how the popular base that sits behind the armed Hezbollah will react. The Lebanese peace has been hard won, but the peace has not come with a growth in stability and prosperity.
As with the drivers of the revolution in Tunisia, it is the lack of opportunities and entrenched inequality that are at the forefront of the frustration of ordinary Lebanese. In this sense the increase in the number of seats claimed by independent and opposition candidates could potentially result in competing blocs, none of which enjoys an absolute majority.
Some of these candidates have derived their sustenance from the anti-elite protests of 2019. The victory of lawyer Firas Hamdan, an independent candidate who won in the south against Marwan Kheireddine, former minister and Chairman of the AM Bank, is demonstrative of this trend.
Hamdan was injured during the 2019 protests, and his victory may signal a weakening of the hold of the traditionalists who have benefitted from the political system themselves, while being unable to create a governance agenda that benefits the whole of the country.
Another change is the modest increase in the number of women in the new parliament, who now account for 8 out of 128 parliamentarians, versus 6 women in the old parliament. However, half of those who succeeded are independent candidates, which can empower the anti-elitist bloc in the parliament.
The anti-refugee sentiment of the Lebanese government has also been clear during the election when the Ministry of Interior imposed a ban on the movement of Palestinian and Syrian refugees.
Syrians have been featured in the election campaigns and agenda throughout the election. There are genuine fears among Syrian refugees that advances for the main parties in this election could result in the approval of laws that may pave the way for the repatriation of Syrian refugees to Syria.
If passed and implemented, such laws increase the risk of torture, detention and killings at the behest of the Syrian regime they previously escaped.
These elections took place in the midst of destitution and desperation that were once unimaginable. The surge of protest in 2019 against those conditions suggested that mass change was possible, but this was dampened by the arrival of the pandemic, which then took a significant toll on a population already rendered vulnerable.
Nearly three years later, this has translated into an election result that is mixed for Lebanon.
In a country of multiple minorities and historic diversities, the creation of a government that can transcend identities and take a countrywide approach to governance is imperative. The arrival of the new independent women candidates, campaigning and winning on a new platform offers a sliver of hope.
But if the ‘old politics’ of Christian versus Muslim, and a separate proxy competition of Iran versus Saudi Arabia continues to hold sway, the road ahead will be tough indeed.
Opinion by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana (bangkok, thailand)
Inter Press Service
BANGKOK, Thailand, May 23 (IPS) – The Asia-Pacific region is at a crossroads today – to further breakdown or breakthrough to a greener, better, safer future.
Since the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) was established in 1947, the region has made extraordinary progress, emerging as a pacesetter of global economic growth that has lifted millions out of poverty.
Yet, as ESCAP celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, we find ourselves facing our biggest shared test on the back of cascading and overlapping impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, raging conflicts and the climate crisis.
Few have escaped the effects of the pandemic, with 85 million people pushed back into extreme poverty, millions more losing their jobs or livelihoods, and a generation of children and young people missing precious time for education and training.
As the pandemic surges and ebbs across countries, the world continues to face the grim implications of failing to keep the temperature increase below 1.5°C – and of continuing to degrade the natural environment. Throughout 2021 and 2022, countries across Asia and the Pacific were again battered by a relentless sequence of natural disasters, with climate change increasing their frequency and intensity.
More recently, the rapidly evolving crisis in Ukraine will have wide-ranging socioeconomic impacts, with higher prices for fuel and food increasing food insecurity and hunger across the region.
Rapid economic growth in Asia and the Pacific has come at a heavy price, and the convergence of these three crises have exposed the fault lines in a very short time. Unfortunately, those hardest hit are those with the fewest resources to endure the hardship. This disproportionate pressure on the poor and most vulnerable is deepening and widening inequalities in both income and opportunities.
The situation is critical. Many communities are close to tipping points beyond which it will be impossible to recover. But it is not too late.
The region is dynamic and adaptable.
In this richer yet riskier world, we need more crisis-prepared policies to protect our most vulnerable populations and shift the Asia-Pacific region back on course to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals as the target year of 2030 comes closer — our analysis shows that we are already 35 years behind and will only attain the Goals in 2065.
