Zimbabwe: Police indifferent to gender based violence

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Republished permission Inter Press Service (IPS )copyright Inter Press Service (IPS)
http://www.ipsnewsasia.net/ and http://www.ipsnews.net/

Gender-Based Violence: 'Zimbabwe Police Officers Forget Themselves'
By Ignatius Banda

BULAWAYO, (IPS) - Tasha Ncube* has no kind words for the police. Early last month, the 31-year-old mother of two was beaten several times by her husband over what she says were small arguments. This was the first time in a marriage that has gone for years without any such occurrence.

"I began suspecting he must be seeing someone as I have heard such stories before about men with ‘small houses’ suddenly being moody," Ncube said. Small house is a local euphemism for a lover.

"When I confronted him he went mad and he beat me up. I reported him to the police."

But Ncube did not get the response she expected. "They said I should go back home and ask relatives to mediate as they were getting many reports from women who withdrew charges after the husband apologised. I was so angry I did not know what to say..."

Like many other women, she returned home to continue life with her abusive husband.

Officers 'interpreting' law

Ncube’s case is typical example of what gender activists say is a glaring gap between the enforcement and interpretation of legal provisions that seek to protect women from gender-based violence.

Gender activists and the gender ministry made groundbreaking strides over several years to push GBV legislation through Parliament. The Domestic Violence Act was finally passed by Parliament in 2007 amidst much celebration.

But Irene Zwelibanzi, an activist who has spent several nights in police cells after Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) organised demonstrations in the streets of Bulawayo says police attitudes towards women are yet to change.

"Some male police officers forget that when they are at work they are professionals but they still behave like uneducated men in the street and demean women who seek their protection," Zwelibanzi complained.

"This is not helping the fight we are waging for our rights as we are also now fighting to change the attitudes of the police themselves," she said.

Police: 'We do take it seriously'

The Zimbabwe Republic Police maintains that it has done much to sensitise members of the force on dealing with domestic violence cases and how to handle reports, especially from battered women.

The Domestic Violence Act stipulates that domestic violence is punishable by up to 10 years. This is the reason some police officers give for not taking all reports seriously, claiming that some wives do not want to see their husbands locked up for that long.

"Sometimes we get wives reporting their husbands for beating them up, but after locking him up, the wife comes only a few minutes later to say she has forgiven him and wants to withdraw the charges," said an officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It’s not that we do no take these reports seriously, but sometimes it helps that these disputes do not reach the police station if marriages are to be saved," the officer reasoned.

"I think it is generally about gender relations -- how sensitive men are to women’s experiences of domestic violence, particularly women they don’t know," says Amanda Atwood of kubatana.net, a forum for Zimbabwe online activists and bloggers.

"How comfortable are women generally discussing issues of domestic violence with strangers, particularly men?" Atwood reflected.

Meanwhile, according to research conducted this year by the Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre and Network, domestic violence accounted for more than 60 percent of murder cases in Harare’s High Court, providing insight into the gravity of the situation.

Raising profile of GBV

There has been a push to give the issue prominence in the constitution making process with advocacy based on evidence of the high cost of GBV to the nation. In particular, medical costs, justice, transport, school fees, loss of working hours, treatment of sexually-transmitted infections, HIV and loss of household income have been cited.

Efforts to address GBV at community level are generally dismissed as ineffective by women like Ncube who say the non-involvement of law enforcement officers means such initiatives are ignored by men.

As part of a Gender Based Violence Strategy and Implementation Plan, the Gender Ministry, together with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has been conducting training of community-based counsellors.

Rejoice Timire, executive director of the Disabled Women Support Organisation, says women living with disability have not been spared either. Timire called for the needs of this oft forgotten group of women to be addressed during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence.

"There is high unemployment and economic dependency and this has left the women with disability more vulnerable to abuse," Timire told IPS.

Ncube is still hurting from the double abuse she suffered – at the hands of her husband and the police who refused to act. "I obviously feel bad about having reported my husband. Not because I reported him but because the police refuse to do anything about it," she said.

*Names have been changed.

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OSCE: Clinton urges to renew efforts on Karabakh

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that the OSCE must renew efforts for resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

“Speaking on behalf of the Co-chairs of the Minsk Group, I repeat that peace should base on the Helsinki principles as well as on the six provisions worked out by Presidents Medvedev, Sarkozy and Obama,” she said when addressing the OSCE summit which kicked off in Kazakh capital of Astana on December 1.

