SECURING HAITI’S RAPE SURVIVORS POST-CATASTROPHE

SECURING HAITI’S RAPE SURVIVORS POST-CATASTROPHE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

In case people think that Haiti has already recovered from the catastrophe it encountered just over a year ago, think again. There are still too many tent relief centers in the country, most of which are run by the IOM or International Organization for Migration.

Tent centers are deteriorating as update reports have revealed. Worst, girls normally get raped right inside their own tents. Sex trade might just rise across the coming weeks as a way to daily survival.

What happened to the global enthusiasm that was demonstrated in support of Haiti at the height of the catastrophe there? Is this a sign of the ‘bushfire reflex’ or ningas kugon, where peoples’ interest in helping out calamity victims soon wane, revealing a subtly superficial show of compassion?

Below is an update report on pro-active response in aid of rape victims in Haiti.

[Philippines, 21 October 2011]

Source: http://www.unhcr.org/4e8d98856.html

Haitian group offers safe house for rape survivors

News Stories, 6 October 2011

© UNHCR/Andres Martinez Casares

The KOFAVIV safe house offers business training to survivors of rape and forced prostitution in Haiti.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, October 6 (UNHCR) – Shirley* seems like a typical young woman – energetic, excited and hopeful. Her smile is contagious and her voice clear and strong. However, when she begins to share the horrors she has experienced, her voice drops and her gaze turns downward.

The 20-year-old lost her mother and aunt in the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti. With no place to go, she moved into one of the sprawling tent camps in the capital, Port-au-Prince. One night she came back to her tent to escape the rain. A man approached her and asked to go inside. She said he hit her and pushed her into the tent: "He threw me to the ground and raped me. After that I was haemorrhaging for a month."

Explaining further, she said, "The tents are not secure. Anyone with a razor or knife can cut the tent and come inside. There are no walls and no protection and before you know it someone is there in your tent."

Her ordeal is not unique. Twenty months after the catastrophic earthquake, conditions in Haiti continue to deteriorate. Today, there are nearly 1,000 makeshift camps across Haiti and approximately 600,000 internally displaced people.

The International Organization for Migration manages most of the camps, but fading international interest has affected the humanitarian community's ability to provide assistance. Women are particularly vulnerable in the camps, where there is little to no privacy, security or lighting. UN reports indicate sexual violence against women is occurring at alarming rates.

"Sixty-five per cent of the victims are minors," said Jocie Philistin, a director of a local non-governmental organization known as KOFAVIV (Commission of Women Victims for Victims). "Since the earthquake we have been seeing more children, minors and babies aged one to 17 months who have been raped." The NGO's findings reflect a recent Amnesty International study that showed 50 per cent of rape victims were young girls.

In addition to having to live in unsafe conditions, Shirley had no way to pay for her basic expenses. She said her only way to make money was to become involved in survival sex. "After the earthquake there was a system where you could get food but you had to sleep with the guys who were in charge of the food, even though it had been given out by the government. So a lot of young women were forced into prostitution to survive," she said.

As one of several organizations supporting the humanitarian efforts in Haiti, UNHCR interviewed women from 15 camps. They all reported that survival sex was a serious but invisible problem in their camps. With no gainful employment opportunities and widespread despair, Haitian women often feel there is no other option to access the food and water they and their children desperately need.

One woman living in a camp near the airport noted, "There was a girl who lived near me. She was raped. She had no parents and no one to defend her. That girl had no place to stay because she came from the provinces. She begged for money, but no one gave her what she needed. She had to turn to selling herself, and that was a form of sexual violence."

To help combat widespread sexual violence in the camps, KOFAVIV has trained dozens of community outreach workers to locate victims and provide them with much needed services.

UNHCR is working with KOFAVIV to run one of the few safe house projects in Haiti for survivors of rape and forced prostitution in Port-au-Prince. Over the course of three months, the women receive shelter, health training, psychological support and business training. After they start to earn their own money, they will be moved to longer-term housing and supported as they continue to get back on their feet. This month (September) UNHCR chief António Guterres visited the safe house project and encouraged the local staff to continue their efforts.

Shirley is one of 15 women chosen to take part the project. Her nightmare ended in June when she finally moved out of the camp into the safe house. For the first time in over a year and a half, she has a bedroom door with a lock.

"Now I have a safe and secure place and a new family," she said, smiling at the thought of returning to school and starting a small shoe business. Grateful for the help she's received, she is also working with KOFAVIV to provide support to other rape survivors.

* Name changed for protection reasons

By Charity Tooze in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

With field reporting by Sarah Ahmed

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

PEACE & DEVELOPMENT LINKS:

http://erleargonza.blogspot.com, http://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://www.facebook.com, http://www.newciv.org, http://sta.rtup.biz, http://magicalsecretgarden.socialparadox.com, http://en.netlog.com/erlefrayne, http://www.blogster.com/erleargonza, http://www.articlesforfree.net, http://ipeace.us, http://internationalpeaceandconflict.org, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://erleargonza.seekopia.com, http://lovingenergies.spruz.com, http://efdargon.multiply.com, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://talangguro.blogfree.net

GREEN ECONOMY, POOR NATIONS: COMPATIBLE?

