Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Emma Bonino the 65 year old Italian politician and Minister of Foreign Affairs and a leading member of the Italian Radicals, a political party that supports economic and social libertarianism, and human rights, has published an article on IPS News Service titled ‘A Federation Could Strengthen Europe’s Magnetism’ in which she states “The recent agreement for the normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo has confirmed that the European Union (EU) is still acting as a “magnet”, attracting its external neighbours and transforming and integrating them. Thanks to its prospects for EU membership, the whole Balkan area has become more stable and secure. Unfortunately, this virtuous magnetism no longer exerts the same force of attraction on our own citizens. With every passing day, the founding fathers’ dream of peace and freedom seems to be turning into a nightmare for many. The EU is increasingly being associated with austerity policies that lead to recession, unemployment and social despair. More worryingly, there are signs that the current crisis is not limited to the EU’s economic sphere but also impacts its most fundamental values. Everywhere in Europe we see rising intolerance; growing support for xenophobic and populist parties; discrimination and a weakening of the rule of law; and entire populations of undocumented migrants, virtually without rights, punished for their status rather than their individual behaviour. Our inclusive and open community is threatened by destructive actions pursued by nationalistic and demagogic groups. But they are not the only ones inflicting damage on the Union. …If Europe does not solve its problems of recession and populism, we could lose all that we have achieved since the 1950s, with no estimate of how long it will take to regain the same level of democracy, prosperity and stability as before. But if we adopt a new vision, engage our citizens and unite our governments, we could start a new phase of boosting growth and fostering democratic legitimacy and global influence.”

Inspired by Emma Bonino, IPS News ow.ly/lE457 Image source WEF ow.ly/lE3YP

Divina Frau-Meigs the 53 year old Moroccan professor in information science and communication and language has been interviewed by Clarinha Glock for the IPS News Service titled ‘Schools need Transliteracy’ in which she states “It [transliteracy] is knowing how to read, write, calculate and compute. But “compute” includes understanding these three categories of information: code, document and current events/press. Students and teachers must be trained. The role of school is to clarify and help people understand all kinds of contents, modify them, and comment on them. …Students think they know everything, from their perspective of dealing with computers and tablets. And professors say that if students have good knowledge to read and write, it is enough. It is necessary to break down this resistance to awareness-raising, in hands-on practical classrooms. For example: I ask students to look for the information they need for their projects. They respond: “There are millions of pieces of information, I don’t know where to start.” Teaching students to eliminate, evaluate, assess, change – that is the role of schools. It’s a way of learning to learn, which is what we must put again at the centre of the curriculum. …Transliteracy doesn’t only occur in schools. School rhythms are changing, because students can now connect at night, outside the school premises. The role of teachers will also be different. Their salaries must be enhanced, but knowing what they need in terms of training, and the new conditions of schedules, rhythms and resources. The decision must be assumed by teaching staff, government ministries, trade unions, companies and students – as a new social contract. …Since the 19th century, the social contract has been free, public – even though many schools are private – and secular education. And another characteristic has to be incorporated: “open” – through informatics, which gives access to many contents from other countries and cultures. With informatics, ideas can be developed to the maximum. And if we use it well, it can empower everyone…”  Inspired by Clarinha Glock, IPS News ow.ly/l33Ri Image source Frau-Meigs ow.ly/l34fd

Innovation key to sustainable development goals (May 30 2013)Nestor Osorio Londono the Colombian administrative lawyer and Representative to the UN has been interviewed by Gustavo Capdevila for the IPS News Service in an article titled ‘Q&A: Innovation Key to Sustainable Development Goals’ In the article Osorio Londono states “I believe it [Innovation, as the fruit of science and technology] is a cross-cutting issue within many of the objectives for the post-2015 period. We’re talking about the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] – that is, how to do something beyond the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] and bring together industrialised and developing countries in an ongoing process of irreversible compliance with fundamental goals for integral sustainability. …We’re talking about water conservation, more liveable cities, food security, infrastructure and curtailing (green house) gas emissions. We have to decarbonise the planet. And all of this forms part of innovation. …Those who can participate in a very efficient manner, as we have seen, are young people. Young people are and always have been involved in the origins of the biggest innovations. Microsoft, Facebook and others have been created, innovated, by 20 or 25-year-old kids.So there’s a very important link here: how innovation and connection and preparation of future work go together. And when it comes to gender equality, we’re talking about the same thing. …I think they could do it with a fundamental commitment by governments, which translates into budget allocations. The partnership between government and private sector is also essential throughout this process. I’ll cite an example of what we have done in Colombia: the policy of President Juan Manuel Santos has been to earmark – and a law was approved to this end – a portion of oil and mining industry royalties to the Institute of Sciences and Technology. …Companies gradually discover what their needs are and how they have to adapt to the requirements of sustainability. (For example), there can’t be investment in projects that use huge quantities of water, because that is wasteful. Companies have to adapt to the requirements that the world presents…”