She also stressed that the OSCE must have a stronger role in preventing new conflicts and seeking peaceful solutions to the existing ones.

"There is no other regional organization as well positioned to address the protracted conflicts in the OSCE area," Clinton said.

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Sudan: Over 2 million voters registered for South Sudan referendum in two weeks

Julius N. Uma writing for the Sudan Tribune reports a total of 2,120,557 voters have registered in southern Sudan for the regions referendum on independence in the last 14 days, according to officials from Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau (SSRB). About 64,627 southern Sudanese residing in northern Sudan have also registered since the process began on November 15.

Justice Chan Reec Madut, the SSRB Chairperson told a media briefing in Juba, the South Sudan capital, with the recent extension of the voter's registration deadline from December 1 to December 8, the number of registered voters is expected to increase tremendously.

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Iran: Indian MP - CIA, Mossad behind Iranian scientist killing

New Delhi, IRNA -- Expressing abhorrence at the terrorist attack on Iranian academics, an Indian leader Tuesday said: “CIA and Mossad are involved in killing of Iranian scientist”.

Scientist Dr. Majid Shahriari was killed and Dr. Fereydoun Abbasi was injured in two separate terrorist attacks on their cars Monday morning while they were on their way to Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

Talking to IRNA, Asif Mohd Khan, Member of Legislative Assemby of Delhi, extended his sympathies to the family of the deceased and wished speedy recovery to the injured.

Terming the killing of a academician as 'heinous crime against entire humanity', Asif condemned US and Israel for their hegemonic policies towards Iran.

He urged the peace loving nations not only condemn this “inhuman act” in simple words but stand up for a collective fight against these hegemonic policies which pose threat to the stability of the region in particular and the whole world in general.

Earlier in January 2010 a Physics Professor of Tehran University, Dr. Masoud Ali Mohammadi, was killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast in front of his home in northern Tehran.

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Afghanistan: On the road to transition?Italian military 's Arena Base

The Arena military base under Italian command is part of International Security Assistance Force operations in western Afghanistan. It is in a province considered a good example for the transition from coalition forces' control and that of the Afghan authorities....
http://www.euronews.net/

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Uganda/Sudan: Hoping for peace, afraid of war - the dilemmas of repatriation and belonging on the borders of Uganda and South Sudan

Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Download full report

This paper is about the reality of repatriation for Sudanese refugees in a context of political upheaval, a fluctuating security situation and a demanding economic environment. After decades in exile, almost a quarter of a million officially registered refugees in Uganda and similar numbers of unregistered refugees are considering the prospect of returning to Sudan. And many have already done so. Based on interviews conducted with refugees and returnees in northern Uganda and South Sudan, this paper is about the lives of individual Sudanese people who are either still living in Uganda and might identify themselves as refugees, migrants, traders or a little bit of all three, or have returned to South Sudan after decades in exile.

Common throughout, and driving the process, is a strong desire to restore the roots, status and belonging hat have been lost through exile. This group of Sudanese people have spent years or even decades in a protracted situation in which, until recently, all three durable were elusive for the majority. Despite the government of Uganda's generosity in giving considerable land to refugees, local integration has been impeded by the fact that refugee status and assistance has been dependent on living in settlements characterised by lack of freedom of movement, at least officially; resettlement numbers have been relatively low; and repatriation only became a possibility with the signing of a peace deal between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the government of Sudan in 2005.

At the same time, it should be noted that many refugees in fact opted out of the settlement structure and have effectively created their own "durable solution" through a combination of economic and social integration within the Ugandan population, and ongoing movement in and out of Sudan, (what Van Hear refers to as "transnationalism".) Yet in the absence of stability in Sudan or of the prospect of obtaining official Ugandan citizenship, legally their status remained vulnerable.

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OPT: "Prolonged occupation, a new type of crime against humanity"

Source: United Nations Human Rights Council

The Special Rapporteur Richard Falk urged the United Nations and the international community to draft a new protocol of international humanitarian law to address the situation of prolonged occupation and refugee status imposed upon the Palestinian people for over 43 years of Israeli occupation.

