Commodity Dependence

from Africa Focus

How Corporatization Squeezed Out Producers?

Excerpts from the statement made at the joint South Centre-Action Aid side event at UNCTAD XII in Accra. 19 April 2008

By Dede Amanor-Wilks

[Dede Amanor-Wilks is the Director of ActionAid International for West & Central Africa She can be contacted at:
dede.amanor-wilks@actionaid.org

The joint Action Aid-South Centre report can be downloaded from: http://www.southcentre.org/publications/CommodityReport/AA_SC_Commodity_Report.pdf ]

We are living in a confusing time in the history of commodity markets. Commodity prices are currently high. Yet producers in Africa and other parts of the developing world do not seem to be benefiting from these high prices. Instead, they are crying out for protection.

It has been reported that in Asia, food prices rose by 70% during 2007. If the rise in food prices that we are now experiencing in Africa is being driven by the quest of the industrialised North for new sources of fuel, namely biofuels, then the implications for food production are potentially terrifying.

To illustrate this point - currently, Ghana's total production of oil palm is nowhere near sufficient to meet the demand of the industrialised North for palm oil for the manufacture of bio fuels. This means that if the prices being offered are raised to attract palm products away from the Ghanaian market and towards bio fuel producers in the North, there would be no palm oil left for Ghanaian consumers. In a country like Ghana, where most people prepare food with palm oil and other palm products almost every day, that would be unthinkable. Yet if we do not act, this is what is likely to happen.

The Three Features of Commodity Markets

The recently released joint Action Aid - South Centre report "Commodity Dependence and Development: Suggestions to tackle the commodities problem", at an UNCTAD XII pre-event in Accra explains how dependence on a few primary products seals and perpetuates poverty. It draws attention to three features of commodity markets that will keep those that are dependent on commodities poor forever. First is the unpredictability of international prices. Second is the belief that over the long term, prices of primary commodities go down (in relation to prices of finished goods or goods to which value has been added); and third, there is a tendency towards concentration of production in just a few hands, internationally.

On the first point, the report says:

'Commodity price fluctuation is anathema to economic development for commodity-exporting developing countries: it translates into export earning fluctuations. These in turn lead to fluctuations in domestic income, savings and in government revenues. As a result there is an adverse effect on domestic investment in productive as sets. Therefore....the report says.... 'Commodity price volatilities lead to macroeconomic instability, which is detrimental to economic development.'

This is the macroeconomic instability that we are seeing all over Africa. One of the biggest sins of the neo-liberal paradigm - the gravest errors of judgement in the so-called Washington Consensus - was to advise African countries to do away with their state marketing boards. Many Asian countries managed to avoid the crisis currently facing African agriculturalists because they did not fall into the debt and structural adjustment trap, and because the state refused to withdraw from taking the lead in development.

But in Africa, the IMF and World Bank told African producers to get rid of state marketing boards and that agriculture would flourish. The state is kleptocratic and parasitic; the state is a vampire. So let us throw the state out of development and without these parasitic marketing boards, we would all be better off. Yet what we are seeing is that in countries where the marketing boards have been privatised, producers are in trouble.

Historically, the marketing boards were established during the colonial period, ironically, to protect African producers from the price crash during the great depression of the 1930s. They were further strengthened to protect African producers from the effects of World War II. In the settler colonies, the marketing boards were usually set up by settler farmers themselves.

In countries where these marketing boards have now been abolished in the names of structural adjustment, liberalisation and fair trade, we are seeing a worrying picture. Producers have been left without state protection and are defenceless in international markets, which favour the strong. Yet our producers are weak. No wonder then that countries like Senegal, that liberalised their groundnuts sector, are facing a crisis. It is the crisis of overdependence on a narrow band of commodities.

The joint Action Aid - South Centre study is a cautionary tale about the effects of trade liberalisation on sensitive African commodities.

In relation to the Senegalese experience, during the 1960s, groundnuts were seen as the engine of the Senegalese economy. With structural adjustment in the late 1970s - Senegal was one of the first countries in Africa to liberalise - groundnuts production began to decline as the government's support to farmers by way of inputs, fertilizer and technical support started to decline. The final step of liberalisation came in 1996 when state marketing of groundnuts was privatised. Liberalisation has seen a rise in prices, yet Senegalese farmers do not seem to benefit from these rising prices as trade monopolies have become a feature of the sector.

No wonder then that Senegal's President, Abdoulaye Wade has emerged as a vocal champion of the Stop-EPAs campaign. Unlike Ghana, Senegal has refused to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) despite tremendous pressure from the European Union, to which in West Africa Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Cameroon have succumbed.

Corporate Concentration: Profits over Producers

The worst aspect of the removal of state marketing boards is that market power has been transferred to private hands. This resulted in market concentration. The report draws attention to the quickening pace of concentration in the hands of a few processors, traders and retailers.

In 1994, 80% share of the global pesticides market was in the hands of 12 companies. By 2002 just six companies controlled the same share. By that time just two companies controlled 65% of the world's maize seed market.

In relation to food manufacturing and processing, the report says that two companies controlled close to 60% of the world market for roasted and instant coffee in 2002. Currently, three companies control 85% of the world's tea market.

In Africa, the effects of such corporate concentration are being felt in different ways. Let us consider the case of a very African example, coffee, which was first given to the world by Ethiopia. Of 23 robusta producing countries, 17 are African. Yet the large supplying countries are currently in Asia and Latin America. During the 10-year period from 1995 to 2005, Africa's share in global coffee exports fell from 14% to 7%. For LDCs as a whole, the share fell from 9% to 5%. In the 1970s, exporting countries retained a mere $5 for every $10 of coffee exported. By 2006, they retained just 20%.

Corporate concentration has changed the nature of commodity markets. Corporates are unlike the state marketing boards, which were the buyer of last resort (and this means that they had a duty to buy grain or cocoa or coffee or groundnuts from the last producer on the margin of the last region in a country). By contrast, the companies that now rule the market in countries where the state marketing boards have been abolished think only about company profits and not the economic development of poor producers.

There is a strong positive correlation between dependence on primary agricultural commodities and poverty. What it means is that as long as we are dependent on primary agricultural commodities, we will always be poor.

There is no country in the world that grew rich on agriculture alone. We in Africa cannot be an exception to this economic truth. The industrialised North grew rich because of the industrial revolution in Britain 200 years ago. This was quickly imitated in all the countries of Western Europe. When we look at the more recent experience of East Asia, South-East Asia and South Asia, we can confirm that it is the added value through manufacturing processes that separates the rich countries from the poor.

So when agricultural commodity production is concentrated in a few hands, it means that those who are already rich will get richer, and those on the margins will be further squeezed out. They will never have the opportunity to build up their cash income, or to diversify their sources of income, or to add value to their products.

This is not a major surprise. The tendency towards monopolies is a fact of economic life that is well known to economists. That is why in the industrialised countries you find institutions that regulate the growth of monopolies. In developing countries on the other hand, these institutions are not well developed. It is for this reason that we need to have an institution like UNCTAD that insists on having the market regulated on behalf of poor producers and not rich producers.

Need to Defend Policy Space of UNCTAD

Commodities crisis is forcing the question of commodity pricing back onto the international agenda. Let us recall briefly the history of UNCTAD. The first Secretary General of UNCTAD was Raul Prebisch, a renowned Argentinian economist. During the 1950s, Prebisch belonged to the school of structural economists that spawned the dependency theory. Dependency theory, which argues that a small core of rich countries keep the bulk of peripheral countries in a dependent relationship, was popular until the 1970s. It has been out of fashion with mainstream economists since the era of structural adjustment from the 1980s.

However, the pendulum seems to be swinging again. It is evident from testimonies by representatives of farmers' movements and by individual producers of poultry products, rice, groundnuts and shea butter. Some of the stories are desperate. African farmers are not benefiting from the current high prices. They are facing unfair competition from an overwhelming influx of illegally subsidised imports. Their States seem unable to prevent this onslaught. They are being forced to play by the WTO's rules. Yet they are being squeezed out of business by powerful forces that appear to follow their own rules.

