Drug trafficking and imperialism

US imperial mentality in the fight against drug trafficking

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At a recent conference [1], the original and always rightly incisive Noam Chomsky, referred to US military bases installed in Colombia, with the official purpose of assisting the Government of Bogotá in the war on drugs.

Mexico's Federal Police officers escort suspects of working for a drug trafficking gang, as they are shown to the media in Mexico City

He called to consider a similar case but with different actors. Suppose, he said, that Colombia, China or any other country claim their right to establish military bases in Mexico, in order to fumigate and destroy US tobacco plantations in North Carolina or Kentucky, traditional breeders of this plant. The plan would be enhanced by blocking the production areas through the action of air and naval forces, while sending inspectors to verify the overall elimination of such plantations. All this would aim to prevent tobacco trafficking towards countries suffering its effects.

Chomsky points out that smoking has provided evidence to be more lethal than alcohol, which in turn is more harmful than the use of cocaine or heroin, and these are, in turn, more harmful than cannabis. If in addition to the number of deaths caused by harmful products inhaled by smokers, we take account of those caused to “passive” smokers – though their number is difficult to determine – it is quite sure that the overall lethal outcome of nicotiana tabacum will exceed that of the remaining drugs as a whole. It would be quite logical to pursue more actively tobacco growers than coca’s.

Clearly this assumption is not plausible in the reality of today, not only because tobacco in most countries is not a banned substance while many drugs are. However, when facing this relentless logic, what should be asked is why this happens. Why the US, who say they feel adversely affected by drugs that come from south of the Rio Grande, naturally attributed the right to deploy their armies in Colombia to combat coca growers in the area, and it is even conceivable that no other country could do likewise when its interests are affected similarly.

For Chomsky, the answer is simple and it has an unquestionable bottom: the imperial mentality that exists in the US, so deep-seated in North American minds that it pass unnoticed. Should we add here that this frame of mind also exists – on a smaller scale – in many Western countries.

However, the results so far obtained seem to justify the effort committed. The “war on drugs” has lasted more than four decades in Colombia and has intensified over the past ten years, neither the food nor drug trafficking have declined. The reasons offered by Chomsky leaves no doubts. Several studies show that well-funded prevention and treatment of drug addiction are much more effective than coercive measures used in this endless war. And the preventive or curative treatment of drug-consumers in this business-has a performance cost-effectiveness improved over 20 times to the attacks against growers supplier-side-in “chemical warfare” waged to destroy the fields of drugs.

According to Chomsky, only two scenarios would explain the current situation: Either the US leaders have been consistently fools for 40 years, or the purpose of the war on drugs is very different than what is proclaimed. If one excludes no further the hypothesis of insanity, then what may be the real reasons for this alleged war?

Inside the US two main facts are obvious: the cleaning of the socially less useful (which has led the US into the world’s first place on top of prison population rate) and, as with the “war on terror”, dependence and subjugation of a population terrorized by the danger of drugs, to stop showing its angry opposition to economic policies that have led to the largest social imbalance that the US has ever suffered.

Meanwhile, abroad, the war on drugs is a way of hiding in Colombia – and other countries –some of the most iniquitous antisubversive operations. Colombia is the second country in the world (after Sudan) with more population driven out their homes, while local oligarchies and multinationals occupy the land abandoned by farmers and transform them into mining, agro-industrial production, intensive livestock or infrastructure for industry – whose benefits hardly benefit to concerned populations.

Now it’s time to ask whether Obama will follow the winding road – yet partly covered by his predecessors but in opposition to which he has not revealed much indignation as he showed with e.g. Guantanamo – or on the contrary, he has enough support, resources and intentions to leave the swamped problem that Chomsky clearly presents and whose resolution is difficult and complex, since it not only depends on the White House decisions, although they can point the beginning of a new path.

[1] Noam Chomsky, Militarizing Latin America. In chomsky.info. August 30, 2009

The US economic revival just (provisionally) around the corner

The US economy yesterday offered a robust data that, at least temporarily, allowed closing the world’s largest economic downturn since the Second World War.

Budget deficits, 2001-2010, by EU region · Déficit presupuestario 2001-2010 por región UE (Source: Ronan Lyons Economic Analysis, Oct. 16, 2009)

American GDP growth in the third quarter was 3.5% after four consecutive quarters’ drops. The positive data was expected by analysts, but the strength of the US economy stunned – and pleased – the world stock markets and particularly the Dow Jones index, which rose above 2%. The turnaround from the Q2 (-0.4%) suggests that the incentive plans of the U.S. government, an interest rate of 0% practice, the takeoff of the upturn in private consumption and housing are sufficiently solids to undertake corrections in a few months which would put the economy outside the ICU. If so, we would not be far from a very modest increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, an assessment that, sooner or later, should be followed by the European Central Bank, especially if consolidating the growth in Germany and France. In the case of Spain, data also released yesterday show the fifth consecutive quarter of economic decline, although it is true that the deterioration has been moderating in the last three quarters we have moved from -1.9% (Q1) and -1.1% (Q2) to -0.4% in Q3. We are, according to the Bank of Spain, in an “incipient recovery” that entails a great deal of risks: the worst unemployment rates, intolerably increasing next to18.2%, deficit escalating close to 10% of GDP and an upward  lack of credit to businesses and individuals.According to the latest figures in relation to countries under the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) of the European Commission, the general government deficit of the euro area lay at 6.1% of GDP in 2009.As a result, the EU-15 public debt the will increase as of 69.3% GDP in 2008 to 78.4% in 2009. By 2010, however, it is expected to further increase on average 6.6% of GDP.At disaggregated level, most euro area countries in 2009 recorded a deficit exceeding the 3% of GDP, while all euro zone countries will infringe the maximum allowable deficit in 2010, according to latest IMF estimates.

Thus deficit cuts jump out over 0.5% per year, mostly in countries with higher deficits.

And what are these countries? Ireland, Greece and Spain showed the highest euro area’s gap budget, both in 2009 and 2010. In particular, Ireland’s public deficit will reach a rate close to 13% of GDP, according to recent estimates. Greece exceeds 12%, while Spain recorded a deficit of 9.5%, along with the IMF.

In 2010, these three countries will continue to be leaders in fiscal imbalance: Ireland (13.3%), Spain (12.5%), while Greece will approach 10%, given its public accounts inaccuracy, only just admonished by the Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker.

Spanish version here below:

La reactivación económica norteamericana, a la vuelta de la esquina

La economía norteamericana ofreció ayer un vigoroso dato que, al menos provisionalmente, permite dar por concluida en la primera potencia del planeta la mayor recesión económica desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El crecimiento del PIB en el tercer trimestre del año fue del 3,5% después de cuatro trimestres con caídas consecutivas. El dato positivo era esperado por los analistas, pero quizá sorprendió por lo que supone de fortaleza de la economía, y así lo saludaron las bolsas mundiales y muy especialmente el índice Down Jones, que subió por encima del 2%. El cambio de tendencia respecto al segundo trimestre (-0,4%) hace pensar que los planes de estímulo del Gobierno norteamericano, un tipo de interés en la práctica del 0%, el despegue del consumo privado y el repunte de la vivienda son suficientemente sólidos para acometer en muy pocos meses correcciones que permitan situar la economía fuera de la UVI. De ser así, no estaríamos muy lejos de un muy moderado aumento de los tipos de interés de la Reserva Federal, medida que más pronto o más tarde debería seguir el Banco Central Europeo, sobre todo si se consolidan los crecimientos en Alemania y Francia. En el caso de España, los datos que también se dieron a conocer ayer reflejan el quinto trimestre consecutivo de caída de la economía, aunque es cierto que el empeoramiento se ha ido moderando y en los tres últimos trimestres hemos pasado del -1,9% (primero) y el -1,1% (segundo) al -0,4% del tercero. Estamos, según el Banco de España, en una “incipiente recuperación” que conlleva graves riesgos: el peor incremento del paro en porcentajes intolerables (18.2%), el aumento del déficit (cercano ya al 10% del PIB) o la falta de crédito a empresas y particulares.

Según recogen las cifras más recientes notificadas por los países en el marco del Procedimiento de Déficit Excesivo (PDE) de la Comision Europea, el déficit de las Administraciones Públicas de la zona euro se situaría en el 6,1% del PIB en 2009.

En consecuencia, la deuda pública de la UE-15 aumentará desde el 69,3% del PIB en 2008 hasta el 78,4% en 2009. Para 2010, sin embargo, se espera un aumento adicional del déficit, hasta alcanzar de media el 6,6% del PIB.

A nivel desagregado, la mayoría de los países del área del euro registrará en 2009 un déficit público superior al límite del 3% del PIB, mientras, todos los países de la zona euro violarán el déficit máximo permitido en 2010, según las últimas previsiones del Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI).

Asi pues hay recortes a la vista en el déficit superiores al 0,5% anual, sobre todo en aquellos países con mayores déficit y deuda pública.

¿Y cuáles son estos países? Irlanda, Grecia y España presentarán el mayor descuadre presupuestario de la zona euro, tanto en 2009 como en 2010. En concreto, el déficit público de Irlanda alcanzará una tasa próxima al 13% del PIB, según las últimas estimaciones. Grecia superará el 12%, mientras que España registrará un déficit del 9,5%, según el FMI.

En 2010, estos tres países seguirán siendo líderes en desequilibrio fiscal: Irlanda (13,3%), España (12,5%), mientras que Grecia se aproximará al 10%, dada la falsedad de sus cuentas públicas, recientemente reprendidas por el presidente del Eurogrupo, Jean Claude Juncker.

A pedagogy on carbon tax

Carbon tax on the way back to Welfare Economics

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Designing a tax for everything that contaminates incites people to preserve environment, the atmosphere in particular, which is in serious danger. The idea is to penalize polluting energy in transport, housing and personal consumption. Every time we consume less fuel but this is not enough to achieve the goals set at the last conference on climate change: hence the idea to programme a compulsory tax (to be paid per tonne of fossil fuel issued). This in order that the world decrease to half the emissions of greenhouse gas (2050) and limit Earth warming to 2 degrees – which causes climate change.

Global warming due to greenhouse gases from the combustion of carbon dioxide is 49,000 million tons of CO2 emissions. Enough is enough, this must be punishable. Its effects could lead to an overall increase of 3% of the temperature within approximately 100 years. The cost of global warming is estimated at 5,500,000 million (Nicholas Stern) [1]. While the concept of a tax on CO2 emissions comes from Arthur Pigou (Economics of Welfare) [2] who, in 1920, first established the polluter pays principle.

Now …

• Should we tax the product itself or the energy consumed?
• What about taxing imported products?
• How do we avoid the risks of inequality?
• What can we do with the tax revenue?

The solutions adopted by each country are different.
France, with about 50,000 million of environmental taxation laid up, shows a certain delay. The structure of French environmental taxation is so unwise by voluntarism emphasis that it will not generate benefits in the sense of net contribution or revenue – but only more taxes on water, on garbage, on the consumption of hydrocarbons (TIPP) which are not reversed in any improvements (infrastructure, citizen responsibilization); on the contrary, it is the umpteenth patch covering the phenomenal public deficit hole. The pedagogy turns into a demagogic fatalistic verbiage as to mislead the common man – because it ignores the virtues of consensus that in all the surrounding countries is originated in the parliamentary debate, which is where popular sovereignty revives up and where such taxation should be decided, not in the halls of the presidential palace – a very usual symptom in the French Republic whose skin politicians refuse to change. These rates represent 3% of GDP … thrown away. Unless considering France as the cleanest country in Europe thanks to its huge nuclear program, which on the contrary converts this country in less safe by the obvious potential for nuclear incidents due to its atomic central park and may involve in quantity of radioactive wastes concerned – the highest per capita in the world. The rhetoric continues, forward flight, too. The only positive point is that hydroelectricity accounts for 93% of energy resources … with the aggravated disadvantage that the driving force’s the nuclear cell. Who do we kidding? If the decrease in CO2 emissions must involve the breakneck growth of the nuclear beast, then where do we go? Stripped from one mouth to feed another.

Moreover, the tax on CO2 emissions in a country is not really quantifiable to impact CO2 emissions at the global level. Global policies are needed to internalize environmental costs and act on the behaviour of firms and households. That is the healthier principle. France is wrong in the way of carrying it out: confusion over the extent rate itself (cheerfully going from 20 to 32 for up to 100 euros / TN emitted by 2030, then left who can say where?) over the exemptions, over its operation. The increased cost of living is set: estimated at 10% the additional costs of household heating in French homes by 2010, from 5 to 10 cts. for a liter of fuel at the pump now. Another consequence is that the tax, as is, will ruin the remaining local industry (current bleeding is the largest ever seen in France) and as usual,  only a few (large) groups will afford to face such additional costs in the midst of an industrial desert. Who will invest in a country that overtaxes 100 euros each emitted CO2 TN? As for the wicked 35h law, nor study or reflection has been implemented and no effort tryed to coordinate with other European countries. The devil is in the details, French say …

The topic of compensation is often talked about, but what about inequality between consumers? What to do with the € 8,000 million that the government is supposed to enter through the concept (e.g. fatten the coffers of the ministry of finance)?

Swedish pedagogy against French demagogy
Other countries as Sweden have also established a carbon tax, even more substantial, but with a very different modus operandi: e.g. Swedish tax implies a graduated scale for companies that invest more in technological innovation to improve production processes in CO2 emission – now that is pedagogy. It’s bad times in terms of economic crisis situation but action is credible in Sweden and demagogic in France where nobody knows whether the tax will be redistributed or yet another ‘neutral’ tax – that is, outside of Pigouvian incitement, which has the favour of Prime Minister Fillon.
Because the environment policy can not be summarized to raise the level of taxation or implementing new taxes, unless you’re old tricks again and increase unemployment and public debt. Two years back here it was the bonus / malus tax on car CO2 emissions (an onerous  marketing device that ruined much of the automotive industry, with a fall of 40% of French production, forcing car manufacturers to abandon the profitable manufacture of sedans to engage in small cars’ on which the profit margin is zero or nearly zero), last year was the tax on diapers for newborns turn, this year it is the time of a tax on CO2 emissions … a joke (or better yet, a shortsighted policy).
The temptation to tax the super profits of the oil industry (Ségolène Royal) would only have negative repercussions in the pocket of the consumers. Better a tax that changes that behaviour and not simply going to fatten the coffers of the state and its lifestyle. Report and well communicate with citizen, having a little patience not changing everything at a stroke or by decree.
Taxation reforms are essential throughout our countries. We talk about tax incentive and not subsidies e.g. car industries so that they manufacture a kind of cars that they would have made anyway. Let’s face green taxes; it is just and necessary, but mostly to help us getting out from the unending virtual crisis of rampant capitalism, far from the real economy. No green custom duties at European borders, a trend advocated by some, in their eagerness, to lead us into a new protectionism; but rather concentrating on comprehensive policies, at least in Europe, better globally. It is useless to establish national policies not coordinated with the rest of countries, giving way to protectionist policies more or less latent: have a look on the global trade drop of 12%, if you want to add more crisis to crisis just add the perversion of protectionism to all the difficulties we face today. The environment is a global public good. To be honest we do not know how to deal with externalities steadily i.e. when China or Brazil pollute, they do not so in their respective territories only but in the entire world. Enforcing tariffs however is theoretically a nice building, but in practice it is just about regression. Also do not forget that China’s censure is unfair: the PRC is making genuine efforts to drastically reduce pollution in its industries – and it still does not occur in most of developed countries.

One of the biggest questions is to identify what the US attitude will be. So far the US had no concern on the Kyoto Protocol; the position is changing but it all depends on the type of changes that comes about there. Scenarios abroad are in my opinion: the role of the G20, the Doha WTO round re-launch and the climate meeting in Copenhagen. All three turn around the same concern: the need for global economic governance to meet challenges.

Pedagogy missing in the US and UK.
The increasing size of speculative capital flows, mainly in US and UK, is the pending business. I mean speculative capitals and hot money outflows are bigger now than a year ago – in the worst moment of financial-mortgage crisis. Hot money is tossed into the emerging economies as the first symptom relief crops up. Thus, the central bank of China is increasingly doomed to buy huge reserves to support a sick dollar (thus some $ 70,000 million per month, are beyond the circuit of productive investments in order to prevent the US currency to collapse again), deflecting precisely investment in productive economy. That is, in essence, we have not yet altered the global imbalances, and even we are somewhat higher than before the crisis. The issue of executive bonuses and allowances is less significant than the required dismantling of the opacity in the banking investment -something impossible in the most key European financial center, the City of London, since the future PM Cameron opposes to it. This, in US terms, is yet unimaginable. So far the best indicators of the City and NY – queues at the best restaurants – behave well as table reservations vary from 2 to 3 months … bonuses, windfalls, luxury cars, stratospheric contracts are just around the corner again. To pin a button: flows exchanged in the derivatives markets reached a record of vertigo – almost 10 times world’s GDP. So how can David control Goliath?