"The Palestinian experience suggests the need for a new protocol of international humanitarian law," he said in a statement issued Monday to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Mr. Falk stressed the need to impose "some outer time limit after which further occupation becomes a distinct violation of international law, and if not promptly corrected, constitutes a new type of crime against humanity."

For the independent expert designated by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, "the UN and the international community as a whole will be judged in the future by whether effective action is now taken to end the humanitarian catastrophe that has befallen the Palestinian people."

"In this respect," Mr. Falk warned, "the UN, the governments and the peoples of the world will be all be judged complicit to the extent that this persistent violation of fundamental human rights is endured without taking the necessary steps in a spirit of urgency and commitment to bring this abusive occupation to an end and achieve Palestinian self-determination in accordance with international law and the dictates of global justice."

Regarding current efforts to reactivate a peace process between Israel and the Palestinian authorities, the UN Special Rapporteur reminded that "negotiation between the parties to the conflict needs to be guided by the implementation of several principles of international law if a settlement of the conflict is to achieve Palestinian self-determination."

These principles, as set forth in General Assembly Resolution 48/158, 20 December 1993, include the following:

- withdrawal from Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;

- resolving the Palestinian refugee problem in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 181 and subsequent resolutions;

- dismantling settlements established during the occupation;

- fixing of secure and internationally recognized borders;

- guaranteeing free access to sacred sites and religious buildings throughout historic Palestine.

"A peace process that does not heed these guidelines, with appropriate degrees of flexible implementation," Mr. Falk warned, "cannot realize either self-determination for the Palestinian people or peace with security and justice for both Palestinians and Israelis."

In 2008, the UN Human Rights Council designated Richard Falk (United States of America) as the fifth Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights on Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. The mandate was originally established in 1993 by the UN Commission on Human Rights.

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Haiti: Haiti's Post-Quake Poll Impasse

Source: Institute of Development Studies (IDS)

Hopes that Haiti's general election would bring a degree of political stability and enable reconstruction and development in the quake-ravaged and poverty-ridden Caribbean nation were dealt a blow last Sunday.

Amid allegations of irregularities and fraud, the country's electoral authorities and international observers must now act quickly and decisively. A high dose of transparency and reliable, well-communicated information are necessary to prevent this crucial poll from undermining Haiti's chances of building the reconstruction governance structures it so urgently needs.

February's elections postponed

On 12 January 2010, the hemisphere's poorest country suffered the worst ever natural disaster in the Americas. An estimated death toll of 250,000 and the vast destruction sustained by Haiti's government, institutions and physical infrastructure forced the postponement of February's legislative elections. The quake also cast doubt over the feasibility of holding presidential polls at year's end, as stipulated by the constitution.

With no working parliament and faced with the prospect of a breakdown of the constitutional order, President René Préval and Haiti's international partners realistically did not have a choice. Building legitimacy for the country's 'Building Back Better' strategy - emphatically backed by UN Special Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton - meant pushing for general elections in November.

Obstacles to a successful election

That push was justified, but it could now backfire. Both the Haitian government and the international donor community seem to have underestimated the serious obstacles to, and downplayed the political risks of, holding elections in the taxing and volatile post-disaster situation, aggravated by a recent outbreak of cholera.

It was assumed that the commitment and large support offered by the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Organisation of American States (OAS) and other international organisations would be enough to pave the way for successful polls and keep a lid on the problems that historically have surrounded elections in Haiti. In addition, a make-believe post-quake rhetoric of overcoming politics-as-usual and building a national consensus for reconstruction was blurring perceptions of reality.

Allegations of fraud and irregularities

Even before polling stations closed on Sunday, 12 of the 19 presidential candidates, including Mirlande Manigat, a former First Lady and election frontrunner, cried foul. While Manigat has backtracked since, fraud allegations persist and serious irregularities have been confirmed by the OAS observer mission. The Provisional Electoral Council (CPE), which is accused of being biased in favour of the incumbent's candidate, Jude Celestin, has acknowledged problems but maintains that they are minor and do not invalidate the poll.

The official election results will be known in a week at the earliest. However, in the absence of clear and sufficient assurances that the vote count will be conducted fairly and rigorously this could be too long for too many people in this suffering nation.

