TRANSFORMING FINANCE TO GROW GREEN SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIES

"We recognize finance as part of the global commons," affirms the Transforming Finance statement, signed by financial professionals worldwide critical of today's casino capital markets. Financialization has produced the global debt bubble. Needed now are write-offs and haircuts to bond-holders and bank shareholders, a curb on bettors buying credit default swaps, as well as below 1% financial transaction taxes to limit volatility and high-frequency trading by computers ?now 60% of all transactions.

CLIMATE CHANGE: THE REAL COST OF BEEF

The livestock industry, particularly cattle production, is one of the world's major contributors to climate change and has become the largest consumer of grain and plants as people in many parts of the world increase the amount of meat and dairy products in their diet. This, combined with unsustainable production practices, particularly in the Brazilian Amazon, could lead to the collapse of the Amazon forest biome and the environmental services it provides to balance the planet.

LIBYA: WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE?

It is a safe assumption that people in general neither like nor love war, they prefer peace. There are distinguished prizes for peace, and peace people like Gandhi, Luther King., Dalai Lama and Mandela to name a few are revered by everyone. There is nothing similar for those who bomb, kill and rape. In consequence all wars and security and defence policies are legitimated by noble motives, among them the wish to maintain or create peace.

CUBA: WHAT’S DELIVERED AND WHAT ISN’T

HAVANA, Oct (IPS) Under the pounding Cuban August sun, three young graffiti artists are working on a wall along one of the central avenues. Passersby look over with curiosity and bewilderment, some perhaps bothered by what seems like a meaningless slathering of paint. A few people ask the meaning of these strange letters and the nonsensical word they spell. It happens to be the name of the founder of the movement of independent graffiti artists that these boys belong to, but written backwards.

HAITI, OCCUPIED AGAIN

Look it up in any encyclopedia: what was the first free country in the Americas. The answer is always the same: the United States. But the United States declared its independence when it was a nation with 650,000 slaves that remained slaves for another century and their constitution originally held that a black slave counted as only three-fifths of a citizen.

BANKS DO NOT LEARN THE LESSONS OF HISTORY

There is not one day going by now without devastating news of the eternal tug-of-war between finance and states. Now we are informed that the Greek government, in order to continue receiving useless subsidies (since it won't solve its problems) will lay off another 30,000 employees. It is difficult to understand how a country that is suffering a critical contraction of its consumption will be able to exit a cruel downward spiral that will cause serious social deficits, without solving its fiscal deficit. However, the banks are not willing to eliminate any of their bad practices that have caused the current crisis.

GENERATION WITHOUT A FUTURE

"The world will be saved, if it can be, by the unsubmissive." Andre Gide

OCTOBER 7, 2001: TEN YEARS WAR ON TERROR, TEN LOST YEARS FOR PEACE

On October 7, 2001, George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan, allegedly in retaliation for the terrorist attack of September 11 on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. This was the start of the "war on terror". The atrocious violence of 9/11 was totally unjustified, and the USA received much sympathy as a victim. Instead of uniting against the US government for its errors, people united against the attackers. But with its violent response, the USA has forfeited the world's initial good will. Both terrorism and state terrorism have demonstrated that violence is counterproductive and backfires.

MIDDLE EAST: FAREWELL TO DICTATORSHIPS AND THE DEATH PENALTY

The approval by the UN General Assembly in December 2007 of the Resolution for a Universal Moratorium against Capital Punishment was a fundamental step forward not only for the anti-death penalty campaign but also for the affirmation of the rule of law and of those natural rights historically won and often written into national law but not always respected.

ARE WE READY TO MEET TODAY’S DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES?

The release on September 22 of the report Aid Effectiveness 2005-2010: Progress in Implementing the Paris Declaration, leads us to ask an important question: Are we any better at delivering aid effectively today than we were five years ago?

CAN BUSAN FORGE A NEW DEAL FOR AFRICA?

In the hope for a fairer deal on aid for the continent, African leaders are planning to present a unified position at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) in Busan, South Korea. Currently, discussions are underway between the African Union, New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), and private sector and civil society representatives on how to improve the impact of aid for the most vulnerable and marginalised. The outcome of these discussions will then be taken to Busan in November this year as the 'African Consensus and Position on Development Effectiveness'.