To be continued …

[1]  The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is a report on the impact of climate change and global warming on the world economy. Written by economist Sir Nicholas Stern, commissioned by the UK government, the report was published in October 2006. The report represents a milestone by becoming the first government report commissioned by an economist rather than a climatologist.

[2] Arthur Pigou is considered the founder of welfare economics and the main precursor of the environmental movement to make the distinction between social and private marginal expenses and advocate for state intervention through subsidies and taxes to correct market failures and internalize externalities. Welfare Economics is his most emblematic book.

Julio Medem’s Chaotic Ana

The come back of a psychiatrist who turned into a devoted admirer of woman’s beauty

“My sister Ana Medem was a painter, and she still remains it through her paintings. I’ll enlighten the beginning of this trip without setting the feet on the floor, above enough to suffer as little as possible. On 7 April 2001, my sister celebrated her largest exhibition of paintings at a winery resort in Carignan, south of Zaragoza, Spain. Arriving by car to this wine region I again recognized the reddish hue of the landscapes of Tierra (Earth), my third film that I shot there five years back. My sister should meet us, relatives and friends, at the entrance hall of the exhibition. That is, the people she most wanted were waiting for her, by a closed door that she should open. A few minutes before the fixed opening time, three kilometers away, my sister died in a car accident. We did not enter the exhibition. I have in my mind a full moon in the sky in late afternoon, almost red, and almost over the highway, while driving my car to Zaragoza
The next day, before they closed my sister’s coffin , I decided – and I told her – that one day I would shoot a film on her. “

[My journey with Ana, Julio Medem, El País, 12 August 2007]

Ana is a free spirit who turns her passion for life in painting. Justine, a cosmopolitan patron, invites her to complete her training in Madrid with a group of artists she sponsors. It will be the beginning of a journey, not only physical, which will lead her to discover new continents, past lives and ancient myths. Ana attempts to break the chain of ancestral violence looming on doors painted in a wall, and at the end of the adventure she will choose if she becomes a monster or a princess.

Medem still retains much of what I admire in the storytelling way of a camera movie. Recurrent elements, if you may, always pull on the emotions and sadness that turn into beauty, like Ana´s image at sea, a resource that Medem already used in Sex and Lucia –whereas on this occasion it is brought to mind through young actress Manuela Vallés.

This appeal to aesthetics – and the use of music, wind sound or photographic colors as part of the plot – makes many of us love this film director with the same force as many criticize him for the same reason, turning Medem into the objective of the same worn arguments that were pointed against Kieslowski or the Dogma filmmakers.

We face first and foremost a good artwork – sometimes very close but not yet a masterpiece – that does not achieve the freshness of Sex and Lucia and Lovers of the Arctic Circle. In my opinion, the best films of Medem are those who have delved into the intimate territory and madness of human beings without needing to explore beyond their natural environment for survival. Whatever the case, and after having been attacked by the fascists for the documentary The Basque Ball: Skin against Stone, the come back of this unique psychiatrist, that has become a devoted worshipper of woman’s beauty, is good news.

After the wonderful Lovers of the Arctic Circle and his masterpiece Sex and Lucia, Chaotic Ana is an intense and ambitious film, beautifully acted – though some characters are undeveloped (Charlotte Rampling’s).

It is noteworthy that the British composer and pianist Jocelyn Pook is the person behind the original soundtrack.

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Something smells bad in Wall Street

Wall Street thriller goes on…

For some time, something smells bad in Wall Street, and despite the outright rejection that the greed of the system brings about, fraud is still the order of the day.

This time, the offensive from the authorities did not take long to show up when last Friday 16^th October six people were arrested for using illegal inside trading in a financial hedge fund. Among them, investment managers Raj Rajaratnam – a 52 year Sri Lanka billionaire –  and the hedge fund guru Mark Kurland, who handled $ 7,000 million dollars assets. Wall Street thriller goes on.

Along with four more people under arrest, they have been charged with profiting from insider information and manipulating assets that caused more than $ 20 million illegal profits. According to FBI records, this case has emerged as the largest fraud in hedge funds, investment funds that have been targeted since the beginning of the crisis on its no supervision and facilities open to fraudulent transactions.

The dismantling of this organization – orchestrated by Rajaratnam Galleon Group initiator –was made possible through wiretaps performed by the FBI. With this, the research bureau shows that the office gives to these fraud cases the same treatment than fighting drug trafficking and organized crime. Similar to Bernard Madoff, Rajaratnam enjoyed a great protection net due to be an active donor of resources to political parties.

After accusations of inefficiency and delays in monitoring cases like Bernard Madoff, SEC and the FBI have started up operational plans to clean the large image of corruption surrounding the financial sector. Rajaratnam and Kurland’s fall is just one of many to come. Part of the resolution of conflicts that sparked the current crisis, settles into purge the image of the financial sector and eliminate corporate wrongdoing.

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Dark Memories of the Dirty War

Chronicle of a valient journalist during the painful emergence of the Argentine dictatorship

“ Dirty Secrets, Dirty War: The Exile of Robert J. Cox (Buenos Aires, Argentina: 1976-1983)” by David Cox, Evening Post Publishing, June 2009

David Cox is the Robert Cox’s son, former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald and one of the few journalists courageous enough to report on the many disappearances and horrific violence that took place during Argentina’s Dirty War. David, 13 years old when his father and the rest of the family finally fled Argentina after years of close scrapes and tears, here presents the memoir of his father, writing in the foreword, admits that he still finds too painful to author himself. Punctuating his historical narrative of the escalating conflict with affectionate anecdotes about his large, tight-knit, and literary family, Cox the son wavers between nostalgia for the Buenos Aires of his childhood and flashbacks of the terrifying episodes that ultimately pressed the family to leave. But this book’s true focus is Cox the father, who emerges as an emblem of journalistic courage, suffering anxiety and asthma with silent tenacity while reporting on human-rights violations (and in some cases, causing the disappeared to be freed). An important primary source for Latin American recent history and an inspiring account to prevent future opportunists to take over again.

Robert Cox has risked his life to chronicling the early years of the Dirty War in Argentina (1976-1983), which has caused thousands of deaths. A few decades later he still can not write his own history or describe how he experienced this deadly junta. Now his son David does so, revealing how an editor of a small English-daily in South America, the Buenos Aires Herald, has courageously covered the kidnapping and murder that took place there when most his colleagues were silent.

Evolved into the race leading to the military coup of 1976 and in the chaos that has reigned later in Argentina, the book tells what led David’s father to write about the atrocities that were rampant. “This is the book that I never managed to write,” says the man 75 years in the preface. “Wounds are too deep so that I can write on this dark period.”  A plan backed by the military junta indeed encouraged people to silence real or perceived enemies, and caused that thousands of people were left in clandestine torture centers. Official figures set to have 13 000 people disappeared; groups working for human rights relate more 30 000 people killed instead. “Our family lives with this story for years,” said David Cox, 42, who spent his childhood in Argentina. “We all want my father to write his story because it affected us all one way.”

The Herald has been a pioneer in spreading the alarm. The military “issued him a warning to convince him to rally, but he continued to publish lists providing the names of the disappeared,” reminds F. Allen “Tex” Harris, an American diplomat who was in Argentina at that time. The Argentines went to the Herald when the authorities refused to provide information on their missing relatives, as the newspaper tried to lobby the government on them. There were very few people in the country who dared to speak. But the stories of Cox caught the world’s attention after he became a recognized journalist in the New York Times and The Washington Post.

For some time yet, the junta let Cox and The Herald go on practice their valiant journalism. “He printed a newspaper in English and as few Argentines knew that language, the military could not see him as someone threatening,” [...] “If someone criticized the lack of press freedom, he could always point to Cox,” added Harris. Cox was finally shut up in prison for a day after writing editorials urging the government to release imprisoned journalists. In 1979 he found himself forced to leave Argentina because of death threats against his family. David Cox describes, among other things, that he took different ways to get the school and that his family was traveling in an old Peugeot to avoid attracting police attention. “The feeling of terror now seems remote, but it is still in me.”

Despite all the risks he was taking, Robert remained “a very humble man” who simply reported what was happening in Argentina when others have refused to do so. “In his right mind, he did his job as a journalist.”

A concise, objective and engaging report on a very dark period in Argentine history. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in understanding this very complex yet so attractive country. A first class journalistic job, and homage to Robert Cox, an unrelenting and solitary fighter for freedom and the rule of law when people most needed someone like him.

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Terrorism and Justice

The Need to Compensate Victims of Terrorism

OOOOOO

(Versión en Castellano)

Victims of terrorist acts, such as the DC-10 UTA [1], or Baghdad or Kabul have several nationalities: Congolese, Algerians, Spanish, Chad, French, Iraqis, Americans, Afghans… Some have been compensated, others not; some were able to file a claim for civil damages in a criminal proceeding, while others will never have such a chance. It is this disparity between the nationalities that criticizes professor Ghislaine Doucet [2], a specialist in international humanitarian law. Solutions do exist:

The first alternative would be to set up  an international global fund to compensate victims, just like the Fond de Garantie (Guarantee Fund) existing in France. I firmly believe that there are ways for such a fund, so as not to leave the victims in distress. Because too many victims of terrorism, since they are seriously injured, physically as morally, can not find a job – for those who have one – and they are therefore in utter destitution. And then the second option is a universal criminal justice response, because all victims of terrorism have no chance to face the perpetrators of the crimes they have suffered or that their relatives have suffered.

Access to justice is key element but when national justice systems are unable or unwilling to judge the International Criminal Court could take over. However, it has been decided at the ICC’s foundation that it would have jurisdiction to try war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, but not terrorism. However, a crime of terrorism may, in some cases be considered a crime against humanity. Mariana Pena [3], specialist and IFHR/FIDH Liaison Officer with the ICC in The Hague:

These conditions should not be widespread or systematic [...] But an attack should have been instigated against the civilian population – with or without knowledge of the attack, which is often the case when a terrorist hit occurs.

And then the question of defining terrorism has long been an obstacle to further discussions on reparation and justice. According Ghislaine Doucet obstacles to the definition is a false debate [2]:

Terrorism on the international level is clearly defined. In times of armed conflict, acts of terrorism are explicitly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. Beyond the act of terrorism, such as hostage taking, are prohibited. Attacks against civilians are prohibited. So these are prohibited acts and then punishable. Conversely, in peacetime, we have thirteen international instruments [4] which prohibit the use of terrorism. And that furthermore require states that are parties to these instruments to punish these acts. [...]

So if you are able to classify internationally, such as acts of terrorism and therefore these acts were punishable under criminal law, why the phenomenon of terrorism is not defined?

It is however clearly defined because otherwise we would not have all these international instruments. [...] All acts of terrorism in their different facets are almost covered by these international instruments. The crux of the problem is not so much defining but to determine its scope (that is, competency areas). [2]

And that’s what the UN faces for years, seeking to establish an international convention banning terrorism. Some wish that the actions undertaken by the armed forces of a State do not fall within the definition of terrorism. Others would exclude acts of resistance on behalf of the right of peoples to self-determination. These are questions that also face the victims of terrorism and their relatives.

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[1] 19 September 1989 a UTA DC10-30 aircraft,crashed near N’Djamena, Chad, as a result of an explosion in flight due to a bomb. All 156 passengers and 15 crew were killed.

[2] Terrorisme, victimes et responsabilité pénale internationale. (Terrorism, Victims and International Criminal Responsibility). Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 2003

[3] IFHR (International Federation of Human Rights) special representative at the ICC, The Hague

[4] UN Treaties and Protocols

Who Wants Judge Garzon’s Head on a Platter?

Judge Garzon on the Spotlight of the The Spanish High Court

Judge Garzón said Spain learned that torture doesn't work.

The career of the Spanish star judge –who became famous for having ordered, in November 1998, the arrest in London of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for « genocide, terrorism and torture » – is on the edge now. The Court of criminal appeal of the Spanish High Court is about to charge him for « corruption in the performance of his functions ». If indicted, the « super judge » from the Audiencia Nacional – i.e., the National Criminal Court, the highest criminal court of Spain – would be immediately suspended whereas pending for trial.

What was his crime? Unlocking [October 18, 2008] – and at the request of families – an investigation on the ‘forced’ disappearances of 114 000 Republicans – that the judge reclassified then as ‘crimes against humanity’ – during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and Franco dictatorship. Unsurprisingly, this initiative stirred up the far right troops and brought about a mutiny against « reopening old wounds ». But also a part of the government and the Socialist Party, who saw an attack on the shortcomings of the  Ley de memoria histórica (Law on Historical Memory), painfully adopted a year earlier.

The Attorney General, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, has requested the annulment of proceedings as well. He is arguing the incompetence of the Audiencia Nacional on this subject. The prosecution’s appeal was accepted [December 2, 2008]. The case might have ended there if in the meantime Baltasar Garzon did not step down himself |November 18] by returning his jurisdiction to local judges: each of them can therefore arrange the opening of graves and exhumations within their jurisdiction. « He acted as if he was putting aside the atomic bomb – i.e. closing the case –» whereas « he was disseminating a lot of small bombs across the country » [1].

The controversy has shifted from political scope to the judiciary when in January 2009 a criminal complaint was filed by two extreme-right organizations, a ghostly « union of civil servants » called ‘Manos Limpias’ (Clean Hands) and the Association ‘Identidad y Libertad’ (Freedom and identity). [2] The criminal complaint reproaches judge Garzon violating the 1977 amnesty law – based on a tacit « pact of oblivion », supposed to ease the Spanish transition to democracy; and also for his persistent willingness to investigate facts that he was aware they were supposedly prescribed and amnestied by introducing the concept of   ‘crimes against humanity’  which did not exist at the time of civil war.

Judge Garzon has received cases connected to rights abuses in several countries

Most likely, Baltasar Garzon would not risk his professional future in this business without the excess of zeal of some judicial colleagues. Besides the ideological dimension of the case, there is a suspected game of settling scores – a payback related to Judge Garzon’s personality, whose liking for notoriety and spectacular methods annoys most of his equals [Well, I do not think for that reason his goodwill and performances become worthless... unless they are inversely proportional)

The complaint against judge Garzon was admissible on May 26, by a commission chaired by Judge Adolfo Prego, whose ultraconservative sympathies are notorious. As a member of the Honorary Board of the ‘Foundation for Defense of the Spanish nation’ (Dena), he had signed along with other jurists, a particularly aggressive text in opposition to the Law on Historical Memory, reproving it for « glorifying as martyrs of freedom many of the worst criminals that darkened our history. » [3]

The examining magistrate, who took Garzon’s deposition for nearly four hours [September 9] – and who could make him return to the dock – is on the contrary a man clearly on the left side of the chessboard. He, Luciano Varela, is close to the Vice-President of the Spanish Government, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, and has never hidden his dislike for the ‘super judge’ manners. This high figure is a brilliant lawyer, founder of the renowned association ‘Jueces para la Democracia’ (JpD, Judges for Democracy), nicknamed by his colleagues « O Guerrilleiro » (the ‘guerrilla partisan’) because of his radical sentences. According to journalist Julio Lazaro from ‘El Pais’ Varela  has « an ego as boundless as that of Garzon. » [3]

The defendant’s counsel pleaded the closing of the complaint [October 1] before the High Court. « The assertion that Judge Baltasar Garzon has acted unfairly does not stand – says Gonzalo Martinez-Fresneda. In truth, abandoning the families who demanded justice would have been unjust. » Most analysts think case dismissal is unlikely, because of the fighting spirit demonstrated by Luciano Varela during the questioning of Judge Garzon. At best, Garzon could benefit from a period proviso the High Court demands further investigation.

Civilian refugees from the Spanish Civil War

Spanish journalists seem to anticipate an unfavorable outcome for what they call the «  fallen angel ». The holder of the Fifth Chamber of the National Court, aged 54, is now on its own. As a tireless worker, he has processed about 7 000 cases in twenty years and has imprisoned more than 1 000 ETA activists and supporters –as many enemies.

The rejection of his candidacy for president of the National Court, in March, was a sign of his low popularity in the judiciary. «Whatever the decision of Luciano Varela is, there’s no doubt: the High Court jar has overflowed, and if not this time it will be done the next one.» [2][3] Several other complaints, in further cases are in the waiting room, just in case. The international prestige of Baltasar Garzon, the support of the International Commission of Jurists and the mobilization of Franco victims’ families may not weigh sufficiently. Hopefully not so. Spanish democracy can not (and might not) do without a man as judge Garzon.