What is needed now, and with utmost urgency, is a clear and transparent account of what happened on election day. Equally, all efforts have to be made to render the process of establishing the official result transparent. The last thing Haiti needs at this point is to be dragged into chaos by an election that was justifiably seen as a necessary and fundamental step toward political stability but then turned out to be impossible. The country's reconstruction hinges on the outcome of Sunday's polls.

Markus Schultze-Kraft is Governance Team Leader and Research Fellow at IDS.

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Slavery: Plan to End Slavery Earns Grawemeyer Award

A blueprint for eliminating modern slavery has earned its creator the 2011 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves, a human rights organization based in Washington, D.C., won the $100,000 annual prize for ideas set forth in his 2007 book, "Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves."

In the book, Bales outlines steps to end the enslavement of some 27 million people worldwide. Slavery and human trafficking are tightly interwoven into the modern global economy, so new political and economic policies must be enacted to suppress them, he says.

Slavery, illegal in every country but still widely practiced, can be stopped within 30 years at a cost of less than $20 billion, a much cheaper price tag than most other social problems, he argues.

Several high-profile organizations already have adopted elements of Bales' plan.

In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Act, an anti-slavery law which includes recommendations from his book. The non-profit group International Justice Mission added "the end of slavery" to its goals, while Lexis-Nexis' charitable foundation gave away hundreds of copies of "Ending Slavery" to the American Bar Association.

"Bales lays out an urgent human challenge, offers ways to make a difference and challenges the reader to become part of the solution," award jurors said.

Since 2001, Bales' group has liberated thousands of slaves in India, Nepal, Haiti, Ghana, Brazil, Ivory Coast and Bangladesh.

A consultant to the U.N. Global Program on Trafficking of Human Beings, Bales also has advised governments in Britain, Ireland, Norway and Nepal on slavery. He developed policies on slavery and human trafficking for the West African States, co-wrote a report on forced labor for the International Labor Office and studied human trafficking in the United States for the National Institutes of Justice.

In 2008, the Association of British Universities named his work one of the top "100 world-changing discoveries." His 1999 book, "Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy," was translated into nine languages and made into a documentary that won Emmy and Peabody awards.

Five Grawemeyer Awards are presented each year for outstanding works in music composition, ideas improving world order, psychology, education and religion. Winners of the other 2011 Grawemeyer Awards also are being announced this week.

Source: University of Louisville

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Animal Welfare: Tony The Tiger - Tiger Truck Stop Continues To Fuel Public Outrage

A 10-year-old Bengal/Siberian-mix Tiger that is being kept in a concrete and steel cage at a 24-hour truck stop off of Interstate Highway I-10 continues to fuel public outrage, as tens of thousands of people across the U.S. continue to sign petitions calling for LA state wildlife officials to bring an end to the dire situation.

"Tony" the Tiger has been on display as an advertising gimmick for nearly 10 years, and lives in a cage situated less than 100 feet from a long line of Diesel fuel pumps where large tractor-trailers come to refuel all day and night.

The exhaust fumes and loud truck noises are just part of what wildlife advocates point out as being inhumane conditions for keeping a Tiger.

Additional noise and pollution is also generated by heavy interstate traffic located just a few hundred feet in the opposite direction... and posted signs warning visitors not to throw objects at the Tiger have been posted out of necessity.

Yet, truck stop owner, Michael Sandlin, has continued to keep the Tiger on display despite public controversy, insurance lapses and permit issues with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF).

"Tony is all alone after other similar tigers were sold and taken from the truck stop, and his routine of incessantly pacing back and forth clearly demonstrates his disturbed state," says Veterinarian Christine Kratt, who has been closely following the case.

LDWF's Large Carnivore Manager Maria Davidson stated: "It is the Department's position that private possession of tigers poses a significant hazard to public safety and is detrimental to the health of the animal. Prolonged confinement is by its nature stressful to tigers and proper long-term care by experienced persons is essential to the health of the animal."

Sky Williamson, a representative from the Free Tony The Tiger Campaign, says "We've reached a critical point in trying to secure Tony a new home at a free-roaming Wildlife Sanctuary, as the Louisiana Wildlife Commission is meeting to review Sandlin's permit this Thursday, December 4th, 2010, and we feel this is the perfect opportunity for people to let the Commissioners know that the permit should not be renewed. We're asking concerned people to contact the Commissioners before the meeting in order to demonstrate how many people truly care about Tony's welfare."

