NAI AZADI: 2010

Science in search of truth or profits?

Long back in 1950s, the British scientist turned Indian national, Dr. J.B.S. Haldara, a renowned statistician wrote about intellectuals (including scientists) of developing countries. He stated that they were worse than the business man so far as the exploitation was concerned. The validity of it is verified time and again. The latest case is that of Bt-Brinjal controversy. After a month's exercise of assessing public opinion on the desirability of introducing US Company Monsanto's Bt-Brinjal in India, Minister of State for Environment and Forest, Jai Ram Ramesh declared, on February 9, a moratorium on the introduction of Bt-Brinjal for commercial use in the country. The very next day, articles by scientists highlighting the benefits of Bt_Brijnal were published on the first pages of some news papers. No doubt, they were paid articles sponsored by the company. This process of scientific propagenda will be continued during the whole moratorium period to build the public opinion in support of Monsanto's Bt-Brinjal. This is not the new development. Four year back, Monsanto had applied for license for its Bt-Cotton to Environment Approval Committee (EAC) though the company had already distributed its Bt-Cotton seeds illegally to farmers who had grown its crop and the crop was in the flowering stage. Just a day before the EAC meeting, Monsanto got a scientific article written by two scientists published in a Delhi news paper which started with these sentences: 'when your daughter has become pregnant, you have no choice but to get her married.' The message was clear and the EAC gave its approval to BT-Cotton. In fact, the Gujarat farmers, who had sown BT-Cotton were on the agitation path on hearing the news that if the Monsanto's application for seeking Bt-Cotton approval was rejected, their cotton crop would be burnt down. Another field where science is blatantly used for profit making at the cost of human health and well-being of the society is the pharmaceuticals field. It is well known that multinational drug companies increase exhorbitantly the price of their drugs justifying it by saying that they have to spend a lot of money on the research. But the fact is that the major part of their research budget is spent not on the scientific research but on the market research. Just to cite one example, the US drug multinational Merck spent millions and millions of dollars in its propaganda for its medicine Vioxx to treat knees pain and earned billions of dollars, but it turned out that Vioxx killed 60,000 people due to heart attack caused by this drug. Paying huge bribes to doctors and spending huge amount of money on media publicity, drug companies are playing with the health of people Why is it that science, whose sole aim is to search the truth, is being used on a very large scale for profit making ignoring social responsibility? The main reason is that funding of scientific research is shifted from public to private sector. Giant multinationals are funding science projects and one who pays, play the pipe.

Are we living in a barbarian age?

A news published from Bhopal reads as follows : A minor dalit girl has been burnt alive by two boys in Kodari village of Burhanpur district of Madhya Pradesh. The boys allegedly entered the girl’s house in the afternoon when she was alone and attempted to rape her. The victim was a student of class VIII. When she resisted, the boys poured kerocene over her and burnt her. The girls’ mother rushed the badly-burnt girl to hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.

This was the third case of the same kind on the same day in the same state. A college student shot dead his girlfriend and an M.Phil girl student was gang-raped in Bhopal Memorial Hospital.

These are not the stray cases. This is a common daily diary of almost all newspapers in the country and it covers a very wide range. In it the attackers are not only village boys and street goondas but also college students, teachers, doctors, business managers, politicians, police officers from police constable to DGP rank. The victims are not only dalit girls (though they are the easiest prey) but also students, teachers, working girls, starting from domestic servants to highly placed government officials. There is no age bar : right-from minor girls of 5 years to senior women of 60 years. Likewise social and economic status is no bar, but members of the poor families, especially dalit poor families are easy victims.

As the government repeatedly says, the country is fast moving ahead on the path of development heading to achieve 9 to 10 percent growth rate and to become a world power, women of the country are finding themselves less safe. It is not safe to travel alone in trains, it is not safe to return home from office after night duty, it is not even safe to live alone. The other day, a girl travelling alone in a day train was attacked and molested by a group of eight students and male copassengers had to hide her beneath the berth to save her. A lady government official in an AC Coach had difficult time to protect her from a molestation attempt from a co-passenger. Suicide cases among girls after molestation incidents are becoming very common.

Aberrations in human behaviour are understandable. But this spate of abnormal demeanour cannot be regarded something natural. Before 30-40 years, such horrible incidents were rare.

What are the causes of this moral decline on such a large scale? One reason is historic. The caste system has been acting as leprosy on the Indian society. Even after so many reform movements, especially Dalit movements and the legal prohibition, this cancerous element still persists in the subconscious mind of many upper caste hindus that the lower caste people are meant for serving and consequently can be exploited, even sexually also. Most of the Dalit-girls and women in villagers are molested by upper caste people. This social evil was to some extent under control due to the restraints which the society used to exercise.

This social restraint is now almost disappeared. Why this is so, leads us to the second dominant reason of women’s’ insecurity and molestation. This is consumerism, marketism and corporatization thrown upon the society, economy and polity by the multinational corporations. To create their business empire, aggressive publicity using modern information technology is undertaken by these companies to create desire for their products. Their target is to liberate mind from all moral compulsions and for this the most powerful strategy is to arouse the lower human instincts especially sex and violence. Naturally woman is used for this. Consequently the vision to look at a woman is distorted. A woman is now looked, not as a mother, sister or daughter, not as a source of creation and power (shakti), but as a configuration of flesh with measurements at different levels, as is done in beauty contests. Most of the serials, on TV, ads and e-mail messages constantly contribute to excite the minds especially of the youth. The result is what we are witnessing all around.

What to do? Perhaps we have to adopt a two-pronged attack on the problem. Firstly we have to target the multinational corporations, the root cause of moral decline and secondly we have to form village/mohalla level watch groups to bring deviated persons/youths on the path of sanity. —BLS

World Bank

Conclude Doha Round, Says a World Bank Book

World Bank has published a book on Doha Round, its title is: ‘Conclude Doha: it matters’. Its authors are: Bernard Hoekman, Bill Martin and Aditya Mattoo. (WPS NO 5135, November 2009). Doha Round was launched in 2001 and at that time, WorldBank had madi a forecast that as an out come of the Doha Round, $520 billions would be added as an additional wealth to the world economy. After some years this amount was reduced to $96 billions. And now the world Bank talks of $150 to $200 billions. It good conditions prevait, liberalization would continue at the medium pace and Doha Round would be concluded which would indicate that the protectionism had been renounced.