It is comforting however to observe that he has not yet thrown in the towel.   Not at all.

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Related Posts:

· International lawyers support the Garzon’s cause against Franco’s regime

· The Spanish Law of Universal Jurisdiction, now in Brackets?

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[1]  Spanish Judge Seeks Names of Victims in Franco Era, NY Times, September 1, 2008

[2] La defensa de Garzón pide el archivo de la querella ‘franquista’. El Pais, Oct. 1 & 2, 2009

[3] Garzón, en el punto de mira. El Pais, Sept. 21, 2009

Sustainable Cities for Freedom and Environment (2)

Prospects, Proposals and Local Agenda-21

The first part of the analysis did consider the cities’ future –an analysis on ancient and current cities in a world becoming increasingly overpopulated.

This time we look after the portfolio of proposals on sustainable ages about the so-called Local Agenda 21. I would stress the importance of the issue, its impact on the social debate: while the 19th century witnessed social debate focused on class struggle, the latter part of the 20th century has been polarized on the ecological risks –which are no longer tied to a specific place of origin but their nature, pose a threat to all forms of life on the planet. That was precisely the widespread thesis at Stockholm-72 by Barbara Ward and Rene Dubos in their book ”Only One Earth”. With themes already raised earlier, in 1972, by Philippe Saint Marc in his unforgettable book “Socialisation de la nature” (Socialization of Nature, now exhausted, even in French).

In other words, the ecological risks are above classes, to the point that, even sarcastic tone has been said that “poverty is hierarchic, while smog is democratic”. The ultimate consequence lays on the social dynamics of ecological threats that has overcome the traditional debates on income or social position – fighting the global warming, the Kyoto Protocol and the future Copenhagen Protocol.

In 1993 the Expert Group on the Urban Environment and the European Commission launched the first phase of the Sustainable Cities Project for the period 1993-1996, in order to (1) contribute to further reflection on sustainability, (2) encourage a wide exchange experiences and (3) circulate best practices of local sustainability. In the long term, the idea of making recommendations on local and regional issues of Member States and the European Union itself. This, in line with what was requested in 1991 at a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the EC.

Once constituted, the EGUE worked over three years in developing a European Sustainable Cities Report, with the help of Euronet, who played the role of scientific and technical secretariat. The EGUE was organized in a number of specialized committees on:

• Social integration
• Mobility and urban access
• Planning and public spaces
• Dissemination (i.e. Distribution of projects between the public)
• Sustainable Social Systems
• Leisure, tourism and environment quality
• Technical management of cities
• Holistic urban management
• Urban Regeneration (Rehabilitation of neighborhoods and housing)

With so many nuances in plain view, the Report group focused on the relationship between institutional and environmental aspects in order to estimate the chances of local governments. Somewhat transcendent, against the attitude of state or semi-federal lands, as German Länder, Spanish Autonomous Communities and most of regional governments that hold so much power and sometimes behave as new centralist outbreaks. These bodies take up often resources more than anything needed by cities for multitasking – that anyone but they must assume, mostly in extremis.

The above circumstances require a thorough review of public policies to make them less authoritarian, rational and supportive, bearing that as a result of the ecosystems theory, the city is a complex whole, characterized by continuous change and development processes. In this approach, aspects such as energy consumption, waste generation, traffic and public transport are relevant.

But the EU obviously was not the only to deal with the issue and some experiences deserve to be stressed by far. Beginning with 1987, when eleven European cities (that number has grown to fifty so far) founded the Healthy Cities Programme for the World Health Organization OMS/WHO, intended for improving health conditions and interactive environment.

Furthermore in 1990, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements – Habitat (UNCHS), started its own program of sustainable cities, aiming to provide developing countries with better systems for planning and environmental management.

Also in 1990, representatives from more than 200 local authorities around the world founded the International Council of Initiatives on Local Environment (ICLEI), promoting sustainable future, while counting with the sponsorship of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The ICLEI, which is based on the UN HQ in New York, is a local network for exchanging experiences, disseminating best examples of environmental do. ICLEI also promotes the Model Communities Program of Local Agenda 21 – a matter under discussion shortly below.

In August 1991, 130 cities have signed the Toronto Declaration on World Cities and Environment committed to develop sustainable development plans –incidentally, Canada, with Toronto and Montreal, is one of the most active countries on the issue at hand.

Meanwhile, in May 1992, 45 cities participate in the World Urban Forum – relied to the United Nations Conference on Environment, signed the Commitment of Curitiba (Brazil) in defense of sustainable urban development. A document outlining the guidelines for action to follow when developing plans for sustainable development, always in collaboration with authorities and citizens.

Likewise, the scheme of Urban Management UNDP (United Nations Development based in Nairobi) and the World Bank (1993) should be mentioned.

To complete the list of proposals made on sustainable cities, a mention is necessary conc. the Urban Program OECD (1994), aimed to improve knowledge on ecosystems in urban areas, evaluate examples of good work, and measure the effectiveness of local authorities policies and other public institutions, private or volunteer at various levels of government. Within the Urban Program, the Ecological Cities Project deserves specific mention in this analysis (will shape a further article).

In the same line of initiatives for sustainable cities, the EU Member States committed themselves at the Lisbon European Council in June 1992 to develop national plans of implementation of Local Agenda 21. An action plan born in the United Nations Conference on Environment held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (Earth Summit) and later developed at European level in the Aalborg Charter where the fundamental notes of the process of Local Agenda 21 were adopted:

• Sustainability, as an idea of preservation of natural capital. This requires that the consumption of natural resources, water and renewable energy does not exceed the capacity of natural systems to replenish them – and the speed at which we consume nonrenewable resources do not exceed the rate of replacement by sustainable renewable resources. Environmental sustainability also means that the rate of emitted pollutants does not go beyond the regeneration capacity of air, water and soil on which they work. Environmental sustainability also means the maintenance of biodiversity, public health and air quality, water and soil at levels sufficient to sustain human life and welfare, as well as the flora and fauna.
• Working within ecosystems, with regards to their capacity, and always linking the systems created by humans with natural ecosystems, and taking them as management models.
• Citizen participation. Sustainable development means making important decisions between conflicting objectives and major changes in the way of life of communities and therefore can not be imposed from above.

The collaboration of citizens is a direct consequence of the principles of partnership and shared responsibility in terms of:

• Acceptance and social support to the Plan.
• Assumption of commitments and responsibilities on the part of society.
• Acceptance of certain actions and proceedings which entail some sacrifice in the population, it was an overall context would be difficult to raise and take politically.

Anyhow, the impact of Local Agenda 21 has not reached its potential, which is enormous. In a way, because the municipalities fear citizens who might assume progressive grasp on cities – that is, jeopardizing hierarchies.

It’s the level, stupid !

The end of the recession is still far off (and the spiral of decline did not hit bottom yet)

(Versión en Castellano)

A few analysts seem to think it is all over and have cheerfully proclaimed an end to the recession. Far from it. Normality is far off. It will take a very long time for production, employment and unemployment to return to pre-recession levels

The healine above is from the admonition of Mr. Mervyn King. The governor of the Bank of England, stated literally during a press conference:

“It’s the level, stupid — it’s not the growth rates, it’s the levels that matter here”

I got this quote from Mohamed El-Erian’s article in the Financial Times.  Dr. El-Erian coined the phrase the “New Normal” for economic growth.  While I agree with his conclusion, I don’t entirely agree with his analysis for the “New Normal”.

In his article Mr. El-Erian talks about how we are slipping back to the same analytical framework that encouraged “short-termism” and got us into this jam.

“Investors have not yet accepted his [Mr. Mervyn King] insight that the absolute levels of income, debt, wealth and unemployment, not just the rates of change, are what matters today. They need to, and soon.”

And we see this analytical framework at work everyday in the traditional business news media.  Take a look here US Consumer Spending Jumps the Most since 2001, thus pointing an economic rebounding… funny, if you click the link the title of the story changes to something less obvious.

So, let’s take a graphical look at some of the US indicators that Dr. El-Erian mentioned in the above quote.  First, income:

Interesting, could it be that the top income brackets are driving this higher?  But we still have a way to go to get back to “normal”.  How about consumption:

This is a huge problem.  We have done nothing to change our economic growth model that relies heavily on consumption.  If we maintain the status quo in terms of our economic growth model we have a very long long way back to “normal”.

What about debt levels?

Not a nice-looking picture.  If we look at overall levels of debt this is still too high.  Then how about the worst limitation on economic growth:

No more words needed…

As Dr. El-Erian said:

“The longer it takes for investors and the policy consensus to shift to the appropriate analytical framework – one that factors in levels rather than just rates of change – the greater the risk of disappointment in 2010.”

I would emphasize that unless we change our framework and realize that we are heading towards a “new normal” with incredibly high structural unemployment and that we are not prepared to deal with it, we are bound to much greater problems than a bear market.

The promise of a new US president with fresh ideas has been eclipsed by developments: a economy more and more ‘contracted’, elevated unemployment and a devastated – and also wicked – financial system. Rigid new financial regulation and economic stimulus plans are at the order of the day but confidence will not be easily restored. After George Bush’s last exhausted years, a new political agenda takes shape. Greater international co-operation on global issues such us climate change have featured president Obama’s strategy. The US military presence in Iraq has also begun to slow down. Despite these ‘warmer’ guidelines, trade policy has definitely become more protectionist.

Censorship on the Internet

Be irrepressible, an Amnesty International campaign.

(Versión en Castellano)

Chat rooms monitored. Blogs deleted. Websites blocked. Search engines restricted. People imprisoned for simply posting and sharing information.

The Internet is a new frontier in the struggle for human rights. Governments – with the help of some of the biggest IT companies in the world – are cracking down on freedom of expression …

The web is a great tool for sharing ideas and freedom of expression. However, efforts to try and control the Internet are growing. Internet repression is reported in countries like China, Vietnam, Tunisia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria. People are persecuted and imprisoned simply for criticising their government, calling for democracy and greater press freedom, or exposing human rights abuses, online.

But Internet repression is not just about governments. IT companies have helped build the systems that enable surveillance and censorship to take place. Yahoo! have supplied email users’ private data to the Chinese authorities, helping to facilitate cases of wrongful imprisonment. Microsoft and Google have both complied with government demands to actively censor Chinese users of their services.

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. It is one of the most precious of all rights. We should fight to protect it.

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Database of censored material

Amnesty International is working with the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) to help raise awareness of internet censorship around the world.

The ONI is a collaboration among the Citizen Lab, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, the Advanced Network Research Group at Cambridge University, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School UK, and the Oxford Internet Institute, plus partner non- governmental organizations worldwide.

The aim of the ONI is to document empirically patterns of Internet content filtering and surveillance worldwide behind national firewalls over an extended period of time. The ONI employs a unique methodology that combines in-field investigations by partners and associates within the countries under investigation and a suite of technical interrogation tools that probe the Internet directly for forensic evidence of content filtering and surveillance technologies.

Its 11 country reports have documented the scope, scale and sophistication of numerous filtering regimes worldwide, and have helped verify the use of US commercial filtering technologies, such as Smartfilter and Websense that are used in some ways to underpin these regimes. The ONI’s flash map of global filtering shows the results of these investigations.

The work of ONI is supported by the Information Program of the Open Society Institute and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. ONI’s mapping work is supported by the International Development Research Centre (Canada).

The examples of censored material used for Irrepressible.info have been drawn from websites that have been blocked in one of the following countries – China, Iran, Myanmar, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Syria and Vietnam, and are based on latest testing results available from each country.

Wandering over the Internet: ‘Newsmap’ and ‘Worldometers’

Newsmap 2.0, your daily portion of breaking news.

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Newsmap is a well-known application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator.

A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator. Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. Newsmap’s objective takes that goal a step further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe.

Newsmap’s objective is to simply demonstrate visually the relationships between data and the unseen patterns in news media.

Google News automatically groups news tories with similar content and places them based on algorithmic results into clusters. In Newsmap, the size of each cell is determined by the amount of related articles that exist inside each news cluster that the Google News Aggregator presents. In that way users can quickly identify which news stories have been given the most coverage, viewing the map by region, topic or time. Through that process it still accentuates the importance of a given article.

Newsmap also allows to compare the news landscape among several countries, making it possible to differentiate which countries give more coverage to, for example, more national news than international or sports rather than business

Currently, the internet presents a highly disorganized collage of information. Many of us are working in an information-soaked world. There is too much of everything. We are subject everywhere to a sensory overload of images, bombarded with information; in magazines and advertisements, on TV, radio, in the cityscape. The internet is a wonderful communication tool, but day after day we find ourselves constantly dealing with information overload. Today, the internet presents a new challenge, the wide and unregulated distribution of information requires new visual paradigms to organize, simplify and analyze large amounts of data. New user interface challenges are arising to deal with all that overwhelming quantity of information.

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Worldometers makes you use your brain

Worldometer welcome screen

My good friend – and not less brother-in-law – Charles Ginvert told me a few days ago about the existence of Worldometers which I did not know.

Worldometers.info is managed by an international team of developers, researchers and volunteers with the aim of making world statistics available to the widest audience in the world in a format that makes you use your brain.

Worldometers.info uses data and statistics from the most reputable organizations and statistical offices in the world.

The counters that display the real-time numbers are based on Worldometers’ algorithm that processes the latest statistical data available together with its estimated progression to compute the current millisecond number to be displayed on each counter based on the specific time set on each visitor’s computer clock.

Sustainable Cities for Freedom and Environment (1)

An Overview on Urban Developmental Evidences

Matters of environment and nature conservation are to be considered when planning and developing construction projects.

The policy approach on sustainable cities is essential because in the process of urban development there can be no operations as often happened in the past, improvised, or at the mercy of powerful real estate groups, without taking into account the most basic in terms of sustainability. Then there is the new context, revealing that in 2008 more than half of the 6,700 million human beings, in a trend of (still) population growth living in cities, so that the quality of life for most inhabitants of the earth depends on whether or not those cities are sustainable. Moreover, in 2050 there will be 9,000 million inhabitants in the planet – 70 percent of them will be urban.

There is no civilization without cities, because since humans became sedentary in the Neolithic, human settlements began to better provide satisfaction to the needs of their communities. And over time, these early settlements became towns, centers of attraction and stimulus for social mobilization as well as for commercial exchange of ideas, and personal relationships. Ultimately, as stated by Marsilio Ficino in the fifteenth century, the city is not made only of stone but also and above all, human beings organized to co-exist indefinitely.

In this direction, the city is “the place of a particular human group,” according to historian Marc Bloch. As the philosopher Claude Lefort, in an essay on urban civilization in Europe, explained well how, at the end of the Middle Ages – then next to coming into the Renaissance – European cities formed broad areas of trade and freedom.

On that path slowly and around the birth of the market, an emerging social class, the bourgeoisie was creating a new order in Europe that would eventually undermine the feudal power: serfs emancipating from the masters found protection in urban habitat increasingly free. The expression of this change is summarized by Max Weber, “town air makes free.”

That freedom of the city, as Lefort writes, means the dissolution of personal dependence ties of feudalism, and the possibility, therefore, to change one’s condition: promoting work, the capacity of initiative, education and other opportunities. This direction (urban development as a critical element of progress in Europe) explains the significant leap forward, which the Renaissance involved for a great number of issues.

The improvement of former European cities did contrast with what happened elsewhere, e.g. Chinese cities, which became the nucleus of the bureaucracy and the mandarin feudal organization, which of course did not prevent the Celestial Empire becoming the greatest world power for centuries – something often ignored by the prevailing Euro centrism. But the gaps above mentioned prevented China from setting up a large middle class and therefore they avoided the necessary industrial revolution to operate there in the eighteenth century.

From an everyday approach, the city can be qualified as a place to live, grow, work, study and live together in society; thus – according to Roberto Camagni – becoming significant sets, autonomous socio-economic entities. In this regard, management and improvement of quality of life for residents requires a specific spatial planning; on vital issues such as infrastructure, urban planning, public transport, landfill management, solid waste collection and energy management , CO2 emissions, and always transcendental subject of the marginalization of certain social groups.