GREEN ECONOMY, POOR NATIONS: COMPATIBLE?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Is development ‘take off’ of poor nations compatible with the green economy goal?

Poor nations refer to economies with per capita income of below US $1,000 per year. At least 30% of their families subsist in incomes of less than US$2 per day. Can its policy makers and market players even think of greening—energy sources, manufacturing, services—when their scarce resources must be used for providing jobs to the poor folks?

China, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam have ceased to be poor nations, as they have all graduated to middle income economy status. They are the ‘emerging markets’ of today, the growth drivers and saviors of the global economy. They are tops with regards to crafting enabling policies for green economy, investments in green energy and greening other sectors of their respective economy. Will poor nations be able to follow their paths?

Below is a discussion on the subject matter, culled from the SciDev.net.

[Philippines, 21 October 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/news/poor-nations-need-to-find-own-path-to-green-economy-.html

Poor nations 'need to find own path to green economy'

T.V. Padma

6 October 2011

[NEW DELHI] Developing countries should be given 'policy space' to tailor policies on the transition to a green economy that match their development priorities, an international meeting has heard.

There is no 'one size fits all' solution and national priorities should define each country's strategy for environmentally friendly growth, environment ministers and senior officials of more than 40 countries told a meeting organised by the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) and India's Ministry of Environment and Forests in New Delhi this week (3–4 October).

The Delhi ministerial dialogue — one of several events feeding into a major UNCSD conference on sustainable development, Rio+20, to be held in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — focused on the issue of creating green economies in the context of poverty eradication, sustainable development and inclusive growth in developing countries.

Delegates from developing countries expressed several concerns, such as the varying interpretations of what 'green economy' means for different stakeholders. For developed countries it implies a low-carbon growth model, even if it involves high-end, costly technologies, whereas developing countries view green economies as sustainable, natural-resource based livelihoods.

"There is a fuzzy concept of green economy and the near- to medium-term implications for developing countries and least-developed countries to transition to a green economy," Tariq Ahmad Karim, Bangladesh's high commissioner in India, told the meeting.

A second concern centred on integrating food and energy security with green economy strategies, especially against the backdrop of climate change. Moving to greener models of agriculture depends on the transfer of, and financial support for, green technologies to enhance productivity, improve resilience and diversify production systems, delegates said.

Similarly, moves to a green economy should address the issue of increasing access to clean energy for the poor and achieving universal electricity access by 2030, they said.

A third concern was that developed countries should not resort to 'green protectionism' or impose trade barriers such as high tariffs on goods whose production is based on technologies with high carbon emissions.

Another area of concern was the transfer of affordable, sustainable technologies from developed countries when developing countries do not benefit from technologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Sha Zukang, UN's under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs and secretary-general for Rio+20, said afterwards that delegates had "not resolved all issues" or achieved consensus on the costs and benefits of moves to green economies.

One unresolved issue is a proposal by delegates from Colombia and Guatemala that the Rio+20 conference should develop 'sustainable development goals' along the lines of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

PEACE & DEVELOPMENT LINKS:

http://erleargonza.blogspot.com, http://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://www.facebook.com, http://www.newciv.org, http://sta.rtup.biz, http://magicalsecretgarden.socialparadox.com, http://en.netlog.com/erlefrayne, http://www.blogster.com/erleargonza, http://www.articlesforfree.net, http://ipeace.us, http://internationalpeaceandconflict.org, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://erleargonza.seekopia.com, http://lovingenergies.spruz.com, http://efdargon.multiply.com, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://talangguro.blogfree.net

SOMALIS IN ETHIOPIA IMPROVING HEALTH-WISE

SOMALIS IN ETHIOPIA IMPROVING HEALTH-WISE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Gracious day from the Pearl of the Orient!

Let’s continue with our own monitoring of the drought-famine-hunger triad of calamity that is now raging across the Horn of Africa, with the hope that the intervention measures are somehow working positively this early to ensure a low level of deaths due to starvation in the coming months.

UN agencies, notably the UN High Commission for Refugess and International Organization for Migration, have been monitoring the arrivals of Somalis, for instance, in neighboring Ethiopia. The FAO, World Bank, UNDP and other international organizations have their hands full on the monitoring and interventions as well.

The heart-warming news is that the health situation for Somalis in Ethiopia has been improving overall. Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the World Bank amounting to US $30 Millions had been focused on helping the said refugees, aside from those extended by other agencies.

Below is an update report about the said refugee Somalis.

[Philippines, 12 October 2011]

Source: http://www.unhcr.org/4e734da96.html

Health situation improves for Somalis in Ethiopia; World Bank grants US$30 million to help refugees

16 September 2011

© UNHCR/G. Puertas

DOLLO ADO, Ethiopia, September 16 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency said Friday that as Somali refugees continue to arrive daily in Ethiopia, the health and nutrition situation is improving in the camps they are heading for.

