10 10 10 drumbeats

October 10, 2010, which in other way 10 10 10 is an important day in the postmodern history of human race. Thousands of advocacy events are going to take place in 187 countries. Citizens around the world are going to remind world governments (who are presumed to have the memory of Gold fish) that ‘global climate movement’ is not faded away. Community and civil society organizations as well as activists without border are going to demonstrate their growing spirit to raise the agenda of climate crisis in front of the leaders who are busy, over-tasked, and who have little interest conquering this ongoing climate crisis. International communities may have already been aware about the fact that world leaders failed to come up with a legally binding document last year. The outcome of Cop15 became an accord, which could be allegorically a brown dwarf.

Climate change is a unique threat to everyone everywhere on earth, therefore, the crisis has the prospect to unite people in greater number and to accelerate the pace of movement. And this movement is not going to consume much time like others in the history such as slave-trade, apartheid, feminist, and so on. It’s a life-death issue of six billion people and ‘climate change’ is a ticking bomb. Some symbolic activities, such as, tree plantings in rural Tanzania, solar installation in China, and an international bike-ride from Jordan to Israel will take place on 10/10/10. President Nasheed already installed a brand-new solar installation on the roof of the presidential residence in the capital city of Male. He is probably the most conscious head of the states in this planet. Others may comment that he should be climate sensitive because Maldives are the front line victims of climate change impact.  Solar power will probably be on Obama’s White House by 2011. Bill McKibben, the founder of the 350.org group, said, “…it could be a trigger for a wave of solar installations across the country and around the world.”

There is no scope to consider disaster as once-in-a-decade or once-in-a-year incident. Communities at the coastal belt of Bangladesh, who have not healed yet trauma of Aila impact, are again victim of inundation this week. Thousands of families have moved to shelters. High tide has aggressively broken some weak parts of embankment. Torrential rain caused severe flood in the five central provinces of Viet Nam. Situation is worsening on a daily basis and more than a million people have already been affected. Huge rain caused flood in Southern China this week and evacuated thousands.

According to IFRC,  the city of Wasior in Teluk Wondana district of West Papua province in Indonesia was hit by three-metre high flash floods caused by heavy rains on Monday, 4 October 2010, killing many and displacing families. Access to the affected locations is difficult due to the rugged terrain, and debris and mud on roads and the local airfield; entry is possible only via helicopter and small aircraft, and sea transportation. So far, more than 100 deaths have been reported, with up to 4,000 people initially displaced.

List could be longer if disasters happen often similar to what is happening this week around. Relief, development, activist organizations and humanitarian agencies had always been and still are standing besides the distressed communities, which is a hope out of this chaos. While governments found climate talk ‘irritating’ and eventually downgraded ‘climate treaty’ into a toothless ‘accord’, activists across the globe are not ready to give up but are committed not to ‘let the movement down’. Thus, they beat drums and trumpet the message on 10/10/10, “Our movement must race ahead more quickly than the crisis itself — and pull the politicians along with us.” Wake up – wake up, it’s showtime!

Migrant workers’ rights

As Walden Bello[i] notes, “Capitalism in the neo-liberal era destroys jobs at home and creates them elsewhere, forcing many into dangerous trans-border journeys to find those jobs. Unregulated as it is today, capitalism is marked by periods of expansion and contraction. When contraction arrives, the lot of the migrant becomes a perilous one… ”. According to Bello, most migrant workers would probably prefer to stay and work in their countries of origin if they could find the jobs that would provide them with a decent living. He also notes that remittance economy is not substitute for a vibrant domestic economy.

Though there are lots of negative realities of migration but the neoliberal globalization has made it obvious for skilled and unskilled laborers to desperately look for jobs elsewhere in the world. And in such a situation, both countries of origin and the host societies should respect and protect rights and dignity of migrant workers.

The 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families entered into force on 1 July 2003. The convention has 30 signatories and 42 parties.  A range of articles of this convention promotes and protects migrant workers’ rights such as Article 9 protects right to life of migrant workers and their families. Article 10 protects them from torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 11 (1) and (2) protects them from slavery or servitude and forced or compulsory labour. Though this convention has all necessary words for protecting the migrant workers and their families but unfortunately many countries are yet to sign as well as ratify it.

There is an urgent need to stop and punish unscrupulous agencies that are active at home as well as in host countries to spoil the labor markets. Civil society and non government organizations active in these sectors need to put attention and invest more time and energy on advocacy to create awareness as well as train people for being cheated against. Government needs to be conscious to compensate and create opportunities for cheated and empty handed workers to get back on track. Besides sound international relations with the host countries, good governance to manage employment export sector is fundamental to end disappointment of laborers and creating employment in host countries.

