01.24.06
WTO Hong Kong Meeting Analysed by Oxfam
“The final ministerial declaration contained some minor gains on agriculture, such as setting a 2013 end date for export subsidies, and providing developing countries with extra flexibility to protect their small farmers. There was some progress on preventing the abuse of food aid as a disguised form of dumping, but on cotton, the steps agreed fell short even of those required by the cotton panel ruling against the USA.
Developing countries successfully fended off some of the attempts to force open their markets to Northern industrial and service sectors. However, even the toned-down text on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and services is inimical to development. The offer of duty-free, quota-free market access to the poorest countries contains sufficient loopholes to rob the agreement of almost all value. An ‘aid for trade’ deal was agreed consisting largely of recycled money, and there was no progress on other ‘development issues’.
When talks recommence in early 2006, rich-country negotiators cannot simply turn up and carry on where they left off in Hong Kong. They need to go away, examine their consciences, and make a New Year’s resolution to turn this into a development round for the world’s poor.”
Oxfam Briefing Paper 85: What happened in Hong Kong?, Oxfam Briefing Paper, December 2005 (pdf-document)
01.20.06
Thailand- Myanmar/Burma Border
I visited Myanmar (former Burma) twice during my stay in northern Thailand. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, I had to. I needed to extend my visa. Anyway, I’ve written down some of my experienses in Thailand to share it with you. This is how I remember the first Up-North trip.
…Before continuing to Khung Khon, I had to visit Myanmar (former Burma) to renew my visa for another month. The bus ride to the northern border town of Mae Sai took 5 hours. We found Buddhist monks smoking cigarettes while talking in cell phones quite amusing, there are also the ladyboy monks that confuse me abit. Mae Sai has a border town feeling to it. People are going back and forth with things to sell in a big hustle. My border crossing was very undramatic, I was stamped out of Thailand, crossed the border , paid 200 bahts for Myanmar border officials and came back to Thailand. The bridge crossing the border and Mekong river used to be a major entrance point for drugs to the rest of the world. Today it acts as a gap between the rich and the poor, like the borders of US and Mexico or EU and Morocco (maybe not that extreme though). The music that blasting from loud speakers on the Myanmar side, had a soap opera touch in it, making my brief visit to this notoriously militant country absurd. After lunch we hurried back to the bus and sat for another 5 hours returning to Chiang Mai. There was a construction work of a major highway on its way between Mae Sai and Chiang Mai. With China border just some hundred kilometres away from Myanmar border, Thailand hopes that in the future Chiang Mai will become a centre of China-SE Asia trade…
01.17.06
Visualising the World with Maps
I ran into even better maps than before. Maplecroft a specialist research and advisory company for large multinationals, offers flash maps which portrait environmental, social and political information of overs 200 states around the World. Maplecroft’s aim with the maps is:
“This innovative tool is designed to raise awareness amongst corporations, government and non governmental organisations, academics and students of how an organisation’s operations interact with wider society, and how the risks and opportunities generated can be responsibly managed through stakeholder engagement and partnership.”
You can choose the issue you want to know more about from the drop down menus above the map. The topics include global pandemic risk in 2006, climate change (actually, who is responsible of it), digital inclusion, aid depth ratio, military expenditure, human rights and many more. By clicking the maps you can find more information on specific countries or cases.
01.13.06
Poverty Compared
Adamash noticed an article on the Economist, contemplating the difference between poverty in the North and in the South. Is poverty relative? A poor US citizen, Mr Banks is better off financially (even when the difference in the cost of living is taken into account) than Dr. Kabamba in DR Congo, but still feels poorer than the Congolese?
In Autumn, I had a debate about the subject with an American friend of mine. She was offended by my comment that “eventhough there’s poverty in the US, it can not be compared to “real” poverty in the South”. The subject has been in my mind eversince and I’m glad that I found Adamash’s post about it.
…Dr Kabamba earns enough to feed his children, but not as well as he would like. The family eats meat about twice a month; Dr Kabamba calls it “a great luxury”. In America, poor children eat more meat than the well-to-do. In fact, they get twice as much protein as their government says is good for them, which is why the Wal-Mart near Mr Banks sells such enormous jeans…
While reading, remember the fact that nothing lies as much as statistics used in a misleading way. I don’t mean that there are fouls in the article, just that there might be.
…“Poverty” describes two quite different phenomena: utter penury, of the sort experienced by the billion or so souls who subsist on $1 a day or less; and the situation of people in rich countries who are less well off than their compatriots…”
Eventhough the doctor is financially struggling, he is treated with respect by the authorities and doesn’t break his family to fool social security system (the absent one). The poor US man lives in a separate moving-home than his ex-wife to get more support from the government and is considered as typical trailer thrash by the government officials. Is this the much talked about cultural difference? Which one do you prefer?