There is a need to recall the ideals of the original advocates of international trade. The classical theory of international trade was developed by giants like Adam Smith and David Ricardo. It is not usually remembered that Adam Smith was a passionate defender of the rights of the poor. He pointed out the folly of beggar-thy-neighbour policies.

By contrast, the neo-classical ('neo-liberal') paradigm that informs mainstream economists today seems to have no such concern. In pursuing free market policies, that sound good in theory but in practice are only free on one side of the poor-rich divide, we are creating the conditions for a global, social and political catastrophe.

What we are sensing today is a moral outrage that the game is not being played fairly. That the rich industrialised North has set the rules of the game, but instead of holding its producers accountable to those rules, it is distorting markets in their favour. Meanwhile, African producers whose governments have accepted to play by the rules are losing out.

UNCTAD is still one of the international spaces where we expect serious attention to be paid to the cause of producers in developing countries. We cannot give up this space.

We need UNCTAD to be strengthened for the enormous task of defending the rights of farmers in developing countries to a fair share of the market. Given the terrible constraints facing producers in developing countries, the space occupied by UNCTAD is the space we want to defend. This is our understanding of the situation facing producers in developing countries who wish to trade their goods with consumers in developed countries on terms that are transparent and fair and that do not encourage the rise of monopolies.

As there do not seem to be any strong initiatives on behalf of commodity producers in developing countries, UNCTAD must take steps to strengthen institutions of producers in developing countries.

Click here to read more.

Burma: Lives on the line

from IC Wales

Thousands of Burmese people have perished. Thousands more are at risk. Yet despite worldwide efforts to help the cyclone-torn country, LAURA WRIGHT reports that Burma’s isolationist government are still making the delivery of critical supplies as difficult as possible...

AID should be pouring into Burma after a cyclone devastated the country, killing as many as 100,000 people.

But it was not until Thursday, five days after the cyclone hit that the first major international aid airlift was let into the country. And still Burma’s isolationist government were blocking the delivery of critical supplies and delaying granting visas to aid workers desperately seeking entry to help the country when it needs it most.

Burma, which has a population of around 48 million, is a country reeling from political unrest and extreme poverty.

It is ruled by a military junta accused of human rights abuses and which has attracted international condemnation and sanctions for its ruthless suppression of dissent.

Despite a wealth of natural resources, including gas, timber and precious gems, decades of economic mismanagement has left almost a third of Burma’s population living below the poverty line.

While the ruling military Junta have been accused of letting Burma down by denying access to aid, there have been reports that the country’s leader has spent just £2.5m to save his people after he lavished £25m – ten times that figure –on his daughter’s wedding.

General Than Shwe and his regime have come under fire after an internet video of the wedding showed bride Thandar receiving diamonds for her hair and celebrating with champagne.

The footage shows guests wrapped in their finest clothing and most expensive jewels. And the bride was not treated to the sort of presents you get on a department store wedding list – she received a fleet of cars and luxury homes at the 2006 bash.

The amount spent on the marriage was more than three times Burma’s state health budget. Less than two years later, 100,000 of Shwe’s people are thought to have died, a million are homeless, penniless and desperate for food, water, medicine and shelter – but he still lives in the lap of luxury.

The commander in chief of the Burmese armed forces has been notably absent since the cyclone struck. As head of state, Than Shwe has not even responded to world leaders who sent messages of condolences to the people of Burma.

The World Health Organisation has received reports of malaria outbreaks in the worst-affected area.

A WHO spokeswoman said: “Safe water, sanitation, safe food. These are things that we feel are priorities at the moment.”

Cyclone Nargis smashed into Burma last Saturday, bringing winds of up to 120mph

Shari Villarosa, the charge d’affaires of the US embassy in Burma, said there may be “over 100,000 deaths” in the badly hit Irrawaddy Delta area.

UN officials have described the region as a “major, major disaster”.

A spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund said its staff in Burma had reported seeing people huddled in roughly built shelters, and children who lost their parents.

He said: “There’s widespread devastation. Buildings and health centres are flattened and bloated dead animals are floating around, which is an alarm for spreading disease. These are massive and horrific scenes.”

Entire villages in the delta were submerged from the storm, and bodies could be seen stuck in the mangroves.

Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK, said: “The obscene show of wealth at the wedding typifies the shameless greed of this regime. Not only are they blocking international aid, they’re not mobilising their own resources.”

Burma has been run by military governments since 1962. The opposition National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in a 1990 election but was not allowed to assume power.

Burma’s generals, traditionally paranoid about foreign influence, appealed for international help after the storm struck on Saturday, but have dragged their feet on issuing visas to relief workers even as survivors faced hunger, disease and flooding. Shadow International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell told MPs the disaster was a “massive humanitarian catastrophe”. It was clear the death toll would rise “much further” and it was “deeply regrettable” that the Burmese Government had consistently run down and undermined the UN mission in Burma.

He said: “The Burmese people and the international relief effort are both the losers from that misjudgement by the Burmese junta. It is a scandal that following the disaster only a trickle of aid is getting in from the outside world.”

He said the Burmese Government must give “unfettered access” to the international humanitarian relief effort.

International researchers have accused Burmese authorities of knowing about the cyclone as much as 72 hours in advance. But they say authorities were unable or unwilling to warn the public or advise them how to protect themselves.

The comments follow reports that many Burmese learned of the approaching cyclone from international media and the fact that Indian authorities warned Burma 48 hours before Nargis hit landfall.

Australian natural hazards expert Dr Dale Dominey-Howes, from the University of New South Wales, says the actions of the Burmese junta would have played a critical role in the impact of the huge storm surge.

Click here to read more.

Mentally ill 'go without food'

from the BBC

Almost three-quarters of people with mental health problems run out of money at the end of each week, a study says.

The charity Mind said its poll of 1,800 people showed half had gone without food because of money worries.

And virtually all those questioned - 91% - said debt had made their health problems worse.

Mind called on banks and other creditors not to hound those with mental health problems and to find ways to help them.

People with mental health problems are three times more likely to be in debt than the general population.

Two-thirds of those surveyed by Mind had felt unable to tell creditors about any mental health problems.

But of the remainder who did, 83% had been harassed about debt repayments despite the organisation knowing of their issues.

Mind says the issue is particularly pertinent as all kinds of households face rising fuel and food prices.

'Astronomical interest rates'

Half of people in the survey had been contacted by bailiffs, some of whom issued threats saying they could "break in and take my stuff " or "get me sent to prison".

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said: "People living with mental health problems are particularly vulnerable to being trapped in a cycle of debt and poverty.

"With many unable to work due to ill health, Mind has found that people are becoming dependent on credit to pay for everyday essentials.

"Those on lower incomes are also more likely to only be able to get credit from lenders who charge astronomical interest rates.

"This is a worrying trend as people are left facing a debt mountain that they have no means to repay."

The charity is launching a section on its website to help people with financial problems.

'More sympathetic'

Mr Farmer called on banks and other creditors to help people with mental health problems who are struggling.

"Changes in practice - such as waiving fees when a customer has been too unwell to manage their finances and introducing mental health awareness training for bank staff - will make all the difference.

"Creditors have a duty to help not hound their customers, especially when they are coping with serious health problems."

But a spokeswoman for the British Bankers' Association said help was available.

"Banks will have staff who are specifically able to help with mental health issues, and we try to help people before they get into really difficult situations.

"However, bank staff are not health practitioners and cannot diagnose mental health problems or assess the likely impact these problems may cause their customers."

She added: "Customers who no longer have the ability to look after their own affairs have their banking needs looked after for them, but less serious health issues can be a silent problem - unless the customer wishes to let their bank know.

"Then the bank can flag accounts and will be able to factor this into any debt help required."

Susan Kramer, Liberal Democrat families spokeswoman, said: "Mental health problems can make the challenge of handling money and debt far harder.

Click here to read more.

