REGIONAL SECURITY MEET IN MEXICO UPDATES

REGIONAL SECURITY MEET IN MEXICO UPDATES

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Gracious day from the Pearl of the Orient!

In this note are some updates about the regional security for Latin America. The very gladdening news is that, over the last two decades or so, the security situation in the region had dramatically improved.

Once the hub of populist and militarist tyrants, when Latin American security was ignominiously tied up to the USA’s that was for a long time the power hegemon of the Americas, the ideological-political streams and governance formations have drastically changed. The southern corridor of the Americas has turned pink politics-wise, while drug cartels serve as growing menace to national and regional security.

The Monroe Doctrine melted down, thus bringing forth greater challenges to Latin Americans to provide for their security needs. As the USA’s commitment moves on to new terrains such as supporting

governance reforms and stumping out drug cartels, institutional spaces are made available for Latin Americans to craft their own security arrangements based on emerging needs, including security related to climate change.

Below is the speech of Helen Clark, Administrator of the UNDP, before the participants of the regional security summit held in Mexico.

[Philippines, 29 September 2011]

Source: http://www.beta.undp.org/undp/en/home/presscenter/speeches/2011/09/14/helen-clark-meeting-on-regional-security-citizenry-and-development-in-mexico-city-mexico.html

Helen Clark: Meeting on Regional Security, Citizenry and Development in Mexico City, Mexico

14 September 2011

Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator
Meeting on Regional Security, Citizenry and Development
in Mexico City, Mexico
Wednesday 14 September, 2011 at 13.00-14.15

I am pleased to be participating in this event which forms part of UNDP´s 50th anniversary celebration of its presence here in Mexico.

Regional security, citizenry, and development are the broad, yet inter-related, themes of our discussion today.

Binding them together is democratic governance which underpins citizen security, public safety, and trust in the forces of law and order.

In the last two decades or so, Latin America’s quest for democratic governance has made great progress, with the strengthening of electoral democracy and a steady transition towards civilian and more transparent forms of governance.

These achievements followed a recent past in quite a number of Latin American countries which was characterized by the violence of repression by military or other authoritarian political regimes which limited citizens’ rights.

Since then dramatic steps have been taken in many countries to embrace the democratic project fully by reforming political institutions and upholding the rule of law.

Commitment and transition to democratic governance, however, is not enough on its own. Insecurity and inequality continue to challenge many Latin American democracies. With an average of approximately 25 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, Latin America is among the most violent regions in the world. In Central America, more than 18,000 people were victims of homicide in 2010 alone.

Insecurity is a threat to democratic governance and development progress. Societies and states are sometimes tempted to use illegal means to fight crime, and the public debate on insecurity can become unduly polarised.

The cost of dealing with insecurity is revenue diverted from investments in education, health, and other areas which are vital for human development. In El Salvador, for example, the annual total costs of violence have been estimated at a massive 10.8 per cent of GDP.

Transnational criminal organizations pose a great threat to state security institutions whose mandate is limited to the national context. More co-ordination across borders in matters of intelligence, security, and policing is needed to combat these gangs.

Effective national and local institutions are critical for fighting crime and enabling the state to protect its citizens. UNDP’s experience of working on these issues suggests that comprehensive violence reduction plans are needed, both to strengthen the relevant institutions and to support communities to create more secure environments. Efforts to reduce crime, also need to be guided by human rights principles and the rule of law.

Building resilient nations which can help prevent and reduce violence and crime falls within UNDP’s core mandate. We are currently supporting citizen security programmes and providing high level advice in this area in at least ten countries in the region. We have helped governments develop and implement comprehensive regional and national plans, promoted legal reforms and innovative approaches to managing local security, and supported reforms to justice and law enforcement institutions.

Some countries in Latin America, including Chile, Uruguay, and Colombia, have managed to decrease levels of violence or maintain low levels. Sharing the experience of how that was made possible may help inform policy approaches in other countries too.

