[afro-nets] Food for a fair and sensitive thought

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Food for a fair and sensitive thought
-------------------------------------

Human Rights Reader 105

Is there such a thing as a fair and human-rights-sensitive
(Capitalist) Globalization?


1. Did you know that half the people you know are below average?
And that

42.7% of the statistics are made-up on the spot?

2. The above not withstanding, a tiny sample of statistics is
called-for here to start a discussion on this topic: In 2003,
the 400 richest Americans had a total annual income of U$69 bil-
lion -- more than the economic performance of five African coun-
tries combined. (G. Sachs) The richest one-tenth of the popula-
tion in Latin America and the Caribbean earn 48% of the total
income while the poorest tenth earns 1.6% (World Bank). The in-
come mobility that does exist and has been documented does lit-
tle to erase this extreme concentration of income and wealth in
the hands of a few. The Human Development Index (HDI) has actu-
ally gone backwards in 40 countries. [Furthermore, there is evi-
dence now that around U$130 billion has been misappropriated
from WB loans since the Bank was established 60 years ago. (As a
reference, total ODA in 2003 was U$68 billion). (D+C)]. So,
"unless something changes, poverty in sub-Saharan Africa may not
be halved before 2146". (E. Herfkens, Executive Coordinator,
MDGs).

3. But the main focus of this Reader is human (people's) rights,
no? So, let me leave you with one simple additional thought: It
is importantly the non-recognition of workers rights that ex-
plains why income disparity is as pronounced as it is.

4. But the rich countries are trying to help the poor! -- you
will say. Well, let's look at another sample here:

- The G8 seem to promote mostly that which costs nothing --such
as good governance;

- they wrongly feel that focusing on politics or human rights
(HR) deters attention from getting the macroeconomic fundamen-
tals right;

- they proclaim the hegemony of economics over other social sci-
ences and over people's rights;

- to prove the above, they carry out econometric studies with a
clear neoliberal ideological bias;

- with a 'do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-did' attitude, they impose on
poor countries practices that are the exact opposite of what
they historically did to become developed themselves;

- to achieve the above, they use the ethnocentric (pro-G8) ap-
proaches of the WB, the IMF and the WTO which have given us
Structural Adjustment and TRIPS. [The IMF, the WB and the WTO
are actually chosen as avenues by which the business and politi-
cal elites of the G8 countries operate to rule the global econ-
omy and to dictate to the rest of the countries of the world how
they should be run].

5. With all these facts (and this is just a tiny sample), it is
just alarming to see how poorly the main theories of estab-
lished-Northern-development-policy stand up to empirical scru-
tiny:

- Isn't it thus time, at the WTO for example, that we much more
forcibly demand a 'trade-round-for-the-poor-and-the-rightless'?

- Isn't it time we insist that the most effective form to get
development going is still the consistent waiver of unpayable
debt?

- Isn't it time governments around the world stop aggravating
the 'level-of-social-debt' towards their citizens --especially
the 'nothing-holders' among them?

6. The neoliberal slogan of 'bad government and good market' at
the core of Capitalist Globalization is dead in the words of the
latter's own proponents. (F+D 41:1) [For decades, consumption
has been determining not only our daily lives, but also the
world economy; for many people, consumption has become their
purpose in life]. So, now, other disciplines are being brought-
in to inject new life into bare-market-economy-concepts; the
role of governments to regulate greedy markets is becoming more
accepted.

7. From our perspective, the globalization of the world market
economy has failed to defuse existing HR violations --and con-
servative leaders are still showing an apparent reluctance to
de-facto introduce the adjustments needed for decreasing the
same violations. In short, in HR terms, the global market inte-
gration has proved to be costlier than expected.

8. Another ever-recurring issue in the era of Capitalist Global-
ization is the issue of democracy and governance. Unfortunately,
the West (especially the US administration) has given democracy
a bad name. On the other hand, the introduction of 'good govern-
ance' as a conditionality often ends up with a long wish-list
doomed to failure. Political elites are resisting changes to the
traditional political order they so ably control and fiercely
defend --and they are getting away with it --wouldn't you agree?
Good-governance-reforms are thus isolated and more-cosmetic-
than-structural with no positive impact on the HR situation.
With good or with bad governance, representative democracy (with
its veneer of altruism) has simply not been a responsive ground
for desperately needed reforms. This is why an analysis of the
political system/situation is necessary to begin with --as this
Reader so often calls for.

[For us, good governance rather means more equitable and inclu-
sive state-society relations (including the respect of HR!), and
not only (vaguely) "the exercise of power to manage a nation's
affairs". In the same vein, for us, national liberation is an
integral element of any meaningful concept of HR. (Not being fa-
cetious, this should remind us that war --internal or external--
does not determine who is right; it determines who is left)].

9. Moreover, in too many countries, parliaments are dominated by
status-quo powers. Political parties have lost their mediating
function between state and citizen to be effective allies in the
struggle for HR. The interests of markets and those the politi-
cians-in-power are more often than not mutually reinforcing. The
great challenge is to win-over/convince (or vote out) these pro-
status-quo politicians all over the world --whenever they are
holding-up progress in HR work. For them, a clear conscience on
HR issues is often a sign of a bad memory.

10. For a couple of decades at least, transnational corporations
have been central players in Capitalist Globalization. But, as
everybody knows, they do not concern themselves with HR --which
they contend governments are supposed to enforce. Some have
claimed that these corporations adopting HR positions risks pri-
vatizing (sic) HR which could lead them to use HR principles to
their advantage --as has been the case with the Global Compact,
i.e., the corporate cooperation (?) with the UN. (CETIM) The
non-binding nature of the concept of 'corporate-responsibility'
(the latter seldom in HR terms) is basically nothing more than a
useful tool for big corporations to polish and beef-up their
corporate image. As HR activists, we need to move beyond demand-
ing corporate-social-responsibility and demand full-corporate-
social-and-environmental-accountability.

11. Finally, the inequality that Capitalist Globalization is
bringing about day-in-day-out is the product of powerful eco-
nomic and political interests and of weak policies for the chan-
neling of the benefits of Capitalist Globalization to those most
in need. Inequality is not 'simply happening'; it is a natural
consequence of this globalization: inequality is being con-
structed by powerful economic and political interests and biased
public policies. So, because the attainment of equity and HR is
ultimately only achievable through social-action-geared-at-
forcefully-demanding-needed-changes-in-public-policy, in a nut-
shell, all the above calls for the victims (nation states, or-
ganizations and individuals) to be mobilized in economic and po-
litical terms.

12. I thus end where I started and ask you: Is there such a
thing as a fair and HR-sensitive Capitalist Globalization? I let
you be the judge.


--
Claudio Schuftan
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn

____________________________

Mostly adapted from D+C 31:4, Apr, June, July, Aug/Sept and Oct
2004, F&D, 41:1, March 2004 (IMF), and Perspectives in Global
Development and Technology, Vol 3, No. 1-2, 2004.