WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: ANOTHER MODE OF COMMUNICATION IS POSSIBLE

Analysis of the world media carried out after the Fifth World Social Forum (26-31 January) showed that coverage of the Forum\'s activities has shrunk, writes Mario Lubetkin, director-general of IPS. This development seems to jar with the fact that the WSF is the largest and most representative forum of civil society, with higher attendance this year than ever -- about 150,000 -- as well as more than 4000 accredited journalists present from around the world, Lubetkin writes in this analysis. We must pay attention not only to media coverage but also to gaps in coverage caused by media policies, the author argues. It is a question of understanding who decides, and why, to limit coverage of the major themes of civil society, in particular those related to development, which though extremely important to the future of humanity are too often pushed aside by frivolous stories. Only a combination of serious, creative, and participatory initiatives will make it possible to move from the simple assertions and critiques regarding what is covered badly or not at all to a process that provides citizens with the information they need to understand, make decisions, and act. Lubetkin outlines three initiatives by World Forum on Communication and Information to address the situation: the creation of a world network to connect the media present at the forum; the organisation of a virtual global community of journalists; and the creation of a virtual university for journalists. One of the challenges presented by the WSF is to forge another form of communication which can give rise to another form of participation. Without this, the objective of creating \'\'another possible world\'\' will never be more than a wish planted in the imaginations of millions and millions of people.

ECONOMISTS AS ADVOCATES

At last, the public debate over corporate social responsibility has been fully joined by the mainstream financial press. However, to properly context this debate, the enduring myth that economics is a science must be dispelled, writes Hazel Henderson, economist and author of Beyond Globalization and other books. In this article, Henderson writes that in truth, economics is a profession -- one with rather poor quality control. Economists are advocates, not scientists. In 1969 the Central Bank of Sweden, put up USD 1 million to create a prize to confer scientific status and legitimacy on the academic discipline and policy advocacy of the economics profession. Economists need not be embarrassed by this unmasking of their field as a profession rather than a science. Economists have always been advocates of various government policies, regulations or deregulation, and of the interests of their clients (most often bankers, financial firms and corporations in general). All that is necessary is clarity on the part of these professionals and all other advocates - so that the public is fully informed - and the issues are argued honestly.

SILENCE IN NEPAL

Every time we in Nepal think things can\'t get any worse, they do, writes Kunda Dixit, editor of the weekly Nepali Times. Last week, King Gyanendra sacked his prime minister, declared a state of emergency, and suspended civil liberties. Nepal\'s 15-year experiment with democracy now seems over. With complete press censorship, one of the last remaining freedoms from the 1990 People\'s Movement is gone. King Gyanendra\'s move has been welcomed by many Nepalis disenchanted by the instability caused by fractious and corrupt parliamentary leaders and by an insurgency which has cost 12,000 lives in nine years. If this is what the king had to do to restore peace, they say, so be it. In the long run, however, the answer to Maoist totalitarianism is greater and more inclusive democracy, a vibrant free press, and civil liberties. Curtailing freedom polarises society between two radicalisms and wipes out the middle ground. And even as a strategy against the Maoists it could be counterproductive.

DON QUIXOTE OF THE PARADOXES

It was in prison that this adventure in freedom was born. In the jail of Seville, \'\'where every discomfort has its place and every sad sound its home\'\', Don Quixote of La Mancha was engendered, writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and journalist, and author of \"The Open Veins of Latin America\" and \"Memories of Fire\". In this article, Galeano writes that every person contains other possible people, and each world contains its anti-world. This hidden promise, the world that we need, is no less real than the world we know and suffer. This truth is well-known, and fully lived, by the beaten down who still practice the madness of returning to the path, time and time again, because they continue to believe that the path is a challenge that awaits them, and because they continue to believe that righting wrongs is a worthy folly. The impossible helps the possible come to pass. To put it in terms of Don Quixote\'s pharmacy: the magic of this balm of Fierabras is so powerful that at times it saves us from the curse of fatalism and the plague of despair. Isn\'t this, in the end, the great paradox of the human voyage on this earth, that the navigator steers by the stars though he knows he will never reach them?