Changing attitude is a primer for changing behavior of concerned agents and authorities to bring back dignity and rights of migrant workers. Harassment, hassles, and inhuman treatment may not be a way forward for consistency and growth in remittance flowing. Migrant workers and their families deserve adequate level of safety net that would secure their health and well beings, which should be ensured by both country of origin and the host societies. There should be enough precaution to eventually stop empty handed return of workers.

Read here the detail article

End Notes: [i] Walden Bello, The migrant conditions, The New Age, Novermber 15, 2009.

Red alert on Haiti – Stand with the people

A major earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday, causing huge destruction and enormous loss of life. According to the latest information from the Haiti government and other sources, the death toll stands at between 30-50,000 with 3 million individuals affected.  Thousands are thought to still be buried under rubble, with some sources estimating the death toll could reach 100,000.  The worst affected area is the capital city, Port-au-Prince and the surrounding suburbs.

T he worst earthquake in 200 years struck Haiti, devastating the capital and threatening over 3 million people. Haiti’s infrastructure and communications have been shattered and untold thousands killed.

COP 15 drama

COP 15 has launched a great deal of drama. It seems truly a global platform, which engaged actors across the globe to play their role and stage a drama.  Leaked text of privileged group had just begun the sequence. G8 or G20 or OECD kind of platforms could escape from any drama because of absence of poor nations but COP 15 can not avoid this inevitable bargain in the presence of both rich and poor.

Well, G77 and the Association of The  Small Island States are quite uncompromising not to sacrifice. Rich exploits as well manipulates poor, which is something natural and which had been practiced since the beginning of human race. In these modern days of UN conventions as well as global conscience, sugar coated political commitment needs to be little humanitarian to compensate poor and disadvantaged.  Thus, the obvious bargain over fund in the disguise of climate change, biodiversity, adaptation, mitigation, and so on is apparent. Rich wants to pay less to the poor and poor wants justice. History repeats this struggle for existence.

Tempering fund from 200 billion $ to 10 billion $, holding the horse of  carbon emission, and having reasonable slow rise of global temperature up to 2 degrees are the agenda of this ‘Olympic’ type indoor  conference where people are distributed in groups and subgroups to talk on these issues in many different rooms . Leaders from poor countries complain that rich nations are responsible for emissions and they should compensate. Leaders of rich nations do not want to pay that easy. They want to pay less but through institutions and process that may trigger melting. At the end ice is gone.

Rich country’s critics said that rich people live within poor nations too and the nexus of rich as well as elite people hold power structure of poor nations. These power, money, chairs, and the evil eventually undermine and exploit the very poor within the poor states. However, I am not going further into this debate over cycle of exploitation.

Di-Aping, the Sudanese chair of G 77 had been found sticking to the point of bargain. He is not the man to compromise under pressure, if things go wrong, he just walks away.  Small Island Representatives sound little pathetic what they suppose to be. Living withing 2 meters of sea level is not fun.

Special attention and care must be given to such circumstances where people have started experiencing the adversities of climate change. Global communities must not get lost in the politics of climate change and lots of bargain over carbon market, because, its gonna be a stock market that is supposed to melt down sooner or later.

Human rights based approach to climate change must respect the rights of the most disadvantaged and protect livelihoods of these people irrespective boarders at any cost. Thus, the priority is to identify the affected people and communities; and direct interventions to resolve their sufferings are essential. This is not just the time for playing a league tournament for longer time.

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I am quoting here the lead negotiator for the small island nation of Tuvalu. I’ve pasted a rough transcription of his words; (350.org)

Madame President, I know that you tried to visit Tuvalu, though you did not make it. Had you visited, I think you would understand our position. Our entire population lives within 2 meters of sea level… I understand that we are waiting for the US senate. It is ironic that we are waiting for one country to decide before the international community can move forward. President Obama was currently in Sweden accepting a noble prize, whether rightly or wrongly. For him to honour his noble prize, he should address the greatest threat to humanity, climate change, and the greatest threat to human security, climate change.