{Alternative Economique: No. 286, December 2009}

WTO

Geneva Conference: WTO lacks inspiration

Seventh ministerial conference of WTO was held in Geneva from November 30 to December 2, 2009. This Conference is the highest decision making body of WTO and is held every two year, but due to global financial crisis rules of the international trade have been eclipsed. The last conference was held in Hong Cong four years ago, and it was thought that governments would make this new conference a historic event. But it did not happen. No agreement could be reached on the Doha Round started in 2001. The round is hanging in balance for the last eight years due to not developing an understanding between developed countries and developing countries. Developing countries have been insisting on the reduction of huge subsidies given by the governments of the developed nations against the WTO agreement. On the other hand the developed nations insist on allowing NAMA (non agriculture market access) by the developing countries; this means that the developing nations should reduce or eliminate tariffs on industrial products of the developed countries and then only the developed countries would reduce agricultural subsidies. The developing countries are arguing that the reduction of agricultural subsidies was agreed upon at the time of formation of WTO, but the developed countries are not only violating the agreement but they have instead increased heavily the amount of subsidies given to their farmers. As a result of this, the agricultural products of the developing nations are not able to compete with the subsidized agricultural products of the developed countries. If they agree. To NAMA, their industries would collapse since the developed countries would flood developing countries’ markets with their products.

No agreement could take place between these two opposing positions and the Conference ended without any result. The governments’ representatives consoled themselves by saying that the conference did give them an opportunity to understand each other’s viewpoint.

G-20 nations have expressed hope. They have decided to complete the talks by the end of 2010.

Karnataka heading towards devastation due to corporatization

World’s largest steel major Arcelor-Mittal is now targeting Karnataka. Due to stiff local people’s resistance movement, it is not getting requisite tracts of land in Jharkhand and Orissa for setting up its steel plants. There persists a high degree of uncertainty regarding its continuation in these mineral-rich states. It is there fore making in-roads in Karnataka. It is eyeing to use up the most invaluable mineral and natural resource wealth of the state.

Why are global corporate giants like Arcelor Mittal bent upon penetrating into Karnataka? The sole reason is that it is very rich in mineral and natural resources. 10 per cent of the country’s total hematite iron ore resources are based in Karnataka. Its place comes after Orissa (33%), Jharkhand (27%) and Chhatishgarh (19%). In addition to this, 74 per cent of the country’s total magnetite iron ore resources are in Karnataka.

Ascebestos, bauxite, chromite, dolomite, graphite, lime-stone, magnesite, magnese, quartz, silica sand, etc., are abundantly available here. Most of the country’s felsites, moulding sand (63%) and fuchsite quartzite (57%) are concentrated in Karnataka. Granite rocks are spread over an area of more than 4,200 square kilometers. Therefore this state is famous for its ornamental granites all over the world. Gold mines are also situated here.

Besides Arcelor-Mittal, South Korean steel major Posco is also trying to set up its plant in Karnataka. It is estimated that its proposed steel plant would be of an annual capacity of 4 to 6 million tones. Tata Metaliks has made up its mind to set up a steel plant having an annual capacity of 3 to 5 million tones. Essar Steal is planning to install a steel plant of an annual capacity of 6 million tones. JSW steel is working on a plan which proposes to enhance the annual capacity of its on-going steel project from 9 million tones to 16 million tones. The real intention of global corporate entities is to own or control the entire mineral and natural wealth of the state.

At present, about 42 million tons of iron ore is being mined every year in Karnataka. Out of this 30 million tons is exported and the remaining 12 million is swallowed by J.S.W. Steel. It is estimated that in Karnataka, there is more than 1.2 billion tons of iron ore and giant multinational corporations are fixing their eyes on it to establish their momopoly. If the ambitious propasal by various corporate groups to establish iron plants or by JSW steel to enhance the capacity of its exisleng plant are accepted and executed, there will be fierce struggle to capture iron ore resources in the state. Mining on such a large scale will start that the entire agriculture, rural population and the conventional means of livelihood of the local people in Karnataka will be under severe attack. Mafia groups will mushroom at different places in Karnataka who will act under the corporate colononial umbrella, participate in the state power, and whose presence will be felt in all political parties who will then safeguard the interest of multinational corporations (domestic as well as foreign) remaining both in ruling and opposition parties.

In Karnataka a network of basic infrastructural facilities already exists for the extension of corporate colonialism and these facilities are constantly increasing. About 3,172 km. long network; about 3973 km. long highways, about 9829 km. long main roads (constructed by the state government) a big port like New Mangalore Port, and 10 other ports, already exist and the government has started executing a scheme of building about 2,381 km. long main roads. An important point with Karnataka is that here both Eastern ghat and Western ghat exist and they meet in the Nilgiri mountain range.

If the steal projects by corporate houses (domestic and foreign) and the mining activities by them or by their henchmen are not stopped with immediate effect, then farmers, ordinary people, indigenous communities and local rural areas will be destroyed.

Karnataka state is very rich from agriculture and farming viewpoint. All the three crops-kharif, Rabi, Jayad are grown here. Chief crops are: peddy, ragi, millet, maize, dalahan, tilhan etc. Cash crops are also in abundance- cotton, sugar cane, green and red chillies, cashew, coconut, tobacco etc., Moreover Karnataka is the biggest producer of coarse grains, raw silk, coffee in the country. Mega projects to established by domestic and foreign multinationals will displace people in large mumbers from land and livelihood which will create great disaster in Karnataka.

 Dr. K.S. Anandi

Kachra gatherers are also human beings

 Avika Tondon

India for ages has been a country which has hosted many religions, creeds and social classes with fervour. Unfortunately the country has not been able to create harmony in all of them. There are discrepancies and there is injustice in this arena till date.

If we take the “Kachra Gatherers” into consideration then there is great humiliation attached to what they do for a profession to feed themselves and their families on a daily basis. They are looked down upon and still (in many places in our country) not allowed to enter homes, temples and places of importance. They are considered untouchables. They are supposed to do filthy work and are thus considered permanently unclean. Every elevated soul conveniently forgets that they are also born as human beings and that human rights are same for all human beings regardless of their caste, creed, colour, profession etc.