THE U.N. SHOULD MOVE ITS HEADQUARTERS TO A FRIENDLY LOCATION

Worldwide there is an undercurrent of opinion that as part of UN reform and revitalization, its headquarters should be relocated from New York to another city and host country. This view needs to be argued and articulated in the multilateral arena. It needs to be brought to the attention of the world public opinion and policy makers, writes Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of IPS, and member of the WSF International Committee. In an international community composed of almost 200 states, striving for a genuine, democratic international system, the heart and brain of such a system embodied in the UN, should not be located in a country with hegemonic pretensions, which is systematically trying to make the UN into a docile instrument for the pursuit and attainment of its national goals, while neutralizing any of its roles, functions or actions that it deems contrary to its national interest. The UN cannot feel at ease or function normally in a setting where an important part of the political establishment and of public opinion is openly hostile to it, and in a micro-environment where its presence has become a daily irritant to many and where it is subjected to consistently negative media coverage.

10 YEARS AFTER THE COPENHAGEN SOCIAL SUMMIT: TIME TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN WORDS AND DEEDS

Economic growth is essential for the world to meet the social agenda spelled out 10 years ago in Copenhagen and the objective of reducing global poverty by 50 percent by 2015, writes Steen Jorgensen, Director of Social Development at the World Bank. In this article, Jorgensen writes that growth needs to be socially balanced and therefore development efforts must generate institutions that promote an inclusive approach to economic development, sound governance structures by which authorities are accountable to regular citizens, and a decision-making process that favours consensus-building instead of division and exclusion, which lead to conflict and marginalisation. There is now empirical evidence that social progress is, in many cases, not only a key factor but even a precondition to sustained economic growth. Social investments during good times paid off during crisis and enabled communities to bounce back faster. Decades of development experience have shown that when societies are guided by the key principles of inclusion, cohesion, and accountability, development efforts are more successful and lasting.

RECONSTRUCTION AFTER TSUNAMI MUST BEGIN QUICKLY

Reconstruction should begin quickly, the author writes in this analysis. This stage is not just a matter of financial resources and physical infrastructure but also human beliefs and emotional pressures. It is rebuilding the individual lives of real people. As we move from relief to rebuilding, it is critical that we work to break the cycle of poverty and create a better, more hopeful future for the peoples of the region and not recreate the circumstances that made them vulnerable to the disaster. There is an increasing concern that the overall level of assistance to help all these poor countries including the tsunami-stricken nations won\'t actually increase but will merely come from shifting existing funds. This is not the answer. We simply cannot divert resources from other essential development projects to one emergency after another.

20 YEARS AFTER BHOPAL: MULTINATIONALS AND HUMAN RIGHTS-FREE ZONES

To mark the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, Amnesty International published a report that documented the continuing plight of people who continue to suffer chronic and debilitating illnesses for which treatment is largely ineffective, writes Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International. In this article, Khan writes that the Bhopal disaster is a prime case of the failure of international and national law to hold corporations accountable for human rights abuses. Notwithstanding the far-reaching impact of companies on human rights, most companies oppose any move towards binding regulations. Instead, following several high-profile cases and public pressure, some business sectors have drawn up voluntary codes of conduct, but these have failed to reduce the negative consequences of corporate behaviour on human rights. Under the current state of law, national systems are effectively unwilling or unable to hold companies operating in their countries accountable. Governments are afraid that, in a globalised economy, if they exercise strict control over businesses, foreign investors will go elsewhere. Companies must be brought within the framework of international human rights law. Yet global rules governing trade and investment are being drawn up without regard to their human rights impact. Amnesty International believes that the United Nations Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights (UN Norms) are the logical next step in a strategy to develop corporate legal accountability This column is part of the series on Globalisation and Human Rights, a joint project of Dignity International and IPS Columnist Service (http://www.dignityinternational.org).