In a related development, the World Bank announced in Washington, DC, on Thursday that it was donating US$30 million to UNHCR to help the more than half-a-million refugees – mostly women and children – in targeted camps in Ethiopia and Kenya get access to nutrition, health and sanitation services.

The grant will be used over an 18-month period to combat malnutrition, provide basic health services (including paediatric and maternal care) and for an immunization programme. In addition, the money will be used to expand access to safe water and sanitation services, and to prevent and treat common illnesses such as diaorrhea, measles and malaria.

"The funds granted today will allow us to expand coverage of essential health, nutrition and sanitation services in the largest refugee camps in the Horn of Africa," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres.

UNHCR is highly concerned about the health of the tens of thousands of Somali refugees fleeing drought, famine and fighting in their country this year, especially children. Malnutrition and measles have been blamed for many deaths in refugee camps in recent weeks.

But the refugee agency and its partners have been making progress in boosting health care and providing nutrition to vulnerable refugees in several camps, including those in the Dollo Ado region of eastern Ethiopia. Some of the World Bank funding will be used in these camps.

A UNHCR spokesman said that a measles vaccination campaign, completed two weeks ago, had resulted in a sharp decrease in the number of new cases and related fatalities in the Dollo Ado camps. "Mobile health teams are reaching many families who previously had no access to medical services," Adrian Edwards said.

In the Kobe camp, there has been a steady decline in the crude mortality rate, which is now estimated to be 2.1 per 10,000 people per day, down from a rate of four to five people per 10,000 a few weeks ago.

"When Ethiopia's newest camp, Hilaweyn, opened six weeks ago, the overall malnutrition rate among newly arrived refugee children under the age of 18 was 66 per cent. The rate has now dropped to 47 per cent," Edwards said.

Across all camps in Dollo Ado, the overall rate is around 35 per cent as the nutritional feeding programmes for refugee children have been able to reach the most vulnerable. "We are continuing these feeding programmes as the rate of malnutrition is still high, particularly among children under the age of two," Edwards added.

Meanwhile, an average of 300 Somalis continue to cross the border daily into Dollo Ado from the southern Somalia regions of Bay, Gedo and Bakool. New arrivals say conditions in Somalia are still precarious, with food hard to come by because of the drought. Some are also fleeing continuing conflict and violence.

In the capital, Mogadishu, the incidence of diaorrhea and measles among internally displaced Somalis (IDP) remains a concern and the estimated mortality rates among children under the age of five continue to be alarmingly high. Malnutrition rates have also worsened.

UNHCR has undertaken a number of fact-finding missions to some of the more than 180 makeshift camps in the Somali capital where distributions of emergency aid items have been carried out. More missions are planned.

With colder weather and rain expected in October, UNHCR is working with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the distribution of some 60,000 blankets to mitigate the risk of hypothermia in Mogadishu and neighbouring regions.

UNHCR is also moving to implement transitional shelter solutions before the rainy season, and procurement of shelter material and plastic sheeting is under way.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

http://erleargonza.blogspot.com, http://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://www.facebook.com, http://www.newciv.org, http://sta.rtup.biz, http://magicalsecretgarden.socialparadox.com, http://en.netlog.com/erlefrayne, http://www.blogster.com/erleargonza, http://www.articlesforfree.net, http://ipeace.us, http://internationalpeaceandconflict.org, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://erleargonza.seekopia.com, http://lovingenergies.spruz.com, http://multiply.com/erleargonza, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://talangguro.blogfree.net

MIGRANTS FLEE SOUTH SUDAN, CLASHES ANEW!

MIGRANTS FLEE SOUTH SUDAN, CLASHES ANEW!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The new nation of South Sudan is badly experiencing the birth pangs of a new nation. The majority of voters there ratified the separation from mainstream Sudan, and so they have to pay the social costs of largely unresolved conflicts and relative unpreparedness for statehood.

A sad report coming straight from the UN High Commission for Refugees concerns tribal and poor folks fleeing South Sudan as clashes in the Kordofan area have erupted anew. Fortunately, the graces of international organizations have been extended unto the Southern Sudanese even prior to statehood, so the same graces are again extended in aid of fleeing migrants.

Reportage on the subject is shown below.

[Philippines, 10 October 2011]

Source: http://www.unhcr.org/4e7361886.html

Thousands flee to South Sudan to escape clashes in Southern Kordofan

News Stories, 16 September 2011

© UN Photo/P.Banks

A family displaced by the conflict in Southern Kordofan.

JUAB, South Sudan, September 16 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency said Friday that more than 8,000 civilians have fled into the newly independent South Sudan to escape fighting in a volatile border state of Sudan.

The new arrivals from Southern Kordofan state are mostly refugees from the Nuba Mountains region of central Sudan, who began trickling into South Sudan in July following heavy fighting and air strikes. Since last week however, there has been a surge in arrivals, with up to 500 people a day from 100 people a day in August.