Prevention through environmental impact assessment (EIA)

In the direction above pointed, the sprawl of cities tends to set conurbations (Giddens dixit) or megalopolis, as happened in the United States firstly with San-San (San Francisco / San Diego), Chipitts (Chicago / Pittsburgh) or BosWash ( Boston / Washington). On the other hand, the provision of advanced services, the concentration of scientific and technical qualifications, and expertise of the workforce and the existence of large consumer markets as well, have a decisive influence on the emergence of new international centers (international hubs) that operate on a continental scale and in some cases even worldwide. Providing distinction between knowledge hubs (knowledgehubs), capital cities (established capitals), or new capitals (re-invented capitals).

From the viewpoint of conceptual development, urban sustainability is based on the definition, widely accepted that it was first built in the Brundtland Report, World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987:

Sustainable development is one that meets current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own problems.

Another complementary definition, offered by the IUCN – World Conservation Union (Environment Program of United Nations and World Wide Fund for Nature, 1991) pointed that:

Sustainable development means improving the quality of life with respect to the limits of ecosystems.

More specifically, sustainability involves a number of essential criteria:

• There is no infinite growth with finite resources: it is necessary to acknowledge limits to the expansion in material terms, in order to prevent the destruction of ecosystems and the overall deterioration of the biosphere.

• In production, you have to incorporate such damages to the biosphere as costs, treating, at business and government as particularly sensitive part of the profit and loss account, or budgets, respectively.

• It requires the systematic use of environmental impact assessment (EIA), for reasons that can be summarized by “prevention is better than cure”.

• It is important that government admin and private organizations have their respective environmental budgets, where evaluate annually the ecological balance – to assess whether or not they are generating natural capital reductions.

• The development model must be ecological, permeating all sectoral intervals as patterns of respect for nature.

Biblio:

Marc Bloch, La Société féodale (Feudal Society), Albin Michel, Paris, 1998.

Claude Lefort, L’Invention démocratique (The Democratic Invention), Paris, Fayard, 1981.

Claude Lefort, Europe as an urban civilization, Revue ‘Esprit’, Paris, 2004

Max Weber, General Economic History, Cosimo, New York, 1986

Roberto Camagni, Economia Urbana, Barcelona, 2005

Financial Crisis is Delaying African Development Goals

Education needs to be made available to more African children

Many development analysts assumed in relation to the last G20 summit in Pittsburgh that it might not forget about Africa in its talks on the financial crisis. Developing nations on the continent are being especially hard hit at a time when things were starting to look up.

Africa’s developing countries are suffering even more from the financial crisis: not only are they having to make do with less development aid funding, but the amount of money that emigrants are able to send back to support their families at home is much smaller.

The economic crisis will make it harder to reach development aid goals

The crisis is threatening the hard-won progress made in Africa’s developing countries at a time when the situation was starting to improve. African national economies were showing an average growth of 5 to 6 percent in recent years. Kenya, for example, has seen the development of a middle class that invests in its own economy. Outside money, including from newly industrialized countries such as China, Brazil and India, had considerably upped the level of foreign investment. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that foreign investment and credit for Africa increased to $53 billion (40 billion Euros) – five times the amount in 2000. But Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank, warns that the crisis could unravel this progress.

“We have to distinguish between the financial crisis and the economic crisis,” Kaberuka said. “Until now, (the financial crisis) has not hit a single African bank, but it has affected national economies. For 2009, we’re expecting an average maximum economic growth rate of 4 to 4.5 percent, no more. And it could well turn out to be smaller. We have to mobilize inner-African capital. We have very rich and very poor countries in Africa. On the regional level, the African Development Bank has already managed to mobilize capital, but not for the continent as a whole.”

Fears of a setback

Ad Melkert is a UN under secretary-general and an associate administrator of the UN Development Program (UNDP). He also fears that Africa will suffer a setback.

“This is all happening after a considerable number of African countries have, over the past few years, experienced significant economic growth and an increase in jobs and investment,” Melkert said. “Now, there’s a reversal. That means when the international community – the G20 – meets in April in London for its financial summit, they have to work out an international agenda there. They have to ensure that they factor in Africa, because this is an international financial crisis that is having effects worldwide.”

Growth rate of 3.4 % expected for sub-Saharan Africa

International institutions such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are calling for multilateral risk management for the financial markets. In Davos, some major actors called for the creation of global economic council. The inclusion of developing countries in such bodies will be decisive, says Melkert. The UNDP representative is hoping for a clear statement from the G20, as otherwise, the UN’s development goals will be in danger of failure.

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“The crisis has created a totally new starting position,” he said. “It really does mean a setback, even for really successful countries like China, for example. We’ll have to really go the extra mile now if we’re to reach our development goals.”

Despite the crisis, some industrialized countries as Spain and Germany have committed themselves to raising development aid bit by bit to reach 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product. Melkert advises other wealthy nations to also maintain their development aid goals.

“There’s no alternative to investing in development goals,” he said. “I hope that the G20 summit will help, I hope that the new American administration under Obama will support the Millennium goals even more. I hope that the Europeans keep their promises and invest more in development policies each year. And I hope that the growing middle classes in Africa, Brazil or in India pay their taxes and use this tax money to fight poverty.”

Poverty remains a major challenge

Although the global fight against poverty has made progress, the percentage of poor people in Africa hasn’t gone down at all, due to the continent’s fast-growing population. With a poverty rate of around 50 percent, the share of extreme poverty in the total population hasn’t changed, and Melkert fears it could even get worse.

“We have to be really ambitious here and take the problem of poverty really seriously,” he said. “With this financial crisis, more people will be forced into poverty than in years past.”

There are worries that more Africans will slip into poverty

The IMF has revised its growth projection downwards and has forecast an economic growth rate of just 3.4 percent for sub-Saharan Africa. But all African governments have to take political responsibility, says Melkert. He points to examples from Latin America, saying Africa should learn to also create effective social security systems and incentives for development.

“Good systems have been established in Latin America,” he says. “There, families get money if they send their children to school or get them vaccinated. Africa should follow this example. The World Bank, the UN or bilateral donors could financially support such a system. That would help the poorest people to have a minimal income to buy food, send their children to school or care for their health.”

He advises the international community to be patient and take a long-term view when it comes to supporting development goals – despite the global financial crisis.

“You don’t make development progress from one year to the next – it’s a question of 10 or 20 years,” Melkert said.

Roman Polanski Revisited

Why talent is not above justice.

The French-Polish filmmaker was arrested in Switzerland upon a US request due to a sex scandal back in the late 70s.

The legal issue on the case.- Roman Polanski was arrested under an international warrant of arrest issued by a US court. Many international conventions, bilateral or multilateral on judicial cooperation, get involved to require the execution of the warrant by the requested State. These agreements are not signed with any state: e.g. France has no extradition treaty with Iran or North Korea. In this occasion, we witness the execution of the extradition treaty between the United States and the Swiss Confederation, signed in Washington on November 14, 1990 (pdf here).

The warrant is notified to the country’s authorities where the person comes into (if he is registered in the international database of Interpol). When a person comes to the border the police check on the base. If the answer is positive, the person must be arrested, police officers have no choice. In all Western legal systems the warrant leads to provisionally incarceration, typically a few days, the time for authorities to notify the warrant to the individual, so he is able to identify who ordered his arrest and why. This is crucial for the rights of defense and the non-compliance with this condition leads to prisoner’s immediate release. The detainee has right to a counsel (i.e. a lawyer). He is then presented to a judge who will ask him if he agrees to be returned to the requesting state. If he refuses, the judge decides on possible release supervision – and he can appeal the warrant of arrest.

Finally, there is a fundamental principle: a State never extradites its nationals. This is contrary to the protection it owes to its citizens. That does not mean they are immune from prosecution in their home state. And I think it necessary to add that no law or international convention provides immunity for artists, Oscar-winning or not.

Mr. Polanski is French and Polish. He is the target of an international warrant of arrest issued by a Californian court of justice for an issue dating back to 1977. At that time he had sex with a minor aged 13 after making her drink alcohol and consume drugs. Mr. Polanski presumption of innocence did expire as soon as the illusions of this girl broke down – since Roman Polanski admitted facts by pleading guilty. In the legal sense, Roman Polanski guiltiness is no longer on discussion. After a few days in jail, Mr. Polanski was released in hold of the sentence hearing. He took the opportunity to clear out LA and has carefully avoided the U.S. for thirty years. Initially, the indictment contained five charges, including rape . Following an agreement with prosecutors – as California law allows it – Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to a single chief of “unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor” (i.e. child sexual abuse, California Penal Code Section 261.5.), offense punishable by 4 years.

The warrant seeks to summon for sentencing – hence the appearance of the convicted person is required in California law. The victim has been formerly compensated and she withdrew her complaint. This was probably part of the agreement with the prosecution (the victim is not party to the criminal trial in American law). This does not preclude further prosecution. While he resided in France, Mr. Polanski was confident: France does not extradite its nationals. And he could not be prosecuted in France, although being French national, as the facts have already been tried in the United States. This is the rule non bis in idem (no matter can be judged twice).

Vanity catch out our filmmaker: he was invited to Switzerland to receive a reward for all his career, and then he came visit the pleasant federal confederation. Fatality: at the airport, when checking the passport, custom bell gave a loud ‘bang-bang’:  “Mmm, this man is the subject of an international warrant of arrest issued in 2005″ thinks the policeman. “Mr.Polanski is not Swiss,so he can be stopped”… and here he tasted the wet straw of Helvetian dungeons, where he is in individual cells, confined 23 hours a day. Does it shock you? Please take note that prisoners in France are treated the same way in jail, except that in addition, they are in an overcrowded cell.

Finally, I found two shocking things in the barrage from the artists’ world.

In spite of Mr. Polanski has long suffered throughout his life – an unhappy childhood in the Cracow ghetto; then as an orphan whose parents were deported and killed by nazis; the awful murder of his wife, actress Sharon Tate, by Manson’s sect – this does not grant him a leeway or carte blanche to commit a crime and escape the law. We must not forget that this is a crime. It is a matter of rape in the person of a minor.

I find it shameful to hear artists – who a few weeks ago vowed to pillory French downloaders (Hadopi law on censorship over Internet) and approved the repressive legislation against constitutional rights to punish the illegal downloading of their works – make now a fuss when it is one of them whom the law applies in its entire rigor. When you know that a lot of downloaders are in the 13, we draw the impression that minors are good for their eyes only to spit their pocket money and serve as sex objects. As if their image needed it. And after that, we treat judges as corporatist.

It makes my blood boil when I hear the French minister of culture Mitterrand  pointing “the America that fears.” Oh, how we know America badly. Tocqueville had already identified 170 years ago, the passion for equality in this country. It has not changed. It is inconceivable there to treat an individual differently because he belongs to aristocracy, even THE artistic aristocracy. Even if it permanently weakened the executive, ten years ago, America has seriously considered the possibility of overthrowing the President because he lied under oath before a Grand Jury.

A justice that does not spare the powerful and those protected by the powerful? I understand now why a minister of the French Republic – who has carefully put his president and his ministers safe from justice – finds that America is frightening.

French Police to Turn into an Occupation Army ?

Does French police behave like an occupation army in the suburbs?

In 2005, just after the urban riots while he was head of the Ethics and Human Rights in Geneva police, a Swiss policeman spent several weeks in a police station located in the ‘93’, the Seine-Saint-Denis county (northern suburbs of Paris, «the most violent county» in France in words of Le Temps, from Geneva; not too far from truth). He looked over the French police and came to the conclusion that it was «an army of occupation. »

Yves Patrick Delachaux, turned a novelist and screenwriter today, just wrote «Grave Panique» (Severe Panic) to put in picture his experience. The title was found one night when a patrol cop from the anti-criminal brigade was about to run over an old lady while he was driving too quickly and he exclaimed: «Je l’ai grave paniquée la mémé» («I seriously terrified the granny. »)

His book speaks volumes about the state of strain existing between young people and police in the French suburbs, says Sylvain Besson, Le Temps correspondent in Paris. As well as the – now admitted without having to spell things out – complete failure of the policy implemented by Nicolas Sarkozy since his arrival at the Ministry of Interior (i.e. Home Office) in 2002.

On the ground, the healing is still far. Two days after his meeting on the theme «learning to live together» between youth and police, the Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux, filed a complaint for defamation against two young people who accused police of having hit a pizza deliveryman last August 9, in Bagnolet, in the neighborhoods of Paris. Aged 18, he died trying to escape a police check control when he drove a cross motorcycle – prohibited on public roads. In the suburbs, the dialogue of the deaf between youth and police continue to kill.

Yves Patrick Delachaux understood the problem at the first glance at the police station:

«A square blockhouse, everything is barricaded, wired. It is an occupation army. [...] An atmosphere of barracks, toil, suffering, says the Swiss police. We feel that it weighs on their shoulders.»

Policemen hide their function. No sooner have they arrived, than they just call for transfer elsewhere, and they never dwell in Seine-Saint-Denis itself. Delachaux declares that policemen reported him that saying hello to a group of young people means « go in search of clash», in the words of French policemen:

The Swiss request to see the 4000 City of La Courneuve, become legendary since Nicolas Sarkozy proclaimed he wanted to flush out and get rid of all the trash in the suburbs with a Kärcher [1]. On the way ahead, the tension goes up: it is said to be aware of objects launched from the rooftops, to be ready to call for help … Coming out of their car, policemen deploy themselves in skirmish, «as in Afghanistan. »

When meeting a group of young people of African origin, the atmosphere is icy. Not a word, just dreadful looks. At back of the pack, Yves Patrick Delachaux launches a loud «hello» to the teenagers, which does not receive any reply. Back in the car, the blame rains from policemen: «Never redo it. You’re going to confrontation! »

The culprits in this system are not the policemen themselves, but «the immense organizational immaturity» of a structure where «all the weight and responsibility are placed on 22 years old guys», entangled in a policy of figures imposed by the government (The more they arrest, the better for the government).

The sad thing about this is that this doesn’t happen in France only (a country that proudly proclaims itself «homeland of human rights»). The welcome of customs police in many US airports is really humiliating – I would almost say violent. Not to mention the treatment given to Mexican «wetbacks». Or the discretionary raids by the Spanish police in Basque households?

[Read the full article on LeTemps.ch] in French only.

Related Posts:

Amnesty International reports the impunity of the French police
The road to nowhere

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[1] Kärcher is a well-known German cleaning machine using high pressure water. A Kärcher cleaner is therefore supposed to be powerful for removing dirt. This is quite the reason of the controversy, as Mr. Sarkozy compared some young people to dirt.

Obama Drives a Valuable Shift in the US Defense Policy

No need to search for obscure reasons or ulterior motive when scrutinizing the change in direction introduced by President Obama in the US defense policy after President’s refusal to install the so-called missile shield. The expected partial deployment on European territory was one of the pillars of Bush’s failed strategy against international terrorism.

Obama’s resolution involved several decisions of domestic and foreign policy, all high draft. On the one hand, the strong US defense industry will not feel aggrieved, since this is not about trying to cut off a program that would produce significant benefits, but to transform the land-based missile defense system installed on other naval platforms. The technical explanations do little to the case except to deny the accusation that the US and its allies could be defenseless against a suspected terrorist attack with missiles.

The adopted solution presupposes a more thorough risk assessment, dismissing the idea that Iran is able to hold mid-term long-range missiles and reduce the anticipated missile threat from shorter range. The fact that the current US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who was also in charge during the Bush administration, supports and implement this change in strategy, is a smart move by Obama. The US President skillfully – and to the surprise of many who did not understand his decision– maintained R. Gates at the same position –the very same that had fully supported the failed military strategy of the former president.

Russia expressed rapidly and unambiguously its favorable opinion about this amendment and countries most directly concerned which are Poland and Czech Republic shall cover up that Europe defense is a common issue that affects all countries rather than a result of bilateral agreements of some of them with the American superpower – in order they appease their peculiar and atavistic fears towards Russia, however reasonable their historical reasons may seem.

Nor should it surprise that the new Secretary General of NATO – an alliance that since the Soviet Union collapsed is looking for a suitable place in the global system of supranational military organizations – is enthusiastically pointing to a new strategy that does not see an almost mandatory enemy in Russia but an appropriate and necessary ally, by which NATO can continue to keep alive, despite all previsions – a treaty that was precisely born to fight today’s new ally.

Subsequently, Mr. Rasmussen, in his first public comments of some significance since in August he took over from NATO, suggested combining missile defense systems of US, NATO and Russia into a single one. However, when asked about specifics of the plan he did not know how to respond and referred to further clarification of the military leaders –quite understandable since the NATO HQ itself was surprised by the swift and unexpected decision by the US president.

Obama, therefore, takes firmly the helm of US foreign policy. He will face a tough offensive from his political rivals. Senator McCain already warned the decision as a “serious error” that “potentially undermines US leadership as perceived in Eastern Europe”. The most obsessive US right wing – the very same which identifies traits of socialism and even communism in Obama’s plan to extend health coverage to every citizen – will go on with its campaign of denigration, with the helpful support from the most extreme republicans.