Their rights and happiness is ignored by the society as a whole. They keep the society clean and healthy risking their own lives medically while exposing themselves to degenerated trash of the society. They should be given a super special priviledge of free monthly health check up in a hospital in their dwelling place and free medicines to keep them going. Education is something that must be provided to their children also till they graduate. It is the duty of our government and our society to help these people to come up in the society and live up to human standards which is what they definitely deserve.

Instead they live in unhygenic colonies with no one to take care of their health and hygene and that of their families especially their children who deserve better. They live hand to mouth existence and to add insult to injury they are looked down upon by every. One needs to realize that they deserve to live with human dignity and that their life too is valuable and cherished just like the rest of us.

Everyone needs to remember that humanity is the first and foremost religion in the world. One needs to prove one’s humanity by being good to those people of society who are low merely due to financial constraints and do not lack good qualities in them. They deserve to be saluted and their basic needs must be catered to by the government officially alongwith the NGOs.

When we accomplish the above we will see a bright smile flashing from their otherwise pained faces which say that they are fully aware and completely hurt by the cold attitude of the society they serve. The sooner this happens the better because it is this very hurt that give rise to insurgencies and unrest. This is something that India for sure needs to avoid for its peace concerns.



Copenhagen Convention on Climate Change failed

The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Copenhagen has clearly failed to deliver what the world community expected of it, namely, a legally binding agreement that is ambitious in the sense of deep cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by developed countries to prevent irreversible climate change, and is yet viable and also equitable in the sense of providing adequate carbon space for the legitimate development and economic growth of developing countries that social justice demands.

The Copenhagen Accord, as the final outcome is called, was arrived at in the late hours of December 18 in a closed-door meeting of five heads of state-President Barack Obama of the United States with the heads of government of China, India, Brazil and South Africa, countries known as the BASIC Four This “political agreement” was formalized in the early hours of December 19, the final day of the negotiations which lasted 13 days. Significantly, and not unexpectedly, the accord eluded consensus, a necessary condition for being termed even as a COP decision, with Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba firmly opposing the accord. As a result, the accord was merely “taken note of” under the UNFCCC and would be an agreement among states that declared their adherence to it.

It is clear that developed countries will push for the accord becoming a binding document in lieu of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto process in the coming months of negotiations. Developing countries must guard against and resist this attempt.

{Front Line January, 2010}

Debt pushing farmers out of agriculture in Punjab

The debt burden on Punjab farmers has shot up a staggering 500 per cent over the past ten years, pushing more marginal farmers out of agriculture. According to a new study by the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), farm bebt in the state rose to Rs. 30394.12 crore in 2007-08 compared to Rs. 5700.91 crore in 1997, when the first estimates were made following a spate of suicides by farmers, agriculture labour and members fo their families.

According to IDC’s Director of Punjab Development Studies, Prof H S Shergill, the farm debt increased 5 times at current prices and double at constant prices of 1997. The study established an average debt of Rs. 20,000 per owned acre.

Of the 72 per cent heavily indebted farmers, 17 per cent were under more than Rs. 80,000 per cent owned. They were in a “debt trap” what with 60 per cent of them being marginal and small farmers who could not pay even the annual interest on their loans from their current farm income.

Meanwhile, the latest figures with the government indicate that there has been considerable reduction in the number of land holdings from 10.93 lakh in 1995-96 to 10.03 lakh in 2005-06, when the number of marginal farmers with less than 1 hectare holding went down from 2.03 lakh to 1.33 lakh.

The latest study suggests that the per farm household debt had risen from Rs 52,000 to Rs. 1.39 lakh, indicating that more farmers from the marginal sections may be pushed out of agriculture in the near future. A steep rise in farmland prices notwithstanding, the amount of farm debt stood at 4 per cent of the total value of land under agriculture compared 3 per cent in 1997.

{The Hindu, Delhi, December 4, 2009}

Wells Fargo to close 122 branches

Wells Fargo & Co said on December 1 that it would fold up 122 California branches due to its takeover of Wachovia Corp last year, the Los Angeles Times reported. The closures, scheduled to occur in April, will involve shutting down 101 Wachovia offices and 21 Wells Fargo locations, the bank’s spokeswoman Jennifer Langan told the news paper.

{Business Standard, Lucknow, December 3, 2009}

Rise of Corporate Power in America

 Dr. David C. Korten

{Big corporations (domestic and foreign) are influencing legislation and judiciary in India to get laws passed in their favour. They are grabbing resources of the country. Corruption is rampant. Exactly this happened in the USA more than a century ago. We give here the history of the rise of corporate power in the USA from Dr. Korten's book, 'When Corporations rule the world', just to show the similarity. Ed.}

America was born of a revolution against the abusive power of the

British kings. The corporate charter was an institutional instrument of that abuse. Chartered corporations were used by England to maintain control over colonial economies. In addition to such well-known corporations as the East India Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company, many American colonies were themselves chartered as corporations. The corporations of that day were chartered by the king and functioned as extensions of the power of the crown. Generally, these corporations were granted monopoly powers over territories and industries that were considered critical to the interests of the English state.

The English Parliament, which during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was made up of wealthy landowners, merchants, and manufacturers, passed many laws intended to protect and extend these monopoly interests. One set or laws, for example, required that all goods imported to the colonies from Europe of Asia first pass through England. Similarly, specified products exported from the colonies also had to be sent first to England. The Navigation Acts required that all goods shipped to or from the colonies be carried on English or colonial ships manned by English or colonial crews. Furthermore, although they had the necessary raw materials, the colonists were forbidden to produce their own caps, hats, and woolen and iron goods. Raw materials were shipped from the colonies to England for manufacture, and the finished products were returned to the colonies.

These practices were strongly condemned by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. Smith saw corporations, as much as governments, as instruments for suppressing the competitive forces of the market, and his condemnation of them was uncompromising. He makes specific mention of corporations twelve times in his classic thesis, and not once does he attribute any favorable quality to them. Typical is his observation: “It is to prevent this reduction of price, and consequently of wages and profit, by restraining that free competition which would most certainly occasion it, that all corporations, and the greater part of corporation laws, have been established.