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission has scheduled the next regular public board meeting for 9:30 a.m. on November 4, 2010, at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries building located at 2000 Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.

People with concerns should contact the Wildlife Commissioners at:

Commissioner Oats (Chairman) can be contacted at:
100 E. Vermillion St., Suite 400
Lafayette, LA 70501
Phone: (337) 233-1100
E-mail: wildlife@oatshudson.com

Commissioner Morrow may be contacted at:
P.O. Drawer 1787
Opelousas, LA 70570
Phone: (337) 948-4483
E-mail: pmorrow@mmrblaw.com

Commissioner Sagrera can be contacted at:
17801 Theall Road
Abbeville, LA 70510
Phone: (337) 893-7709
Fax: (337) 893-7703
E-mail: sws@us.com

Commissioner Taylor can be contacted at:
P.O. Box 1199
Boutte, LA 70039
E-mail: annt@heraldguide.com
ph. 985-758-2795

Commissioner Graham can be contacted at:
P.O. Box 400
Ruston, LA 71273
Phone: 318-232-7021
E-mail: ronnygraham@lincolnbuilders.com

Commissioner Voisin can be contacted at:
P.O. Box 3916
Houma, LA 70361-3916
E-mail: mike.voisin@motivatit.com
Fax: 985-868-7472
Phone: 985-868-7191

SOURCE The Wild Animal Sanctuary

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Egypt: Statement by the Egyptian High Elections Commission

The High Elections Commission has issued its assessment of the first round of Egyptian parliamentary elections. The main highlights are as follows:

* Overall, the election was conducted in an orderly and transparent manner in line with the rules of the Egyptian Constitution and law.

* There were a number of irregularities and isolated acts of violence. When the Commission received complaints or reports on these developments, it acted decisively to protect the integrity of the electoral process.

* Complaints and irregularities related to 1,298 ballot boxes out of a total of 89,588, therefore impacting only 1.4% of ballot boxes, all of which were invalidated by the Commission.

* These attempts at fraud, regrettable as they are, did not constitute widespread vote rigging.

* The Commission received a number of complaints regarding unreasonable denial of access to polling stations. In these cases, when observers or media members were still present at the voting center at the time the Commission received the complaint, it intervened directly and enabled them to observe the balloting process.

* The Commission accredited an unprecedented number of 6,130 observers, which is equivalent to nearly two-thirds the number of the actual polling centers.

* The Commission accredited all 498 international media that applied to cover the balloting and vote counting process.

* The Commission will seek to conduct the second round of election in the same diligent manner in line with the Constitution and law, with full transparency and undertaking all the necessary steps to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.

"While the results of the first round of voting in the People's Assembly elections are being certified by the Chairman of the High Elections Commission, I would like to make a statement regarding the conduct of the elections as a whole – particularly, in light of inaccurate allegations.

The High Elections Commission has worked diligently to ensure that the balloting and the vote counting were conducted in line with the rules of the Egyptian Constitution and law. Its objectives were clear: to ensure that the will of the Egyptian electorate was reflected in the results, to provide a platform for fair competition between the candidates, and to earn the confidence of Egyptian people by ensuring the transparency and integrity of the process.

Nonetheless, despite the fact that the electoral process, as a whole, was orderly in the vast majority of polling stations, the harsh competition between certain candidates in a number of districts led to attempts to use illegitimate means to thwart the will of the voters, and impact the final results in their favor. When the Commission received complaints or reports on these developments, it acted decisively to protect the integrity of the electoral process.

In the course of the voting on November 28, the Commission received a number of complaints about irregularities from diverse sources.

These complaints and allegations of violations related, in general, to four main types, as follows:

Violence

Violence occurred in 16 districts, perpetrated by thugs and supporters in an effort to impact the results of the electoral process. These incidents had a number of impacts on the electoral processes beyond threatening the lives and welfare of the voters, by-standers and electoral officials, including:

* Temporarily interrupting the balloting process and making it impossible for voters to cast their ballots. In these cases, police services quickly intervened to restore order and protect the public.
* In the Samanoud School Voting Center, a number of candidates' supporters discharged firearms, causing police to close polling station to protect the lives of electoral officials and voters. Once order had been restored, the polling station re-opened at 12:50PM.
* The most blatant example of this type of breach of electoral law was in fire caused by a number of candidate supporters at the headquarters of the District Electoral Committee of Baila. In response to this act, the District Electoral Committee canceled the election in the district and postponed the results of the women's district.