To do so, we must protect people and the planet, exploit digital opportunities, trade and invest together, raise financial resources and manage our debt.
The first task for governments must be to defend the most vulnerable groups – by strengthening health and universal social protection systems. At the same time, governments, civil society and the private sector should be acting to conserve our precious planet and mitigate and adapt to climate change while defending people from the devastation of natural disasters.
For many measures, governments can exploit technological innovations. Human activities are steadily becoming “digital by default.” To turn the digital divide into a digital dividend, governments should encourage more robust and extensive digital infrastructure and improve access along with the necessary education and training to enhance knowledge-intensive internet use.
Much of the investment for services will rely on sustainable economic growth, fueled by equitable international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). The region is now the largest source and recipient of global FDI flows, which is especially important in a pandemic recovery environment of fiscal tightness.
While trade links have evolved into a complex noodle bowl of bilateral and regional agreements, there is ample scope to further lower trade and investment transaction costs through simplified procedures, digitalization and climate-smart strategies. Such changes are proving to be profitable business strategies. For example, full digital facilitation could cut average trade costs by more than 13 per cent.
Governments can create sufficient fiscal space to allow for greater investment in sustainable development. Additional financial resources can be raised through progressive tax reforms, innovative financing instruments and more effective debt management. Instruments such as green bonds or sustainability bonds, and arranging debt swaps for development, could have the highest impacts on inclusivity and sustainability.
Significant efforts need to be made to anticipate what lies ahead. In everything we do, we must listen to and work with both young and old, fostering intergenerational solidarity. And women must be at the centre of crisis-prepared policy action.
This week the Commission is expected to agree on a common agenda for sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific, pinning the aspirations of the region on moving forward together by learning from and working with each other.
In the past seven-and-a-half decades, ESCAP has been a vital source of know-how and support for the governments and peoples of Asia and the Pacific. We remain ready to serve in the implementation of this common agenda.
To quote United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “the choices we make, or fail to make today, will shape our future. We will not have this chance again.”
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
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DAVOS, Switzerland — Before the pandemic interrupted the ritzy gatherings of the world’s political and business elites in this Swiss mountain town, Russia occupied a central space — literally. Anyone strolling along the main Davos promenade would encounter a wooden building that, if you squinted, seemed sort of like a traditional dacha. “Russia House,” as it was called, was part of the Kremlin’s soft power play at the World Economic Forum and served as a venue for boozy cocktail parties and cheery panels on investment opportunities and tourism in Russia.
This week, as the Forum convenes after a more than two-year gap, Russian businesses and political authorities are explicitly not invited — a consequence both of the Western sanctions that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as the principled stand taken by the Forum. No Russian oligarchs will be jetting in on their private aircraft. No Russian delegations will rub shoulders with their governmental counterparts at the forum’s fresh juice and espresso bars.
Meanwhile, Russia House has been seized by the foundation of Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk and converted into the “Russia War Crimes House,”set to feature photographs taken in Ukraine over the course of the conflict that documents evidence of rapes, executions and other atrocities, along with a series of discussions on Russian human rights abuses.
It’s a symbolic transformation that sets the stage for this week’s proceedings. For the first time in the Forum’s half-century history, the gathering will take place in the shadow of war between nations in Europe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver the first speech by a head of state on Monday and will participate virtually in a number of other events as well from his war-torn country’s capital. A significant Ukrainian delegation will be physically present in Davos, including the foreign minister, two deputy prime ministers, five parliamentarians and the mayor of Kyiv.
Other headliners include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who are both expected to speak at length on the crisis in Ukraine. Scholz’s earlier declaration that the war marked a “turning point in history,” or Zeitenwende in German, is being amplified in Davos, with the guiding theme of this year’s gathering focused squarely on how governments and businesses can grapple with “history at a turning point.”
