Trouble brewing in Davos and Porto Alegre
www.granma.cu BY JOAQUIN ORAMAS
THE threat of U.S. military aggression against Iraq and the situation in Venezuela provoked by a pro-U.S. opposition are the main focuses of attention for thousands of participants at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the World Economic Forum, Davos. In a clash of interests, both meetings are taking place on January 23-28.
Tens of thousands of party leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and other sectors are meeting in the Brazilian city, matched by an equal number of businesspeople representing the huge corporations taking part at the other meeting in the Swiss mountain tourist resort. All of them will be analyzing the international economic situation from their own point of view, but through a fundamental prism: Will there be war in the Middle East in the next few weeks? How can we deal with a situation originating with an increase in oil prices, given the consequences of the Bush administration’ threats against that Arab country and the opposition’s destabilizing campaign aimed at the Venezuelan government?
This time, the Davos and Porto Alegre camps will be in agreement that the acute crisis in the world economy was dangerously increasing even before the destruction of the Twin Towers.
Capitalists gathered in the Swiss ski resort will not be able todisguise that reality after the collapse of the Argentine economy, the U.S. Federal reserve’s consecutive and unheard of series of 11 cuts in interest rate, and the alarming situation facing Japan, where the economy has been stagnant for the last few years.
These will not be the only topics at the two forums, but the dangers that war and oil bring with them are so grave and universal that the negative consequences for everyone mean that the problems must be thoroughly analyzed.
Because if the great capitalist bloc is going to be discussing markets and investments in Davos, then it cannot avoid the damage to and loss of confidence in investments and other factors that enter into such negotiations.
In the conclave of the powerful, the United States will reiterate its official refusal to reduce its strategic oil reserves (600 million barrels) vis-à-vis the crisis in the supply of that resource and high prices. But that will not halt the lack of confidence.
Meanwhile, at the Brazilian forum, voices demanding measures enabling millions of people to receive the food they lack are becoming even louder.
Currently, hunger and poverty - the main enemies of Latin America and the Caribbean - are the consequences of erroneous national policies, successive international economic crises and U.S. restrictions on agricultural exports. These problems figure among the main causes of poverty for 65% of the region’s 516 million inhabitants, causing extreme poverty for 38% and malnutrition for 11%.
But this data, contained in a report from last June’s World Food Summit, excludes increased hunger in Latin America, a continent that over the last few years has been punished by earthquakes, hurricanes, drought and the level of its respective governments’ political and administrative corruption.
Haiti, where 62% of the population is suffering from hunger, must also be added to the list of countries experiencing serious economic problems. In Colombia and Peru, hunger affects one out of every four persons; in Mexico, 40 million out of a total population of 100,000 inhabitants suffer some degree of malnutrition in infancy.
The Latin American and Caribbean continent is no longer the main recipient for international aid. The end of 2002 saw the fifth year of low growth rate in the region, with a fall in GDP production to 0.1%; high inflation; and 9.1% unemployment: 50% of the workforce had no steady jobs.
Nor are there any sustainable regional or governmental projects to confront this scourge. The only exception is Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s Zero Hunger Program, the first measure taken by his government after his January 1 investiture.
Lula’s plan is a completely new idea in Latin America; it is an attempt not only to overcome hunger in Brazil, but also inaugurates sustainable programs with a view to creating employment and areas of production benefiting the poor.
The goal of the Zero Hunger Program is for those 22 million Brazilians affected by poverty to eat three meals per day within the next four years; a number that the independent Brazilian Forum for Food Security intends to double, equaling 16% of the country’s inhabitants.
Twenty-one lines of action combining structural policies such as agrarian reform and extending social provision to illegal workers have been developed, plus other specific and local plans including distributing food coupons and increasing snacks for school pupils.
The Brazilian leader is the only president attending both important international events in Porto Alegre and Davos, and he plans to inaugurate the former. Some 100,000 participants are expected, comprising trade union leaders, representatives from ethnic groups, NGO’s, political parties, and others.
The Porto Alegre forum is to discuss the situation created by the region’s poverty, advances in the battle against neoliberal globalization, development of environmental awareness and protest against the U.S. war campaign under the pretext of combating terror.
An essential aspect of the Brazilian agenda is the problems resulting from the region’s poverty. The topic has been suggested by different international organizations such as the World Food Program (WFP), which confirmed in 2002 that some 72 million Latin American and Caribbean citizens are in extreme need of foodstuffs and suffering from hunger, a situation that is set to worsen this year.
Among the important issues that analysts consider priorities is the threat of hunger affecting more than 200 million of the region’s inhabitants who are vulnerable to the announced worsening of the economy or to fresh natural disasters.
According to World Food Summit reports, Central America’s hungry population has grown from 17% to 19% over the last ten years; Caribbean figures show a rise of 26% to 28%. In the last 10 years, some 200 Central American children died of starvation, and over eight million people are affected in the poorest and most arid areas of the Isthmus.
Paradoxically, Latin America and the Caribbean contain 25% of the world’s cultivatable land, 23% of its livestock and around 30% of potable water reserves, according to UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) experts.
Via sustainable development, these resources could be used to obtain food for all the region’s inhabitants and provide hard currency and sources for developing other economic sectors, adds the FAO.
Argentina, for example, produces enough food for 300 million - 12 times the country’s population. However, hunger is chronic in the poorest communities and, after the December 21 debacle, things are becoming worse and moving into other social strata.
The nation’s state-run National Statistics and Census Institute (Indec) indicates that more than 52% of the 37 million Argentines are poor and 26% are extremely poor, that is to say do not have the minimum income needed to survive.
The most dramatic cases are found in the infant population. Indec data from 2001 indicates that every year, 11,000 under-ones die in Argentina. But 6,000 of these deaths are preventable - they are linked to poverty-induced diseases such as malnutrition and diarrhea.
The situation can only be compared with the consequences of a “war or natural disaster” despite the fact that neither situation is occurring in any of the region’s countries, pointed out Pablo Vincur, UN Development Program (UNDP) advisor.
The profound Argentine crisis has affected its neighbor Uruguay. Although the latter nation is an excellent food producer, there are currently severe problems of hunger in its infant population, 60% of whom live in poor homes.
Analysts reveal that Uruguayan food centers sponsored by non-governmental and religious groups and subsidized by international organizations have quadrupled in the last six year. That makes it certain that Porto Alegre will also be the venue for denunciations from the NGO’s of the nation once dubbed the Switzerland of the Americas and now another victim of neoliberalism.