It is noteworthy that the publication of The Wealth of Nations and the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence both occurred in 1776. Each was, in its way, a revolutionary manifesto challenging the abusive alliance of state and corporate power to establish monopolistic control of markets and thereby capture unearned profits and inhibit local enterprise. Smith and the American colonists shared a deep suspicion of both state and corporate power. The U.S. Constitution instituted the separation of governmental powers to create a system of checks and balances that was carefully crafted to limit opportunities for the abuse of state power. It makes no mention of corporations, which suggests that those who framed it did not foresee or intend that corporations would have a consequential role in the affairs of the new nation.

In the young American republic, there was little sense that corporations were either inevitable or always appropriate. Family farms and businesses were the mainstay of the economy, much in the spirit of Adam Smith’s ideal, though neighborhood shops, cooperatives, and worker-owned enterprises were also common. This was consistent with a prevailing belief in the importance of keeping investment and production decisions local and democratic.

The corporations that were chartered were kept under watchful citizen and governmental control. The power to issue corporate charters was retained by the individual states rather than being given to the federal government. The intent was to keep that power as close as possible to citizen control. Many provisions were included in corporate charters and related laws that limited use of the corporate vehicle to amass excessive personal power. The early charters were limited to a fixed number of years and required that the corporation be dissolved if the charter were not renewed. Generally, the corporate charter set limits on the corporation’s borrowing, ownership of land, and sometimes even its profits. Members of the corporation were liable in their personal capacities for all debts incurred by the corporation during their period of membership. Large and small investors had equal voting rights, and interlocking directorates were outlawed. Furthermore, a corporation was limited to conducting only those business activities specifically authorized in its charter. Charters often included revocation clauses. State legislators maintained the sovereign right to withdraw the charter of any corporation that in their judgment failed to serve the public interest, and they kept close watch on corporate affairs. By 1800, only some 200 corporate charters had been granted by the states.

The nineteenth century emerged as a time of active and open legal struggle between corporations and civil society regarding the right of the people, through their state governments, to revoke or amend corporate charters. Action by state legislators to amend, revoke, or simply fail to renew corporate charters was fairly common throughout the first half of the century. However, in 1819, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the state of New Hampshire in a case in which New Hampshire had attempted to revoke the charter issued to Dartmouth College by King George III before U.S. independence. The Supreme Court overruled the revocation on the ground that the charter contained no reservation or revocation clause.

This decision was seen as an attack on state sovereignty by outraged citizens, who insisted that a distinction be made between a corporation and the property rights of an individual. They argued that corporations were created not by birth but by the pleasure of state legislatures to serve a public good. Corporations were therefore public, not private, bodies, and elected state legislators thereby had an absolute legal right to amend or repeal their charters at will. The public outcry led to a significant strengthening of the legal powers of the states to oversee corporate affairs.

As late as 1855, in Dodge v. Woolsey, the Supreme Court affirmed that the constitution confers no inalienable rights on a corporation, ruling that the people of the states have not released their power over the artificial bodies which originate under the legislation of their representatives… Combinations of classes in society… united by the bond of a corporate spirit… unquestionably desire limitations upon the sovereignty of the people… But the framers of the Constitution were imbued with no desire to call into existence such combinations.

Spoils of the Civil War

The U.S. Civil War (1861-65) marked a turning point for corporate rights. Violent antidraft riots rocked the cities and left the political system in disarray. With huge profits pouring in from military procurement contracts, industrial interests were able to take advantage of the disorder and rampant political corruption to virtually buy legislation that gave them massive grants of money and land to expand the Western railway system. The greater its profits, the more tightly the emergent industrial class was able to solidify its hold on government to obtain further benefits. Seeing what was unfolding, President Abraham Lincoln observed just before his death:

Corporations have been enthroned... An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people…until wealth is aggregated in a few hands…and the Republic is destroyed.

The nation was divided by the war against itself; the government was weakened by the assassination of Lincoln and the subsequent election of alcoholic war hero Ulysses S. Grant as president. The nation was in disarray. Millions of Americans were rendered jobless in the subsequent depression, and a tainted presidential election in 1876 was settled through secret negotiations. Corruption and insider deal making ran rampant. President Rutherford B. Hayes, the eventual winner of those corporate-dominated negotiations, subsequently complained, “this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations. In his classic The Robber Barons, Matthew Josephson wrote that during the 1880s and 1890s, “The halls of legislation were transformed into a mart where the price of votes was haggled over, and laws, made to order, were bought and sold.

These were the days of men such as John D. Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, James Mellon, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Philip Armour, and Jay Gould. Wealth begat wealth as corporations took advantage of the disarray to buy tariff, banking, railroad, labor, and public lands legislation that would further enrich them. Citizen groups committed to maintaining corporate accountability continued to battle corporate abuse at state levels, and corporate charters were revoked by both courts and state legislatures.

Gradually, however, corporations gained sufficient control over key state legislative bodies to virtually rewrite the laws governing their own creation. Legislators in New Jersey and Delaware took the lead in watering down citizens’ rights to intervene in corporate affairs. They limited the liability of corporate owners and managers and issued charters in perpetuity. Corporations soon had the right to operate in any fashion not explicitly prohibited by law.

A conservative court system that was consistently responsive to the appeals and arguments of corporate lawyers steadily chipped away at the restraints a wary citizenry had carefully placed on corporate powers. Step-by-step, the court system put in place new precedents that made the protection of corporations and corporate property a centerpiece of constitutional law. These precedents eliminated the use of juries to decide fault and assess damages in cases involving corporate-caused harm and took away the right of states to oversee corporate rates of return and prices. Judges sympathetic to corporate interests ruled that workers were responsible for causing their own injuries on the job, limited the liability of corporations for damages they might cause, and declared wage and hours laws unconstitutional. They interpreted the common good to mean maximum production—no matter what was produced or who it harmed. These were important concerns to an industrial sector in which, from 1888 to 1908, industrial accidents killed 7,00,000 American workers—roughly 100 a day.

In 1886, in a stunning victory for the proponents of corporate sovereignty, the Supreme Court ruled in Santa Clara County v. Southersn Pacific Railroad that a private corporation is a natural person under the U.S. Constitution—although, as noted above, the Constitution makes no mention of corporations—and is thereby entitled to the protections of the Bill of Rights, including the right to free speech and other constitutional protections extended to individuals.