The mood reflects a broader conviction in the West — certainly in the United States — that we are entering a new epoch in global politics. Feb. 24, the date Russia launched its invasion, argued Susan Glasser in her column for the New Yorker, “represents one of those hinge-point moments that happens every decade or two — a transformative event not just for Ukraine and Europe but for Washington, too. American power and purpose will be redefined by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s decision for years to come. There will be a before February 24th and an after.”
But there’s no shortage of other crises, too, many of which are interlocking. Countries are still struggling to recover from the pandemic. While vaccinations still need to be sent to some parts of the world, the turbulent economic head winds spurred by the pandemic have cast a pall over global financial markets and raised fears of recession in the United States, as my colleague Abha Bhattarai reported.
The war in Ukraine only deepened mounting food crises across the developing world, with surging prices for a slate of commodities leading to fuel and grain shortages in countries as disparate as Tunisia and Sri Lanka.
“The return of war, epidemics and the climate crisis, all those disruptive forces have derailed the global recovery,” Klaus Schwab, the Forum’s founder and executive chairman, said in a briefing with journalists last week. “Those issues must be confronted in Davos; the global food crisis, in particular, needs our immediate attention.”
As is its wont, the Forum will try to focus on proactive and positive solutions to these challenges. It sees itself as an indispensable vehicle for collaboration between policymakers and the private sector. The annual gathering — which because of the pandemic is taking place unusually in springtime — gets routinely pilloried by its critics as an elitist talkshop on the mountain, avant-ski. That caricature often obscures the rather genuine commitments and efforts made by the Forum’s participants and organizers, including projects to help “upskill” hundreds of millions of workers in the global economy and a major initiative launched in partnership with U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry that aims to decarbonize the supply chains of some of the world’s biggest companies.
Last year, the Forum framed its programming around the recovery from the pandemic as “the Great Reset,” suggesting that the global experience of the coronavirus presented a narrow window for governments and businesses to “reimagine and reset our world,” as Schwab put it.
The initiative “was an attempt to put policymakers in a positive frame of mind,” Adrian Monck, a managing director of the Forum, told me. But it also stoked a backlash among the Western far right, who linked the idea of the “Great Reset” to a baseless conspiracy theory about global elites planning the pandemic to impose new systems of control on the population.
This week, those gathering in Davos may be confronted by how little power they have to reckon with the world’s many looming crises, from the specter of climate change to the intractable Russia-Ukraine conflict. “There’s no business as usual,” WEF President Borge Brende said last week to reporters. “We just need to now come together and … move into uncharted territories.”
AL-MARKAZ VILLAGE, West Bank — The Najjar family knew what to expect on the morning of May 11 when a neighbor called: “The bulldozer is coming.” For the second time in five months, the Israeli military had come to knock down their house.
But this time there was reason to fear that the house would be gone for good. After decades of demolition, rebuilding and a more than 20-year legal battle, Israel’s highest court this month gave the military permission to permanently evict more than 1,000 Palestinians here and repurpose the land for an army firing range.
Less than a week after the high court ruling, the Najjars’ house was demolished, marking the start of what activists say will probably be the biggest mass expulsion of Palestiniansin the occupied West Bank since the 1967 war, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from territories captured by Israel.
The court was unswayed by historical documents presented by advocates for the Palestinians, showing what they said was evidence that the proposal to establish a firing range, decades ago, was meant to prevent Palestinians from claiming the land.
“We had 30 minutes to get out what we could,” said Yusara al-Najjar, who was born in a hand-hewn cave on this same slope in the Negev desert 60 years ago. She looked over the pile of broken blocks and twisted metal that had been her family home and wiped her hands with a slap. “It took no time and our house was gone, again.”
The demolitions have sparked expressions of concern from Washington ahead of a planned June visit to Israel by President Biden, coming at a time of mounting instability in Israel’s coalition government and the recent approval of more than 4,200 new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price, responding to a question about the high court ruling, beseeched both Israelis and Palestinians to avoid steps that raise tensions. “This certainly includes evictions,” he said.
The European Union urged Israel to halt the demolitions. A United Nations human rights panel warned that the “forcible transfer” of residents would amount to “a serious breach of international and humanitarian and human rights laws.”