Obama definitely buries the former US policy, which divided Europe with the invasion of Iraq – one might remember the shameful pamphlet to support Bush policy, signed by many conservative European leaders, including Berlusconi, Aznar and Barroso, together with the joint efforts of three Eastern European countries, significantly Poland and the Czech Republic. The ensuing releasing in the Wall Street Journal allowed the most US reactionary forces to contempt the “old Europe” (led by France and Germany), who opposed the war, while praising the “new Europe” – the latter, whilst supporting Bush’s illegal adventure, showed a mixture of servility and excitement to establish a special relationship with the American superpower, that is trying to came closer to develop relationships with influential people (UK), in sum expecting benefits, as Jeb Bush, the dreadful brother of the former US president, who ruled his fiefdom in Florida, decreed when visiting Madrid: “This relationship between the United States and Spain will provide benefits that cannot be imagined today.”

The way Obama has to pass through is easier said than done and he will need all his personality resources to face opposition from the social sectors – within and outside the US –who worshiped Bush and still share his reactionary ideology and highlight his disastrous decisions.

NGOs and Microfinance in Africa: the Awakening Experience of ‘Rwanda Works’

Interesting interview that Josh Ruxin–founder of the new NGO Rwanda Works, Professor at Columbia University, and Director of the Millennium Global Village Project in Rwanda, just had with BigThink.

In the interview, Ruxin describes his current work in Rwanda helping to promote access to healthcare and sustainability, as well as his profound insights into the policies that actually work to advance international development. Among the many current practices that Ruxin explains are simply not working, include the widely-praised spread of microfinance loans, which Ruxin believes are not nearly the “panacea” many believe them to be, and are not actually creating any significant progress in much of the developing world–particularly not sub-Saharan Africa: http://bigthink.com/joshruxin/the-case-against-microfinance-loans

Ruxin also discusses the urgency of developing sustainable agriculture in the developing world as a way to solve an array of problems, and describes some of the creative new approaches to affordably promoting sustainability in Rwanda and surrounding countries that currently being refined to meet these challenges: http://bigthink.com/joshruxin/the-key-to-developing-rwanda

Ruxin also examines how an increase in women’s reproductive rights is one of the key issues in international development and why government officials investing in foreign aid should provide far more funding for family planning: http://bigthink.com/joshruxin/the-link-between-womens-rights-and-economic-success

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Spanish version here below:

ONGs y microfinanzas en Africa: la experiencia reveladora de ‘Rwanda Works’

Interesante entrevista (en inglés) que Josh Ruxin ha concedido a BigThink.  Josh Ruxin es el fundador de la nueva ONG Rwanda Works, Profesor de la Universidad de Columbia, y director del Proyecto de la Aldea Global del Milenio, en Rwanda.

En la entrevista, Ruxin describe su trabajo actual en Rwanda para ayudar a promover el acceso a la asistencia sanitaria y la sostenibilidad, así como sus reflexiones lúcidas sobre las políticas que funcionan realmente para promover el desarrollo internacional. Entre las muchas prácticas actuales que Ruxin considera simplemente inoperantes, incluye la propagación del muy encumbrado sistema de microcréditos. Ruxin los juzga de tal forma que cree que no son ni la “panacea” que muchos quisieran, y no son, puesto que no representan en realidad un avance significativo en la mayor parte de el mundo en desarrollo – en particular, para África subsahariana: http://bigthink.com/joshruxin/the-case-against-microfinance-loans

Ruxin también razona sobre la urgencia en desarrollar la agricultura sostenible en el mundo en desarrollo como una manera de resolver una serie de problemas, y describe algunos de los enfoques nuevos y creativos para promover la sostenibilidad asequible en Rwanda y países vecinos que actualmente se está perfeccionando para enfrentar estos desafíos: http://bigthink.com/joshruxin/the-key-to-developing-rwanda

Asimismo Ruxin examina cómo un aumento en los derechos reproductivos de las mujeres es una de las cuestiones clave en el desarrollo internacional y por qué los funcionarios de la administración que desean invertir en ayuda al desarrollo han de proporcionar muchos más fondos para la planificación familiar: http://bigthink.com/joshruxin/the-link-between-womens-rights-and-economic-success

Okuribito [Departures] by Yojiro Takita

A masterpiece about an odd job tale.

Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Academy Awards.

Plainly and simply, the best film I’ve seen in a while. Without revealing too much, it is the story of how an ordinary man unwittingly becomes a Okuribito – a person who prepares the dead for their ‘departure’, literally the person who “sees off”.

As often is the case of films about death, Okuribito knows much about life. A moving drama, imbued with incredible sadness, but at the same time director Yojiro Takita has far managed to combine humor, without losing sight at the film’s message. I found the film to be “educational”  in many ways.

Film strength lies in the ability to keep playing without being too melodramatic or sentimental (some may disagree on this point). Much of the credit should go to surprising (and unfamiliar to Western viewers) casting: each character has a story to tell. Even the secondary characters are plots that probably leave lasting impressions.

A film deserving Oscar in every point.

Sarkozy capitán de barco, Zapatero marinero de agua dulce

Aunque, como dice mi buen amigo Justo Almendros, La Vanguardia es el único periódico que ofrece noticias con 3 dias de retraso, confieso que sigo los artículos de fondo de algunos como J. Antich o E. Juliana (y evito  los despropósitos de otros, léase P.Rahola, que, aunque inteligente, me pone de los pelos).

Leo hoy un papel elocuente de Enric Juliana en LV. Y a la luz de su escrito me vienen estos comentarios a modo de escritura automática.

Aznar daba la impresión de determinación y coherencia. Zapatero, muchas veces admirable en su determinación por hacer avanzar la sociedad española y posibilista en su gestión de las diferencias territoriales, da ahora la sensación de improvisación en materia económica.

Da la impresión que, algunos como Aznar, supieron gestionar en su momento la bonanza económica (incluso la descomunal bonanza del ladrillo) y capitalizarla para el futuro. Mientras que otros, léase Zapatero, no saben gestionar la economía en tiempos de crisis, porque no supieron capitalizar los tiempos de bonanza económica.

Algunos amiguetes de Zapatero le susuran al oído de subir los impuestos, lo cual ninguno de sus correligionarios del G20 proyecta ¿Con estas intenciones va a Pittsburg???

La economía no puede ser el atajo ideológico y oportunista de algunos como José Blanco. Faltan sensatez y planteamientos macroeconómicos a medio plazo. Sobran la incoherencia de personajillos de dudoso credo -como Miguel Sebastián- o con los arneses ideológicos como los de la inexperimentada y maximalista talibana económica Elena Salgado.

Sarkozy – y no solo por efecto de recencia – bajó los impuestos a principios de su mandato para el 95% de los franceses, es decir la ingente clase media. Resultado: tasa de paro hoy en el 9%, destrucción de empleo en franca disminución, crecimiento económico de 0,3% en el primer semestre, 0,7% previsto a fin de ejercicio de 2009, poder adquisitivo estabilizado.  Quién da más? Las cifras de la economía española, mejor me las callo…

Creo que buena parte de los españoles teníamos la mosca detrás de la oreja durante los años de la bonanza del ladrillo. No había que ser muy listo para darse cuenta de que estábamos construyendo nuestro futuro sobre arena. Luego vino Zapatero y empezamos a darnos cuenta que el pájaro era un tanto inepto en economía, un presidente que gobernaba a bandazos  y al que encima le cayó la recesión. Y ahora, ¿qué hacemos?

Por eso, se me ocurre a contrario de Enric Juliana en su artículo (“La tentación bonapartista: el admirado Sarkozy”) lo de Sarkozy capitán de barco, Zapatero marinero de agua dulce…

Aunque, como dice Lluis Bassets hoy en El País, cuán diferente es el caso de los añorables Helmut Kohl y Angela Merkel: no hay trampa ni cartón, valen lo que valen y se les debe valorar por sus acciones y (buenos) resultados.

“[…] Todo lo contrario de lo que representan los prototipos de Sarkozy o Berlusconi, dos variedades, ciertamente de distinta calidad moral, en la fauna contemporánea del poder que comparten narcisismo, vanidad e hinchazón del ego, características ajenas a la sicología de la canciller [Merkel].”

¿Es en el espejo de ésta en que se reconoce Zapatero o en el de aquellos dos?

The Way Forward at Copenhagen

Countdown to Copenhagen: The global conference on climate change will take place from December 7 to 18 in Denmark. At 100 days of its conclusion, pessimism prevails.

Ban Ki-moon at the ice floe in Svalbard Islands, Norway

Countdown appears critical now: the days between now and December 18, the day of the possible conclusion of a global agreement to fight against global warming. Delegates from 192 countries will meet in Copenhagen under the auspices of the UN. Will they find the resources to overcome their differences? While part of the future of the twenty-first century will be played in the Danish capital, pessimism prevails for now, here’s why.

The ice warming is more important than predicted. According to a WWF report, released September 2, the Arctic is warming twice faster than the Earth as a whole, which could lead to a rise in sea levels of 1.20 m by 2100, more than was expected so far by scientists. And the WWF prevents that “the flooding of coastal areas due to melting ice will affect more than one quarter of the world population.” With the risk that the flow of climate refugees will become an unmanageable threat for the planet.

The Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launches a cry of alarm. Faced with the increasing dangers, the Secretary General of UN, Ban Ki-moon has decided to shake the conscience by going in early September to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, 1 200 km far from the North Pole. « The Arctic is like a canary in a coal mine: is an alarm for the global climate. I will say in Copenhagen to world leaders they must act before it’s too late », he said on site. And, back from Svalbard, he added, gravely: « The world is rushing toward the abyss. »

Negotiators are worried. Thus, Pierre Radanne, energy consultant and one of the negotiators in Copenhagen said in Terra Eco « By three months to the summit we’re at a deadlock. » This remark is confirmed by Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): «While early this year the G8 leaders had agreed on the objective of maintaining the warming to 2°C, there is no sign of progress or significant progress in the negotiations towards Copenhagen. »

Mobilizing the civil society. In the blogosphere some interesting initiatives as Mediators at COP15 – finding new ways, propose suitable action plans. In France, 11 NGOs (such as Greenpeace, WWF and CRS) have decided to intensify their action. Their petition “We do not negotiate with the climate, we act“, has surpassed the 145 000 signatures. The Way Forward at Copenhagen.

Related Posts:

Climate Change: Preparing a New Protocol (I)
Climate Change: Expectations for the New Protocol (II)
Climate Change: Upcoming meetings (III)

The impact of the global financial crisis on African development (& 2)

The potential recovery from the financial crisis is very limited

In light of the potentially weakening effects, it is crucial both for African and world leaders and policy makers to discuss the possible responses to diminish the impact of crises on the continent.

One way of responding successfully to the crisis is to give priority to building African markets. In particular, policies to strengthen the African markets and institutions necessary to promote growth and ensure that African economies are more resistant to external shocks. There is also a need for tighter regulation of African financial markets. Moreover, creating a more conducive business environment to reduce costs and limitations associated with doing business in African economies to raise their profile as a business destination less expensive, less risky and more profitable, helping to attract more Foreign capital flows and investment in the context of a capital market has become considerably more risk averse following the onset of the financial crisis. The reforms that encourage foreign direct investment and portfolio flows and the measures that raise the level of confidence in financial systems in Africa can have an equally positive impact.

Sub-Saharan Africa is dropping behind in infrastructure

Source: Preliminary results AICD 2008. African Perspectives and Recommendations to the G20. Committee of African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. 21/03/09

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The expansion of trade with other developing countries represents another potential means to ease the severity of the negative effects of the crisis on African economies. Global trade statistics suggest that trade between developing countries as percentage of total world trade, and therefore world trade has been increasing for quite some time. In fact, trade in goods among developing countries grew at an average annual rate of 13 % between 1995 and 2007 and in 2007, represented a fifth of total world trade flows. It is vital for Africa to increase their share of this link between South-South trade to offset some effects of the anticipated decline in demand for their commodity exports. Along with this is the need to increase intra-regional trade flows and trade in Africa in order to reduce the dependence of African economies in overseas markets. [3]

Similarly, measures to improve South-South economic cooperation, particularly in terms of investment, financial flows and joint efforts to stabilize foreign exchange rates and debt, should be investigated. In particular, South-South several measures to address potentially available for African countries to tackle the worst effects of the global financial crisis. First, the increased funding of regional development banks could offset the anticipated slowdown in international aid and donor funding for African economies. Secondly, regional stimulus packages could be implemented to help sustain the market and sustain economic growth. Similarly, regional agreements could be used that are specifically designed to mitigate the impact of financial shocks through, for example, the provision of international financial liquidity through swaps. Finally, African countries burdened by high debt levels, measures to diversify foreign exchange reserves could be adopted whereby the purchase of other developing countries “that debt.

Globally, according to the World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said reaching a global trade deal that represent a relatively simple way to alleviate the effects of the crisis. The promise of such a comprehensive agreement “is particularly attractive to African economies, which are perhaps amongst the most threatened by the prospect of increased protectionism arising from the crisis. Specifically, the new national protectionist measures, mainly in the form benign appearance, the political crisis linked to the encouragement of the government and relief campaigns, the exchange rate devaluations, antidumping and countervailing duties and ‘buy local policies that discriminate against foreign firms and workers can suppress the export sectors in Africa even more. It is therefore essential for African politicians to push for a global agreement that keeps opening up markets and prevent a flood of new crisis linked to protectionist measures.

Furthermore, following the emergence of the global financial crisis, it is clear that there is an urgent need to reform the multilateral financial architecture, particularly in terms of ensuring greater representation of African countries in international financial institutions. Despite the financial crisis that originated in Africa, the continent has been excessively exposed to its effects. This has led to strident calls for a more inclusive multilateral governance that provides a greater voice “to African countries in international financial institutions. Countries is important for developing countries, and Africa in particular, to play a role most important of these institutions and the economic crisis management.

Domestic fiscal and monetary policy responses should also be explored by African countries with the capacity to implement them. For example, in African countries with relatively large foreign exchange reserves may be possible to use these reserves to cushion the worst effects of crisis and decline to fund any capital flows. Alternatively, African countries that operate under systems of fixed exchange rate may have some leeway to adopt more flexible exchange rate regimes in order to “allow the nominal exchange rate to absorb some of the impact of external shock and reduce the actual effects in the national economy. “In terms of fiscal stimulus options, the expansionary fiscal policies such as reducing taxes or increasing government spending may help boost demand and employment in African economies. The usual argument against the expansionary fiscal policy – that it crowds out private sector investment – is unlikely to apply, given the climate of reduced appetite for credit and a drastically reduced risk among investors.

Finally, while Africa is certainly feeling the effects of the global economic slowdown, the impact of what is likely to deteriorate further, the credit crunch in the world’s most advanced economies may actually create opportunities in terms movement of capital into emerging economies. For example, sovereign wealth funds before investing in the financial systems of the United States and Europe are now increasingly looking to the developing world to possible locations for investment. However, for this to happen in Africa, the continent’s countries have to implement measures to improve its ratings on investment risk.

Africa is facing a large and growing economic gap

The fact that many African countries are relatively detached from the global financial system has softened the continent from some of the consequences of the global financial crisis. However, the initial view proposed by many commentators that Africa would be “spared” from the effects of the financial crisis that originated in several advanced economies in the world has proven to be unfounded. Prices and demand for African exports of commodities have dropped significantly amid a sharp decline in world industrial output. Moreover, the climate of declining credit arising from the crisis is likely to lead to a substantial decrease in international financial flows to African countries in the form of private investment and capital flows, trade credit, financing donors and remittances from Africans in the diaspora. These factors have led to predictions of sharp fall in growth in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is evident that African countries and their leaders should try to take initiative and economic policy measures and reforms to mitigate the effects of the crisis on African economies. These should include interventions to strengthen the African markets and institutions, expand “South-South trade and economic cooperation, including increase or intra-regional trade to reduce dependence on overseas markets, and implement expansionary monetary and fiscal policies to boost demand and employment. In addition, globally, African leaders must push for reform of global financial architecture to include greater representation of African interests in the forum of the international financial institutions. Furthermore, it is extremely important that the continent supports efforts to conclude a global trade deal that maintains the openness of markets and the safeguards against the proliferation of new crises linked to protectionist measures.

Related Posts: The impact of the financial crisis on African development (Part 1)

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[1] South-South  trade  could  soften  impact  of financial crisis for vulnerable economies. UNCTAD.  2009.