"These are the first refugees to reach post-independence South Sudan and we expect more arrivals amid persistent reports of aerial bombing in Southern Kordofan. New arrivals also include some South Sudanese who had been living in Southern Kordofan State before being compelled to return because of the violence," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said.

Most of the displaced walked for days to reach safety in South Sudan's Unity state, which shares a border with the troubled Abyei, Southern Kordofan states.

These people are scattered in remote northern areas of Unity, where a lack of airstrips and roads is limiting humanitarian access. To reach them, aid agencies are using a small number of quad bikes – one of the few means of travelling in this area. These bikes, although well-suited for the terrain, can bring in only limited numbers of staff and goods at a time. Food supplied by the World Food Programme had to be airdropped recently to the region.

UNHCR has conducted basic registration at the border and identified the most vulnerable among the new arrivals for individual follow-up.

"We are supporting a mobile clinic to address the health needs, and our partners have been working on improving water and sanitation facilities and providing treatment for the severely malnourished. Meanwhile, we are currently developing a site to relocate the refugees away from the border. The work includes building health, school, and clean water and sanitation facilities," Edwards said.

Transporting the thousands of displaced to the site will be difficult because of the state of the roads, or their absence. The authorities of Unity state have started doing urgent repairs to open up roads to cars and trucks again. In the interim, most of the displaced will have to trek to the new site on foot. Specific transport arrangements will be made for the most vulnerable to spare them the harsh journey.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

http://erleargonza.blogspot.com, http://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://www.facebook.com, http://www.newciv.org, http://sta.rtup.biz, http://magicalsecretgarden.socialparadox.com, http://en.netlog.com/erlefrayne, http://www.blogster.com/erleargonza, http://www.articlesforfree.net, http://ipeace.us, http://internationalpeaceandconflict.org, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://erleargonza.seekopia.com, http://lovingenergies.spruz.com, http://multiply.com/erleargonza, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://talangguro.blogfree.net

CHALLENGE TO NATIONS: REDUCE POVERTY VIA QUALITY OF GROWTH!

CHALLENGE TO NATIONS: REDUCE POVERTY VIA QUALITY OF GROWTH!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

We have a very fine news coming from the UNDP news rooms about the speech of the ennobled Helen Clark, Administrator of the UNDP. Appearing before the China-ASEAN dialogue in Jakarta, Madam Clark posed the challenge to the emerging markets of the South to translate economic growth into poverty reduction concretion.

Economic growth is definitely important, even as we continue to use growth indices—GDP, GDP growth rate, GDP per capita, GNP—in assessing the gains and loses from our respective countries’ growth efforts. However, quantities of growth alone do not suffice to make people more prosperous and live healthy lives.

Growth must translate into more jobs, greater longevity/good health, literacy, and gender empowerment, to go by the standard yardsticks of human development. Madam Clark shared to us her insights about the subject in her speech as contained below.

[Philippines, 29 September 2011]

Source: http://www.beta.undp.org/undp/en/home/presscenter/speeches/2011/09/14/helen-clark-poverty-reduction-through-quality-of-growth.html

Helen Clark: Poverty reduction through quality of growth

14 September 2011

OPENING MESSAGE
FROM THE UNDP ADMINISTRATOR HELEN CLARK
AT THE FIFTH CHINA-ASEAN FORUM
ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY
REDUCTION
“Poverty Reduction through Quality of Growth”
Jakarta, Indonesia 14 September 2011

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

I regret that I am not able to join you in person in Jakarta, but it is my pleasure to offer brief remarks to open the 5th China-ASEAN Forum.

I thank the Governments of Indonesia and China, and the ASEAN Secretariat, for organizing this Forum. UNDP is delighted to be a co-supporter and an active participant and facilitator of regional dialogues and South-South co-operation. We very much welcome the Forum’s focus on the quality of growth and its importance for poverty reduction and development. It comes at a critical time as countries strive to accelerate progress to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

One of the lessons of our efforts to achieve the MDGs is that growth, poverty reduction, and social development are too often considered in isolation, each with its own programmes, advocates, and experts. In practice these are interconnected objectives: in pursing one, we can advance, slow, or stall progress in the other. To get all of them moving in the same direction, we need to understand and harness the connections between them.

That is what UNDP’s human development approach strives to do. It looks for ways - across the silos and sectors – to expand the opportunities and choices people need to live long, healthy and prosperous lives. The implications are as pertinent to discussions of economic growth as they are to social development or poverty reduction.

The world has experienced enormous economic progress: in the past three decades, per capita income worldwide has almost doubled. Poverty reduction, particularly in Asia, has been similarly impressive. The absolute number of poor people living on $1.25 a day in Asia declined from 1.7 billion in 1981 to 933 million in 2005.

Yet, there is no automatic link between economic growth and poverty reduction. Even in the fastest growing economies, economic benefits have not been consistently translated into poverty reduction. Recent studies also show that in the past two decades the poverty-reducing impact of economic growth has slowed, especially in Asia.

Asia’s dynamic economic performance has benefited many hundreds of millions of people, but it has also brought challenges–including those of inequality, environmental destruction, and geographic, ethnic, and gender disparities.