THE MIRAGE OF DEVELOPMENT THROUGH TRADE

A new report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) concludes that the last 40 years of international trade in agriculture have not benefited the developing countries, above all the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), write Frederic Mousseau, Senior Fellow at the Oakland Institute and internationally-renowned food security consultant, and Anuradha Mittal, the founder and director of the Oakland Institute. In this analysis, the authors write that according to the report, trade actually marginalises the poorest countries and their small farmers and mainly benefits large-scale producers and corporations from developed countries. In the last few decades, transnational corporations have increased control over production and trade in developing countries. While it denounces market distortions caused by developed countries, the report does not question the policies that harm agriculture in the developing countries and undermine the livelihoods of their farmers. Instead it recommends measures to make developing countries and their farmers more competitive in an open global economy, suggesting that the trade and market liberalisation are the only chances that poorest nations have to get out of poverty. The authors argue for the adoption of food sovereignty as a national policy for developing countries, including the right to protect their production and markets from an inequitable system.

SHAPING THE FUTURE: THE WORK OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

As the World Economic Forum and the World Social Forum convene in Davos and Porto Alegre, respectively, there is the sense that deep forces we can barely discern are reshaping the world and that the national and global institutions we have always counted are inadequate, write Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and Pamela Hartigan, Managing Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Yet we are optimists, the authors write: for the past four years we have worked closely with the world\'s leading social entrepreneurs whose inspired pragmatism banishes pessimism. While we cannot reformulate our institutional systems overnight, we are convinced that we can do it in the long run because we witness the current work of social entrepreneurs who are now creating different types of institutions that combine public and private sector approaches to achieve economic and social transformation. Governments and aid agencies no longer can be the sole actors in addressing injustice and inequity. The private sector can no longer see itself as simply in the business of making business. And the philanthropic sector cannot be expected to fill in the gaps. We need a hybrid organisation that does all of these things. This column is a part of the special series on \"Globalisation & Human Rights\", a joint effort of Dignity International (http://www.dignityinternational.org) and the IPS Columnist Service.

SPECIAL IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE COVERAGE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM PORTO ALEGRE JANUARY 26-31, 2005: HUMAN RIGHTS IS BEST STRATEGY TO END POVERTY

Will 2005 be a year of breakthrough which moves us closer to realizing the World Social Forum\'s conviction that another world is possible? Or will it be yet another year in which the divides in our world continue to grow? The answer, of course, depends on the choices we make and the values we uphold, writes Mary Robinson, Executive Director of The Ethical Globalisation Initiative and Honorary President of Oxfam International. In this article, the author writes that commitments that should be front and center during 2005 are those that governments made at the start of the 21st century. Five years after the largest gathering ever of heads of state and government solemnly vowed in the 2000 UN Millennium Declaration to spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, it is clear that many countries in the world are falling desperately short of the progress needed to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. In our search for a more ethical globalization, the time has come to return to the values and principles reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The universality of human rights, their focus on human dignity, and their concern for accountability, make them uniquely appropriate for re-shaping development cooperation, fostering good governance, and combating discrimination, disease, and despair.

AN INDIVISIBLE DESTINY

The new geopolitics of human existence demonstrates an unprecedented capacity to fight for large collective interests and to demand solutions that are coordinated and solidary, writes Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil. In this article, Lula writes that while debts must be honored, payment must not mean the euthanasia of the debtor. The holders of the surplus of financial wealth must consider the social deficit afflicting three-quarters of humanity. This cannot be done simply by applying some automatic accounting formula. Rather, it is a matter of bringing about the transformation of social justice into the new border of sovereignty. The author calls for the reform of the hierarchy of the multilateral institutions. If poor countries are to be able to make the fight for development a priority of the global agenda, democracy must be deepened at the center of power. The reform of the UN and particularly the Security Council is part of this agenda. But the line of inequality will not shift as long as political power remains locked in place by a financial system that perpetuates current relationships: 45 percent of the decision-making of the World Bank is assigned to the seven richest countries. Five central economies hold 40 percent of the votes in the International Monetary Fund, while 23 African nations prostrated by hunger have one percent. This column is part of the series on Globalisation and Human Rights, a joint project of Dignity International and IPS Columnist Service (http://www.dignityinternational.org).