Compromising ballot boxes and election materials

In these cases the District Electoral Committees, at the direction of the High Elections Commission, invalidated the compromised ballot boxes immediately and did not include them in the final results.

* Reports of ballot box stuffing were received in "Ma'mal Al-Zogag" and "Naswh Al-Bahary" polling centers in Kafr El-Dawar, which led opponents' supporters to attack the polling centers. In response, the Judge-Chairperson of the District Electoral Committee intervened and invalidated the ballot boxes.

Attempted Fraud

The Commission and its District Committees discovered and investigated a number of reports of attempts at fraud, including stuffing ballot boxes. In all cases where reports were found to be credible, the Commission and its District Committees invalidated these compromised ballot boxes without hesitation. In total, the Commission invalidated 1,053 ballot boxes.

The Commission wishes to reiterate that all ballot boxes that were compromised were invalidated and played no part in the final results of this election.

Candidate Representatives Access to Electoral Committees

There were numbers of reports and complaints regarding representatives of candidates being unable to enter polling stations.

Upon investigation of these complaints by the High Elections Commission and its subsidiary bodies, it was found that the vast majority of these cases involved representatives of candidates who were not registered voters in the district -- a requirement to be granted access to polling stations. Nonetheless, there were a number cases where properly accredited representatives of candidates were denied access to polling stations. In these cases, the Commission intervened to enable them to observe the balloting process.

Access Denials to Egyptian Civil Society Observers and Media

In preparing for this election, the Commission insisted on maximum transparency. The Commission accredited an unprecedented number of 6,130 observers, which is equivalent to nearly two-thirds the number of the actual polling centers. It also facilitated access by thousands of Egyptian journalists and broadcasters from public and private media. In addition, it accredited all 498 international media that applied to cover the balloting and vote counting process.

Nonetheless, the Commission received a number of complaints regarding unreasonable denial of access to polling stations. In these cases, when observers or media members were still present at the voting center at the time the Commission received the complaint, it intervened directly and enabled them to observe the balloting process.

The Commission deeply regrets these irregularities, but is nevertheless satisfied that they did not affect the integrity of the first round of the election."

SOURCE Egyptian Press and Information Office

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Poverty: Poverty in Latin America returns to pre-crisis levels

The number of poor people in Latin America will fall this year to 180 million – the pre-crisis levels seen in 2008 – thanks to robust economic recovery in most of the countries of the region, says a United Nations report released today.

The “Social Panorama of Latin America 2010,” produced by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), predicts that poverty and extreme poverty will be 1.0 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points lower, respectively, than in 2009, which was when the region bore the brunt of the international financial crisis.

“The region’s countries are showing resilience in terms of social variables that has not been seen in previous crises,” said ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena, as she presented the report in Santiago, Chile.

The report emphasizes that, despite the major repercussions that the global economic crisis has had in the region, poverty rose by just one tenth of a percentage point in 2009, from 33 per cent to 33.1 per cent.

The Commission says in a news release that poverty decreased between 2008 and 2009 in most of the nine countries in the study, including in Brazil, Paraguay, Dominican Republic and Uruguay, while it rose in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico.

The report adds that inequality in the region has been reduced thanks to the rise in the labour income of poor households and public transfers aimed at reducing the impact of the crisis.

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Ireland: The Irish Model Crumbles Like A House of Cards

By Julio Godoy

Courtesy IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

BERLIN (IDN) - Already two years ago, it was conventional wisdom among European economists that the Irish economy was at the brink of a collapse and that the solutions the government in Dublin had chosen to halt the expected failure of the country's economic model following the international financial meltdown, were far from appropriate.

Prime Minister Brian Cowen had then decided to unconditionally bail out practically all Irish banks, regardless of the sheer endless amounts of junk papers stacking in their depots.