To overcome such challenges and advance human development, the quality of growth matters. That was a major finding of a review conducted for last year’s UNDP Human Development Report. In examining forty years of human development progress around the world, the review found dynamic, inclusive, and sustainable growth to be a key success factor in advancing human development. To take this lesson forward, UNDP works with its government partners to design policies and interventions which can advance growth which is both inclusive and sustainable.

Through inclusive growth, countries expand the number of people who participate productively in the economy as well as the number who benefit from its growth. To promote inclusive growth, should stimulate the sectors where the poor work, generate employment and expand infrastructure in the areas where the poor live, and increase access to safe water, sanitation, and reliable energy.Services also need to reach remote areas and be made available to those who are often excluded, including women, the disabled, ethnic, and linguistic minorities.

Sustainable growth increases countries’ resilience to external shocks and protects development gains. Social protection systems are an important investment in sustainability, as they shield the most vulnerable from the worst effects of economic and other shocks and setbacks. Environmental protection is also critical. Depleted or polluted natural resources, increasingly volatile weather patterns, and more frequent natural disasters can impede development progress and even cause reversals, particularly for the poorest people. That is why the leadership of Indonesia, for example, on preserving forests and promoting sustainable development through initiatives such as REDD+ is so important.

The global economic crisis has also demonstrated how regional co-operation and integration can help countries withstand external shocks. In this regard, I commend the China-ASEAN Forum. Your partnership has contributed to the peace, stability, and prosperity of your region and the world. Member states represented here today are now focused on taking steps to improve the quality of growth in their countries and for their region.

UNDP looks forward to working with you all to take forward your individual country initiatives and to implement the outcomes of this Forum. I wish you success in using this platform to deepen your co-operation and to learn from the many rich experiences which each of you has to share.

Leadership

Helen Clark became the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme on 17 April 2009, and is the first woman to lead the organization. She is also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

PEACE, DEVELOPMENT & SOCIETY LINKS:

http://erleargonza.blogspot.com, http://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://www.facebook.com, http://www.newciv.org, http://sta.rtup.biz, http://magicalsecretgarden.socialparadox.com, http://en.netlog.com/erlefrayne, http://www.blogster.com/erleargonza, http://www.articlesforfree.net, http://ipeace.us, http://internationalpeaceandconflict.org, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://erleargonza.seekopia.com, http://lovingenergies.spruz.com, http://multiply.com/erleargonza, http://www.blogleaf.com/erleargonza, http://talangguro.blogfree.net

HORN OF AFRICA: MORE ON DROUGHT-RELATED MIGRATION

HORN OF AFRICA: MORE ON DROUGHT-RELATED MIGRATION

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The famine that is now taking shape in the Horn of Africa is the subject of news features in canned Big Media outfits today. The alarm bells raised by international organizations regarding the matter have been quite successful in rapidly surfacing the malady before the public mind via sensationalized media reports.

As already noted earlier, 11 millions of folks are forecast to face starvation in the short-run largely due to drought. The congestion of migrants in resource-rich areas is complicating the issue, by depletion and competition for resources, thus deteriorating such regions into hovels of famine, hunger, diseases, and deaths.

Below is a report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on the same subject.

[Philippines, 22 August 2011]

Source: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnAF/cache/offonce/lang/en?entryId=30061

Drought Related Migration on the Increase in the Horn of Africa
Posted on Tuesday, 19-07-2011

Horn of Africa - The severe drought which is affecting vast areas of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti is leading to a considerable increase in complex, multi-directional migration flows, both within and across international borders, according to IOM missions in the region.

Those population movements involve not only refugees and asylum seekers but large numbers of migrants and pastoralists who have little choice but to move along numerous complex migration routes, initially from rural to urban areas and for many tens of thousands, across international borders to neighbouring countries.

Although information on many of these routes remains sketchy, increased population movements have been observed from drought affected areas in southern and central Somalia towards the capital Mogadishu, where heavy rains over the past few days have wrecked havoc among vulnerable displaced persons.

Displaced Somalis are also moving along perilous land routes from impoverished rural areas towards Somaliland and the self declared autonomous state of Puntland. Others continue their journey towards neighbouring Djibouti and across the treacherous Bab el Mandeb (Gate of Grief in Arabic) to Yemen and the Gulf States.

Recent reports in the Sudanese press of Somalis drowning in the Red Sea south of the city of Port Sudan could indicate the establishment of a new hazardous migration route from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia to Sudan's Red Sea State and then onto Saudi Arabia.

The situation in drought-affected regions of Somalia has led to a major increase of people seeking assistance in Ethiopia and Kenya, with some 50,000 new arrivals reported in June. Over the past three weeks, some 11,000 people have arrived in Ethiopia and more than 8,600 in Kenya, with daily arrivals now averaging 2,000 in Ethiopia and 1,200 in Kenya.