Thus corporations finally claimed the full rights enjoyed by individual citizens while being exempted from many of the responsibilities and liabilities of citizenship. Furthermore, in being guaranteed the same right to free speech as individual citizens, they achieved, in the words of Paul Hawken, “precisely what the Bill of Rights was intended to prevent: domination of public thought and discourse. The subsequent claim by corporations that they have the same right as any individual to influence the government in their own interest pits the individual citizen against the vast financial and communications resources of the corporation and mocks the constitutional intent that all citizens have an equal voice in the political debates surrounding important issues.

These were days of violence and social instability brought on by the excesses of capitalism that Karl Marx described to powerful political effect. Working conditions were appalling, and wages scarcely covered subsistence. Child labor was widespread. By one estimate, 11 million of the 12.5 million families in America in 1890 subsisted on an average of $380 a year and had to take in boarders to survive. Both organized and wildcat strikes were common, as was industrial sabotage. Employers used every means at their disposal to break strikes, including private security forces and federal and state military troops. Violence evoked violence, and many died in the industrial wars of this era.

These conditions gave impetus to a growing labor movement. Between 1897 and 1904, union membership rose from 447,000 to 2,073,000. Unions provided fertile ground for the thriving socialist movement that was taking root in America and called for the socialization and democratic control of the means of production, natural resources, and patents. These were times of open class warfare, with zealous new recruits joining the army of the dispossessed in growing numbers—ready to fight and sacrifice for the cause. Socialists who sought to organize labor along class lines vied for primacy with more conventional unionists who preferred to organize along craft or industrial lines.

These movements united ethnic groups. An emergence of black pride and culture began to unify blacks. The women’s movement took hold, with women forming their own labor unions, leading strikes, and assuming active roles in populist and socialist movements. In 1920, female suffrage (the right to vote) was guaranteed by a constitutional amendment.

Jaitapur Nuclear Plant :

Villagers refused to take compensation cheques, showed black flags to DM

There was a big protest in Madban (Jaitapur, Ratnagiri district) when on December 29, the District collector came to distribute checques to the villagers, and some 1500 villagers collected and demonstrated with black flags and refused to take cheques. The protest was in the news, and it got good coverage.

The Mumbai support group has also accelerated its activities, and they had a dharna on December 28 in Azad Maidan in which nearly 70 people participated. The dharna got good coverage in the TV. The dharna was timed to get coverage today so that the news would come along with the visit of the officials to Madban, next day.

Another group of activists along with Vaishali Patil, the fiery activist who has led the struggles in Sindhudurg against mining there, is going to Madban and nearby villages to campaign and give a boost to the movement in the second week of January. Activists from Pune adn Mumbai will participate in this campaign.

The Fishworkers Forum is also being mobilized to participate in this struggle and to take out a boat rally, against to the proposed nuclear plant. (PNN)

Youth camp of Jagrat Vidyarthi Samaj at Sonipat (Haryana)

A youth camp of Jagrat Vidyarthi Samaj (JVS), a youth wing of Azadi Bachao Andolan was organised in Government Senior Secondary School, Sonipat on December 27, 28 and 29. The camp was conducted by Sumit Chauhan, local convenor of JVS and a stident of Hansraj college, Delhi University. Students of colleges of Sonipat and Hansraj College participated in the camp. The campers were addressed by Yashvir Arya, ABA Haryana Convenor, Dr. Swatantra Jain, Former professor of Kurukshetra University, Shiraj Kesar, ABA North India Convener, Manoj Tyagi. It was decided to mobilise students against MNCs, and spread JVC in all colleges.

Producers’ Company to be formed in Belari (Moradabad)

Social activists Dr. Rakesh Rafique organised a meeting of milk producers and farmers’ representatives at Belari on December 26. Farmers of this area are planning to start processing and marketing themselves milk and other agricultural produces. And for this want to form a producers’ company under the 2002 Act. They want to switch over to organic farming. North India Convenor of Azadi Bachao Andolan Manoj Tyagi explained in details the procedure of forming producers company and its functioning. The meeting was held in Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan School.

Film Festival and Workshop on Media and Journalism

A 14 day Film Festival is being organized by Film Archive of Swaraj Vidyapeeth from January 17 to 30 Films related to social change, environment and climate change, human Rights and rights of women and children, are being shown. Film makers, directors and social activists are participating in it. The main programmes of the Festival are being held in the ‘Sabha Mandap’ of the Vidyapeeth and programmes on 18 and 19 were held in different colleges and educational centres also.

Media and Journalism Workshop was held from January 19 to 27. In this workshop apart from giving technical training of media and journalism, renowned journalists, editors and social activists delivered lectures on the contribution of journalism to the freedom movement, corporatization of media, challenges before media. Students of universities, young journalists and social activists took training in the workshop. Those who addressed the participants of the workshop (150 in number) included shri Vinod Mishra former editor of Dainik Bhaskar, Prof. Anil Sadgopal, Prof. Banwari Lal Sharma, Dr. K.S. Anandi, Shri Manoj Shrivastava, Shri Manoj Tyagi, Shri Rinku, Dr. Atul Mishra and Sant Sameer from HT group of publication. Editor of Jan Morcha gave the concluding speech and distributed cartificates to the participants. Dr. Atul Mishra concluded the workshop. No fee was charged from the participants.

Both these programmes were held at Swaraj Vidyapeeth campus; 21B, Motilal Nehru Road, Allahabad. Phone 09235406243. There was no entrance or participation fee.

Convention of representatives of people’s

March 27, 28, 2010, Swaraj Vidyapeeth, Allahabad

To coordinate various struggles and movements going on oneconomic, social and environmental fronts in the country so as to build a national movement to face the challenges thrown by the present crisis, a convention of representative-activists of various movements going on in the country will be held in Swaraj Vidyapeeth, Allahabad on March 27, 28, 2010. This decision was taken in a similar but smaller meeting at Bhopal on January 12 and 13, attended among others by Medha Patkar (Narmada Bachao Andolan), Professor Banwari Lal Sharma (Azadi Bachao Andolan), Amarnath Bhai (Sarva Seva Sangh), Sunil (Samajvadi Jan Parishad), Janak Lal Thakur (Chhattiesgarh Mukti Morch), Anand Majhagaonkar (National Alliance of People’s Movements), Gautam Bandyopadhaya (Nadi Ghati Morcha), Vivekanand Mathne (Movements Committee, Sarva Seva Sangh) and Madhuresh (NAPM). For the Convention, a list of more than 250 invitees including activists of various struggles and concerned intellectuals drawn from all over the country was prepared and invitation are being issued to them.