Hunger drives post-election violence, deepens poverty

from Zimbabwe News

Harare - Hunger is giving a brutal edge to the alleged work of militias implementing Operation Mavhoterapapi (Who did you vote for?), a campaign launched by President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF government in the wake of the ruling party's loss of its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980. The post-election crackdown, allegedly orchestrated by police, soldiers and veterans of the liberation war, has led to widespread reports of torture, the razing of houses and killing of livestock, perpetrated mainly against people in rural areas suspected of voting for the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change.

Sergeant Mungofa (not his real name), 44, was previously stationed at the army headquarters in the capital, Harare, but within days of the 29 March poll was sent to rural Matabeleland South Province, where he leads a team of militias. Mungofa's eight-member team is alleged to have set alight the homes and food stocks of perceived MDC supporters, leaving a trail of destruction that has forced entire families to seek refuge in the bush or to flee to larger towns and cities. "From the orders and briefings that I received from my superior in the province, a lieutenant-colonel, the war is just beginning. MDC supporters have to be flushed out before the run-off presidential election," he told IRIN.

The official tally in the presidential election, only published last week after a delay of more than a month, put MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who garnered 47.9 percent of the vote, ahead of incumbent Robert Mugabe, who took 43.2 percent. A minimum of 50 percent plus one vote was needed to avoid a second round of voting for the presidency. The youth were particularly easy to seduce, especially in times of want, according to David Chimhini, president of the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust. It was easy to woo the young militias by promising them material things and giving them "a sense of usefulness". “Zanu PF is dangling short-term gains to the youths, who fall prey because of the current poverty. Systematic propaganda is being employed, and when they are given guns and military uniforms, that gives them a new image, albeit a bad one," Chimhini told IRIN.

Sergeant Mungofa alleged that his team and others like it had not been supplied with sufficient food rations or money, and this had driven them to looting. "Maiming people or killing them for supporting the MDC are two evils that we are fully aware of, but because of the hunger that we are suffering, the torment against those villagers is going even further. We are being forced to raid the people for food and other material belongings that we can lay our hands on in order to keep going," he claimed. Instead of just burning down granaries or torching livestock, he alleged that the militias were now resorting to slaughtering cattle to feed themselves and selling the remains for cash. Any reserves of grain stored by subsistence farmers after the meagre harvest were also taken, he alleged.

"People would be better advised to remove their belongings to secure places because, the way I see it, even wardrobes, blankets and pots will be seized in the coming few weeks," Mungofa said. The military has denied any involvement in the violence. "The Zimbabwe National Army wishes to raise concerns over articles being published in the print and the electronic media on allegations relating to the alleged political violence, assaults, harassment and robberies perpetrated by men in army uniforms. The army categorically distances itself and any of its members from such activities," army spokesman Alphios Makotore said. According to an army captain based in the Dema district of Mashonaland East Province, about 70km south of Harare, who chose to remain anonymous, there was division among the ranks, with the lower ranks opposing the violence.

He alleged that support for the campaign came from higher up, mainly from veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war, "because they have been given big farms, have the latest cars, enjoy fat salaries and allowances, and know that political change will take all those things away", the captain claimed. "This is bad. People should not be killed for supporting a political party that is recognised by the law. The unfortunate thing is that, being in a military establishment, you just have to follow orders." He also claimed that in a number of cases, victims were simply labelled as MDC supporters if they owned something a soldier wanted.

According to Thokozani Khupe, deputy president of the opposition, "20 MDC supporters have been killed by Zanu PF militias, while over 5,000 families have been displaced, with over 1,000 homes burnt or destroyed" and more than 2,000 opposition activists hospitalised across the country. Japhet Moyo, Deputy Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said it was "shocking that some people are submitting themselves to Zanu PF to be used as tools of violence", and that in addition to being forced to carry out orders, militias and war veterans had been brainwashed. "If cabinet ministers can be made to believe that all our evils are authored by Britain, and the MDC is a puppet party of the whites, what more can you expect from the war veterans and militias, who underwent intense indoctrination at youth training centres?" he said. Since 2000, when the government launched a controversial land-reform programme that saw over 4,000 white-owned farm redistributed among landless blacks, the government has run national youth centres throughout the country, purportedly to train young people in patriotism.

But the graduates, popularly known as 'Green Bombers', have allegedly instead been used to terrorise opposition supporters. John (who declined further identification), from Mount Darwin, a town in Mashonaland Central Province, about 300km northeast of Harare, is a Green Bomber. He said he and around 20 other militias was given brief lessons in weapons-handling at a "re-orientation course" in mid-April, after swearing allegiance to Mugabe and Zanu PF. He was subsequently given an army uniform, an AK-47 assault rifle and Z$5billion (US$45). "Since graduating from the training camp, I had not been employed, and which government in the whole world can just give you Z$5 billion, with promises of more. In fact, I had never handled so much money at any one time in my entire life and I managed to buy new clothes for myself," John said. Among those that John and his team have allegedly targeted are his 76-year-old uncle, cousins and the neighbours he grew up with. He claimed that "Even during the war [of liberation], freedom fighters were made to swear that they could kill even their own parents if they turned out to be sell-outs."

Click here to read more.

Need for food aid grows in state

from The Detroit Free Press

Government help up 53% since '03

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF

Mike Remenar never thought he'd rely on food stamps and Medicaid to help support his family in comfortable Grosse Pointe Woods.

He hasn't found suitable work since losing his job 10 months ago as an auto parts designer. He depleted his unemployment benefits and savings, struggles under a $1,400 monthly mortgage, and the travel agency he and his wife operate at home won't pay the bills.

"In the past 10 years, I've been laid off a number of times, but never this long," said Remenar, 60. "Especially living in this community, to be in this position is a bit awkward."

Remenar's unexpected dive into public assistance is a testament to the depth of stagnation for Michigan's economy. A record number of Michiganders are using government food stamps -- 1.26 million in 590,600 households during March, according to the Michigan Department of Human Services. Three in every 10 of the households -- 174,200 -- are in Wayne County. Genesee County ranks second with 38,179 households getting aid, followed by Oakland with 34,060, Kent with 32,564 and Macomb with 31,718.

Since 2003, the number of Michigan households receiving food stamps leaped 53%, the third biggest increase behind Massachusetts at 77% and Iowa at 63%. One in five Michigan children under age 18 is in a household qualifying for food stamps. (Nationwide, 27.7 million people received food stamps in January.)

It's not known how many Michiganders are first-timers for food assistance. Or how many live in neighborhoods where a Bridge Card seems out of place.

Families making do

Remenar said he worked for 30 years as a designer for various auto parts makers. He said using a Bridge Card the first time seemed strange.

"You do what you have to do," he said.

He said the Medicaid prescription drug program helps cover the costs of his family's ongoing medications. Remenar and his wife, Ruth, have sons ages 10, 14 and 17.

They've lived in their Grosse Pointe Woods home 14 years. Remenar said it would be difficult to sell his house. Homes in his neighborhood have been listed as long as three years, he said, and there have been several nearby foreclosed homes.

Besides a small income from his travel agency, Remenar makes about $250 a week delivering newspapers. He said his wife, formerly a paralegal, also is seeking work.

He's willing to relocate to another state or country, accept a smaller salary than he earned before his last layoff and, if needed, be a weekend commuter. He wants his children to remain in Grosse Pointe schools.

In the meantime, he has applied for jobs at Lowe's, Home Depot, Starbucks and Caribou Coffee.

"I have confidence we'll work things out and stay afloat," he said. "My wife is upset; she's very concerned about it."

Michigan's economic duress is more widespread than in past recessions, said Gerry Brisson, vice president for development at Gleaners Food Bank, which supplies 400 food aid agencies.

"The big difference now is the number of people in suburbs who are feeling it," Brisson said. "Poverty in the city has been bad for a long time, but poverty in the suburbs is going up in Livingston, Oakland and Macomb counties."

Embarrassing necessity for some

Bridge Card recipients often seek local food donations because the card won't buy enough for most families, he said. The average bridge card allowance per person is about $100 per month -- about $500 for a family of five.

John Frida, store manager at Value Center supermarket in Livonia, said there are more Bridge Card users, but added that it's partly because of the closures of Farmer Jack supermarkets in the area.