WHEN MEDICINE BECOMES POISON: PHARMACEUTICALS IN THE WATER SUPPLY

As water grows scarcer and scarcer, the pressure to recycle it grows more intense, and though this makes good ecological sense, there is an unfortunate drawback: the drinking water system worldwide is polluted with pharmaceuticals.

TURKEY: FURTHER THAN EVER FROM JOINING THE EU

The apparently eternal problem of Turkey's entry into the European Union seems even further from resolution. Istanbul, its largest city, is sending mixed signals. The call to prayer from the minarets mixes with the roar of rush hour traffic. The hawking and bargaining in the monumental grand bazaar is thoroughly infiltrated by Western "civilisation".

WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR LIBYA?

According to NATO, the final chapter of Gaddafi's Libya is being written now. The scenario is very similar to the final chapter for Yugoslavia -Milosevic- for Afghanistan -Mullah Omar- Iraq -Saddam Hussein- and for the "War on Terror" -bin Laden: eliminate The Bad Guy. In the future chapters of this neo-crusade, orthodox Christians will also be targeted, just as they were in the crusades from 1095-1291.

IRENE, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE CARIBBEAN

Anyone who discusses international affairs with Americans quickly becomes aware of a fundamental change in syntax without which they find it impossible to converse. The subject of every sentence has to be the United States. If China, India, or Germany, for example, are the focus, the attention of the American interlocutor will waver -unless, perhaps the subject is Israel. The US is the only possible subject of discussion for Americans,with the obvious exception of the cultural elites and US citizens doing business around the world.

THE ISLAMIC WORLD: STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY

Before Islam, Arabia lived for centuries under various forms of "asabiya", variously defined as Arabism, tribalism, or clanism, which led to many long wars. But in 610, Prophet Muhammad, at the age of 40, received the first verses of Al-Quran, challenging the traditional social and political order. Asabiya yielded to brotherhood-sisterhood in a community of values, the Umma, from Umm, mother. Arabs engaged with enthusiasm in this new social order based on the Islamic religion which held that "there is no difference between an Arab and a non-Arab, or between a white and a black, except in degree of piety". Distinctions based on race, ethnic group, colour, gender, etc., disappeared in favour of unity, freedom, justice, and above all rahma (true love).

A PLAN OF ACTION FOR EUROPEAN POLITICS

Before anything else what we need today is a paradigm to diagnose and address the many grave global problems that face us all but are experienced differently in the various regions of the world. Because in Europe the crisis is more evident and is causing the suffering of tens of millions of people, the young especially, we must take it as reality.

CUBA FIVE YEARS LATER

Five years have passed since the announcement by Fidel Castro that because of health problems he was "provisionally" delegating his responsibilities in the Cuban government to a group of five officials headed by his brother Raul until he was well enough to return to office. It would soon become evident that this return was not imminent, and before long Castro announced his withdrawal from active political life, though not from politics.

AFTER PEAK OIL, PEAK GLOBALISATION

For decades the world economy has been on a path towards globalisation. The drive to achieve ever larger economies of scale at ever lower marginal costs pushed manufacturing to standardise, slashing expenses by outsourcing and supply chain management, consolidating suppliers, eliminating unnecessary in-house middle management, pushing for mergers and acquisitions, purging excess to deliver better returns to investors and ever lower prices to customers, thus strengthening their purchasing power and bringing more citizens into the sought-after middle class.

THE THREATS OF THE BOOM-BUST CYCLE

As in previous episodes, a key factor in the current boom in capital flows to developing and emerging economies (DEEs) is a sharp cut in interest rates and a rapid expansion of liquidity in the major advanced economies (AEs), notably the US. This first occurred in a coordinated way after an agreement at the April 2009 G20 summit in London as a countercyclical response to the crisis. In the US, recovery started in summer 2009 but the strong growth of nearly 4 percent in the first quarter of 2010 slowed to less than 2 percent in the second quarter. The response of the US Federal Reserve was to initiate another round of quantitative easing through purchases of long-term treasuries and other securities. Although the declared objective was to stimulate private spending by lowering long-term interest rates and raising asset values, this move has also been widely seen as an effort to weaken the dollar and stimulate exports.

BEYOND GDP TO BETTER WAYS OF JUDGING PROGRESS AND WELL-BEING

At last there seems to be real progress in overhauling the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as measure of a country's status and progress-almost twenty years after 170 governments pledged to do so by signing Article 40 of Agenda 21 at the 1992 Rio Conference.