Participants of the Bhopal meeting discussed in depth the various forms of the present crisis, large scale displacement from land, destruction of agriculture, corporatization of economy and polity, shameful inequality and poverty, rising unemployment, high price-rise, grab of resources by multinationals, consumerism, social disintegration, violence on women, extremism and terrorism, loss of sovereignty and democratic values and environmental crisis. They strongly felt that the whole system has become anti-people and the country is heading towards civil war. Education, health care and culture have become means of profit making.

Activists have realized that the present crisis is so big and multidimensional that no single movement/organization can cope with it. A joint, united efforts to build a national movement is the need of the hour. Allahabad convention will expore how to transform the present crisis into a great opportunity.

Return of Feudalism in Garb of Democracy

Political Commentary

Former Chief Minister of U.P. Kalyan Singh, who has earned reputation of changing political colours form Nationalist – Communal BJP to secular Socialist Party, has launched a new political party, Jan Kranti Party. A party devoted to ‘people’s revolution’ is most welcome. But who will bring about this revolution? People, No, he and his son-Rajveer Singh will do the job, Kalyan Singh is the patron the kingmaker and his son is coronated as the president - the king.

Kalyan has done nothing new. H has followed the political system which has emerged after two decades of independence. We adopted democracy as our governing ideology in which political parties are the carriers of the people’s political will and in fact they are the platforms where people can express the views, opinions and social, economic and political agenda. But this remained on the paper. After Nehru, except for a brief interlude of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the main political party, Congress has become a family affair. After Nehru’s death, his daughter, after her murder, her son, after his murder his wife and now her son is emerging as ‘yuvaraj’, an MP., General Secretary of Congress and a projected PM.

Socialists used to attack vociferously this dynasty rule (Parivarvad). But see what is happening in the Socialist Party. A person is its president and MP, his brothers MP and MLA, party secretary, his son is an MP, and his son’s wife was launched as an MP candidate. Another socialist was chief minister of a state, he had to resign because of corruption charges. Who succeeded him as his party chief, CM, not a person elected by his legistative party in the state assembly, but his wife, who was an expert in house and cows keeping, was given charge of looking after a new house and new cows herded in this house.

We have enough of North. Let us see what is happening in East, West and South. In Orissa, the present chief minister’s father was also a chief minister. In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena should be named as Thakre Sena. It is a family affair and as there used to be palace politics (bothers fighting amongst themselves to succeed the throne during feudal days) the same thing is happening in this family now. In Andhra Pradesh, a cinema actor and became CM was succeeded by his wife as his party chief and by his son-in-law as chief minister. The situation in Tamil Nadu is much worse. There is a divided family affair. An actor CM has been succeeded by in turn by his co-actress and by his script writer for the film story. The whole family is managing the show as ministers, MLA and MP.

V.P. Singh’s Jan Morcha was headed, after his death, by his son. Chaudhury Charan Singh’s Jat state has chosen his son as its new king, BJP seems to be an exception to this family succession rule, perhaps because its leader Atal Behari Bajpai was a bachelor.

This scenario of feudal structure in political parties is also visible at local levels. Sons and daughters, wives of ministers and MPs are considered as good candidates. A few months ago, a team of 20 ‘yuvaraj’ MPs, sons and daughters of ministers and MPs, was sent to Yale University in the USA to get training in governance and development.

This new feudal structure in the garb of democracy is exhibited in a new way. Look at the front page headlines of the leading news papers: Maya launches Rs 7,312 crore schemes on her birthday (as a gift to the people of Uttar Pradesh). These schemes include those related to health care, drinking water, sewage, drainage, housing for poor, power substation. This used to happen in the feudal days when kings and Nawabs used to distribute alms etc. to their rayots. The schemes which have been announced by the UP CM on her birthday are schemes which ought have been started long back as the government’s programme. This is the government’s job, whosoever may be the CM. Mayavati was not distributing the money for these schemes from her pocket.

The present representative democracy is under double attack- internally and externally. Internally, the feudalism has creeped into it. Externally giant multinationals are dictating governments and it is rightly said that now democracy is of the corporations by the corporations and for the corporations.

It is a big challenge. It is high time, all people’s movements, people’s organization, concerned intellectuals, citizens and above all students rise to the occasion, get united and launch a nation wide movement to restore democratic values.

100% Green Energies are Power to the People

 Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

{On the occasion of the release of a new book- Green Energies: 100% Renewable by 2050 on November 25, 2009, its lead author. Dr. Ho, Director of Institute of Science in Society, gave the following passionate speech in London: Ed.}

What we need is to restore power to the people in all senses of the word ‘power’, through a commitment to100% renewable energies by 2050. This is realistic, much more so than the non-renewable options favoured by the UK and other governments, and much more affordable.

Renewable energy is inexhaustible energy that does not run out. Moreover, it is free; once you install your own equipment to capture it, no one can meter it, if you don’t want them to, or cut off your supply. It is in principle available to all, so there is no need to fight over it. We, the people, are in control.

Being renewable is not enough. It has to be green, which means also being environmentally friendly, healthy, safe, non-polluting, and sustainable. ‘Sustainable’ needs more comment as it has been hijacked too often to mean just the opposite.

Being sustainable is to endure for hundreds or thousands of years like natural ecosystems, thanks to a circular economy of reciprocity and cooperation that renews and regenerates the whole. It is just the opposite of the dominant neoliberal economy driven by competition and exploitation that has brought the planet and its inhabitants to the brink of irreversible catastrophe, not to mention the actual financial collapse.

Therefore it is important to modify Brundtland’s definition of sustainability as follows: to use natural resources responsibly and equitably, to meet the needs of all in the present without compromising the needs of future generations. This makes sense, as truly green and renewable energies are freely available to all in any case.

Unfortunately, our political leaders are overwhelmingly blind to these simple facts. They are committed to the neoliberal paradigm, and held to ransom by big business. Truly green renewable energies that give power to the people do not leave enough profit to satisfy greedy big business!

That’s why the Copenhagen summit is collapsing before it begins. Big business and big governments are fighting people to prevent them taking power, and fighting one another to get a larger slice of the power pie.

Being renewable and green is good whether or not you believe in climate change

The debate between climate scientists has just blown up over some hacked e-mails. Let me say this now: global warming is real and human activities have a lot to do with it. That’s the best explanation of all the observations, past and present.