This is not just an issue of Tuvalu… millions of people around the world are affected. This is not just Tuvalu. Over the last few days I’ve received calls from all over the world, offering faith and hope that we can reach a conclusion on this issue. Madame President, this is not a media trip for me, I have refused to take media calls on this issue. As a humble servant of the government of Tuvalu, I have to make a strong appeal to you that we consider this matter properly. I don’t want to cause embarrassment to you or the government…

…I want to have for the leaders an option to consider a legally binding treaty. We’ve had our proposal on the table for 6 months. 6 months, it’s not the last two days of this meeting. I woke this morning, and I was crying, and that’s not easy for a grown man to admit. The fate of my country rests in your hands.

Unnatural calamities are troubling

Swine Flu is spreading around. Tamil tigers are killed mercilessly as if cleansing virus by antibiotics, wild fires are burning forests and civilization into ashes, swat refugee crisis and killing field, repression and killings in Burma, North Korea nuclear enrichment, militants and rebels in Africa are getting aggressive out of frustration,Taliban and Islamic militants are on edge of despair, increasing cross boarder conflicts, earth quakes are shaking nations indiscriminately, Yellow stone is just waiting for the bell, Iran-Russia ties out of insecurity, Israeli’s desperation out of insecurity, rich nations are shaken by financial quake, jobs cuts shattered dreams of millions to have quality nice life, migrant workers are dying like animals in the construction field without little care, malnutrition children are dying in hunger, maternal mortality rate is rising, communicable and non communicable diseases are killing millions silently.

Flood, storms, drought, land slides, and sea level rise have threatened millions else where in the world. They call it negative impact of climate change. What is the underneath reason of climate change? Is that green house gas emission or something else? Earth quakes one after another in Indonesia, tsunami in Samoa after 2004 wash away, Typhoon Parma following super Ketsana and the latest Mirinae, cyclone victims in Taiwan, unusual cyclone in Fiji, alarming phase of hurricane activity in North America, and frequent earth trembles have been very unkind with the inhabitants of earth these days.

The moments of despair have just arrived. The alarm bell has rung. Moral values are degraded, human values are declined, ethical concerns have been vanished, and Human Conscience is jeopardized by evil gamers in politics, finance, and policies. Now the final battle between evil and good.

Bad guys have powers, chairs, money, influence, control and authority over people in most territories irrespective boarders, which is dangerously undermining good power with conscience. This is an alarming state that accelerates the end or shift whatever.

Three faces of Vulnerability

Vulnerability as an entitlement problem
Endowment bundle is individual’s own labor power plus land and other assets he/she owns. And now Entitlement mapping is about rules and processes for transforming endowment bundle into entitlements (e.g. market structure & regulations, rights to communal output e.g. food, property etc.). Entitlement set is commodity bundles including food that can be commanded given an initial endowment. Lack of access to food and other resources caused vulnerability. Lack of command over food is caused by lack of power. There is a relation between power and command over food. Sen argues that famine is caused by power of the individual to command food, or exchange entitlement. He argues that there is always enough food to feed the worlds population, but there are many factors that prevent some people from receiving an adequate share of this. According Sen, there is enough food but extreme poor does not have command over resources (ie money) to purchase food. He emphasizes on entitlement relations. It is not lack of food rather it is lack of means to command over food. However, access to food may not help because vulnerable groups can not buy food from the market. Therefore, we need to focus on assets and entitlement.

Assets (labor, human capital, and productive assets) ——————food entitlements

Command over food is the most essential. The striking question is how vulnerable group of people can get command over food. Food entitlements and assets have to be mutually complementary to each other. According to Ford an entitlements approach is adopted whereby vulnerability of a group is explained by the availability of resources, and the entitlement of individuals and groups to call on these resources. In a broader context this relationship between entitlement and assets depend on political economy, which in a wider context related to political economy of distribution and formation of entitlements. Globalization, economic reform, and liberalization of trade could be a broader political economy that can make poor vulnerable locally.

Vulnerability as powerlessness/ political empowerment
Extreme poor and disadvantaged by other means are the powerless community. In the power relation perspective, this community is known as the rights claimers. This group of people, some time, does not have enough voice to speak out for their rights. They are illiterate, poor, and unaware about rights as well as their duty bearers are ignorant and uneducated about rights. They live within the society but outside the power structure. They are vulnerable by means of their livelihoods. Well, what makes people vulnerable and eventually powerless? According to Watts and Bohle (1993), “Vulnerability can also be politically determined, where people are powerless in their command over basic necessities and rights”.