For Angelia Moncrief, 31, a single mother who lives on the west side of Detroit, food stamps and Medicaid health insurance became an embarrassing necessity when she lost her $38,000 office manager job at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn last September.

"Where I came from, not having to depend on anybody -- the system, my mama, my brothers, my boyfriend -- and now I have to use the Bridge Card," Moncrief said. "Now, everyone is looking at me when I pull it out. They think, 'She's doing nothing, she's on welfare, she's poor.' That's what the looks say."

Moncrief and her 12-year-old son moved in with her mother. She had been on welfare once before, and thought she had climbed into self-sufficiency with five years of full-time work. She said she's studying online for a degree in human resources.

Click here to read more.

At home in a foreign land: Somalian refugees adjust to a new life

from The Greeley Tribune

Chris Casey, (Bio) ccasey@greeleytrib.com

The four Somalis moved into the apartment last August, six floors up in a downtown Greeley building. The living room is furnished with only a metal folding chair and small table covered in papers and a laptop computer. A Somali flag, a white star against light blue, is the only wall hanging, draped behind the table.

A 25-year-old man identifying himself as Mohamed Mohamed sits on the floor helping Nafiso Mohamed Abdi, 20, fill out a rental application form for another Greeley apartment complex.

It's noon on Wednesday, and in three hours they will be working along with scores of Somalis at the JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant.

Mohamed, who speaks English, is a trainer for new employees, making $12.10 an hour, while Abdi, in the hijab headscarf worn by Somali women, works in packaging.

"It's a good place to work," Mohamed said. "It's a hard job, but it's good."

While they eat and sleep in the two-bedroom apartment, the Somalis mostly direct their energies outward into this new community half the globe away from their war-torn homeland.

They stroll Greeley's supermarkets, banks, video stores, and motor vehicles office, and they are frequently seen walking downtown streets. Many congregate at a south Greeley restaurant that serves Somali dishes.

"It's a really unsafe place," Ibraham Mohamed said of his native country. "There are warlords. There's no government existing, so everyone has a gun. You never know when you're going to die."

Abdullah Mohamed, 54, works the second shift -- roughly from 3 p.m.-midnight -- at Swift. The job is physically taxing but worth it, allowing him to send money to his wife and children in Seattle. He hopes they will be able to join him in Greeley.

A resident of a refugee camp for 16 years, Abdullah Mohamed likes the feeling of safety in his new country. Here, he is a legal refugee, enjoying United Nations protection and eligibility for employment.

"I can sleep at night," he said.

20 EACH DAY

Ibraham Mohamed is a Greeley caseworker for Lutheran Family Services, which provides refugee resettlement services. He estimates that about 300 east Africans are in Greeley, and that "every day, 20 or 30 people are coming to get started at Swift, maybe 15 (a day). It depends on how they get the job."

He said many hear about plant openings from friends and relatives.

They come for opportunity and safety. Jobs on the recently added second shift at JBS Swift & Co. offer a living wage for Africans accustomed to extreme poverty.

The east Africans, mostly Somalis, who've arrived in the past year are further diversifying Greeley, which has long been dominated by Anglos and Latinos. The city, with its agricultural roots, has historically attracted waves of immigrants, from Swedes and German-Russians to Japanese and Latinos.

This arrival represents Greeley's first distinct ethnic wave of the 21st century, and it follows patterns seen in other U.S. cities and towns, particularly in the Midwest.

A 2003 study by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire found that almost 30,000 Somali refugees had resettled in the United States, with the majority in Minnesota. The largest numbers in the Midwest, as in Greeley, work in meatpacking plants and other places that use unskilled labor.

"It does seem to be work that doesn't require a lot of English and that is not contrary to any of their customs or any part of their religion," said Christine Marston, an economics professor at the University of Northern Colorado. Swift pays $12 an hour to starting workers, "and Greeley doesn't have that high of a cost of living compared to some parts of the U.S., so I think it's an attractive place of employment for those reasons."

Doug Schult, who heads employee and labor relations at Swift, said refugees are coming from several east African countries. They are working at Swift plants across the nation, from Greeley to Kentucky.

Their numbers have "probably grown in the last year and a half (at Swift in Greeley), and I would say that's probably universal across the country as these refugees come in," Schult said.

Swift is coming off a year in which 270 Latino employees were stung in a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The number of Latino workers at the plant has dropped from 90 percent of its total work force to about 80 percent. The disruption of the raid, coupled with the addition of 1,300 jobs on the second shift, has opened the doors for African refugees, who are legally here and eager to start their lives anew.

"I like so much the U.S.," said Abdiqadir Jama, 20, another Somali refugee. "A lot of opportunity. You can do anything you want."

'VERY VOLATILE'

Inside the high-rise apartment, Taher Mame, one of Mohamed's roommates, stirs soup in one pot and spaghetti in another.

He said he'd like to go to college, but he can't afford it just yet. He cuts meat full time at Swift and sends $400 a month home to relatives in Africa.

Mame, 22, said the meatpacking plant work is hard. He hopes to get an office job someday.

Mohamed Mohamed, meanwhile, takes classes at Aims Community College while working full time at Swift. He wants to become a physician.

He was 7 when he left Somalia, which has been gripped by civil war since 1991, when its dictator was overthrown. His family resettled in Kenya. Eventually, along with thousands of his countrymen, Mohamed came to the United States under the United Nations resettlement program for refugees.

Mohamed said he knows people in Somalia -- which has produced hundreds of thousands of refugees -- who've been maimed, tortured and killed.

"It's a very volatile place with no law and order, no cops, no government," he said. "Dangerous. Any moment things can change. The next moment you never know."

The United States, meanwhile, is peaceful but highly structured -- one of the many adjustments the Somalis face here. Most of them are Muslim, and daily prayers take place at prescribed times around the clock.

Mohamed said Swift doesn't allow breaks at set times for prayers. He said the company has explained that certain groups of workers can't be treated differently than others.

"Sometimes you have to pray at specific times but you're on the production line, so you miss the prayer," he said.

The Somalis try to work around it by praying during normal breaks.

Tamara Smid, Swift spokeswoman, said the company is making accommodations for the refugee workers.

"We respect the religion of our employees and comply with the laws to provide reasonable accommodations," she said.

Swift has interpreters who speak multiple languages in the plant, she said. Also, the company is looking into offering English classes or forming outside-the-plant partnerships to provide language lessons for the refugees.

EXTENSIVE PROCESSING

Anders Snyder, volunteer and church relations coordinator at Lutheran Family Services in Denver, said the nonprofit group has opened offices in Fort Morgan, Colorado Springs, Summit County and now Greeley.

LFS serves both refugees who have fled their home country because of religious or political oppression and asylees who've come to the United States on their own and apply for asylum.

LFS served its first clients in Greeley in April 2007, when an estimated 40 refugees and asylees were in the city. Their numbers have increased since, especially in the last two months. Refugees are mostly from Somalia, but also Ethiopia, Eritrea, Cameroon and Congo.

About 200 refugees arrived in Fort Morgan, most working at Cargill Meat Solutions, by midsummer 2007.

"That's really been the emphasis for most of the movement," Snyder said. "Folks found out there were jobs at those locations. Good wages and good benefits and so forth."

Snyder said the background checks and paperwork required by the U.S. government is extensive.

"Refugees go through more processing than any immigration group when they come to the U.S.," he said. "It all happens before they get here."

Among the refugees, many lived elsewhere in the United States before arriving in Colorado.

"Most of what we're dealing with in Greeley and Fort Morgan are people who are secondary migrants who have chosen to come here (from other U.S. cities)," Snyder said.

Somali and other African refugees can work as soon as they arrive in the U.S. They can apply for a green card after a year, Snyder said.

Upon arrival, they often struggle to learn English, find a job and navigate applications for housing and a driver's license. That's where Lutheran Family Services steps in, providing about four to eight months of assistance -- including some cash -- to help the newcomers get settled.

"We help get all the pieces in place for self-sufficiency," Snyder said. "That's the name of the game for us."