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the demolitions were in accordance with the high court’s years-long review and its unanimous ruling on behalf of the military.
“The Supreme Court fully accepted the State Of Israel’s position, and ruled that the petitioners were not permanent residents of the area,” the statement said. “The court also noted that the petitioners rejected any attempted compromise offered to them.”
The tug of war for these dry rolling hills south of the biblical city of Hebron began in the 1980s, when Israeli officials laid claim to several areas of the West Bank for the stated reason of creating military training grounds.
This region of 8,000 to 14,000 acres — known in Arabic as Masafer Yatta and in English as the South Hebron Hills — was designated as Firing Zone 918.
“The vital importance of this firing zone to the Israel Defense Forces stems from the unique topographical character of the area, which allows for training methods specific to both small and large frameworks, from a squad to a battalion,” the military said in court documents reported by the Times of Israel.
But human rights activists, both Palestinian and Israeli, contend that the real purpose of many of the firing zones has been to clear away Arab residents and strengthen Israel’s grip on more occupied Palestinian territory. Often, the designation has made way for expanding Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal by most of the international community.
Archived minutes from a 1981 meeting recently found by researchers on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seemed to support that idea. Then-agriculture minister — later prime minister — Ariel Sharon is recorded saying it was important to slow the “expansion of Arab villagers from the hills,” according to a story in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper on the document. “We have an interest in expanding and enlarging the shooting zones there, to keep these areas, which are so vital, in our hands.”
The document was entered as legal evidence.
Israeli officials argued that the residents of eight to 12 small hamlets in Zone 918 — most of them tent-dwelling herders who still wintered in caves dug from the limestone — could not show legal ownership of the land.
What followed was a legal Catch-22. Residents and their advocates repeatedly applied for permits to build houses and string power lines. Military officials, saying no one was allowed to live inside a firing range, denied the applications and then regularly dispatched armed demolition squads to knock down the “illegal” structures.
Officials issued the first eviction orders in 1999 but have since refrained from physically removing families as the legal challenges dragged on. Instead, according to advocates, the repetitive demolitions amount to strategic harassment meant drive the families away.
“I don’t think we’ll see pictures of people being put on trucks, because of the optics,” said Dror Sadot of B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization that has worked on the case. “What we’ll see will just be more repeated demolitions, which will force the community to leave because they can’t live there anymore.”
Over the years, the court has entertained compromises, including one that would allow evicted Palestinians to return to the fields on Jewish holidays and other periods when no military training was likely to take place. Residents rejected those proposals out of hand.
The high court finally brought an end to the challenge on May 5, ruling unanimously for the military and finding that the Palestinian families had failed to prove they had a legal claim to the land or had lived there before it was designated as a firing range.
“There is the law that works for the Jews, but for us it is nonexistent,” said Nidal Younes, head of the Masafer Yatta village council, who noted that a nearby outpostmaintained by Israeli settlers is not subject to evictions under the order.
In her village, Najjar shakes her head at the idea that she is a newcomer to the land where she says her grandparents dug a limestone herder’s shelter in the 1950s and where she was born in 1961.
Now she and her family have been forced back into that cave, which, like many families, they have maintained over the years as a kitchen and extra living space. As the number of Israeli settlers in the area grew, and with them incidents of settler vandalism and physical attacks, they saw it as a refuge from violence.
The simple houses of block and metal roofing they built have all been demolished.
Tending to a batch of traditional labneh cheese under solar-powered lights, Najjar described the most recent unannounced appearance of the bulldozer, escorted by more than a dozen soldiers with automatic weapons.
“They didn’t say why they were here, they gave us no papers,” she said. “But we knew.”
The soldiers instructed the men of the family to stay well away from the house as the women raced to grab clothes and bedding. They struggled with a washing machine. Many of their belongings were still inside when the soldiers told them to stand back.
It took less than two hours for the bulldozer to level two houses and two sheep pens in the village of seven families, Najjar said. In all, the army demolished 20 structures in three villages that day, according to Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist who documents IDF activity in the area.
The IDF has not said when it plans to carry out more demolition orders.