[2] Impact of the crisis on African Economies. Sustaining growth and poverty reduction, African Perspectives and Recommendations to the G20, by The Committee of African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. 21 March 2009

[3] World Bank to Help Mitigate Impact of Global Financial Crisis on Africa’s Development.  19 November 2008

[4] International Monetary Fund. 2009. What the Global Financial Crisis Means for Sub-Saharan Africa. Speech by Takatoshi Kato, Deputy Managing Director, IMF, 12th AU Summt, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 3 February 2009.

ICTY tryes to silence a troublesome whistleblower: Florence Hartmann guilty of contempt

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Hartmann of contempt to the court Monday for disclosing confidential information in a genocide case. She was sentenced to pay a fine of 7,000 Euros.

Florence Hartmann prosecuted to have disclosed the existence of confidential decisions made by the Court of Appeals in the Milosevic case.

Florence Hartmann accused the court of ‘trying to silence the truth’.

Florence Hartmann was found guilty of breaching the court’s rules when she disclosed the contents of two appeals chamber decisions from the Slobodan Milošević case in a 2007 book as well as an article she wrote in 2008.  She has been fined 7,000 euros.

Hartmann was spokesperson for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia’s (ICTY) Prosecutor Carla del Ponte between 2000 and 2006.

The court dismissed her argument that the information she realeased had already been put in the public domain by the tribunal.

The court said the fact that Hartmann spent six years in the capacity of the spokesperson of the Prosecutor meant that she was well aware of what the confidentiality of a decision entailed.

The Chamber further argued that Hartmann’s conduct could deter sovereign states from cooperating with the Tribunal in providing evidence in the future.

“This…impacts upon the Tribunal’s ability to exercise its jurisdiction to prosecute and punish serious violations of humanitarian law as prescribed by its mandate,” Judge Bakone Justice Moloto, presiding, said.

“Public confidence in the effectiveness of protective measures, orders and decisions is vital to the success of the work of the Tribunal.”

The French journalist was the first former employee to stand trial for contempt before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

Her case was filed under the same number as that of Slobodan Milosevic. But Hartmann refused to sit on the same chair as the tribunals regular suspects since her case was not about war crimes.

Hartmann had publicly accused the UN war crimes tribunal of “trying to silence the truth”.

The tribunal argued that she “knew that the information was confidential at the time disclosure was made, that the decisions from which the information was drawn were ordered to be filed confidentially, and that by her disclosure she was revealing confidential information to the public.”

Hartmann covered the 1990s Balkan wars as a correspondent for the French newspaper Le Monde. She thereafter became spokeswoman for the former chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte from 2000 to 2006. She then published a book, “Peace and Punishment: The Secret Wars of Politics and International Justice”.

In 2008, Hartmann wrote an article entitled “Vital Genocide Documents Concealed” that was published by the Bosnian Institute.

In her publications Hartmann wrote that the Hague prosecution was allegedly unhappy with the tribunal’s decision to accept Serbia’s request to have some portions of the state archive documents considered in closed sessions. The judges in the Milosevic case allowed Serbia to censor parts of evidence that was made public. She believes that it was precisely those pieces of evidence that were key in determining Serbia’s responsibility for the genocide in Bosnia.

Hartmann argued that it was thanks to the Tribunal’s collusion with Serbia in the suppression of this crucial piece of evidence, that Bosnia was not able to draw upon the latter in its case against Serbia for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), leading to Serbia’s acquittal.

Far from punishing the perpetrators of genocide in the former Yugoslavia, the Tribunal has helped to shield them, Hartmann said. She accused judges of the Appeals Chamber, headed by former Tribunal President Fausto Pocar, of being “accomplices in manipulation organized by the authorities in Belgrade, so that the International Court of Justice, which heard the Bosnian genocide lawsuit, would be made to make the same mistakes the Hague Tribunal made”.

Her book has received broad coverage, and it kicked off a storm in the Balkans even before translations became available in early November 2007, with local politicians using it to attack the ICTY’s legitimacy. A month after the publication, she received a letter from the tribunal reminding her of her administrative and legal obligations to respect its confidentiality rules.

Related Posts: Tables Turned: Former ICTY Spokeswoman now before The Hague Court

Questions about an execution

Echoes of an umpteenth time tragedy

Henri Cartier Bresson · Cell in Model Prison in the USA, 1975

With 135 death convicted since 1973, it was clear that the evidence would come a day in the United States, that a man has been sentenced to death by mistake and then executed.

That day seems to have happened, if you attend to the opponents of death punishment. Innocence Project co-Director Barry Scheck says:

”There can no longer be any doubt that an innocent person has been executed. The question now turns to how we can stop it from happening again”.

Innocence Project is an NGO dedicated to helping prisoners to use DNA genetic testing.

“As long as our system of justice makes mistakes – including the ultimate mistake – we cannot continue executing people,” Scheck said.

On 23 December 1991, a 2-year-old daughter and 1-year-old twins died by fire at family home in Corsicana, Texas. Cameron Todd Willingham, 23 years, the children’s father, who was the only adult present, has been accused of murder. He was found guilty and then sentenced to death in 1992. After twelve years in death corridor and five appeals, Camron Todd was executed by lethal injection in 2004, although he always protested his innocence.

Five years later, an investigation committee on the death penalty operation in Texas established in its preliminary conclusions that the fire could have been a purely accidental origin – that’s what Innocence Project has argued all the time.

According to the weekly The New Yorker, who spent a long investigation on Cameron Todd Willingham’s case, the Commission should deliver its final report in early 2010. It reports a botched investigation, particularly in terms of scientific expertise to determine the origin of fire. For ten years, several states have imposed a moratorium or initiate discussion, after being confronted with legal errors, but none has yet admitted having executed an innocent man.

An ‘affligeant’ indictment

In a 30 August editorial column, The New York Times considered the Cameron Todd Willingham’s case “shocking”, even for those who have

“no illusions about the brutal injustice of the death penalty after all of the exonerations in recent years from DNA evidence. […] It is outrageous that Texas is conducting its careful, highly skilled investigation after Mr. Willingham has been executed, rather than before”,

…reproves the NYT, emphasizing on the fact that the defendant’s trial ran just two days.

Texas remains the state that executes more: 18 of the 37 executions in 2009. But across the country, capital punishment is declining; it has reached its lowest level for thirty years because of so called “crisis of confidence” in the judiciary –in the opponents’ words. Nearly 3 300 inmates are in death corridor now, whereof 53 are women.

International lawyers support the Garzon’s cause against Franco’s regime

The Spanish Supreme Court summons the judge in a lawsuit for ‘deliberate neglect of duty’.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), based in Geneva and made up of 59 presidents and former presidents of supreme courts, judges and lawyers from countries represented at the United Nations, expressed on Tuesday 8 Sept. its concern about the investigation handled against Judge Baltasar Garzón in the Spanish Supreme Court. The ICJ qualified the inquiry as “unjustified interference” in Garzón’s professional competences.

Judge Baltasar Garzón

The ICJ statement of support to Garzón occurs before its imminent issue to subpoena to the Supreme Court on the way to declare as defendant in a lawsuit from the far conservative association called “Manos Limpias” (Clean Hands) for his investigation on crimes against humanity committed during the Spanish Civil War. Manos Limpias filed a criminal complaint against Garzón for knowingly overreaching his jurisdiction (prevarication).

Garzón is under investigation before the Criminal Chamber of the High Court for an alleged crime of judicial misconduct in public office (=deliberate neglect of duty) –to be precise, to take decisions knowing full well that they are unjust. The lawsuit, filed by the obscure far-right union Manos Limpias , which later joined by extreme rightist Libertad e Identidad (Freedom and Identity), was declared admissible on 26 May by the President of the Criminal Division, Juan Saavedra, and four other judges.

The subpoena to testify by Baltasar Garzón – the most prominent Spanish judge abroad – in a criminal case pending against him by the Supreme Court was pending before the summer. The instructor of the high court, Luciano Varela, called Garzón yesterday to appear in court. Judge Baltasar Garzón defended for nearly two and half hour his jurisdiction to investigate the graves of Franco’s regime before the Supreme Court instructor Luciano Varela.  According to sources in the indictment, Garzón firmly denied having committed any trespass and refused to answer the battery of 150 questions introduced by the private prosecutor Jaime Alonso. Judge Garzón responded no more than issues raised by the instructor Luis Navajas and his own defense. None of the prosecutors asked for precautionary measures against the judge.

Meanwhile, the case opened to Garzón has caused concern in international legal forums…

“International Standards on the Independence of the Judiciary prohibit criminal responsibility of judges for controversial decisions and even unjust or incorrect in any case, should be addressed through disciplinary mechanisms established to that effect,”

…said Roicin Pillay, Senior Counsel for Europe of the International Commission of Jurists.

According to the commissioner of the ICJ, criminal investigations against judges “for acts framed within their professional duties are unjustifiable and inappropriate interference in the independence of judicial proceedings and are contrary to Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the principles 4, 17 and 18 of the United Nations Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary “.

The ICJ considers that this attempt to interfere in the judicial process is of “particular concern” since it involves an investigation into crimes against humanity, that “Spain has the international duty to investigate and prosecute.” According to a statement by the ICJ, these crimes have no prescription.

“The investigation of Judge Garzon for crimes against humanity does not correspond to professional negligence that would justify a disciplinary action, much less a criminal prosecution,” said Roicin Pillay.

The ICJ has reported this case to the UN Rapporteur on the independence of judges and magistrates “and hoped that the proceedings against Judge Garzon be dismissed as soon as possible.”

What is the ICJ commission

• The International Commission of Jurists was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Geneva (Switzerland). It consists of 59 commissioners from the majority of countries represented at the UN. It is composed of lawyers, attorneys and members of courts of justice, among others, presidents or former presidents of the Supreme Courts of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa.

• The current President is Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

This new regrettable sequel blurs Spanish justice once again. Because the Judge Garzón’s supposed “abuse of power” that sustains this lawsuit, concerns the investigation for the crimes against humanity committed by the regime of General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Judge Baltasar Garzón had no statutory power to investigate this matter, the indictment said, and therefore committed a criminal offense. As said Emilio Silva, president of an association of civil war victims and their families, this is “justice upside down”: what should be punished is the performance of conservative judges who DO NOT want to investigate crimes under Franco. And that occurs in a country whose courts do have authority to open proceedings against Pinochet’s abuses or other crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.

Judge for yourself.

The impact of the financial crisis on African development (1)

Because of the existing overall crisis, the projected growth for 2009 should move down to the lowest rate of decrease in 60 years. In 2008, the drop in demand resulting from the financial crisis together with synchronized crashes in manufacturing and industrial production, credit problems in traffic finance and consumer reliance caused a fall by 4 % in the growth of global trade.

Initially, many analysts believed that the world’s emerging economies, mainly those in Africa, would rather be protected from the effects of the crisis that came from the advanced industrialized countries. However, in the developing world the impact of financial instability and uncertainty in industrialized countries are beginning to take hold. Access to emerging markets for trade and investment is unlikely to diminish. In fact, UNCTAD estimates that exports of developing countries could decline by 9.2 % in 2009 [1]. The fall in commodity prices that went along with the downturn is particularly troublesome to African economies, many of which are greatly dependent on fresh commodities and raw material exports as the main source of export income. Moreover, the market for trade finance has seriously declined over the past six months; the crisis has aggravated the lack of liquidity to finance trade credit. Emerging economies are also expected to experience ongoing financial contamination, particularly in the form of capital flight and capital flows.

Even though these potentially weakening effects, the G20 predictions suggest that over 80 % of potential world economic growth depends on emerging market countries. In the same way, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that developing countries will increase by 3.3 % in 2009, it is expected that advanced economies will decline by 2 % roughly [2].

GDP Growth by Country Group

In this context, measuring the impact of the crisis on African economies and the accessibility and adequacy of measures to alleviate the effects of crises on the continent, are decisively imperative considerations for prospect growth scenario in Africa.

The Impact

The impact of the global financial crisis is expected to differ among African countries in line with their exposure to international financial system, its production and export structure and its aptitude to employ policy instruments to lessen the adverse effects. Overall, the short term in many African countries can be mitigated by the fact that most countries on the continent are relatively detached from the global financial system. Moreover, emerging banking systems in many African countries are generally characterized by simple structure, conservatism, the rules of prudent financial management, foreign exchange controls and a very limited exposure to subprime loans and the Credit default swaps, has protected the continent’s financial structures of all the effects of the crisis. In fact, Benedicte Christensen, deputy director of IMF’s Africa Department, went so far as to state in late 2008 that “there is no systemic risk that we see in any African country in terms of banking.” [4]

This does not mean that Africa is immune to the effects of the crisis. It is in the medium and long term effects of the crisis on African economies will be realized. The slowdown in global growth linked to the crisis could drive millions of Africans in the line of poverty. This possibility was highlighted in the report of the IMF, World Economic Outlook April 2008, which stated that a fall in world growth of just one % could result in a decrease of 0.5 percentage points of gross domestic product of Africa. Already, the IMF predicts that growth in sub-Saharan Africa will be reduced from about 5.25 % in 2008 to about 3.25 % in 2009. [4]

The slowdown in global growth, together with a sharp drop in world industrial production, has reduced the demand for African exports, reflected especially in the downward spiral of prices and demand for commodity exports. This is alarming given the fact that exports of commodities represent the main source of export earnings of most African countries. Moreover, the fall in export earnings is likely to have negative repercussions in terms of reduced government revenues, thus. Worsening already precarious budgetary situation in many African countries.

Prices of commodities for sub-Saharan Africa

The global credit crunch following the crisis has also caused a huge reduction in the flow of private investment and bank financing, thereby reducing capital inflows and a restriction on the availability of trade finance. This is likely to be reflected in a substantial decrease in international financial flows to African countries, most prominently in the form of reduced foreign direct investment, portfolio flows and remittances from the Diaspora living in the developed world. Regarding the latter, a long-term reduction of remittances from Africans living abroad is likely to be particularly difficult to feel, as these funding streams currently contribute an estimated $ 10 billion annually across the continent .

The effects of reduced foreign investment in Africa to countries that are funding large current account deficits could be especially devastating. For example, South Africa depends to a large extent, at least in the short term, on private capital flows to finance its large current account deficit – equivalent to about 8 % of the country’s total GDP. The projected reduction in capital flows means that South Africa will be responsible for their substantial current account deficit. Other African countries operated relatively large current account deficits, such as Uganda and Tanzania are likely to be similarly affected. These problems may be compounded by the prospect of expanding the deficit caused by the crisis itself. In fact, the IMF has forecast the current account deficit of the entire sub-Saharan African region will expand by more than 4 % of GDP to reach 6.75 % of GDP in 2009.

Saharan Africa: the current versus pre-crisis growth forecasts, 2009

The projected decline in private capital flows can also have a long-term impact on investment in infrastructure projects in African states, many of whom may face funding shortfalls. Since many African capital markets are small, even the relatively limited withdrawal of foreign investment can have a significant potential impact.

Furthermore, African countries may face increased pressure for debt repayment as international institutions and Western banks, not only to strengthen their lending policies, but try to shore up its reserves. Along with this there is the possibility that the global financial crisis will result in a slowdown of foreign aid and development funding to African countries due to the global credit crunch.

Spanish version over here.

Related Posts: The impact of the global financial crisis on African development (Part 2)

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[1] South-South  trade  could  soften  impact  of financial crisis for vulnerable economies. UNCTAD.  2009.

[2] Impact of the crisis on African Economies. Sustaining growth and poverty reduction, African Perspectives and Recommendations to the G20, by The Committee of African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. 21 March 2009

[3] World Bank to Help Mitigate Impact of Global Financial Crisis on Africa’s Development.  19 November 2008

[4] International Monetary Fund. 2009. What the Global Financial Crisis Means for Sub-Saharan Africa. Speech by Takatoshi Kato, Deputy Managing Director, IMF, 12th AU Summt, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 3 February 2009.

In France, debt and loans, as usual

In late June 2009, before the French Parliament convened in Congress at Versailles, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the launch of a government bond issue aimed at individuals and not just at banks. It was “intended for finance investment for future”.

President Sarkozy's take office in May 2007

Here are my personal views on borrowing through French records.

Revenue, resources and bond issues

Initially, it sounds appropriate to consider the key differences between “revenue” and “resources” for a private company or a State, as well:

• The “revenue” is the annual turnover achieved by a company or the overall taxes collected by a state, from which “expenses” or “charges” are deduced to calculate the yearly profits or the balance due, if that event.