Last year, 1,085 refugees overall streamed into Colorado, according to Paul Stein, coordinator of the Colorado State Refugee Services Program.

Nationally, the U.S. Refugee Service Program will cap African refugees at 16,000 in 2008 (the number varies year to year based on a presidential determination). In the first four months of fiscal 2008, which began last October, 687 Somalis had entered the country. The African nations with the most refugees so far this year are Liberia (764) and Burundi (1,781).

"We first became aware of secondary migrants in Weld and Morgan counties about the fall of 2006," Stein said. "... I don't have a real sense of the rate of arrival, whether it's going to increase or decrease. It's really going to depend on the economy or the local environment."

So far, Greeley has been generally hospitable. The Greeley Police Department is scheduling outreach meetings to help Somalis learn rules of the road and understand other local laws. The international specialist at Aims has been meeting with African students about enrolling in English classes and other college programs.

"If communities seem to be embracing the refugee community, then more would be saying this is a nice community," Stein said.

'Happy to be free'

Ibraham Mohamed left Somalia at a young age to live in a refugee camp, along with more than 30,000 Somalis, in Kenya. He said it was a dream to come to the United States, and he spent two years in Seattle attending college before coming to Denver.

Ibraham relates to those he's helping in Greeley. He recalls how difficult it was to work and attend school, all while sending money to Africa.

"They are very hardworking people," he said. "Once they get their job, they try to keep their job. I don't think they are moving nowhere. They will be here forever, or until maybe they get school. Whenever I talk to them they say, 'Maybe I will go to college, extend my English, have a better job.'

"That's what most of their dreams are right now."

But some, including Abdiqadir Jama, are here to study. A cousin and some friends in Greeley told Jama, who had spent two years at a meatpacking plant in Emporia, Kan., about northern Colorado and its educational opportunities.

He moved here a month ago, bringing two sisters. His older sister works at Swift and the younger sister goes to Northridge High School.

His job in Kansas, where he worked his way up to being a trainer, paid $13.65 an hour, giving him the chance to save money for college.

Jama said when the plane touched down in Los Angeles two years ago -- the airfare covered by the U.S. government -- was one of the happiest moments of his life. "I was so happy to be free."

He left Somalia at age 4; his parents moved the family to Kenya, where they eventually settled in Nairobi.

Whenever he ventured out of that major city, where he attended high school and learned three languages, things got dangerous.

"In Africa, if you went to another city, some thieves they came up to me and said, 'Hey, take everything out of your pockets -- your phone, your money, everything you have.' That happens a lot."

His main concerns now are getting enrolled in college -- he wants to work in a pharmacy -- and joining a soccer league, his favorite sport. He and his older sister share an apartment in downtown Greeley, paying $460 in rent.

He understands the struggle of fellow Somalis who want to go to college but can't yet afford it.

"A lot of (Somalis), they want to come here (to Aims), but the job they're working is hard, so it's too hard to do both," Jama said. "They're cutting meat, they're taking the bone out."

He's been meeting with Alan Hendrickson, international programs director at Aims, about financial aid and classes to take.

Hendrickson has helped several Somalis enroll in English grammar and other classes. He also makes sure they can squeeze the costs of college into their budget.

"That's why they're here, because they want to improve," Hendrickson said. "And we want to help them."

Jama is no stranger to piles of paperwork. It took him 18 months of filing papers and waiting on approvals to get refugee status. Most of his large family -- 15 siblings and parents -- already have done so.

It's a tight community wherever they go. "The Somali people they go together, they live together."

The Somalis generally say they feel welcome. Some, like Amina Warsame, 20, stops so frequently at Bank of the West in downtown Greeley that she's gotten to know the tellers' names. A chorus of "Hi Aminas" greet her when she enters the bank.

Click here to read more.

World's giants to alter food equation; As China and India rise, diets change and demands soar

from Chain Leader

By Evan Osnos and Laurie Goering, Tribune correspondents Evan Osnos reported from Beijing, and Laurie Goering reported from New Delhi. -- Chicago Tribune, May 11, 2008 Sunday Chicagoland Final Edition

Nothing about the lunch rush at a McDonald's in China would feel out of place in America: Students huddled around video games and fries; a computer salesman scarfing a chicken sandwich; a teacher lingering over a hamburger and coffee. And in that all-American scene lies the next great challenge to the world's food supply.

"It was impossible for my parents' generation to have meat all the time," said 42-year-old teacher Xue Wei, polishing off a piece of pie. "Now, we can eat meat every day."

The roots of today's food crisis span the globe, from sky-high oil prices in the Middle East to the diversion of crops from food to biofuel in the U.S., to drought-stricken harvests in Australia. But the crisis also has focused attention on a longer-term trend: the growing, evolving appetites of developing giants such as China and India.

"Population is increasing, and the income of the poor is increasing, but production is not increasing," said Usha Tuteja, head of the Agricultural Economics Research Center at the University of Delhi.

Rising consumption in China and India is not the prime cause of today's food-price shocks; both countries are largely self-sufficient in rice and wheat, staples that have fallen short in other developing countries and triggered riots.

But experts see milestones on the horizon: Sometime in the next year, for instance, China's growing consumption and shrinking farmland are likely to turn the country into a net importer of corn, a major source of animal feed and an ingredient for many of the processed foods cropping up on the nation's supermarket shelves.

Likewise, India is on track to become a grain importer thanks to a fast-growing middle- and upper-class minority that demands a diet diversified beyond the traditional staples of grains, legumes and vegetables. Dairy products are in particular demand in a country where at least 70 percent of the population counts itself as vegetarian, or eats meat no more than occasionally.

"You can pretty much see India is going to be an importer of grain," said Arif Husain, a senior food policy analyst with the World Food Program in Rome. "Increased demand is one of the top reasons why prices of food are going up. And India is a large player in that sense. It's about China and India, basically."

The issue hinges not simply on how much a country is eating but on what it is eating. After struggling for centuries to feed its population, China has succeeded in lifting 400million people from poverty in the past generation. That achievement has triggered a fundamental change in the country's consumption of resources.

"A 6-year-old boy in China today is 6 kilograms (13.2 pounds) heavier and 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) taller than he would have been 30 years ago," said Anthea Webb, director of the World Food Program in China. "That's a strong indication that people are much healthier and better-nourished. For the long-term picture, it does present a challenge."

\ Meat consumption spikes

China's per capita annual meat consumption has more than doubled since 1980, to 110 pounds today. That has created unprecedented demand for animal feed. Producing 1 pound of chicken, for instance, requires nearly 2 pounds of corn and soybean meal. A pound of pork requires 5 to 7 pounds of feed; beef needs more than 8 pounds.

But China and India are wary of being portrayed as culprits behind a global shortage. When President George W. Bush told reporters May 2 that the rise of India's middle class fueled price spikes, Indian officials struck back, pointing to their grain surpluses. The Indian defense minister called Bush's comments "a cruel joke." Likewise, Chinese Vice Agricultural Minister Niu Dun declared that "developed countries should bear the main responsibility" for the global food crisis because of policies that have diverted crops for biofuel.

Though China is a top consumer of commodities worldwide ranging from timber to copper to oil, it has long stockpiled grain at levels higher than the standard suggested by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. Indeed, David Dollar, the World Bank's China director, said China's role in the food crisis, to date, is "a small part of the picture."

By attributing too much of today's price spikes to Asian demand, policymakers could be underestimating pitfalls ahead, analysts say. A report on global food trends, released by UBS economists in September, found that "Asian affluence" is not yet a dominant factor in global food prices but that long-term trends in Asia "seemingly pose a change in food demand of proportions unlike those previously recorded in human history."

Southeast Asian nations briefly proposed forming a rice cartel akin to OPEC, the alliance of oil-producing countries, to give producers greater control over market swings. But Thailand's foreign minister withdrew the idea last week amid criticism from importers and exporters.

While China and India have imposed export curbs on some grains as a short-term attempt to control their supplies, James Rice, chief of China operations for Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat producer, said his industry is bracing for a long-term change.

"When China becomes a net buyer of anything, it causes the price to go up. Look at steel and oil. The big question is, what happens when China starts to buy corn?"