As of May 21, the World Health Organization (WHO) received reports of 92 laboratory-confirmed cases and 28 suspected cases from 12 countries not endemic for the disease.
Some cases have been identified through sexual health clinics and investigations are ongoing.
The disease could affect anyone
According to WHO, available evidence suggests that those who are most at risk are those who have had close physical contact with someone with monkeypox, and that risk is not limited to men who have sex with men.
UNAIDS urged media, governments, and communities to respond with a rights-based, evidence-based approach that avoids stigma.
“Stigma and blame undermine trust and capacity to respond effectively during outbreaks like this one,” said Matthew Kavanagh, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director. “Experience shows that stigmatizing rhetoric can quickly disable evidence-based response by stoking cycles of fear, driving people away from health services, impeding efforts to identify cases, and encouraging ineffective, punitive measures”.
Mr Kavanagh highlighted that the agency appreciates the LGBTI community for having led the way in raising awareness of Monkeypox and reiterated that the disease could affect anyone.
“This outbreak highlights the urgent need for leaders to strengthen pandemic prevention, including building stronger community-led capacity and human rights infrastructure to support effective and non-stigmatizing responses to outbreaks”, he noted.
The agency urged all media covering Monkeypox to follow WHO’s updates.
Monkeypox is a rare but dangerous infection similar to the now eradicated smallpox virus.
More cases expected
The UN health agency said over the weekend that as the situation is evolving and the surveillance expanding, it is expected that more Monkeypox cases will be identified.
To date, all cases whose samples were confirmed by PCR have been identified as being infected with the West African clade.
Genome sequence from a swab sample from a confirmed case in Portugal indicated a close match of the Monkeypox virus causing the current outbreak, to exported cases from Nigeria to the United Kingdom, Israel and Singapore in 2018 and 2019.
WHO said that the identification of confirmed and suspected cases of Monkeypox with no direct travel links to an endemic area represents a ‘highly unusual event’.
CDC
A young man shows his hands during an outbreak of monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (file)
About the illness
Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms very similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.
There are two clades of Monkeypox virus: the West African clade and the Congo Basin (Central African) clade.
The name Monkeypox originates from the initial discovery of the virus in monkeys in a Danish laboratory in 1958. The first human case was identified in a child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970.
Monkeypox virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding. The incubation period of Monkeypox is usually from 6 to 13 days but can range from 5 to 21 days.
ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Sunday began enforcing an order requiring all female TV news anchors in the country to cover their faces while on-air. The move is part of a hard-line shift drawing condemnation from rights activists.
After the order was announced Thursday, only a handful of news outlets complied. But on Sunday, most female anchors were seen with their faces covered after the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry began enforcing the decree.
The Information and Culture Ministry previously announced that the policy was “final and non-negotiable.”
“It is just an outside culture imposed on us forcing us to wear a mask and that can create a problem for us while presenting our programs,” said Sonia Niazi, a TV anchor with TOLOnews. In an act of solidarity with female colleagues, the channel’s male personnel covered their faces with masks, including the main evening news reader.
A local media official confirmed his station had received the order last week but on Sunday it was forced to implement it after being told it was not up for discussion. He spoke on condition he and his station remain anonymous for fear of retribution from Taliban authorities.
During the Taliban’s last time in power in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, they imposed overwhelming restrictions on women, requiring them to wear the all-encompassing burqa and barring them from public life and education.
After they seized power again in August, the Taliban initially appeared to have moderated somewhat their restrictions, announcing no dress code for women. But in recent weeks, they have made a sharp, hard-line pivot that has confirmed the worst fears of rights activists and further complicated Taliban dealings with an already distrustful international community.
Earlier this month, the Taliban ordered all women in public to wear head-to-toe clothing that leaves only their eyes visible. The decree said women should leave the home only when necessary and that male relatives would face punishment for women’s dress code violations, starting with a summons and escalating to court hearings and jail time.
The Taliban leadership has also barred girls from attending school after the sixth grade, reversing previous promises by Taliban officials that girls of all ages would be allowed an education.
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