TSUNAMI: SIMPLE STEPS THAT COULD SAVE THOUSANDS OF LIVES

In a January 2 interview on CNN, the head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was asked, Why was no warning issued to the countries hit by a tsunami after NOAA detected the earthquake on 26 December? He responded that, first, there was no warning system in place; and second, that NOAA lacked a precise model of the tsunami and could not have known how many people would need to evacuate, writes Dietrich Fischer, Academic Director of the European University Center for Peace Studies in Stadtschlaining, Austria, and Co-director of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. In this article, Fischer writes that even if the job description of the scientists who detected the earthquake did not include warning those whose lives were in danger, it was their moral responsibility to do so. They may not have had phone numbers of the relevant government agencies in the affected countries. But if they had informed people who could pass on the warning, even at night, they might have been able to reach some people in the affected areas who could have forwarded the information to others. And the US State Department could have contacted foreign governments and its embassies in the region directly. It took the tsunami 3 hours and 52 minutes to reach Sri Lanka, less for Thailand, but plenty of time for a warning.

GLOBALISE HUMAN RIGHTS

The challenge before us today is to use the many opportunities globalisation offers to deliver human dignity for all, writes Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this article, the author writes that the power of human rights lies not just in their expression of an aspiration but in their articulation of a legal framework which binds us all. In this age of rapid globalisation, decisions that directly affect people\'s lives are taken beyond national borders; accordingly, it is crucial that we strengthen the capacity of states to defend human rights and the rule of law and to resist policies that will have negative consequences on human rights of their people. The protection of human rights at the country level is critical if international standards, norms, and laws are to have practical effects on the ground. Only when national laws, institutions and procedures effectively work in this direction can the protection of human rights be ensured. This column is part of the special series on \"Globalisation & Human Rights\", a joint effort of Dignity International (http://www.dignityinternational.org) and the IPS Columnist Service.

REMAKING THE WORLD ON A HUMAN SCALE

While the World Social Forum is a wellspring of alternatives, the process of discussion and comparison that generates them is more important than the alternatives themselves, writes Candido Grzybowski, a sociologist, director of IBASE (Brazilian Institute for Socio-economic Analysis) and member of the organising committee of the WSF.. In this article, the author writes that the WSF asserts the primacy of politics, not markets, in human life. To this end the Forum is a process and space for democratic innovation that spurs different social subjects to participate and assert their will over state power, the multilateral institutions, corporations, and the markets. We have taken on the challenge of remaking the world on a human scale, for all human beings. We must contribute to the development of new agendas. And we must not allow warriors and terrorists, market operators and owners of corporations, and their fundamentalism, to dictate the priorities of humanity. We have to propose alternatives. We need an agenda that embraces, here and now, the world and humanity, with the greatest respect but without fear of taking risks or an intention of imposing anything. A collective construction without models or single solutions requires a radical respect for the incomplete, the different, and the plural, but also a constant search. This column is a part of the special series on \"Globalisation & Human Rights\", a joint effort of Dignity International (http://www.dignityinternational.org) and the IPS Columnist Service.

LESS EUPHORIC, THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM RETURNS TO BRAZIL

The mood of this year\'s World Social Forum is likely to be affected by the tsunami tragedy in South as well as the changed national context in the host country: the fiscally-conservative policies adopted by the Lula government, which have generated high unemployment and little growth, writes Walden Bello. executive director of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South. In this article, Bello writes that the debate over the effects of globalisation has long been won by its critics, yet neoliberal policies continue to reign in most developing countries, often in the guise of World Bank-sponsored macroeconomic strategies. Bello writes that the war in Iraq will be a central concern of the meeting. It was, after all, at a WSF-related event, the 2002 European Social Forum in Florence, that the call was issued for the global anti-war march that brought out hundreds of millions of people throughout the world on February 15, 2003. That the WSF has survived and become an institution demonstrates that it has tapped into the vast reservoir of energy of global civil society. This column is part of the special series on \"Globalisation & Human Rights\", a joint effort of Dignity International (http://www.dignityinternational.org) and the IPS Columnist Service.