\ India's changing diet

Though India is home to the world's largest malnourished population, its growing middle class is transforming the nation's diet. Those changing appetites, combined with population growth just under 2 percent a year and agricultural productivity increases of only about 1 percent a year, mean India could soon begin using its substantial foreign exchange reserves to buy food on the international market. That would further drive up world prices, analysts say.

India may be able to meet some of its growing demand by increasing agricultural productivity at home. Today it produces only half the yield per acre China has achieved, mainly because of differences in irrigation, experts say. M.S. Swaminathan, an Indian agricultural scientist who helped guide that country's Green Revolution in the 1970s, said India's agricultural production today is only about 30 to 40 percent of its total capacity, compared with China, which has hit 95 percent capacity.

Rising demand and rising food prices have "made Indians realize we have to build our food security with homegrown food, not imported food," he said. "Once you have that realization that you need to plan for 1.2 billion people by 2010, then your attention turns inward."

That realization, which is hitting home in China as well as India, has resulted in boosted budgets for agriculture in both countries this year. China's budget has risen by 20 percent for 2008, and India's by 30 percent, said Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C. He called the greater investment in agriculture by the two Asian giants "the right move."

For China, a crucial challenge will be preserving its dwindling farmland, which has been steadily converted to industrial and residential use. Last year, China's arable land fell to 470,000 square miles, state media reported recently, edging closer to what the government considers a bare minimum of 463,000 square miles required to feed the country.

A paradox, of course, is that the land has been incorporated into thriving cities. The McDonald's that's home to the busy lunch rush, for example, is in the bustling neighborhood of Huajiadi, a former pepper-farming patch on the capital's northern edge. The fragile balance between China's growth and its agricultural base is too abstract to mean much to 20-year-old college sophomore Guo Meng.

Click here to read more.

ALC-UE Summit to Tackle Food Crisis

from Inside Costa Rica

World crisis on rising in food prices that, like all calamities, hardest hits poor people, came into the agenda of coming Euro-Latin American Summit Eurolat during recent hours.

The addition of that topic to the agenda of the fifth Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean or European Union (ALC-UE) was announced by Foreign Minister Jose Gracia Belaunde on Friday, in the middle of much international concern on the rising food crisis.

The topic is to be tackled as main in the summit, despite not appearing in the official agenda, which only considers the fight against poverty, social inclusion, climatic change and energy problems, the Minister indicated.

It is a subject that has acquired particular seriousness in the last months, "Garcia Belaunde indicated in a visit to the Museum of the Nation, to headquarter the Summit to take place on Friday and Saturday.

Food crisis has emerged due to food shortage and the increase of food prices, worsened by the abandonment of food harvesting to dedicate earth to produce consumptions for bio-combustible.

Another point to tackle, not present in the agenda, but present in the Summit will be the conversations between Colombia and Ecuador, in search of solutions to the crisis between both countries, since the recent Colombian military attack to Ecuadorian territory.

Garcia Belaunde affirmed that Ecuador Foreign Minister Jose Valencia and Colombian Camilo Reyes will meet here within the framework of the Summit, as part of a process of approach supported by the Organization of American States.

In this event of Heads of Delegation, to happen Friday 16, 46 Heads of State will participate, on a total of 58 delegations.

Click here to read more.

Poverty experiment eye-opening for leaders in Buffalo

from MSNBC

By CAROLYN THOMPSON

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Maria Whyte's two-day experiment living at the poverty level left her with debt, a parking ticket and probably a few gray hairs.

"I was so stressed out!" the Erie County legislator said Thursday as she joined a call for the city to address its census ranking as the nation's second-poorest big city.

Whyte and other community leaders spent the past few days trying to make ends meet on $9.25 a day. If they factored in the daily cost of a car, health care, cell phone and cable television, they were in the hole before breakfast.

It was an exercise in solidarity, organizers said, for the 29.9 percent of Buffalo residents the U.S. Census Bureau says are living in poverty — well over the 13.3 percent national rate. The federal poverty guideline is an annual income of $17,600 for a family of three and $10,400 for a single individual.

Only Detroit has a higher poverty rate among cities with populations of more than 250,000.

"We are a compassionate city. We can do better than this," said Whyte, who rushed her son onto a public bus to get him to day care, fed him toast and peanut butter along the way and then had less time to spend with him at the end of the day.

When she did use her car, rather than put 75 cents of the 84 cents left in her budget into a parking meter, she got a $30 ticket.

The census shows 43 percent of Buffalo children live in poverty.

"Your entire day would be spent on limiting possibility and choices for your children," said Arlene Kaukus, president of the United Way of Buffalo and another challenge participant.

Those in other large cities upstate aren't faring any better: In Rochester, 30.1 percent of individuals live in poverty, while the percentage is 29.6 percent in Syracuse and 27.1 percent in Albany.

"The food you choose, the trips in the car or where you can go, the recreational choices you can enjoy — everything you need to do on behalf of your child has to be an intentional choice," Kaukus said, "and it's all about limiting. ...Children in western New York do not deserve to grow up in households where there is no possibility."

Since learning of the census numbers in August, "We haven't had the community-wide discussion about poverty that we need to have," said William O'Connell, executive director of the Homeless Alliance of Western New York.

He called on Mayor Byron Brown and Erie County Executive Chris Collins to establish a task force to recommend poverty-reversing policies.

"Poverty needs to be the lens through which we create all of our policies," O'Connell said.

Brown in January appointed a deputy mayor, Donna Brown, and immediately charged her with developing an anti-poverty strategy for his administration.

"It certainly concerns everyone here and it's yet another reason why we're aggressively pursuing a variety of initiatives," Brown spokesman Peter Cutler said, "especially from an economic development standpoint, neighborhood based, as well as larger commercial developments."

Click here to read more.

Panel backs poverty fight

from The Advocate

Lawmaker: Issue affects everyone

* By SARAH CHACKO

The state could be required to reduce child poverty by 50 percent under a bill easily approved by a Senate committee Wednesday.

Senate Bill 660, sponsored by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, would create the Child Poverty Prevention Council of Louisiana. Its sole purpose would be to pursue programs to reduce child poverty in the state by 50 percent over the next 10 years.

How much it would cost to reach the goal was not discussed.

Nevers said it is time for the state — among the worst in the nation when it comes to child poverty — to do something about the problem, which is affecting children’s performance in school and costing the state money in the long run.

“I don’t know of any issue that’s more dire than the poverty of our children in this state,” Nevers told the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare Wednesday, adding that Louisiana has a 28 percent child poverty rate, the second highest in the nation.

“It’s just something we cannot allow to continue,” he said.

Through the measure, the council would be able to seek private funding for public fund matches to support child poverty initiatives.

The council would find grant funding for local governments, nonprofit agencies, faith-based organizations and other community-based groups to directly serve the parishes with the highest rated of child poverty.

SB660 also would create the Child Poverty Prevention Fund for grants and projects aimed at reducing child poverty.

In the state, there are already agencies — such as the Children’s Defense Fund, Agenda for Children, and Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations — that work toward the goal of reducing child poverty.

But Martis Jones, vice president of the Community Solutions Institute within the Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations, said the bill puts the state’s lawmakers at the helm of the initiative.

She said legislators have considered poverty to be a social issue, not addressing the ripple effects the issue has on education, work-force development and the economy.

“It’s everybody’s situation,” she said.

The council would consist of 14 members representing state departments, legislative committees, business associations and nonprofit agencies.

Judy Watts, founding director of Agenda for Children in New Orleans, said poverty underlies many of the problems seen with children and families.

Watts said 13 percent of Louisiana children live in extreme poverty, defined as a family of three earning less $17,600 annually. Half of the state’s children live in low-income families, defined as a household of three earning less $35,000 annually, she said.

Click here to read more.

Poverty rate still tops in Hamilton

from the Ancaster News

Kevin Werner

There was few silver linings within the Canadian census data released last week that still featured Hamilton’s poverty rate higher than the provincial average.

The city’s poverty rate has become a blight on its community when the last census shocked the community pegging the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) rate at about 20 per cent.