In Ethiopia, where the drought directly affects an estimated 4.5 million people, pastoralist communities are particularly in need of assistance because of the weakening or the death of their livestock. Their cross border movements in search of water and pasture for their livestock are creating a higher risk for resource-based conflict and further displacement, particularly in the drought-affected Northern Kenyan districts of Turkana, Wajir and Mandera, where Global Acute Malnutrition now exceeds 30 per cent among children, pregnant and lactating women.

The situation in Ethiopia is further complicated by the return of Ethiopian migrants from Yemen, where evacuation operations started in November 2010 resulted in the return of thousands of individuals to date. Major return areas are Oromiya, Tigray, and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR) and Amhara regions, which are experiencing drought, crop failure and a dramatic increase in food and fuel prices.

The impact of these returns to resource-constrained communities has not yet been fully assessed, but it can be estimated that about 30 per cent returned to drought affected areas.

"Drought related migration is exacerbating an already complex situation of displacement and movement, triggered by conflict and instability and the returns of many Ethiopians and Somalis from Yemen," says IOM's Director of Operations and Emergencies Mohammed Abdiker. "Drought recognises no borders. The response to the current crisis has to take into account internal and cross border mobility as a survival strategy for large populations."

IOM and UN partners have been working with governments in the Horn and East Africa to facilitate safe movement of pastoralists across border regions as a climate change coping mechanism.

The Security in Mobility (SIM) initiative called on regional governments to develop a policy to facilitate the safe movement of pastoralists within their countries and across borders using a collaborative approach that encompasses provision of humanitarian assistance, provision of basic services, facilitated migration and comprehensive security initiatives.

"Of all the key mitigation and coping mechanisms, mobility stands out as the most essential for pastoralists," says IOM's Abdiker. "No country in the region can singlehandedly tackle the complex challenges of climate change and migration. A concerted regional effort is therefore urgently needed."

For more information, please contact:

Mohammed Abdiker
IOM Geneva
Tel: +41 22 717 93 79
E-mail: mabdiker@iom.int

or

Jean-Philippe Chauzy
IOM Geneva
Tel: +41 22 717 93 61
E-mail: jpchauzy@iom.int

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs & website anytime!

Social Blogs:

IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com

UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com

Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

Poetry & Art Blogs:

ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Mixed Blends Blogs:

@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com

@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon

Website:

PROF. ERLE FRAYNE ARGONZA: http://erleargonza.com

LIBERAL COÑO POWER & RISING POVERTY

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The Liberal Party is now up in power and neo-liberalism, the same ideology espoused since after the rise of FVRamos, continues to ravage natural, human, and physical resources to enlarge the pockets of billionaires and global oligarchs.

Neo-liberal policies of privatization, deregulation, liberalization comprise the trilogy of evils that have led to a great divide between haves and have-nots in the entire planet. So did the same policies unleash the greater elite powers to slam bang middle and lower classes who would have to satisfy themselves with bread crumbs.

As I’ve been saying in my articles, liberalism is just one step away from fascism. It is in fact a mask used by the same elites to conceal their plutocratic, top-down social control engagement done in the pursuit of their greed. It is a subterfuge for gangland power and warlord power in countries such as PH, the latter being the base of primal-sadistic power by elites in the North.

[Philippines, 17 April 2011]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
LIBERALISM: MORE POVERTY & CORRUPTION

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza
University of the Philippines

Good afternoon, fellows!

The Liberal Party in the Philippines has been bandying lately the good governance agenda. Philosophically bankrupt, the dogmatists of the party could at best parrot the verbiage of university academics who, in reductionist fashion, associated the development problems of the country to bad governance.

Poverty had alarmingly risen from 25% in 2001 to 32% today, as per government statistics. This came at a time when the economy doubled, GDP-wise, and the country had been dubbed as an ‘emerging market’. Can poverty be factored solely to bad governance, as liberal quacks now claim?

Whether the so-called ‘think-tank’ of the Liberal Party or LP possesses the comprehensive grasp of the country’s problems is doubtful. A ‘think-tank’ that is theoretically bankrupt could at best be a coterie of mediocre dudes whose sense of originality in problem-solving engagements is nil.

There surely were episodes in our economic history when poverty expanded. We can concretely site the following periods: 1983-1996, when poverty incidence rose from 35% in ’83 (Marcos era) to 49% in ’89 (Cory Aquino era) to a 60% peak in ’95 (Ramos Era); and, after a period of radical drop, moved up again in 2001 through 2009, from 25% (‘01)to 28% (’04) to 32% (‘09).

The 32% poverty incidence may not even be accurate. As Prof. Cielito Habito (Ateneo University) sited in his newspaper column, the figure could be a high 35%. My own intuitive assessment is that the figure could be much higher at around 45%.

Those high-poverty episodes were actually periods when the country was under the IMF programs’ tutelage. They were times when liberal policy reforms were radically implemented in the country, to note: liberalization, privatization, deregulation, tax reforms, reduced budgets for social services, currency devaluation, wage freeze, and increased utility prices.

Not only did we witness the expansion of poverty during the same episodes, we also saw the rise of corruption. Weak regulatory frameworks at a time of rising total budgets redound to liberalizing graft as well, resulting to larger largesse for bureaucrats & legislators (returns from pork barrel allocations).