Inspired by Gustavo Capdevila, IPS News ow.ly/kBeTC Image source Twitter ow.ly/kBg0S

Jose Antonio Ocampo Gaviria the 60 year old Colombian Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs has been interviewed by Marzieh Goudarzi for the IPS News Service in an article titled ‘Moving Away from “Elite Multilateralism”’. During the interview Ocampo-Gaviria states “I have written extensively on the G20 and my perspective is that these informal institutions, which I call “elite multilateralism”, are not the best form of global governance. I like “the G’s” when they are part of multilateral institutions. Global governance derives its legitimacy at the global level just as governance does at a national level, from universality. You have to have universal membership. For that purpose, the best way for these “G’s” to work is within a formal multilateral setting. At the same time, I agree that you have to have effective decision-making mechanisms. Smaller decision-making bodies, in which everyone is directly represented, are fundamental. In all democracies, decisions are taken by a limited number of actors at the end, but those actors have to be representing all of the membership. …The basic problem is that power ends up in the hands of the elite that uses power to further its own interests. This has been associated with developing countries, but it can also happen in developed countries, particularly in the financial sector. There has been a change in that regard during the recent crisis; now there is a bit more hope that financial policy will be detached from financial interests. Successful human development strategy has to include very active social policy, including education, health, and social protections, and at the same time very active economic development policy, particularly the generation of employment. We have seen so many cases of countries that have improvements in education and when an educated labour force comes to the market, there is no employment to absorb that population. You have to have an active social policy but also an active economic policy and the basic connection between the two is called employment.”

Inspired by Marzieh Goudarzi, IPS News ow.ly/k8TND Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/k8UQp

Helen Elizabeth Clark the 63 year old former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘The BRICS and the Rising South’. Clark states “…Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, known as the BRICS …will examine proposals to create their own BRICS development bank. The readiness of the BRICS countries to offer their own new international development initiatives and policy ideas is a clear manifestation of the changing global development landscape examined in UNDP’s newly released 2013 Human Development Report, “The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World”. This dramatic change in global dynamics, however, goes well beyond the BRICS. More than forty developing countries are estimated to have made unusually rapid human development strides in recent decades, according to the Report. Together, they represent most of the world’s population and a growing proportion of its trade and economic output. The progress of these fast mover countries measured in human development terms has accelerated markedly in the past decade. These geographically, culturally, and politically varied countries share a keen sense of pragmatism and a commitment to people, as seen through investments in education, health care, and social protection, and their engagement with the global economy. Neither rigid command economies nor laissez-faire free marketeers, they are guided by what works in their own national circumstances. …A greater voice for the South also means greater responsibility, with shared accountability for solving problems and sustaining progress. A more engaged, successful South, meanwhile, helps the North, through its economic dynamism and collaboration on global challenges. As the 2013 Human Development Report says, the South still needs the North, but, increasingly, the North also needs the South.”

Inspired by Helen Clark, IPS News ow.ly/k4oC7 Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/k4ok2

Roberto Savio the Italian Economist , journalist and international communications consultant, founder of the IPS News Service has published an article on the service titled ‘Switzerland Sets Example for Income Equality’. Savio states “For those who think that Occupy Wall Street, the Indignados in Spain, the World Social Forum and the numerous manifestations of protest worldwide are expressions without concrete outcomes, the result of the Swiss referendum on Mar. 3 on capping the salaries and bonuses of banks executives should make them think twice. Like it or not, two-thirds of the Swiss, who are not exactly a revolutionary people, have given the shareholders of financial institutions the right to decide salaries and bonuses of their executives. Another referendum — on limiting the salaries and bonuses of company executives from all sectors to a figure that does not exceed 15 times that of the average salary of their employees — is due shortly. At the same time the European Commission and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on capping bank executives’ bonuses at an amount equal to their annual salary. If the shareholders decide, it can be twice their annual salary, but no more. …people are getting fed up, as the Swiss referendum has clearly shown. Everywhere discontent is seeping into the polls, with protest parties flourishing everywhere. We are in transition to a different system. This can be done through peaceful and cooperative means, or by a continuation of this growing social injustice. History has many lessons on this issue, and it is useless to recall them. We all read them at school, even the 100 billionaires. So, as the Swiss referendum shows, it is not awareness that is lacking: it is political will.”