It is important to realize that being renewable and green is good, regardless of whether you believe in climate change. It solves our energy problem, puts people back in control, and gives us a cleaner, safer, healthier environment.

The coal and oil industries are desperate for any excuse to carry on business as usual. So please don’t give them that. People are falling for all kinds of conspiracy theories except the most obvious one-that big business is out for big profit, and they will exploit all avenues to get it. If they can’t have business as usual on the basis that human activities are not responsible for climate change, then they’ll get bogus carbon-credits for saving the climate.

Trading carbon-credits does not give power to the people because it allows big polluters to shift the burden of reducing CO2 to developing countries least able to cope, and already suffering the brunt of climate disasters. It also financialises the problem, preventing real solutions while plundering the public coffers. The collapse of the economy should serve as a lesson, as it is caused by an unregulated financial market that creates ‘wealth’ out of nothing, which is ruinous to the real economy of goods and services.

Global warming is real and human-induced

The best rebuttal to the climate deniers and sceptics is a paper written by Jim Hansen and colleagues. Hansen is a scientist with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and not at all popular with the oil or coal industry or the US government. Hansen and colleagues are critical of the latest Inter-government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, because the climate models used are not good enough, failing to even predict the summer polar ice melts that have been making headlines for several years now.

Hansen and colleagues’ paper explains convincingly why the IPCC model is too conservative and at the same time answers the sceptics.

One main argument of the sceptics is that CO2 can’t be responsible for global warming, because in the past history of the earth, changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration lag behind temperature by some 800 years.

However, the current situation is just the opposite: although temperature has increased, CO2 has risen much faster than temperature. So what’s the explanation?

The main findings from Hansen and colleagues are the following :

1. The present is a non-equilibrium state when greenhouse gases (GHGs) from human activities are rising much faster than the system can respond, and is not the same as the equilibrium state in the past history of the earth.

2. IPCC models only take account of fast feedback processes whereas slow feedback from GHG (and vegetation) changes needs time to work through the system, in particular the oceans.

3. Including the slow feedback processes produces a much better fit of the temperature changes in the past history of the earth to CO2 levels.

4. In fact, CO2 has twice the effect on temperature than the IPCC attributed. And this led to the conclusion that 350 parts per million (ppm) atmospheric CO2 concentration is the target to aim for, not 450 ppm as indicated by the IPCC.

The head of the IPCC has agreed with the new target.

That means we must reduce the present levels of 385 ppm back down to 350 and soon. Hansen and colleagues said it can be done by ceasing to burn coal, unless efficient carbon capture and storage (CCS) can be developed.

False solutions must be abandoned

CCS is not available until 30 years from now at the earliest, and it is much too expensive, very likely to be ineffective and unsafe.

What about nuclear? Nuclear is not a renewable energy. The so-called nuclear renaissance is unraveling because nuclear is well recognized as highly unsafe, uneconomical and unsustainable. The nuclear industry in the US has been unable to overturn a single state ban so far, and Obama has put a freeze on Yucca Mountain as a long-term nuclear waste storage site. UK and France may well be in the minority in Europe to commit themselves to nuclear energy.

Another trap to avoid is the so-called ‘International Biochar Initiative’ that turns bioenergy crops into charcoal to be buried in the ground. This supposedly allows both harvesting energy from biomass and sequestering lots of carbon in the soil to improve soil fertility, because charcoal remains stable for hundreds if not thousands of years while increasing crop yields.

It turns out that charcoal does degrade, sometimes quite rapidly, and the effect on crop yields is erratic. Most of all, the proposal to plant energy crops on hundreds of millions of hectares of illusory ‘spare land’ was precisely the same as for biofuels five years earlier, which has already resulted in land grab, acceleration of deforestation, and dangerous exacerbation of the atmospheric oxygen downtrend.

New research show that while CO2 has been rising, oxygen has been depleting from the atmosphere faster than can be accounted for by the increase in CO2. Furthermore, this downtrend has accelerated since 2003, coinciding with the biofuels boom. So climate policies that focus exclusively on carbon sequestration could be disastrous for all oxygen breathing organisms including humans.

We must abandon the false solutions and go for the truly green energies that are already available in abundance.

Huge potentials for green energies

Wind turbines on all available land surfaces that are not forests, cities, or covered with ice, and assuming they operate only at 20% of their rated capacity, would supply 40 times the world’s electricity or five times its energy needs. Solar power at a modest 10% efficiency can provide all the world’s energy needs with just 0.1% of the world’s land surface. And methane from anaerobic digestion of organic wastes, which can be used for cooking, heating, generating electricity and running vehicles and farm machinery, saves over 50% of the world’s energy consumption.

In addition, depending on local resources, micro hydroelectric, geothermal, tidal reef, deep water conditioning, etc. are also available.

Green energies are widely available, affordable, efficient, flexible, readily upgraded, and especially if you keep it small, they are unobtrusive, even beautiful, if artists and designers get to work on them. The key is to take advantage of the most readily available local resources. Organic wastes must be the most universally available energy resource in the world, and don’t forget, you also get good fertilizer from the digested residue.

Green energies for energy autonomy

Green energies are especially amenable to distributed, decentralized generation that gives people energy autonomy from the big energy industry. That’s the key to their success.

In 2008, more renewable energies capacity was added than conventional for the first time. Germany has become the world’s first major renewable-energy economy. Renewable energy accounts for 9.5% of total energy consumed supplying 15.1% of electricity. Wind power tops the renewable energies at 25 GW and accounts for 7% of electricity. The rest are: hydroelecgtric and almost equal second, biomass, solar, and geothermal. In 2007 alone, its new renewable capacity grew by the equivalent of two nuclear power plants. The country has been exceeding its successive goals since 2000, and its renewable industry is very optimistic about being 100% renewable by 2050. The key to its success are appropriate government legislation and subsidies, especially feed-in tariffs to stimulate the internal market.

There are wonderful things over the rainbow that you can feast your imagination on: artificial photosynthesis to harvest and store sunlight, thermoelectric devices that can turn waste heat into electricity, and best of all, we can clean up toxic and radio-active nuclear wastes with low-energy nuclear reactions, the notorious cold nuclear fusions that actually work!

So, in conclusion, the world can be 100% renewable by 2050:

• A variety of truly green and affordable options already exist, and more innovations are on the way.