Those among the European economic and political analysts who remained resistant to the siren songs of neoliberalism had known even earlier, that the much touted Irish model in practice since the late 1980s -- of very low corporate taxes, extreme "flexibility" of the labour market, and undisputed hegemony of enterprises over labour unions -- was not at all a model, at least that it could not work forever.

But the short-term results of the so-called Irish miracle were for a while dazzling argument to thwart any criticism. During almost 20 years, the "Irish miracle", especially the rising real estate prices and the banks' uncontrolled wheelings and dealings, produced the illusion of wealth, and the illusion appeared so real, that ever more people believed in it.

Warnings that such an economy was similar to a casino were dismissed as ideological prejudices of incorrigible protagonists of class struggle and of anachronistic leftists. Add to that the boom of tourism and the traditional charm of Irish popular culture -- and you could easily believe that the old Irish rainy days were forever gone. The Irish cat, once believed to be ill and dying, was now growing to become a Celtic tiger.

Now everybody knows better. The low corporate taxes attracted only low added value industries. The deregulation of financial markets and the tacit state bailout guarantee tempted banks and investment funds to embark on highly risky transactions -- what financial theorists for more than 150 years have acknowledged as moral hazards.

The boom of real estate was the cherry on the top of this illusory Irish cake -- house prices went up and up, making their owners, otherwise poor, believe that they actually were very rich. When the crisis came, the allegedly immune Irish economic system proved to be rotten.

Ireland is now in its third year of recession. Since 2007, income per capita has declined by more than 20 percent, und unemployment more than tripled to 14 percent. Do you remember those Irish rainy days of a not-so-distant past? Well, they are back again. And they are here to stay.

VAT FOOTS THE BILL

But who is going to foot the bill? Not the banks -- mainly responsible for the mess -- in Ireland or in the rest of the European Union, which is now hurrying to rescue the once envied Celtic tiger. As in Ireland, during the last 30 years the European tax structure has changed to the benefit of corporations, and is being fed mostly by indirect taxes -- such as the valued added tax (VAT) -- and the taxes on salaries. That is, the state's bailout for banks and investment funds is actually being paid for by the lower and middle classes.

A recent survey by the Swiss auditing company KPMG finds, this general downward trend in corporate taxes continues unabated this year: "In the current economic environment, authorities around the world are focusing on adjusting their tax systems, whereby indirect taxes are playing an increasingly important role."

The survey concludes that many governments are using the economic crisis triggered by unregulated financial markets as a pretext to restructure their tax systems. "While maximum corporate income tax rates around the world have fallen … to 24.99 percent on average, the focus is shifting increasingly to indirect taxes."

As throughout the 1990s, indirect taxes, with VAT making up the lion's share, hiked globally to a small extent: on average from 15.41 percent in 2009 to 15.61 percent this year. Meanwhile, managers and traders at banks and hedge funds are again pocketing gigantic sums of money -- as bonus for their supposedly pristine achievements.

But the bailout goes beyond the tax structure. The economic and budget crisis gives governments the perfect excuse to also intensify the neoliberal task of dismantling the welfare state and increasing the transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top of the social pyramid.

The arguments of the kind "we can no longer afford the welfare state", repeated during the 1990s and early 2000s, are rather commonplace now: The Irish people must tighten their belts, and so also Spaniards, Greeks, Portuguese, Germans, Italians and French. The problem with this collective punishment, except its sheer lack of social justice, is that it is likely to worsen the crisis rather than solve it.

This process, which economists euphemistically dub "internal devaluation", leads to further forcing the economy to shrink, unemployment to rise, and wages to fall. On such a basis, the Irish economy is expected to become competitive again and its exports to increase.

But because everybody else is doing the same in Europe, who are supposed to increase their imports of Irish goods and services? Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, which together comprise the so-called PIGS? Or the eternal champions of mercantilism, Germany and France?

Are there other alternatives to our plan? Government officials across Europe may ask. Yes, there are. They only need the courage look for them, and the willingness to get rid of their ideological stolidity.

The writer is a freelance journalist. This article appears in his regular column 'Stray Thoughts' in the December 2010 issue of Global Perspectives (www.global-perspectives.info), a monthly magazine for international cooperation, produced by Global Cooperation Council -- a non-governmental organisation campaigning for genuine cooperation and fair globalization -- in partnership with IDN-InDepthNews.

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