Inspired by Roberto Savio, IPS News Service ow.ly/jBfFB Image source Gc-Council ow.ly/jBfEv

Tiago Maranhao Alves the Brazilian a physical engineer  and CEO of CSEM Brasil an innovations-based company is the subject of an article published by Alice Marcondes on the IPS News Service titled ‘Brazilian-Made Plastic Solar Panels, a Clean Energy Breakthrough’ which states “[Maranhao Alves] While the capacity for power generation is almost the same, its small size means that it can be given uses that are almost impossible for silicon panels”.  What looks like a thin, flexible sheet of regular plastic is actually a solar panel printed with photovoltaic cells, which convert sunlight into electricity. This new material, totally unlike the heavy and costly silicon-based panels commonly used to generate solar power today, was created by scientists at CSEM Brasil, a research institute based in the southeast Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Made by incorporating organic photovoltaic cells into common polymers, the new panels resemble transparent sheets of plastic with stripes where they have been printed with carbon-based organic polymers. …The lightweight, flexible new material can be used to power the electrical components of automobiles and in electronic devices like mobile phones and wireless computer keyboards and mice. But the Brazilian researchers are concentrating on the production of solar panels, which can be used to cover relatively large areas, like windows. “A panel with a surface area of two or three square metres could be sufficient to generate the energy needed in a house lived in by a family of four. Because of its good cost-benefit ratio, it could also be an option for bringing energy to remote areas without electric power service.” …The plastic can also be used to cover buildings and venues like airports and sports stadiums, avoiding the need to set aside an area for the installation of conventional solar panels. …”We are now going to study the best way to scale up the product.”

Inspired by Alice Marcondes, IPS News Service ow.ly/jArfG Image source LinkedIn ow.ly/jAreE

Claudia Ciobanu the Bucharest journalist writing on the issues of transition within Romania and Bulgaria, has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘Poland Cornered Over Its Secret Prisons’ in which she states “A Polish official investigation into the existence of a secret CIA prison on its territory is being stalled, according to official sources, while pressure on the country to tell the truth mounts. … [a] report to the recent Globalising Torture study of Open Society Foundations, claim Poland hosted a secret CIA prison used in the extraordinary rendition programme from the end of 2002. Under this programme, the U.S. detained and interrogated terrorism suspects in Europe. …Poland seems to be this new location. …officials from governments and intelligence services of various countries, including Poland and the U.S., interviewed by UN and EU bodies, NGOs and journalists, point to the fact that the Polish site was key to the CIA scheme. Those sources continue to speak under the condition of anonymity because both Poland and the U.S. refuse to officially reveal details about how rendition functioned. In Poland, a prosecutors’ investigation started in 2008 has recently taken a dubious turn. Until a year ago, the investigation was conducted by the Warsaw prosecutors’ office, under two successive prosecutors. …After this news came out, the case was moved to Krakow. Mikolaj Pietrzak, the Polish lawyer [stated] “It is extremely irregular that a case be shifted to three different prosecutors, and the fact that in the last year nothing has gone forward apparently is a very sad statement about the investigation.” … Pietrzak, who has at one point seen the full file of the Polish investigation, claims: “This case is going to be very difficult to overturn, because there is a lot of evidence, and you simply cannot pretend that what is there in the prosecutors’ file doesn’t exist.”

Inspired by Claudia Ciobanu, IPS News Service ow.ly/j4E5X Image source Human Wrongs Watch ow.ly/j4DmR

Jose Graziano da Silva the 63 year old American-born Brazilian agronomist, writer and Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘Guardians of Life and of the Earth’ stating “Around the world, but especially in the planet’s poorest regions, women represent a life force that renews itself daily, sometimes against all odds. Rural women, for instance, make up 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. Fighting hunger is something they do every day. They are the faceless enlistees in the most devastating war of our times, one which – paradoxically – is the easiest to win: the war on hunger, that afflicts one in every eight inhabitants of our Earth, some 870 million human beings. …Putting food on a family’s table involves extending a woman’s reach beyond her maternal instincts. It means applying her energy and her life lessons to tilling the land and harvesting crops. …The double and sometimes triple burden of work in the field, at home and in the community is not always recognised, or shared by the men in the households. This frequently makes the empowerment of women more difficult. Paradoxically, everywhere in the world it is women who suffer most from restrictions on access to the legal ownership of land. This in turn limits their access to credit and to the inputs they need to maximise the utmost efforts they put into community wellbeing. Achieving those rights and that access, in order to close the gender gap in the most vulnerable countries’ farming systems, is one of the most important food security policies that governments and international cooperation agencies could ever implement. Making states aware of the core role women play in economic and social development and forging a political consensus to give them the tools and rights that their role demands will be vital steps in the fight against hunger.”