• Policies that promote innovations and stimulate the internal market for decentralized distributed generation are key.

• Global cooperation is crucial; developed nations have an international obligation to support developing nations to fight global warming with renewable energies.

BOX

Recommendations flowing from the book are:

1. An explicit national target should be set for 100% green, renewable energy sources by 2050;

2. Nuclear power, carbon capture and storage, and large-scale biofuel or biochar plantations should be excluded;

3. There should be no carbon trading to offset greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries;

4. The developed nations must take responsibility for reducing their own emissions at home, while providing genuine financial and technological assistance to developing nations that have to cope with the worst effects of climate change;

5. Public investment should be targeted at education, research and development of the appropriate green energy technologies present and future (including those mentioned in the book);

6. Grants and subsidies should be targeted to encourage decentralized, distributed small-scale to micro-generation of green renewable energies, and to promote green initiatives from local communities;

7. Feed-in tariffs should be introduced for all new renewable energies;

8. Existing nuclear power stations should be decommissioned at the end of their designated lifetimes. Uranium mining should cease and clean-up should begin. At the same time, weapons-grade uranium should be consumed in existing reactors in accordance with nuclear disarmament;

9. Major public investment should be directed towards making safe toxic and radioactive nuclear wastes by low-energy nuclear transmutation.

Who Cares for Children?

UNICEF Reports:

On November 20, 1989, in what was a historic moment, the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by a General Assembly Resolution of the United Nations. It came into force on September 2, 1990, and has since been ratified by 193 countries except the United States. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has brought out a special edition of its “The State of the World’s Children” report on the occasion of 20 years of the CRC which coincides with the worst global financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression 80 years ago.

The report recognizes the need for a change in values that respects child rights, and uses terms such as “social transformation” and “reconstruction”, which almost everyone had taken for granted in a global economic scenario in the post-1990s.

What most people in the health and nutrition sector agree broadly is that government should first undertake to provide balanced nutrition to their populations through a universal public distribution system or otherwise, provide health services through a free and universal health care system, and provide free and quality education for all. The report says that an analysis of data from 120 developing countries for the period 1975-2000 indicates that an increase of 1 per cent in education spending as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) over a 15 year period could lead to universal primary school enrolment while reducing poverty.

The report says that nearly half of the developing world’s population lives without basic sanitation facilities. Access to clean drinking water is a distant dream for many people. Again, in some of these countries, the income gaps between different sections, of people are stark. There are people who live on less than half a dollar a day.

{TWN Features}

CUBA TOPS THE CLASS IN UN DEVELOPMENT REPORT

 Jenny Francis

Cuba, once again, shows it can still provide excellent social services despite the ongoing US economic embargo.

The United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report 2009 was released on October 5. It again highlighted some of Cuba’s extraordinary achievements.

The report is the most commonly referenced source on development statistics and measures. It compares the development status and progress in every country.

Among this year’s wide-ranging statistics, the report provides a summary indicator of people’s well-being using the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI combines measures of life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for 182 countries and territories.

The results for Cuba, an impoverished small island subjected to a crippling economic blockade from the United States, stand out, primarily in the areas of health and education of its people.

Cuba’s education index is equal highest in the world, along with Australia, Finland, Denmark and New Zealand. Cuba’s education index is 0.993 of a possible score of 1.

Its adult literacy rate is 99.8% and school enrolments are 100%. Public expenditure on education in Cuba is 14.2% of total government expenditure. This is higher than Australia (13.3%) and the US (13.7%).

Cuba tops the world in the ratio of female to male enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary education, at 121 percent.

Cuba’s life expectancy is 78.5 years, the highest along with Chile in Latin America and the Caribbean. It compares favorably with Australia (81.4 years) and the US (79.1 years).

While Cuba ranks at or near the top in health and education measures, its low GDP per capita, the third element of the HDI, reduces its HDI score. With GDP included, the report ranks Cuba 51st overall in the overall HDR ranking.

Cuba is ranked 95th in the world in GDP per capita. The gap between its low GDP ranking and much higher overall HDI ranking reveals its human development is significantly higher than its GDP per capita might indicate.

The difference between these two rankings can be seen as a measure of the efficiency of converting a nation’s income into the health and education of its people. Cuba heads the world in this category, by a wide margin.

For example, Mexico has more than double Cuba’s GDP, but has a lower HDI. The US is ranked nine in GDP per capita but falls to 13 in HDI ranking, demonstrating a relatively poor conversion of its wealth into health and education for its people.

“Gender empowerment measure” is another indicator listed in the report. One element of this indicator is the percentage of seats held by women in parliament.

In Cuba, 43% of parliamentary seats are held by women, the third-highest level in the world after Rwanda (51%) and Sweden (47%).

In Australia, some 30% of seats in parliament are held by women and the US figure is only 17%.

Since 2005, Azerbaijan, Cuba and Venezuela have improved their HDI more than any other countries. Venezuela was one of the few countries that significantly bettered its HDI ranking since last year, jumping four places from 62 to 58.

Venezuela has achieved a relatively rapid rise of 5.2% in its HDI between 2000 to 2007, compared to a 4.8% increase in its HDI over the previous 20 years.

Inequality is another key development indicator. Australia, which ranked second in human development, is one of the most unequal countries in the so-called developed world.

The report said the income of the richest 10% of the Australian population is 12.5 times the income of the poorest 10 percent. Japan, by contrast, has a ratio of 4.5, Norway 6.1 and Sweden 6.2.

Of the 20 top-ranking countries in this year’s HDI list, only the US, with an inequality ratio of 15.9, has greater inequality than Australia.

Insufficient data was available to measure Cuba’s equality for the report. However, the only such figures that have been recorded for Cuba indicate a ratio between the top 10% and the bottom 10% at around four. Again, this would be close to the best in the world.

The report does not attempt to analyse why some countries do better than other in improving the lives of their people. However, its statistics paint a clear picture.

A government, like in the US and Australia, that makes quality health care and education a privilege for a few will create and exacerbate inequalities.

A government like Cuba’s, which provides free education and health care for everyone, will make gains for all.

Over the 50 years of Cuba’s socialist revolution, in spite of the ongoing economic blockade and with meager resources, Cuba has achieved health and education standards for its people that are the envy of the world.