Let’s take the case of trade liberalization. As soon as tariff reforms were implemented in full during the Ramos Era, a whopping P300 Billion+ worth of import duties were wiped out, thus reducing revenues so drastically. With nil safety nets in implementation, the tariff reform saw millions of affected small planters, fishers, craftsmen, and farm workers experience large-scale income drops, thus instantly leading to larger poverty incidence.

As commitments to tariff reforms are now binding upon our state, based on signed treaties (ASEAN, WTO), regulatory frameworks for executing projects remain weak. This bad situation ensures the perpetuation of the take of bureaucrats on projects, from the past 10% ‘s.o.p.’ circa 1980s, to the gargantuan 40% today and higher rate tomorrow. E.g. a road project worth P1 Billion will be priced/budgeted at P1.4 Billion, with P400 Million allowance for the grafters (they call it ‘for the boys’).

Note that during the periods of extensive liberal reforms, Hacienda Luisita escaped agrarian reform’s surgical operations. Of course, the regulatory and executory frameworks of the agrarian reform law were so weak, so much that President Aquino’s family estate was accorded special treatment that it enjoys till these days.

Ipso facto, liberal reforms practically destroyed the already weak regulatory frame that we Filipinos have struggled so hard to build since the time of the 1st presidency yet (Aguinaldo, 1898-1900). Curbing poverty and graft, which indeed go together, requires draconian tactics of state interventionism or dirigism, not liberalism.

It is all too easy a kindergarten stuff to forecast that under a liberal regime, poverty will swell to higher incidence (beyond 40%). As budgets and projects increase, so will graft move up, probably eating as much as 60% of total appropriations at certain junctures.

The ‘walang korupsyon’ (no corruption) flaunted by the liberal quacks is nothing but empty propaganda. Bereft of creative approaches to diminishing corruption, the ‘walang korupsyon’ line merely re-echoes an age-old line of traditional politicians or trapos desperate to gain electoral victories by duping a gullible electorate.

‘Walang korupsyon’ isn’t even liberal nor populist a line, but hyper-conservative. Conservatism serves the interests of Big Business, Big Landlords, Big Church (biggest landlord in the Philippines), and foreign capital.

We are therefore not surprised that the leaders and groups representing Big Business, Big Landlords, Big Church (Jesuits, Opus Dei, bishops), and foreign capital have openly supported Noynoy Aquino & the Liberal Party.

The LP of the Philippines now appears more as a copycat of the fascistic Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. Don’t ever be surprised that both parties are good friends within the Liberal International league.

A liberal regime will most likely be saddled with enormous graft and poverty problems that, within a couple of years of its incumbency, patriotic soldiers and populist groups would alternately shake it down to rubbles. A veteran of civil society campaigns myself, I would most likely be marching the streets again to oppose moralist pretenders who are in fact greedy crocodiles.

Liberalism doesn’t represent the interest of the nation and people, and should be rejected in the coming polls and the next ones to come.

[Philippines, 13 April 2010. Prof. Erle Argonza is an economist, sociologist, and international consultant. He’s a member of the very prestigious Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration or EROPA.]
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs & website anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com

Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon

Website:
PROF. ERLE FRAYNE ARGONZA: http://erleargonza.com

RP MAIN TARGET OF GLOBAL OLIGARCHY’S MACHINATIONS

This article is hereby republished for re-echoing of themes about machinations by the global elites (oligarchs-political-military-technocratic) in the world and my country. Their local puppets were able to install a coño kid, Noynoy Aquino, to power. What their current agenda should be our subject of continuing inquiry. The same elites already destroyed parts of New Zealand and Japan this year with the Tesla Earthquake Machine or TEM.


RP MAIN TARGET OF GLOBAL OLIGARCHY’S MACHINATIONS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day! Magandang araw!

The global oligarchy, alternately called New World Order (NWO) or ‘Committee of 300’ or Military-Industrial Complex, is again hatching a contingency move across the planet. Little do East Asians know that the same elites have moved closer to home to fulfill their latest catastrophic plan, as exemplified by my Filipino compatriots who are as somnambulistic as the herds of the planet.

As already alluded to in earlier articles, the global oligarchs are using the 2010 elections in the Philippines to mask their plan. Being both scientist and mystic, I have the privilege to use both empirical-analytic and mystical-paranormal methods to buttress my claims, and in this note I’d share some of my meditation visions about their plot.

Over the last three (3) years or so, I articulated about the coming collapse of the global economy, the attempt to unify Europe under a neo-Bonapartist state, the modus Vivendi of the EU & US to install a 4th Reich, and the launching of a 3rd World War. The oligarchs & military-technocratic-political subalterns have hatched the plan apparently fairly well, through their organizational platforms –Bilderberger Group, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, Royal Institute for International Affairs, and NATO.