Inspired by Jose Graziano da Silva, IPS News Service ow.ly/j4tLB Image source Renato Araujo ow.ly/j4tIA

Eldar Mansurov the Azerbaijani composer and EU advisor has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘How Deep Are Azerbaijan-Israel Relations?’ in which he states ‘There has been much speculation surrounding Azerbaijan’s relations with Israel, including reports that Israeli warplanes might use Azerbaijani airfields as support bases during a potential attack against Iran. The reality of the bilateral relationship is not so dramatic, as it is pragmatic. We must keep in mind that neither country is an essential strategic asset for the other. From the Israeli point of view, relations with Azerbaijan represent the latest incarnation of a “periphery strategy”, under which Israel, surrounded by hostile Arab states, reaches out to the “outer ring” of non-Arab, “moderate” Muslim states. In bygone decades, Kemalist Turkey and monarchist Iran played this role. Today, Israel’s relations with Turkey are tense, and Iran is an arch-enemy. Azerbaijan is now a cog in the periphery strategy. But Baku can’t compensate for the loss of Israel’s former strategic assets. Azerbaijan is a country with its own geopolitical entanglements, including one that has left roughly 20 percent of its territory under foreign occupation. Baku is not in position to supply the type of support that would be relevant to the security challenges that Israel faces, especially vis-a-vis Iran. …This is not to say that the Azerbaijani-Israeli relations have no future. Azerbaijan, thankfully, is largely free from the poisonous anti-Semitism that prevails in much of the Muslim world. But a sober, realistic assessment by both sides is needed in order to maximise the potential of bilateral relations. For the time being, the diplomatic agendas of both Azerbaijan and Israel diverge significantly, and neither state seems willing to adjust those priorities in the interest of deepening bilateral ties.”

Inspired by Eldar Mamedov, IPS News ow.ly/i3lBO Image source News.Az ow.ly/i3lsN

Carey L Biron the American Washington correspondent reporting on development, international governance and US foreign policy has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘U.S. Firms Stash Tens of Billions in Tax Havens’. Biron states “The research arm of the U.S. Congress is warning that U.S. corporations’ use of tax havens has risen substantially in recent years, with companies offering massively inflated profit reports from small countries with loose tax regulations. …Further, these numbers appear to be growing. Extrapolation from the new CRS statistics suggests that U.S. corporate profits reported from, for instance, Bermuda grew by five times during the decade leading up to 2008, the last year for which data is available. Perhaps the most striking part of the new findings is simply the brazenness with which U.S. corporations appear to have become accustomed to misreporting their overseas earnings. …Incredibly, notes Citizens for Tax Justice, an advocacy group here in Washington, these countries were found to have accounted for 43 percent of the 940 billion dollars of overseas profits reported by U.S. multinational corporations, despite having made just seven percent of their foreign investments in those same countries. On the other hand, the five countries where U.S. corporations do much of their overseas business (the United Kingdom, Germany, etc) were reported to tax authorities as having accounted for just 14 percent of overseas profits. …Tax-dodging effectively takes food from hungry mouths,” Stephen Hale, advocacy head for Oxfam, said in a statement. The group offers an estimate of 32 trillion dollars currently sitting in tax havens around the world, and notes that taxes on this lump sum could raise nearly 190 billion dollars a year. On the contrary, Oxfam states, “Just 50.2 billion (dollars) a year is estimated to be the level of additional investment needed, combined with other policy measures, to end global hunger.”