Hamilton’s poverty rate had dipped to about 18.1 per cent, according to Statistics Canada’s 2006 census results. But Hamilton’s rate, which includes a high number of seniors and Aboriginal populations, exceeds Ontario’s 14.7 per cent poverty rate. The census figures include the years 2005 to 2006.

Hamilton has almost 90,000 people living below the LICO, while almost the same amount of children, 23.6 per cent from 24 per cent, or about 21,600, live below the poverty line, said Liz Weaver, director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction.

“There are still a lot of people who live below the low income cut-off line,” she said. “And the number of children hasn’t decreased.”

The community focus to eradicate poverty was still in its early stages two to three years ago, said Ms. Weaver. It was then that the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction began to compile important demographic information, examine the issue and establish a partnership among the city’s community leaders so that a comprehensive strategy could be found to tackle the poverty reduction issue.

Since the organization released its recommendations, the city has taken action that has improved the lives of people living in poverty, said Ms. Weaver.

For instance, the organization urged more investment in the lives of children, youth and their families to tackle the root causes of poverty and break the cycle of poverty for families.

In response, the city has returned the municipal portion of the National Child Benefit in 2006 and 2007 which has boosted people’s income, approved a pilot affordable transit pass program, the city is supporting individuals to own their homes, and funds have been earmarked for early learning and child care programs. The province has also responded to Ontario’s poverty rate by establishing a minister responsible for poverty reduction.

An Ontario-directed task force is scheduled to hold public sessions later this year, and Ms. Weaver is hoping one of the meetings will occur in Hamilton.

“We want to share our challenges and successes with everybody,” said Ms. Weaver. “But any big changes (for poverty reduction) will only happen at the provincial and federal levels.”

In addition, businesses, the city and social service organizations have created about 90 initiatives to fulfill their mandate to Make Hamilton the Best Place to Raise a Child.

The census figures confirmed some startling demographic trends that began a few years ago and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

The median income for a Hamilton worker dropped by 4.3 per cent to $17,380, while the median income for a high-end person in the city increased 2.7 per cent from $67,753 to 69,566. The trend of an ever-widening income gap between the haves and have nots reflects what has been occurring across the country.

For 25 years wages have stagnated, reported Statistics Canada. The median income for Canadian workers had increased to $41,401 in 2005, from $41,348 in 1980, which amounts to about $1 extra per week.

The richest Canadians increased by 16.4 per cent while incomes of the poorest fell by 20.6 per cent over the last 25 years.

“It is disturbing,” said Ms. Weaver.

To link the roundtable with further poverty reduction goals, some of its members, including Ms. Weaver, sit on the recently created Jobs Prosperity Collaborative, which is seeking to boost Hamilton’s anemic economic development landscape. She said one of the best ways to reduce poverty is for the city to attract companies to the area.

“It would turn the environment around for the whole community,” she said.

The roundtable’s own statistics reveal the city can make even more of an impact on its poverty rate by targeting the so-called working poor - those people who are full-time employees, yet their earnings are below the LICO.

Click here to read more.

Bureaucrats should take up job of fighting poverty: Mitra

from The Hindu

New Delhi (PTI): Noted economist Ashok Mitra expressed concerns over the country's abysmally low human development index and said senior bureaucrats should be deputed in poverty-prone districts of the country to implement various development programmes.

Delivering his speech on 'Growth for Whom: Choice or Dilemma?' at the Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture, Mitra, former West Bengal Finance Minister, said India's low HDI position is apparently of no concern to our politicians and policy makers.

He also said that India's growth story is being driven only by the services sector.

The services sector is growing at a fast rate and industries at a slower pace, while agriculture is lagging behind and the growing sectors are unable to accommodate the displacement of labour in various areas, including construction work, he said.

Stating that growth was uneven across sectors, Mitra said the services sector provided employment to only about 20 per cent of the workforce whereas agriculture and allied services accounted for two-fifth of the total workforce.

Former RBI governor Bimal Jalan, who is a Member of Parliament, however, did not completely agree with Mitra's lecture and said "it is was just one side of the story".

At the function, Nirupama Subramaniam, The Hindu's correspondent in Pakistan, was presented the Prem Bhatia Memorial Award for best political reporting in 2008.

Click here to read more.

Poverty Has Female Face - German Diplomat

from All Africa

The Post (Buea)

By Kini Nsom

The Chargé D'Affaires at the German Embassy in Yaounde, Horst Gruner, says despite the fact women are those who generate riches, they are hardest-hit by poverty.

He made the remark while launching the gender equality week initiated by the German Cooperation, recently.Launched at the Abbia Cinema in Yaounde, the programme was dubbed "Strong women and girls". It is aimed at sensitising various stakeholders to promote women's right and mainstream gender in every aspect of national life.

It was in this perspective that the German diplomat bemoaned the pathetic plight of women in Africa. In Sub Saharan Africa, women produce 80 percent of food crops, he said, yet 70 percent of very poor people are women. He remarked that two-thirds of the world's illiterate who cannot read nor write are women.

In the face of such a situation, he went on; women need to be promoted because equality between men and women is a fundamental aspect of human rights. To him, such equality is also a non negligible factor of development.

"When you develop the woman, you develop the entire society,"Since 2000, he recalled, half of the German Development Cooperation funds, have been used on projects that promote sex equality. He thanked all the institutions of German Cooperation, including GTZ, DED, the Goethe Institute, the KFW and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, for organising the weeklong activities.

The week was used to accelerate the German Cooperation strategies tailored to ensure that equal opportunities between men and women become a reality in Cameroon in 2010.

During the launching ceremony, participants watched a gender-didactic movie titled Sisters-in-law" It is a one hour 44 minutes documentary by Justice Vera Ngassa and Beatrice Ntuba that x-rays the problems women face in the society.

The Setting of the documentary is Kumba in the Southwest, where rape, child abuse, forced marriages and domestic violence are the order of the day. It portrays the collective will of women to liberate themselves from the dudgeons of male chauvinism.

Click here to read more.

Low income stats questioned

from The Richmond News

Richmond's child poverty highest in region: First Call

Nelson Bennett
Richmond News

Richmond has the dubious distinction of having the highest child poverty rate in the Lower Mainland, according to the youth advocacy group First Call.

However, it's a distinction based on a faulty definition of poverty, according to the Fraser Institute.

Census figures for 2006 show Richmond has the highest rate of what First Call defines as child poverty rates: 26 per cent, compared to 24.4 per cent in Burnaby, 22.8 per cent in Vancouver, and 17.3 per cent in Surrey.

Mayor Malcolm Brodie acknowledges there are pockets of low-income residents in Richmond, but he wondered how First Call came to the conclusion that it did.

"I would like to know what are the criteria that are being set out," he said.

The income rates used by First Call are pulled from what Statistics Canada calls "low income cutoff" benchmarks, which Niels Veldhuis, an economist with the Fraser Institute, says is not an accurate definition of poverty.

"This cannot be used to measure poverty," Veldhuis said. "What a low-income measure is, is how well off people are relative to the average."

The 2006 Census is the first one to contain income statistics based on income tax returns. But using those numbers to get a handle on how Canadians are actually faring can be tricky.

Click here to read more.

Poverty eradication a priority for the Grand Coalition Govt

from the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

President Mwai Kibaki at his Harambee House Office met and updated Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, the Special Advisor to UN Secretary General, on the steps the Grand Coalition Government was taking to attain the millennium development goals.

President Kibaki said despite the heavy investments required, the Government was giving priority to Health and Education sectors which were key to poverty reduction in the country.

The President Thursday outlined achievements in the five-year-old free primary education programme and the progress so far made in implementing phase one of the free secondary education that was introduced in January this year.

The Head of State outlined the measures being taken to boost food production including resettling the internally displaced persons back to their farms.

"The Government fully appreciates the challenges posed by the rising international food and oil prices which may seriously compromise food sufficiency goals," President Kibaki said.

He thanked Prof. Sachs for rolling out the millennium villages round the world including Kenya and urged him to consider inaugurating more villages around the country.