The global economic collapse already took place, while its flames still rage strongly in the USA-Europe-Japan trilateral zone. However, the plans to install a Bonapartist Europe, a 4th Reich, and launch a 3rd World War (via Sunni vs Shiite conflict) have been stalled. To simplify the matter, saner and more enlightened leaders inside the states, markets, and civil societies of the trilateral zone have prevailed, and have effectively neutralized or at least delayed the elites’ evil plans.

Indubitably, the oligarchy is terribly alarmed at the audacity and effectiveness of the opposition mounted against them. Alarmed more so to find out that the opposition is uncoordinated, launched as they are from more circumscribed interests of nations and social sectors fighting for survival against the predatory onslaughts of the greedy elites.

It isn’t difficult to realize that a determined predatory force will fight tooth and nail to maintain its ascendancy worldwide, and will plan a contingency move anew. Where the next focused target lies is everyone’s guess. Would it be Latin America? East Asia!? Africa?

RP is home to the hyperspace portal serving as short-cut to galaxies, and this portal (per my visions) has been re-opened by Light Forces after being closed for a long time. Any predatory force fighting for its survival, in the light of the entry of a 3rd Force (galactic fleets of higher dimensional order and superior firepower) arriving en masse on Earth, would be forced to reckon with the Philippines first of all as a possible escape route (NASA program’s being revived for this classified purpose to bail out the elites to other planets and star systems).

Philippine nationalism is also rising, and this has to be check-mated once and for all in the oligarchs’ perception. This nationalism is intersecting with the rise of the ASEAN as a region-state, and it won’t be long before the Philippine nation and its neighbors will realize that their region was formerly the Majapahit Empire, that they were thus duped by the Western powers into believing for some time that they were separate nations and states (nations crafted by the same powers). They are one nation, and they will prevail.

Lastly, there are the huge hoards of gold the country possesses. No, the hoard doesn’t belong to the Marcos family, but comes from diverse sources. A large amount of the bullions were a heritage of the Majapahit Emperor and passed on to descendents, many of whom are Filipinos. Some other large hoards remain unearthed, but lie secured deep within the surface, created a long time back by friendly forces—underground civilizations (cities) and elemental life-forms (certain forces possess the alchemical powers to convert ordinary stones into gold). I’ve done meditation visions before on the gold hoards, and was almost overwhelmed at the sight of the precious metals filling up large bank vaults specially designed for them (these are the bullions traceable to the Majapahit princes).

The oligarchs’ financial empire—created through liberalization, deregulation, privatization, globalization, and bubbled through legitimized looting and swindling—is now eroding rapidly, and it won’t be long before massive risings across the globe may lead to the overthrow of the oligarchic puppet states, confiscation of properties (watch oligarchs’ assets sequestered in Russia), and decapitation of the perceived criminals and their subaltern war criminals. Before the total collapse of the NWO’s global empire happens, drastic moves have to be done. The predators badly need the gold to bankroll their assets and sustain ascendancy of power.

Amid all the synergized anarchy-–or synarchy—across the globe perpetuated by the same predatory oligarchic families, moves are now being made to get the Philippines at all cost. The Pentagon’s men are moving to possibly install puppet generals to power in a failed election scenario, while the Anglo-European financiers eye the installation of liberal candidate Noynoy Aquino and crocodile factions to power.

Meanwhile, very surreptitiously crystalline receptors were installed in Luzon notably the Laguna Lake area, under the guise of ecology projects. I was able to monitor this move through visions, even as I was almost duped by a Caucasian lady who contacted me through email to join their installation of ‘healing crystals’ in a lakeshore town in Laguna (the lady’s name and email messages are still with me). These receptors will be used to re-echo submarine earthquake vibrations detonated by possible combination of nuke and Tesla Earthquake Machine or TEM.

It is a likely eventuality that a quake can be calibrated to yank the Marikina fault a bit that can ruin Manila into flattened debris. Producing 1/3 of the nation’s wealth, a flattened Manila means total devastation to the nation that is struggling hard to end mass poverty and achieve development maturity by 2016 or so.

The devastation of the Philippines via submarine nuke and TEM could also distort or warp the electromagnetic field or EMF of the islands and keep the cross-galactic Light Forces at bay, at least for a while. This will give the elites a window of opportunity to escape thru another route, as the galactic reinforcements will take a bit longer to traverse space via longer routes.

The possibility of a Galactic Force or G-Force intervening for Earth humans or Terrans, whom they possibly bred several millennia back, is becoming more manifest by the day. World powers are being urged to reveal their classified research information about the matter, yet they refuse to do so, even if the Vatican itself (via its department of UFO studies headed by a cardinal) already did its subtle message for the UK, USA, and Russia to broadcast the revelations (Vatican already released its report about alien bones and skull in its collection). The elites are obviously scared of this G-Force and are planning to hide underground and/or escape by space.

Just exactly what will happen to this broad contingency plan is worth our watch. Let us begin monitoring, and sharing information about the matter. Meanwhile, my fellow Filipinos sleep, amid murmurs of catastrophe.

[Philippines, 23 March 2010]
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs & website anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com

Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon

Website:
PROF. ERLE FRAYNE ARGONZA: http://erleargonza.com