CORRUPTION KILLS

December 9 is UN International Anti-Corruption Day, in recognition of the first signing ceremony of the UN Convention against Corruption in Merida, Mexico, on 9 December 2003. Since then, 113 countries have signed the Convention, a milestone in international efforts to curb corruption, writes Peter Eigen, Chairman of Transparency International. Nepotism, patronage, and corruption do not just block development and deepen poverty, Eigen writes in this column. They also hold back the development of a private sector in developing countries, and deprive a new generation of the education and healthcare they need to be able to participate in economic development. Corruption not only diverts public funds into the pockets of well-connected individuals. It also deepens a country\'s indebtedness for generations to come: estimates put the cost of corrupt projects in developing countries at more than one-third of the debt burden of the developing world. Corruption robs children of their future, it breeds conflict, mistrust and even war. Corruption kills.

RARITIES

In a world organised around the daily confirmation of the power of the powerful, nothing is rarer that the coronation of the humiliated and the humiliation of the crowned. But in football, at times, this rarest of events does happen, writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and novelist and author of \'\'The Open Veins of Latin America\'\' and \'\'Memories of Fire\'\'. In today\'s world many people find football the only area of identity in which they recognise themselves and in which they really believe. Whatever the reasons may be, collective dignity has a lot to do with the passage of a ball flying through the air. The results of this therapy are quite surprising: it seems capable of reviving lost feelings of fraternity and belonging: sports, especially football, is one of the few places that can provide shelter to those who have no place in the world, and it contributes significantly to re-establishing bonds of solidarity broken by the culture of alienation/separation that is dominant in today\'s world.

THE NEW GHETTOS

The fight against poverty must consist of a long-term policy and be monitored closely and continuously, writes Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992-1996. In this article, Boutros-Ghali writes that without underestimating the importance of emergency aid, this sort of action should be avoided because it is effective only in the short term. More and more frequently, we find that once the crisis has passed and peace is restored, the area in question is abandoned to its fate and almost certain to slide back into misery. It is also necessary to take into account the profound diversity of the situations of those in dire need of assistance. The respective plights of the population of Monrovia during the civil war, the inhabitants of a favela, and a group of refugees cannot be approached in the same manner. Each situation has its own conditions and requires a specific response.

ABOLISH THE ‘NOBEL’ IN ECONOMICS

The so-called \'\'Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics\'\' is not a proper Nobel Prize at all but an award set up in 1969 by the Bank of Sweden to legitimize the economics profession as a science, writes Hazel Henderson, economist and author of Building a Win-Win World and other books. As this year\'s Nobel Prizes were awarded, a number of scientists went public criticizing the mis-labeled \"Nobel\" Memorial Prize in Economics as an embarrassment which diminishes the value of all other Nobel Prizes. In this article Henderson quotes Peter Nobel, Alfred Nobel\'s descendent, as saying \'\'Two thirds of these prizes in economics have gone to US economists, particularly of the Chicago School, to people speculating in stock markets and options. These have nothing to do with Alfred Nobel\'s goal of improving the human condition and our survival. Indeed they are the exact opposite.\'\' In awarding the economics prize, the Swedish Central Bank, in its continuing and subtle campaign to legitimate economic as a \'\'science\'\', still hopes to portray the field as politically neutral. It is precisely these claims that economics shares science\'s \'\'value-free\'\' objectivity and mathematical precision that have given economists their mystique and predominant role in public policy-making worldwide.

HUMAN RIGHTS: A SAD ANNIVERSARY

For us in the 21st century, the fundamental reference for human rights is the Universal Declaration approved by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, writes Mario Soares, president of Portugal from 1986-1996. In this article, Soares writes,\'\'The world is awash in fundamentalism, by which I mean not only the Islamic variety but others as well: the evangelical fundamentalism of the United States which is on the rise in Africa and Latin America and has immense financial resources; and the orthodox Hebrew fundamentalism whose fundamental priority seems to be liquidation of the Palestinian state.\'\' In addition to these \'\'religious\'\' fundamentalisms, we must add market fundamentalism, the engine behind the globalisation without ethics that now dominates the planet and divides it between the rich and the poor, marginalising two-thirds of humanity. Whatever their differences, these fundamentalisms are alike in that they are destroying the world order grounded in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, for better or worse, animates our dream of equality of all people regardless of race, religion, or social conditions.