• The “resources” are made up of new loans and profits (if positive); they ensure financing the company or State needs, i.e. the refund of loan encountered, investments… and the potential deficit.

This recall of vocabulary may well figure out some evidence often mishandled by a regularly empty and specious political rhetoric:

1. A sound financial management should start from the deficit. Deficit comes from too low revenue or too high expenses, in order to deduct the amount of resources to find with the view to finance this deficit and to meet other needs. Doing otherwise, ie fixing the deficit depending on resources that could be gathered, is a rash fool policy!
2. If the financial markets have enough capacity to lend resources to the company or the State, there is no need to have a bond debt directly from individuals –which is always done in costlier conditions: individuals expect an interest rate higher than which is offered by banks (or they look ahead for a tax benefit). Alternatively, placing the bond debt with hundreds of thousands of people is inevitably more expensive than with a few dozen banks.

It may be decided –for purely reasons of corporate communication or political view– to borrow a modest annual funding requirement from individuals, although it is far more expensive. For instance, Electricité de France-EDF –a public energy supply company– borrowed €2 billion from the French individuals on a yearly overall bond debt of € 10bn roughly. And the State, through the voice of the president himself, plans to borrow round about € 10bn from individuals on an annual basis program loan of € 150bn…140 of which are made by markets, which could easily go up to 150.

Time is gone since the financial markets did not have enough capacity to accommodate the needs of some important EDF or public bonds in the 1980s: the Lepercq’s loans during the post-war years, the Pinay’s in 1958 or Giscard’s in 1965 then in 1973 could still appear justified. On the contrary, the Balladur bond debt in 1993 was no longer acceptable and that of Sarkozy in 2009 will not either: their sole function is political, in spite of the extra financial cost.

Claiming that such borrowing “brings new revenue to invest” [1] is a nonsense: we merely substitute an expensive outline of financing by another costlier. If by this we mean that the state will increase its capital spending proportionately to the amount of resources provided by this particular loan, we have to admit that the State has decided to increase the budget deficit as much –which points to an inveterate laxity again.

Finally, the insistence that the resources of this bond debt will only finance “productive” expenses is simply childish: the remaining loans will finance more widely the unproductive expenses –as it is true how money is “fungible.” Both in private companies as in the state budget, the pre-allocation of resources is a figment of mind.

Rigor, laissez-faire and Euro

After recovering from the late 1990s, which enabled France to qualify for the Euro, the period 2002-2008 has witnessed a creeping deterioration of the fiscal deficit and external accounts, which in total is equivalent to that of early years of François Mitterrand in 1981-1982. Although any turnaround plan equivalent to that of 1983 has come back on course, while public debt has doubled since then and despite the defiant words required in this regard on the campaign trail …

The truth of the matter is that, first, the external obligations linked to the risk of French franc crisis disappeared with the creation of the Euro. Conversely, the French government refused the forced substitution of “Maastricht criteria” (the deficit accounts should not exceed 3% of GDP) as evidenced by the constant postponement of the date of return to balance (in 2010, then 2012, then 2015…) –more often than not since the election of President Sarkozy in 2007…

In 1983, by denouncing the policy of restraint, the Communists and some Socialists in the movement of Jean-Pierre Chevènement, elaborated a scholarly quibbling about the difference between the “chosen” (or “virtuous”) deficit, which “prepares the future” by the investment, and “suffered” deficit that would increase the debt [1].

The same retractions are now ran again in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s preach and his finance minister Christine Lagarde, in an attempt to evade European strain of returning to financial balance by making a scholarly distinction between structural, crisis and activity support deficits.

These quibbles were no more selected in 1983 by the fiscal authorities (President François Mitterrand and his Finance Minister Jacques Delors) than they are today by European leaders, responsible for the accuracy of fiscal policies of each State acceding to the Euro. At the most, the neo-lax of 2009 will try to delay a little the maturity date of austerity policy –such as lax did in 1982 when they delayed it a year. Even though it is pleasant, in the meantime, to spot their discourse converging with those of former radicals as Marchais, Chevènement and so…

The financial reality will retrieve its rights within a year or two –let nature reclaim! Then the economic recovery will allow European authorities to require a reorganization of the French management of public finances. As a result, France would then be punished by an increase of 3 percentage points of VAT orthrough the social tax called CSG. As Germany did in 2005, when its situation deteriorated as that of France, a situation that led Chancellor Schroeder to take corrective measures (that French President Chirac had refused to endorse). Predictable in the short term, this increase would also bridge the gap of current € 30 billion in Social Security; whose mere existence, next to deficit of state budget, should be an intolerable scandal for those who have campaign saying that the debt was unsustainable, and its transfer to future generations unjustifiable.

The future government bond is a substitution “resource”, an undeniably ordinary one. As it does not represent a new “revenue”, which can only come from taxes that will inevitably join to cost savings in order to balance the public budget in the mid term.

French version over here.

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[1] Nicolas Sarkozy veut rassembler autour de l’emprunt, Le Monde, 23 June 2009

Fighting bank recidivism

From Martin Wolf’s analysis in Financial Times.

It would take little for banks to have hands free again. What emerges from the crisis is a system even worse than the one who had caused it. The bank rescue lets the banks free hand to remake the same mistakes. It is urgent to raise prudential ratios.

Henri Cartier-Bresson · Shanghai (Run on Bank)

The panic of autumn 2008 now tends to fade. However, the period during which it is possible to draw lessons and make changes is nearing completion. Without radical changes, another crisis is inevitable. It could even happen much sooner than we think.

Never again? This is probably asking too much. But avoid “it” happening again quickly is crucial. Financially, politically and morally, governments cannot afford repeating this crisis in the short term: the lives of so many people can again be sacrificed to the whims of a few irresponsible.

So far, what emerges from the present crisis is a financial system even worse than that which had provoked. The survivors form an oligopoly of financial monsters too big and too interconnected to fail. And they won. Not because they are necessarily the most healthy institutions, but because they are the ones who received the largest support. One can easily imagine how they will behave when you consider all the devices that encourage risk taking.

What should we do? The most common response recommends tinkering some regulatory safeguards. You’d better worry about aligning the deck chairs on the Titanic: perfectly futile.

The proposals recently put forward by the US Treasury would fall partly into this category. Now the financial system must be protected from its own clumsiness at managing risk. In addition, it will not change it by external control, but only by redefining the system of incentives and bonuses.

The starting point must be the famous “too big to sink”. We need a credible system capable of dismantling huge financial institutions if necessary. The proposals are more attractive to look at the “good banks” in which creditors, in want of warranty, become shareholders. It would be easier if, as proposed by President Barack Obama and as demonstrated Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, a regulated institution was obliged to submit a plan for orderly stop its activities.

However, bank failures are like buses: you do not see one for hours and suddenly there came a half-dozen at once. The authorities cannot credibly promise that they would be willing, at a systemic crisis, to accept the failure of all affected establishments. This would lead to a particularly serious panic. The “too big and too interconnected to sink” is indeed a reality. And it is because, as recently remarked Andrew Haldane, from Bank of England – his speech “Rethinking the Financial Network” is available on Bankofengland.co.uk – the financial system is a network increasingly tight.

If institutions are too big and too interconnected to sink, and no satisfactory structural solution can be found, then we must identify alternatives.

The most obvious would be to raise considerably the amount of capital required and to pay greater attention to liquidity. Today, major financial institutions operate virtually with no capital: in the United States, the average debt ratio of commercial banks was 35 to 1 in 2007; in Europe, it was 45 to 1. This allows shareholders to play all out with results that we previously witnessed.

Let financial institutions being managed by the interests of shareholders who provide only 3% of funds intended to be loaned, is pure folly. To align the interests of managers with those of shareholders is even more insane. Given their current capital structure, major financial institutions have a real incentive to play with taxpayers’ money.

How much equity would be reasonable for systemically significant institutions? The answer is: “Much more than today.”

Moreover, the risk that capital needed could be exposed should not be evaluated based on banks models, which are unreliable. Shareholders’ funds should be at least 10% of assets. In the U.S., there was a time when it was much more.

More important capital equities might be a good way to internalize negative externalities – and more precisely the risks – generated by an institution in respect of the rest of the system. Ideally, therefore, the capital requirement might be correlated to the weight of systemic schools, as recommended in the latest annual report of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Moreover, these requirements should be calculated based on all the activities derived from fully consolidated accounts.

As part of a financial system much better capitalized, it is also relatively easy to implement a system of macro-prudence, while the required capitals increase during booms and decrease during decline periods.

Again, the higher the proportion of shareholders would be important the less would be worrying to see the bonuses of managers aligned with theirs. Even then, as it is the taxpayers who bear the residual risk, regulators should exercise control over the premiums paid to managers.

Two problems remain. First, transition. Secondly, level of regulation.

Regarding the first point, requiring now more significant capital ratios would jeopardize the recovery of the economy. It is better to imagine a long transition period, stretching perhaps over a decade.

For the second point, it is obvious that we cannot let the so-called “shadow banking system” operating outside any capital constraint if some entities are systemically significant –as we got evidence with funds acting on the money markets.

In addition, capital equity requirements might be imposed in all significant countries. The United States is powerful enough to urge a movement in this direction –by requiring any foreign bank operating in their territory to be properly capitalized.

The conservative method of small steps, not radicalism, is today the most risky option. What must first apply this radicalism? The answer is obvious: the system of premiums and bonuses, of course.

The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ in the spotlight

During a session of the UN General Assembly, held last July, Noam Chomsky presented an interesting paper [1] (which inspired this post) that calls for consideration on humanitarian intervention, so called since the second half of 20th century and now considered under the general concept of “Responsibility to Protect“, which was the focus of that meeting.

This meeting was attended by nearly a hundred countries. Their armed force units have a presence in countries as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Chad and Lebanon and keep observers in UN missions. None of them deploy overseas for wartime missions but essentially to “protect” life and interests of other peoples.

For the eminent linguist, historical precedents for such missions generate a few distrust. He mentions some of the basic principles on international relations, assumed over the centuries, which could be summarized as follows:

• The strong do what they want and the weak suffer what they deserve (principle already formulated by Thucydides).

• Legislators pay more attention to the interests of the powerful than to the common people (suggested by Adam Smith).

• Many military interventions have been made under the principle of protecting the people, but have been characterized by their cruelty. Chomsky brings up three examples: the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936 and the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938. In all three cases, a bleeding rhetoric on the protection of the own people was invoked, that barely concealed the true motivation, that is a firm imperialist expansion.

Anyone acquainted with the history of colonization realizes that “evangelizing mission” of the Spanish conquerors in the American lands was intended to save the souls of the Indians although that involved the exploitation and exhaustion of people, the occupation of their homeland and embezzling their resources. Not worse than the French, British or Belgian “civilizing mission” with more often than not unmentionable objectives as well i.e. in Africa and India.

Another issue to bear in mind regarding the protection of peoples, is the reason that NATO wielded to fix on that Balkans should be protected, even bombing Serbia in 1999 with a total lack of consideration (remember, incidentally, that the bombing did not alleviate the plight of the Kosovar people but aggravated it) and, on the contrary, it was appropriate to ignore other people, Kurdish, that was suffering –within its own territory under the responsibility of NATO– a brutal persecution by Turkish forces, one of the main partners of the Alliance .

NATO “protective” interventions do not only care about the suffering peoples. Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General announced in 2007 that Allied troops should protect the pipelines transporting oil and gas to western countries and other infrastructure elements of the energy system. For Chomsky, this “opens the door to employ the right of protection as a tool of imperial intervention, as suitable.”

Neither the UN is safe from Chomsky’s criticism: “No one thinks today to protect the Gaza people, which are also a United Nations responsibility (according to the Geneva Conventions), together with other people who lack basic human rights. Nothing serious is considered about the worst catastrophe in Africa, if not the world: the eastern Congo, where several multinationals have been accused of violating UN resolutions on the illegal trafficking of valuable minerals, by which a criminal conflict is funded.

The responsibility to protect does not seem to reach hungry people. They now number about one billion human beings, while the World Food Fund announces a reduction in aid, because rich countries give priority to save their banking systems and there are no funds enough as a result of the crisis, just originated by those same banks. All this shows the validity of the principle formulated by Thucydides.

Let’s not get carried away by the lucid pessimism of the relentless American critic. Keep in mind that this issue has been addressed in an international forum, the UN General Assembly, whose echoes can be extended worldwide. Conversely, a century ago, the Algeciras conference was held to share out Morocco between France and Spain –with the approval of the great European powers. 20 years earlier, these powers gathered in Berlin to share other vast African territories. There was no intention to protect the affected people, though the Moroccan division was entitled as “protectorate”. So it seems we’re making some progress on this issue.

The Responsibility to Protect, Noam Chomsky and Friends part 1

The Responsibility to Protect, Noam Chomsky and Friends part 2

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[1] ‘Responsibility to Protect‘, by Noam Chomsky (talk delivered at UN General Assembly), 23 Jul 2009

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Noam Chomsky on the Responsibility to Protect

At a session of UN General Assembly, held last July, Noam Chomsky presented an interesting paper that calls for consideration on humanitarian intervention, so called since the second half of 20th century and now considered under the general concept of “Responsibility to Protect”, which was the focus of that meeting.

This meeting was attended by nearly a hundred countries. Their armed forces units have a presence in countries as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Chad and Lebanon and maintain observers in UN missions. None of them deploy overseas for wartime missions but essentially to “protect” life and interests of other peoples.

For the eminent linguist, historical precedents for such missions generate a few distrust. He mentions some of the basic principles on international relations, assumed over the centuries, which could be summarized as follows:

• The strong do what they want and the weak suffer what they deserve (principle already formulated by Thucydides).

• Legislators pay more attention to the interests of the powerful than to the common people (suggested by Adam Smith).

• Many military interventions have been made under the principle of protecting the people, but have been characterized by their cruelty. Chomsky brings up three examples: the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936 and the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938. In all three cases, a bleeding rhetoric on the protection of the own people was invoked, that barely concealed the true motivation, that is a firm imperialist expansion.

Anyone acquainted with the history of colonization realizes that “evangelizing mission” of the Spanish conquerors in the American lands was intended to save the souls of the Indians although that involved the exploitation and exhaustion of people, the occupation of their homeland and embezzling their resources. Not worse than the French, British or Belgian “civilizing mission” with more often than not unmentionable objectives as well i.e. in Africa and India.

Another issue to bear in mind regarding the protection of peoples, is the reason that NATO wielded to fix on that Balkans should be protected, even bombing Serbia in 1999 with a total lack of consideration (remember, incidentally, that the bombing did not alleviate the plight of the Kosovar people but aggravated it) and, on the contrary, it was appropriate to ignore other people, Kurdish, that was suffering –within its own territory under the responsibility of NATO– a brutal persecution by Turkish forces, one of the main partners of the Alliance .

NATO “protective” interventions do not only care about the suffering peoples. Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General announced in 2007 that Allied troops should protect the pipelines transporting oil and gas to western countries and other infrastructure elements of the energy system. For Chomsky, this “opens the door to employ the right of protection as a tool of imperial intervention, as suitable.”

Neither the UN is safe from Chomsky’s criticism: “No one thinks today to protect the Gaza people, which are also a United Nations responsibility (according to the Geneva Conventions), together with other people who lack basic human rights. Nothing serious is considered about the worst catastrophe in Africa, if not the world: the eastern Congo, where several multinationals have been accused of violating UN resolutions on the illegal trafficking of valuable minerals, by which a criminal conflict is funded.

The responsibility to protect does not seem to reach hungry people. They now number about one billion human beings, while the World Food Fund announces a reduction in aid, because rich countries give priority to save their banking systems and there are no funds enough as a result of the crisis, just originated by those same banks. All this shows the validity of the principle formulated by Thucydides.

Let’s not get carried away by the lucid pessimism of the relentless American critic. Keep in mind that this issue has been addressed in an international forum, the UN General Assembly, whose echoes can be extended worldwide. Conversely, a century ago, the Algeciras conference was held to share out Morocco between France and Spain –with the approval of the great European powers. 20 years earlier, these powers gathered in Berlin to share other vast African territories. There was no intention to protect the affected people, though the Moroccan division was entitled as “protectorate”. So it seems we’re making some progress on this issue.

Will the European Union come through crisis ?

Spain has passed from rating ‘AAA’ ‘to rating ‘AA’, after Standard & Poor’s, the 1st international rating agency (IRA), lowered its assessment of long-term debt; so she did with Greece, Ireland and Portugal. This is the first time that the S&P financial rating drops for Spain in 30 years.

What is under consideration?