Inspired by Carey L. Biron, IPS News ow.ly/hYE3X Image source Twitter ow.ly/hYE37

Martin Khor the 61 year old Malaysian journalist and economist, is the Executive Director of the South Centre (an intergovernmental organisation of developing countries based in Switzerland), has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘Debt Crises, a Damocles Sword’. Khor states “The issue of foreign debt has made a major comeback due to the crisis in Europe, in which many countries had to seek big bailouts to keep them from defaulting on their loan payments. Before this, debt crises have been associated with African and Latin American countries. …European countries, notably Germany, insisted that private creditors share the burden of resolving the Greek crisis. They had to take a “haircut” of about half, meaning that they would be repaid only half the amount they were owed. It is increasingly clear that bailouts – where new loans are given to indebted countries to enable them to keep paying their old loans in full – are not enough and may be counterproductive, when the countries are facing a problem of insolvency and not just a temporary lack of liquidity. The restructuring of some of Greece’s debt that was owed to private creditors is an example of what needs to be done. However, the ad hoc restructuring undertaken in the Greek case is not enough. A more systematic framework needs to be made available to countries on the verge of debt default, with principles agreed to internationally. In the absence of this, unilateral debt restructuring will probably be messy, as when a country is forced by desperate circumstances to declare a default and propose its own debt restructuring, which may or may not succeed in getting its creditors to agree to the terms. …Though the debt crisis now has Europe as its epicentre, many developing countries may soon also be facing the same predicament.”

Inspired by Martin Khor, IPS News ow.ly/hLSP6 Image source iisd ow.ly/hLSOn

Sanjay Suri the Indian born London-based journalist, editor in chief of IPS News Service, and writer of the book Brideless in Wembley an account of the immigration experiences of Indians in Britain, has published an article on IPS titled ‘Star Rises a Little’ Suri states “Any comparison of energy output from renewables to conventional energy sources must necessarily fail at the start. Renewables are new, they are a beginning, and it’s still too early to weigh such figures and to discount renewables. But despite significant advances in Abu Dhabi and Morocco, and promising commitments by the Saudis, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region was reminded it is still doing less than many others. “The total installed capacity (in the MENA region) is less than 1 gigawatt (GW), excluding hydro,” Tareq Emtairah, executive director of the Regional Centre for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency in Egypt, told a meeting. …billed “MENA, A Rising Star in Renewable Energy Investment”. “Between 2002 and 2011 less than six billion dollars was invested,” he said. “Italy alone did that much in 2011.” In the larger pattern, he said, “of 22 Arab countries, 16 have indicative targets. But we do not see stability in commitment to renewable energy.” Emtairah said the pricing and tariff structure was not conducive to deployment of renewable energy. …subsidies for conventional electricity in MENA countries were already costing 50 billion dollars annually. …that brings up the comparative issue again. Why compare to conventional energy sources? Compare to the zero, some say, where renewables were not long back. “Ten years ago, Masdar (the Abu Dhabi company leading investment in renewable energy) did not exist,” said Yousif Al Ali, director of the Shams solar project in Abu Dhabi, the biggest in the region. “…I am optimistic and excited. I believe we will be a rising star. We have put the foundation to be a rising star.”

Inspired by Sanjay Suri, IPS News ow.ly/hnL3e Image source PenguinBooksIndia ow.ly/hnLfs

Changing game to achieve nuclear disarmament (February 10 2013)Rebecca Johnson the British internationally-recognized expert on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, Co-Chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘Changing the Game to Achieve Nuclear Disarmament’. Johnson states “Recent initiatives by the [ICAN], the Red Cross and a growing number of governments have begun to arouse global interest in the humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons. …Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide invited all United Nations governments to send senior officials and experts to participate in an international conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons on March 4-5, 2013, in Oslo. The aim of the conference is “to provide an arena for a fact-based discussion of the humanitarian and developmental consequences associated with a nuclear weapon detonation…” This conference aims to bring together not only scientists and doctors to talk about the immediate blast, flash-burns, fires and radiation that would incinerate and contaminate millions, but also agencies that deal with refugees, food insecurity and the medical needs of millions of homeless, starving people… The nuclear free countries have to stop behaving like passive supplicants, giving veto powers to their nuclear-armed neighbours. Unlike traditional arms control, humanitarian disarmament approaches recognise that everyone has the right and responsibility to take steps to prevent the use of nuclear weapons. The best way to do this is to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. Once the nuclear-free countries acknowledge their own power and responsibility, they will find that a nuclear ban treaty can be far quicker and simpler to achieve than they thought. By changing the legal context, such a treaty would be a game changer, draining power and status from the nuclear-armed governments and hastening their understanding of their own security interests, increasing the imperative for concerted nuclear disarmament rather than perpetual proliferation.”

Inspired by Rebecca Johnson, IPS News ow.ly/hhTX1 Image source nobelforpeace-summits ow.ly/hhTNo