In response, Prof. Sachs commended President Kibaki for his decision to form a Grand coalition Government with Prime Minister Raila Odinga noting that the unity of purpose among the coalition partners would assist the country in overcoming some of the challenges hindering attainment of the millennium development goals.

Click here to read more.

Solidarity Network program insufficient

from the Latin America Press

Government subsidies fail to reduce poverty that plagues 35 percent of the population

“Social work won’t complement anything, but instead will be the base of everything,” said President Antonio Saca when he began his term in June 2004, after announcing he would combat poverty head on. But economists and civil society representatives charge that this promise “is not reflected in the social public investment” and that the programs implemented will not get many out of poverty.

Specialists also estimate that the Solidarity Network program, a fundamental pillar in Saca’s social strategy, “is not sustainable” since the funds are meager and depend greatly on international donations and loans.

Since October 2005, the Solidarity Network has given monthly subsidies between US$15 and $20 to qualifying families, according to the number of children they have, in exchange for sending their children to primary school and accompanying their youngest children to health centers, while introducing potable water services and electricity in these communities.

Cecilia Gallardo, commissioned by the executive branch for the Social Area, explained that unlike other programs, the Solidarity Network does not just distribute financial aid, but “seeks to break the vicious cycle of poverty, reducing shortages and providing opportunities.”

In the program’s first two phases, between October 2005 and February 2008, the government invested $49 million between aid and basic infrastructure, benefiting 50,000 families in the 47 poorest municipalities (out of 100) in the country. For December 2009, a total of 100,000 homes in 100 municipalities are expected to benefit, costing $200 million.

Mario Paniagua, director of the Intersectorial Association for Economic Development and Social Progress, said that while the Solidarity Network is positive, it’s “completely insufficient,” adding that the way to combat poverty “is not with subsidies,” but with sustainable economic growth, the creation of jobs and allocation of resources to social areas.

“As long as no jobs are created, no program to combat poverty will be successful,” warned Paniagua, who is also coordinator of the El Salvador chapter of the international organization Social Watch. “These plans do not address the root of the problem.”

Appeasing acts
The United Nations Development Program report, “Path to the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals in El Salvador,” based on official statistics, indicates that in 2005 extreme and relative poverty affected 35 percent of the population, though data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in 2004 revealed that of the 5.9 million Salvadorans, 40.4 percent of the households were poor and 15.6 percent were extremely poor.

Jeanette Alvarado, director of the Maquilishuat Foundation, dedicated to promoting extensive healthcare, believes that President Saca’s promise has dwindled. “What’s said is not reflected in the amounts destined for social investment,” Alvarado complained. “There is no state social policy to reduce poverty; there are appeasing acts.”

According to ECLAC’s Latin America Social Panorama 2007 report, of the 21 countries analyzed in the region, El Salvador has the lowest public social spending between 2004 and 2005, with just 5.6 percent of the gross domestic product.

Government data estimates a 6 percent unemployment rate, which is hard to believe for social activists who claim that between 300 and 500 Salvadorans emigrate every day, principally to the United States, in search for work opportunities and better salaries.

Click here to read more.

Poor Tonga's king throws £2m party

from The Telegraph

By Nick Squires in Sydney

The new King of Tonga, one of the world's poorest nations, has announced plans for a lavish coronation party, inviting a clutch of celebrities including Sir Elton John.

George Tupou V, who has angered his subjects with his extravagance, plans to spend an estimated £2 million on celebrating his accession to the throne of the Pacific's last monarchy.

The king, who is 60, assumed the title in 2006 from his late father, Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, who was famous for being the world's portliest monarch.


But his coronation had to be postponed after pro-democracy demonstrators rioted and burned down much of the capital, Nukualofa.

But now Sir Elton, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince Albert of Monaco are among those being invited to what royal aides describe as "the most significant event for the Pacific area in decades".

A spokesman for Sir Elton said he would be performing in Las Vegas at the time.

New Zealand said that the sum being spent was more than a third of the aid money it gives to Tonga each year.

Click here to read more.

[Comment] Lessons Learned

from Spotlight on Poverty

Poverty and the 2008 John Edwards Campaign, by Jonathan Prince.

John Edwards ran a presidential campaign with poverty and economic justice at its heart when everybody thought that was nuts. He didn’t care if it was good politics – and everybody told him it was bad politics! He just believed it was the right thing to do. And now, as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fight over “Edwards voters” from Ohio to Texas to Pennsylvania, it’s apparent that voters, especially the working and middle-class voters Democrats need to win elections, responded to the Edwards message. Which is a great gift to anyone who cares about economic justice because John Edwards’s courage to stand up for what he believed revealed a surprising lesson – poverty is good politics after all!

From day one of our campaign, we were dogged by skeptics in the media and the punditocracy. And by day one, I mean day one – John announced that he was running for president from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans on December 28, 2006, and report after report was peppered with sentiments like this:

“Democratic political operatives remain skeptical that the Edwards message will resonate among either Democratic or independent voters.”

Last July, when he took the press corps off the campaign trail for four days to visit some of the poorest communities in America, they asked him questions like this:

“Can you really make people care about fighting poverty when it appears that Katrina and its aftermath didn't?”

Somehow they managed to insult the compassion of the American people and the value of conviction in politics at the same time.

But despite the constant drone of background skepticism, voters heard John talking about the terrible shame of more than 30 million Americans living in poverty and they understood two things: one, a politician who has the courage of his convictions is a person I can trust; and two, someone who cares about the people who are struggling the most is someone who cares about me.

Now, I can hear the reaction to this (believe me, I hear it every day) – “What do you mean it was a good message? You lost!” We lost because we were massively outspent by two terrific candidates and massively undercovered by a media obsessed with their celebrity. We were competitive through the campaign, and almost won Iowa, because of the message and the messenger.

Jonathan Prince served as the Deputy Campaign Manager for the 2008 John Edwards for President campaign.

Click here to read more.

Food prices and protest

from The Economist

Taking the strain

The political fallout from the rising cost of food has been manageable—so far

WHEN Haiti's prime minister resigned last month after a week of food riots, it seemed to confirm a warning that Bob Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, had given ten days before. He said 100m people were being pushed into hunger and malnutrition—and 30-odd countries faced social upheaval unless food policy improved and the rich world got its act together to help. A month on, policy has not improved, and the rich world's response has mostly been muddled—yet surprisingly, poor countries have been able to contain the unrest, albeit at heavy cost.

Simon Maxwell, head of Britain's Overseas Development Institute, a think-tank, says one problem is that donors need a single, simple guide on how and where to help, not a clamour of competing United Nations bureaucracies with different plans. There are moves in this direction. The first priority has been to finance the World Food Programme (WFP), the world's largest distributor of food aid, which has been as hard hit by food inflation as any slum-dweller. The WFP asked for $750m this year and has so far got about two-thirds of that.

The UN is also trying to make the international response more coherent. Ban Ki-moon, its secretary-general, has set up a task-force to co-ordinate what the UN agencies are doing and has called a food summit in early June to work out a plan. So far, so good. One unfortunate signal has been sent: the task-force is being run by Sir John Holmes, a British diplomat who is the UN's co-ordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief. This makes the food crisis look like a short-term, emergency problem, which it isn't—or at any rate, it's not only that.

More worryingly, the crisis has set off a round of bickering over the UN's standing food bureaucracy. Criticism has long been swirling round the largest agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a body that provides information and technical expertise. On May 4th Senegal's president, Abdoulaye Wade, brought this into the open by calling the FAO a “bottomless pit of money largely spent on its own functioning”. He proposed scrapping it, and incorporating it into another Rome-based UN agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which would be moved to Africa.

There is a local element to Mr Wade's strictures: the FAO's director-general, Jacques Diouf, is also Senegalese, and he might one day be a presidential challenger. But Mr Wade's words reflected real discontent with the FAO. An independent evaluation last year damned it for its “heavy and costly bureaucracy”. Merging all three Rome-based agencies (the WFP is there, too) would probably reduce management costs and turf warfare. But it could also stir up a hornets' nest of discontent, and it is not