From the French side, on the one hand, what is at issue is the structural weakness of these economies. Beyond a snide comparison with the food and the stars of the Michelin guide, this decision might have serious consequences for the countries concerned and for the future of the European Union. Because the differences between European states today are so important that each country acts without consulting others, and in addition, the principle of subsidiarity seems more often invoked than solidarity.
However, the shock wave of the financial crisis has reached the credit of the States themselves. To put it clearly, some countries cannot afford to borrow financing their reflation plan.
During the first half of 2009, in addition to the degradation in rating of several countries by the IRA, Ireland has appealed the intervention of the IMF, the Eastern countries have called for help to historical Member States, and the pound sterling fell on the foreign exchange market.

Alternatively, many well-informed specialists consider that the announced downturn due to the financial crisis is greatly exaggerated [1]. Most of banking operators have dealt with serenity and the European Commission forced restructuring of banks that received state aid to encourage further integration of the sector within the EU single market.

A Special Report on the Euro Area [2] published in The Economist pointed how the Euro has brought however, an irrelevant achievement.

“The ECB has fulfilled its remit to maintain the purchasing power of the Euro. Since the currency’s creation, the average inflation rate in the Euro area has been just over 2%. Fears that the Euro would be a “soft” currency have proved unfounded. It is unquestioningly accepted at home and widely used beyond the Euro area’s borders.”

Even if the Euro has not made possible significant gains in productivity or GDP, it has unquestionably engendered greater stability.

What can the Europe Union do to face this?

Despite the bad omens of some analysts, the current crisis shows how the Euro area is not at a critical stage of its existence yet.

Then again and despite of a single currency, there is no economic policy, no budget, no solidarity. Spanish government on top and, to a lesser extent French as well, believe that, to be able to attest its usefulness, the EU might directly help the most vulnerable States by financing reflation plans mutually beneficial.

Oddly, countries that are now complaining of the burden of the Euro are those that once mainly benefited from their membership to it. Thus:

“[The Spanish economy] grew at an average annual rate of 3.9% between 1999 and 2007, almost twice the Euro-zone average and much faster than in any of the currency area’s other big countries…Unemployment fell from close to 20% in the mid-1990s to just 7.9% in 2007.”

Too much at once, as the prosperity met with prices and unit wage costs getting higher, both of which are now particularly painful in the context of recession. Aided by a strong currency, its current account deficit has risen to 10% of GDP. Same for Greece, Italy, Ireland and Portugal. As the report [2] explains

“The main hazard for investors in high-inflation countries—that a steady loss of domestic purchasing power will drag the currency down—is eliminated in a fixed-exchange-rate zone.”

The consolidation of the Euro area needs to move up a gear in terms of political ambition and economic governance. Economic governance, the word is dropped, and it is on everyone’s lips.
Does the 10th anniversary of the European single currency will be marked by the bursting of the Euro area, as some economists fear?
What is involved in crisis management by Europe: politics or money? The lack of economic government, or the absence of a common currency?
In other words, will the EU survive to the crisis?

As indicated earlier, prestigious analysts point that the  consequences of the so-called recession are important, but that its context has been exaggerated too. [1].

Alternatively, for The Economist, leaving the Euro zone is inconceivable:

“The costs of backing out of the Euro are hard to calculate but would certainly be heavy. The mere whiff of devaluation would cause a bank run: people would scramble to deposit their euros with foreign banks to avoid forced conversion to the new, weaker currency. Bondholders would shun the debt of the departing country, and funding of budget deficits and maturing debt would be suspended.” [2]

Therefore, borrowing costs would increase considerably, which could induce a wage-price spiral. Inflation and currency stability would be precarious at best. Thus,  it is not surprising that in most European member states, citizens surveyed remain strongly in favor of the euro. Additionally, those who are about to join, remain more convinced to do so:

“As emerging economies they are prone to sudden shifts in foreign-investor sentiment, which makes for volatile currencies, so exchange-rate stability holds considerable appeal for them.” [2]

Romania and most Baltic countries have already ask the EU and the IMF for help to avoid a loss of investor confidence. Poland is also vulnerable to exchange rate because many of its loans are denominated in foreign currency, and it should join the Euro in 2012.

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[1]  ‘EU cross-border banking will survive crisis’, Paul Taylor, The Guardian, July 27 2009.

[2]  ‘Holding together’ – A special report on the Euro area. The Economist, June 11 2009.

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Can Twitter Be Saved?

It’s in danger of collapsing under its own weight.
By Mark Gimein

Even by Internet standards of hyper-growth, there has never been a phenomenon like Twitter. Less than a year and a half ago, Twitter hit 1 million users. It now has 44 million, a rate of expansion so rapid that if it could continue growing at that speed it would in another year and a half be used by everyone on Earth. It is impressive not just for the sheer number of users but for the share of mind it has carved out, from the national elections to its starring role in Iran’s election protests. Twitter has become so ubiquitous so fast that it’s almost impossible to imagine it disappearing. But it can. The irony of Twitter is that even as it becomes more pervasive, it is in danger of very quickly becoming markedly less useful. Twitter is in danger of collapsing under its own weight. Not because of its problems keeping up with traffic–those are solvable–but because the volume of material that Twitter unleashes now puts impossible demands on its users’ time and attention. The problem, in a nutshell, is information overload. The more Twitter grows and the more feeds Twitterers follow, the harder it gets to mine it for what is truly useful and engaging. Even as Twitter reaches a peak in the cultural cred cycle, it’s time to start asking how it can be saved from itself.

(Source: TheBigMoney) Click here to read the full article

Does protectionism deserve a severe rebuke ?

In late January, workers at the Total Lindsey Oil Refinery, UK, protested against the recruitment of Italian and Portuguese workers. The strikers brandished banners urging to keep back “British jobs for British workers”. On February,  40 hired workers returned to Portugal.

Simultaneously, Argentina has imposed restrictions on importing televisions, Ecuador has increased tariffs on mobile phones, India has banned the admission to Chinese toys for six months, Europe has increased export subsidies for butter and cheese, Russia has increased tariffs on imported cars, the U.S. Congress voted in January the “Buy U.S.” clause when reviewing the president Obama’s plan (once after George Bush announced tripling the tax on Roquefort). And in France, president Sarkozy granted a government  loan to carmakers in exchange for commitments on maintaining home production and employment.

Confronted with the crisis, countries are increasingly working for reflation plans with preferential conditions for their domestic producers, so that at many forums (Davos in late January, G20 meeting in April, EU conference in June), the alarmist statements about an alleged threat of protectionism have amplified.

This reopens the debate on a taboo subject: protectionism. Is protectionism an overall mistake? Is it completely wrong? Does protectionism deserves a severe disapproval?

Wasn’t European protectionism the founding principle of the Common Market?  The goal: bringing countries closer together by geography and culture, but economically disparate. Customs duties on the borders of Europe defined a zone of free trade in the initial model of the CAP (import duties and export aid):  Free Trade and Protection in Europe towards countries outside Europe. Helping less developed countries to catch up is a reasonable and challenging project –without risking the collapse of entire industries because of unfair competition due to the rapid upgrading of the countries concerned.

In addition, if you consider the reasons that led Europe to face global competition (functional sclerosis, and obstacles to free enterprise, continual union arm wrestling…) we may come to a conclusion: the basic necessity in organizing the involvement inside the companies in order to share profits and risks in the form of forced savings (stocks buyout) –thoroughly related to salaries and proportionally linked to the costs of the consolidated turnover. No more, no less.

Negative externalities and taxes: a contribution to the debate on “junk food”

Alcohol and cigarette products are usually subject to high taxes. This occurs because the economic theory recognizes that the price of these products does not reflect the true social cost of consumption.

Thus, a Pigovian tax [1] is applied to neutralize the externalities [2] caused by these products in both consumers and society.

In this regard, developed countries have begun to consider the option of raising the tax burden of the food low in nutrients and high in saturated fats and carbohydrates, also called junk food as a way to lighten the deficit and in turn combat obesity [3]. If implemented successfully in the case of tobacco or alcohol, why not tax the junk food and improve the way consumers make decisions about their diet?

In return, during the first half of 2009, interesting reports have been published focused on discussing the aspects of the issue. Thus, Engelhard, Garson and Dorn (July 2009) [4] put the junk food as a major cause of obesity, with direct consequences for the economy through a decline in productivity per worker and increased costs for medical care. United States estimates that medical costs of obesity are $ 700 higher than the costs of a thin person.

However, Yaniv, Tobol and Rosin [5] argue that the implementation of taxes on junk food has technical shortcomings. For example, there are too many possibilities of interpretation to decide what products should be considered within that tax. A hamburger has high levels of fat, protein and calories but these are also necessary for metabolism. In addition, unlike the case of cigarette or alcohol, consumption of junk food does not produce a direct negative externality on the welfare of someone other than the individual’s. Therefore, we must ponder the results of these surveys further to soon begin the implementation of tax measures that directly affect the purchasing decision of consumers.

Spanish version over here

Barcelona · Array of fruits and vegetables at La Boqueria Market

[1] A Pigouvian tax is a duty charged on a market activity to correct the market outcome, if there are negative externalities associated with the market activity.
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[2] In economics, an externality or spillover of an economic transaction is an impact on a party that is not directly involved in the transaction. In such a case, prices do not reflect the full costs or benefits in production or consumption of a product or service.  A negative externality occurs when an individual or firm making a decision does not have to pay the full cost of the decision. If a good has a negative externality, then the cost to society is greater than the cost consumer is paying for it. Since consumers make a decision based on where their marginal cost equals their marginal benefit, and since they don’t take into account the cost of the negative externality, negative externalities result in market inefficiencies unless proper action is taken.
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[3] An individual is classified as obese based on his body mass index (BMI), which shows the relationship between weight and height as an indicator of body fat. An adult is classified as “overweight” if his BMI is between 25 and 25.9. If his BMI is greater than 30 it  is classified as obese.
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[4] ENGELHARD, Carolin; GARSON Arthur; DORN Stan “Reducing obesity: Policy strategies from the tobacco wars”, Urban Institute. July 2009.
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[5] YANIV, Gideon; ROSIN Odelia; TOBOL Yossef. “Junk-food, home cooking, physical activity and obesity: The effect of the fat tax and the thin subsidy”. Journal of Public Economics. June 2009.

The Spanish Law of Universal Jurisdiction, now in Brackets?

The Spanish National Criminal Court (Audiencia Nacional), open to individuals supported by combative magistrates such as Pinochet’s antagonist, judge Baltasar Garzón, has ostensibly become a breeding ground for politically-charged prosecutions having little or no connection to Spain. Investigations have been initiated against renowned American officials including Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice related to the torture of terrorism suspects. Seven Israeli politicians and military officers, with former defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, are the subject of an explorative investigation because of a July 2002 Gaza Strip air strike that resulted in fourteen civilian deaths. Chinese officials are being investigated for abuses in Tibet and forty Rwandan army officers have been indicted in connection with alleged post-genocide reprisal massacres. Detractors allege that activists going for political purposes and settling scores have took control on Spanish UJ. The Spanish government gives the impression to acquiesce and has been opposed to these extensive global justice efforts. In fact, Spanish public prosecutor’s office has explicitly disputed the UJ power of the Audiencia Nacional. In addition, since the exciting days of Pinochet, only one defendant has been tried and sentenced under the Spanish UJ law (Argentine naval captain Adolfo Scilingo, who turned himself in to Garzón in 1997 and was condemned at last to 640 years in jail for “Dirty War” crimes during the Argentina’s military dictatorship).

Henri Cartier-Bresson · Gestapo Informer (1945)

So what happened? Now the Spanish justice system can intervene only when there are Spanish victims or when the alleged responsible will be on Spanish soil if the country concerned cannot or will not prosecute alleged perpetrators. For Gonzalo Boyé, of the Madrid Bar, working with the Palestinian Center of Human Rights, the NGO that filed a complaint before the Spanish courts for the bombing of Gaza in 2002, in restricting this law it means that the Justice is not the same for everyone.

“Until now, no one in Spain had put back the law in doubt, as it was to pursue criminal Latin Americans or Africans. The problem arose when we had cases involving Israel and China. This means that the government is applying the “double standards”. On the one hand, it deals with crimes against humanity and war crimes or torture, when committed by Africans or South Americans. The other one has a very different situation, where such crimes are committed by countries that are very important in the eyes of the government.” [1]

The political and diplomatic pressures overcame the justice. Foreign leaders abroad have put forth demands on Spain to restraint the Audiencia Nacional jurisdiction and it appears that Madrid, willing to remain a player on the international stage, is ready to do the right thing. This is a deliberate political pressure. We must not forget that on 29 January 2009, the Foreign Minister of Israel, Tzipi Livni, said the Spanish foreign minister, Miguel-Angel Moratinos, had ensured her that the law would be changed and five months later, this legislative change had taken place. We should not be very brilliant to understand that Spain has changed its law to meet Israel demand . Yet conversely, Israel maintains its own law of UJ, which means that while in Spain a war crime is committed, Israel might try it. Why Spain could not judge a war crime committed in Gaza?

Poster by the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo NGO with photos of the disappeared

In 2003 Belgium had to restrict the scope of its own law of UJ, under pressure from Israel and the United States, but the Belgian law was much broader than in Spain, according to lawyer Patrick Baudoin, President Honorary FIDH:

“The Belgian courts were an absolute UJ, as nowhere else. Ie, that a Belgian court could try an Argentine criminal for crimes committed in Peru against nationals of the United States without anyone found on Belgian territory, neither the victims nor the alleged perpetrators. Therefore, it had gone too far [...]. This is not the case of Spain. Here the Spanish judge must ensure that in the country there is no justice who “passes” in a way. In addition, it only then the court can go further because there is no reason for this impunity to prevail. “[1]

The principle of UJ provided in the four Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture, allows any country to initiate, as recalled Reed Brody, European press director at Human Rights Watch:

“There are many European countries that have this in common, that if a victim of their nationality or whether the alleged charge is found on their territory, the country in question is competent. Where Spain had a head start, now we can do nothing unless the person is coming to Spain. However, [...] nobody is in Spain or another country for a very short period, because it does not give the time needed to start proceedings and seek a warrant.”

The Spanish lawyer Gonzalo Boyé must lay an extension to the former complaint on Gaza in 2002 to events earlier and later. It would include the bombing in Gaza in 2008, which made victims of Spanish nationality. A rebound occurred on June 30: The Spanish judiciary has decided to shelve the investigation into the complaint on the bombing of Gaza in 2002. A resolution that does not worry Mr. Boyé. The complainants have submitted an appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court. As to the law of UJ, the Senate will consider it in September 2009.

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[1] Véronique Gaymard, RFI – Chronique des droits de l’homme, Paris 4 july 2009

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The Burmese Junta Steps Back from Aung San Suu Kyi’s Unconditional Release

Myanmar: Appeal to stop the repression

The Nobel Peace Laureate was sentenced today to three years hard labor after the trial for breaking her house arrest. She has been confined immediately to her residence in Rangoon for a year and a half, according to judicial sources.

The authorities allowed the attendance to diplomats at the hearing, held in a wing of Insein prison complex in which Suu Kyi is detained since last May 14. On the occasion of the hearing, about two thousand troops of the security forces were deployed around the perimeter of the prison and at the entrances to the neighborhood of Insein.

The verdict, which in principle should have been delivered on July 31, was postponed until August 11 by the special court because additional time was needed to study the legal arguments connected through a referendum.

Without due process.
The trial was dominated by the secretiveness of the military regime itself, the continuing delays and obstacle course that judges demured to lawyers who defended the opposition leader.

Suu Kyi, 64, -she brings 13 of last 19 under house arrest- was charged with violating the terms of the house arrest when she sheltered two nights Yettaw, an American citizen, who is now tried for violating the rules of public safety. Yettaw, 54, who suffers from diabetes, was discharged last night by medical doctors at the Rangoon General Hospital, where he was admitted a week ago to receive care from attacks of epilepsy he has been suffering for years.

Human rights activists warned before the trial starts that a guilty verdict was inevitable in a country where more than 2,000 political prisoners are behind bars and where the court usually gives in to the generals.

The military junta governs Burma with an iron fist since 1962. The dictatorship chaired by general Than Shwe rejected early May the request made by the National League for Democracy (NLD), Suu Kyi party, for the release of their leader by her deteriorating health status. The Nobel Peace Prize party won the general elections in 1990 by an overwhelming majority, although the results have never been recognized by the generals.

EU announces more sanctions against Myanmar regime. China, Japan, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should work for the immediate and unconditional release of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma’s rulers should set her free, and start learning from her example.

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· A Shout to Nothing
· Aung San Suu Kyi lawyers seek emergency UN action