Within the context of a developing or poor country, political factors cause powerlessness or vulnerability. Absence of good governance and lack of efficacy of institutions leads poor to live as poor or to become poorer. Powerless groups are usually found as deprived of fundamental rights, for example, right to food, adequate house, education, health, and employment etc. When fundamental rights are violated, it could be beyond their capacity to deal with civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. Therefore, weak governance and deprivation of fundamental rights cause powerlessness and eventually vulnerability.

Availability of assets and ability to own that asset makes one not to be vulnerable. Moser & McIlwailne (1997) defines vulnerability as, “The more assets people have, the less vulnerable they are; the greater the erosion of assets, the greater the level of insecurity”. Vulnerability is also defined as lack of material and immaterial condition to stand against risk events (assets, entitlements). Political economy of distribution and formation of entitlements is wider context of asset entitlement relationship. Therefore, powerless people are neither politically empowered nor economically.

Political economy / social position of vulnerability
According to Ford (2002), economic and political power plays in determining vulnerability of individuals and groups. Historical and structural class-based pattern of social reproduction lies within the causes of vulnerability. So, political, economic, and social structures influence vulnerability. According to pressure and release model (PAR), vulnerability is part of risk (Blaikie et al 1994). The model says Risk = Hazards + Vulnerability. Hazards mean natural disasters. The progression of vulnerability is a series of levels of social factors e.g. i) root cause, ii) dynamic pressures, and iii) unsafe conditions. These levels focus on social, cultural, and political processes that give rise to unsafe conditions of vulnerable groups. According to Ford the model has a distinct scale element whereby root causes concerns remote influences including economic, demographic, and political processes within society and the world economy that reflect the distribution of power. The dynamic pressures include factors such as lack of local institutions, training, appropriate skills, local investments, local markets, press freedom, ethical standards in public life, and macro forces such as population growth, urbanization, arms expenditure, debt repayment, and deforestation. Unsafe conditions mean when people live in dangerous location with dangerous livelihoods, poor health, lack of building codes and regulations, and a lack of disaster preparedness. Unsafe conditions determine the vulnerable groups.

Women headed households are vulnerable because of gender inequality, social position, lack of mobility, and lower level of income. Class, caste, gender, age, ethnicity,
religion, or disability are factors for marginality and social exclusion. Hierarchical systems, structural and historical sequences of a society, and class based patterns of social reproduction continue a society to reproduce exploitation, exclusion, inequality, and consequently inequity. Under these dominant social factors poor live constantly at vulnerable state where they do not have any choice and eventually they do not achieve freedom for development.

Context of Vulnerability

Special attention to vulnerable and so as special solutions for them is missing from SLA frame. Here, by the word “vulnerable” we mean extreme poor such as land less, low waged, disables, elderly, minority, women, and children who struggle for livelihoods. Some economic factors are dominant for food security of vulnerable groups in the community such as purchasing power and market relationship that underpins the access to food that is not produced by community or household.

Vulnerability context may differ from nation to nation especially in the context of shocks and disasters. According to Ford (2002), Bangladesh and Frorida are both vulnerable in terms of sea level rise and storms. 1992 hurricane caused damage of US $ 16bn but killed fewer than 20 people. Where as a year before a similar cyclone killed 140,000 people and ruined the livelihoods of millions. Ford suggests that there is a need to focus the characteristics of a system that influences the ability of the people and communities to respond to, cope with, and adapt to stimulus. Therefore, a generalized common framework on livelihood may miss the national context of vulnerability. What is useful in Africa may not be worthy for South Asia. Regional or even more microscopically national perspective of livelihoods of vulnerable groups should be dealt with special care and focus.

Different population living under different social, cultural, economic, and political circumstance may have different levels of vulnerability. The rights-based approach recognizes that households’ ability to access assets and entitlements are influenced to a great extent by power relations, which has political, social and economic dimensions. Therefore, fulfillment of rights by households requires transforming power relationships among stakeholders and removing the exclusionary mechanisms that prevent rights-realization by the poor (Frankenberger and Cogill 2001, cited in CARE 2003). Therefore, we suggest RBA as a process to deal power relation led exploitations and eventually to fulfill rights as an end to poverty. This argument could be further elaborated in power relation section.

A generalized version of SLA frame could miss the target. It may miss the deeper structural causes of vulnerability. SLA may be termed as superficial approach to deal with the remedies and eventually prescribe weak solutions for livelihoods. Analyzing the deeper causes Watts and Bohle (1993) came up with,

• The particular distribution of entitlements and how these are reproduced
• The larger canvas of rights by which entitlements are fought over, contested (empowerment)
• Structural properties – crisis proneness for the political economy which precipitates entitlement crisis