The article: Adamash: Comparing a mountain man’s poverty in US to a doctor’s poverty in Africa (found via 007 in Africa)
Related reading: Sampsa Daily: Poverty in the US (17/11/05)
01.12.06
Thai Travelogue
A paragraph from my Thai travelogue:
“…The day for unit’s workers started 8 o’clock with the national anthem and rising of the Thai flag in front of the office. The first day we walked through different plantation to find the most suitable ones to measure. The mountainous terrain offered beautiful views over the valleys with the highest mountain of Thailand Doi Inthanon looming behind the smoky sky. Only one plantation was chosen for closer measuring. This vast area had parts which had suffered a major forest fire six years ago and another part that hadn’t had a fire during it’s standing age of 26 years. Finally I would get the comparison that I needed. The two workers helping me were fun to be with, older Thai man knew all the plants like his own pockets and was constantly pointing around telling which trees produced something delicious to eat or chewing tobacco. He had a small bag with him where he kept this forest tobacco; fermented and dried leaves, bark and some white glue he called acid. All this would be wrapped inside a leaf and placed under a lip. The result: black teeth. The young Karen guy talked a bit English and worked as a scribe and a translator. He was especially pleased when he heard that there are hill-tribe people living in Finland called Saame people who nowadays use helicopters and snowmotorcycles (snowmobiles) to look after their reindeer. After the last days work (which took 10 hours) we headed to the Hmong village close to the unit grounds to buy couple of beers and a pair of Hmong trousers for my girlfriend. Villagers were playing football in the square while we bargained for the trousers. After half an hour I gave up and paid too much for the pants…”
Read more with pictures: Forest Inventories in Thailand and Then Some
01.09.06
China-Africa Trade Increases by 39%
Trade between China and African countries has stepped up since the start of China-Africa Forum in 2000. China has concentrated on buying African oil, but has also invested in Africa. A growing number (15.3 bn dollars) of products are imported from China to Africa.
“…China has scrapped tariffs on 190 kinds of imported goods from 28 of the least developed African countries, and Chinese firms have greatly increased investments in Africa – most notably in the oil sector.”
Today there’s a news about Chinese oil company planning to buy a share of Nigerian oil and gas field for 2 bn dollars.
China-Africa trade jumps by 39% -BBC
CNOOC to buy $2bn stake in Nigerian…-MSNBC
01.08.06
The Congo Situation
The Demogratic Republic of Congo, the third largest country in Africa will hold it’s presidential election in April 2006. According to a new survey, the long continued war over rich natural resources, also now as the First World War of Africa, was/is the deadliest one in The World in the last 60 years.
“More people have been killed in the second Congo war than in Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur.There are factions from six different countries involved. This along with the loose organisation of the forces make peace keeping and agreements difficult because small militias do as they please, ignoring all truces between the leaders. The origin of the conflict lays in the Rwandan genocyde…”
Read the full post in Sampsa Daily: Situation in Congo
The Taungya System
The traditional forest plantation system, Taungya or Shamba has been critisised in kenya. The critics claim that it leads to destruction of water catchments and loss of biodiversity.In taungya, plantation forest is established on a government owned land by the local farmers. The government provides seedlings and tools as well as instructions and training. In return for their work local people have an opportunity to cultivate the plantation area until the canopy closes, usually this takes from 2 to 4 years.
As the system is only used in plantation areas, I think the argument about loss of biodiversity is out of place. The main objective of plantation management being a high yield of raw material for forest industry. Of course there are several methods to attain this goal, with monoculture plantation or multiple species plantation. The rule of thumb is that the more you have species the more complex and difficult it’ll be to achive a high output of desired wood. With multiple species the biodiversity might be a bit higher for a decade or two before clear cutting.
The destruction of water catchments by plantation forestry depends mostly on species selection and in some degree on carefull planning of logging (where to place roads etc.) not on plantation forestry itself. With site matching tree species possible negative effects can be reversed so that the site’s water holding capacities actually increase (if that’s the aim).
The protection of biodiversity, in my view, should not alter the livelyhood of local people. Sufficient amount of protected areas and nature reserves are the places where this protection should take place. Of course, one can argue that Taungya could be brought up to date by taking the government off the equation with a land reform that would decentralise the land rights. This would minimise the need of local people to destroy the seedlings in order to prolong the cultivation period, as they would get even higher revenues from the wood crop. But this is a decision that should be made by politicians not by foresters. Today, community or private ownership with appropriate extension work is found to be the most efficient way to manage and protect forests at the same time.
People simply take better care of their own property.
Farmers ‘eat away’ Kenyan mountain forests – article in People and the Planet
Banning shamba system will not replenish forests – open letter in The Standard
Shooting government in the head – Article in The East African Standard
01.04.06
Mike Fay’s Megaflyover Images in GoogleEarth
Across Africa, you will see the familiar yellow National Geographic logo. Zoom in to see the title of each feature article or photograph. Click the icon and a pop-up balloon shows a photo and description along with links to the content…The Megaflyover images are stunning. Mike spent more than a year taking 92,000 high resolution photographs of the continent.
more in…GoogleBlog
Maps with a Difference
Mapping Worlds (via Sampsa Daily) provides maps that make it easier to understand the state of the World.
