We are witnessing the return of a neo-feudal system based on the governance of the powerful with (questionable) ethical values (Sofia Monsalve)
The great powers have not hidden their agenda of displacing the debate on governance away from the United Nations. The Group of Seven (G7) has become the Group of 20 (G20), and the World Economic Forum in Davos a more important space for exchange than the UN General Assembly. (Roberto Savio)
9. Transnational corporations (TNCs) are the big-time beneficiaries of Globalization’s architecture of impunity, especially on human rights (HR). This means that these entities, more often than not, not only escape legal action owing to a lack of political determination on the part of certain states, but also get away with it, because of a lack of appropriate legal instruments at the international level. (CETIM)
10. To add insult to injury, the profitable valorization of wo/men at the expense of nature is advancing ever onward. ‘Growth until downfall’ has long become a reality that, by now, nearly everyone is aware of.*** (Thomas Gebauer)
***: In the colono-globalized world, the center is powerful and impermeable to the ecological, social, HR and cultural realities of the periphery; it is mostly made up by multilateral and bilateral TNCs and financial institutions and their managers that are out to homogenize the world. (Jorge Osorio) (Bankers, hedge fund managers and TNCs’ CEOs are, more and more, prone to feed panics rather than quell them –look at right-wing politicians in the developed world these days… In the world of the globalized free market we live-in, the ‘liberty of money’ demands that the dispossessed be constantly imprisoned in the jail of fear and fright –which is the worst of all jails). (Eduardo Galeano)
11. Yes, together with many (and growing) I am super critical-of, but not a blanket private sector basher. We all look at what is happening with conflicts of interest (CoI), public private partnerships (PPPs), free trade agreement (FTAs), multistakeholder platforms and at so many other conflicting issues …and what is the common denominator we find?: An increasing interference in public decision-making.
12. By now, we are convinced that PPPs are not for the benefit of society, but about constructing new subsidies to benefit the already wealthy in the private sector. In them, it is less about financing development than developing finance. Understanding and exposing these PPPs is essential to challenge growing inequality. But equally important is critically reflecting on how the wealthy are getting away with it. (Nicholas Hildyard)
Challenging the power of the few and ending inequality badly needs greater strategic cooperation between development groups, social movements, trade unions, and human rights organizations (A. Campolina)
13. Extreme economic inequality is not inevitable. It, big time, hampers progress in everything from economic growth and disparity reduction to social cohesion and political stability. It is created, perpetuated and exacerbated by laws, policies and practices of the sort that have dominated the capitalist global policy agenda of at least the last (too many) decades. As we know, it is compounded and reinforced by disparities and discrimination on grounds such as gender, race and disability. (Kate Donald)
14. Although the exact package of measures for tackling economic inequality under neoliberalism will vary by country, there are several types of policies that are generally and particularly indispensable including social protection, fiscal policy (especially progressive tax policies), public services provision, labor and wage policies, and financial regulation. All of these policies are linked broadly by the idea of redistribution (how economic rewards are shared), and of changing the current status-quo of where wealth, income, power and resources are concentrated. These policies should be seen as interdependent. Each addresses a different stage or aspect of redistribution. Success will require, not only a reversal of the ongoing austerity trend that is fuelling inequality worldwide, but also a significant redistribution of wealth, resources and power, which, in turn, means addressing the financial and political privileges of wealthy elites and transnational corporations. Focusing solely on the bottom 40 percent of national populations neglects one of the key drivers of inequality, namely runaway accumulation at the top. It will be down to public interest civil society and social movements to ensure inequality is kept under the spotlight of accountability. (K. Donald) No to poverty alleviation, yes to disparity reduction!
We are to fight ‘The Three Xs’: Exploitation, Exclusion and Extinction (Julio Monsalvo)
15. Profit-driven Globalization is compelling us to think within the so-called ‘permitted worldviews and accepted narrative frames’. Markedly alternative or radical views are and will be consistently discarded by the dominant mainstream, by being labeled utopian, naïve or, even worse in our times, ‘communist’ (before a challenging political ideology and nowadays just a mere insult used by the mainstream thinkers). (Jose Luis Vivero)
16. Furthermore, we have to fight the indifference of our youth to the present HR situation. Right now, our young and upcoming colleagues also, remain largely indifferent to the overwhelming negative effects Globalization is having in the world.
17. Our struggle is not about the rich being stroked for a little more noblesse oblige, but about ordinary citizens banding together to challenge them, winning tough regulations, and creating a much fairer system as a result. (Naomi Klein)
18. Taking a minimalist stand towards Globalization will do no harm, but neither will it do much good. Historically, inertia (has) and will always work(ed) against the more visionary and radical changes deemed necessary when the same fall outside the ruling paradigm.
What does the wealth gap suggest about the need for new forms of organizing by us who are attempting to resist elite power?
The key question is: What oppositional strategies can unsettle elite power instead of making it stronger? (N. Hildyard)
19. The need clearly is to reclaim public spaces, at all levels of governance so as to protect them from the undue influence of private interests and ensure that they respond to claim holders’ demands. Cohabitation with a predatory and hegemonic form of economic globalization is hardly possible any longer. What this calls-for then is to exert resistance to this current dynamics and to strengthen all alternative social, economic and political avenues. The construction of such a people-centered agenda for social justice, equity, HR, ecology, and respect for diversity can only be driven by the inspiration and leadership of social movements and the direct participation of those most affected by the many development challenges. This contrasts sharply with the increased professionalization of international non-governmental organizations and their increasing attachment to mainstream agendas. (Stefano Prato)
20. How to move beyond the ‘converted’ in this and capture new converts? The fundamental challenge is not so much that of pushing power structures as it is educating and challenging privileged citizens and consumers to change their habits and make the connection between their comforts and other people’s misery. (S. Prato)
21. Yes, you can have a pessimistic long-term outlook, but this does not mean you give up hope. We cannot give up hope. If we give up hope we are lost. But if we keep battling away, we can at least make a difference, and there is at least some hope that we may turn things around before the world reaches the terminal skids. The odds of success are perhaps the same as winning the lottery. But, as the cliché has it, without a ticket we have no hope at all. (Colin Tudge)
22. Bottom line: an effective challenge against Globalization and its negative effects on HR is possible, but demands the same kind of intellectual commitment and vigor that characterized anti-colonial or independence struggles.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
schuftan@gmail.com
Postscript/Marginalia
-Humanity should not succumb due to its blind selfishness. This is the truth we have conveniently forgotten for too long. After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the forces of the universe –that have now turned against us– it is indeed urgent that we feed on another class of energy. We want our species to survive; we must find a new sense in life; we must save the world and every human being that inhabits it. Hatred, selfishness and greed stand in our way in this the only planet we have. (Albert Einstein)
-The World Bank is good at systematizing findings and issues, e.g., 4 key points in this, 3 actions needed for that, actions in 4 areas, to address 2 major challenges, etc; all looks so neat in its analyses –when reality is really not so neat.
-Major immorality is a systemic trait of the North American elites; its general acceptance by the public constitutes an essential characteristic of a mass-media-controlled-society. (Adapted from Charles Wright Mills)
-What is called the international community in the United States is the United States and anyone who happens to be going along with it. The standard line is that the ‘international community’ cannot object to this. So, who really and ultimately is the international community?: What the United States determines it to be. (Noam Chomsky) Americans do not want you to say ‘yes’, they want you to say ‘yes sir’. (Boutros Ghali)