UNDP has chosen citizen security as the theme for its next Latin American Human Development Report. The report will be co-ordinated by Mexican scholar and former public official, Dr. Rafael Fernández de Castro. Our aim is to offer a comprehensive assessment of the main challenges to citizen security, and the changes which this phenomenon has undergone in recent years. We hope that the report will contribute to enhanced human development, governance, and citizen security across Latin America and the Caribbean.

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.

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EUROPE’S DILEMMA ON HUMANITARIAN AID & CRISIS FUNDS

EUROPE’S DILEMMA ON HUMANITARIAN AID & CRISIS FUNDS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The West just may be so immersed in internal crisis and power squabbles that the Europeans seemed to have forgotten the basics in budgetary essentials.

A raging issue within continental institutions is whether to merge humanitarian aid and crisis management budgets. Africa, which comprises the greatest client-states of Europe, is the most direly affected by the debates and dilemmas.

Below is a summary situationer regarding the dilemma.

[Philippines, 06 July 2011]

Source: http://www.devex.com/en/articles/planned-merger-of-eu-humanitarian-crisis-budgets-draws-flak

Planned Merger of EU Humanitarian, Crisis Budgets Draws Flak

By Ma. Rizza Leonzon on 11 February 2011

A refugee camp in Burundi that is supported by the European Commission's humanitarian aid department. Aid groups and members of the European Parliament fear that the proposed merger of the European Union's humanitarian aid and crisis management budgets after 2013 would increasingly politicize the bloc's aid. Photo by: Yves Horent / European Commission / ECHO

Aid groups and members of the European Parliament fear that the proposed merger of the European Union’s humanitarian aid and crisis management budgets after 2013 would increasingly politicize the bloc’s aid.

“There is an idea on the table [to merge the two budgets] which is being considered by some people,” a European Commission official working in the humanitarian aid sector told Euobserver on Feb. 10 on condition of anonymity. “It’s not a formal proposal at the moment and it’s not something we would support.”

The European Commission is expected to propose a blueprint for the EU’s next multiannual budget in June, Euobserver reports.

There have been speculations that the merger of the EU’s humanitarian aid and crisis management budgets will prompt EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton to call the shots in humanitarian aid spending.

“I don’t know where the idea came from or how developed it is. It may be a wrongly interpreted idea of efficiency or part of the inter-institutional power politics currently going on,” Dutch Socialist MEP Thijs Berman told Euobserver.

“If it ends up in the June proposals I will fight it. Humanitarian aid needs to be impartial in order to ensure that all parties in a recipient country accept it as not favouring one side or the other. This is also crucial for the safety of humanitarian aid workers distributing support on the ground,” Berman said.

The EU’s humanitarian aid budget is managed by Bulgarian commissioner Kristalina Georgieva, while crisis management resources are administered by the newly launched European External Action Service, which is led by Ashton.

Read more development aid news.

FOOD PRICES UP, SPECULATORS ATTACK ANEW!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Winds of change are blowing hard on the granite edifices of autocratic regimes in pan-Arabia. As this is happening, financier speculators cashed in on the conflict by playing it up in the petrol spot market, thus raising oil prices to scorching heat levels. More areas of the global economy are under attack by the financier speculators, food & beverage among them.

As gas price in Manila has been rising by the week, so have the prices of food been going up. We are today on a bounty season for fruits here at the tropics—near the equator—yet such commodities’ prices are also moving up abnormally like they were in a situation of scarcity. Grains, vegetables, meat, cooking oil, and other related prime commodities have been accompanying the spurious OPH (oil price hike).

Little do common folks realize the handiwork of greedy speculators in the present inflationary patterns in food on a worldwide range. But that’s the fact, and many times before was it proved beyond doubt that greedy speculators, fronted by dirty operators, have always been busying their hands in reaping mega-profits on food commodities during times of crises.

Fact is, even when there is no crisis—such as crisis in the supply line—the speculators create the situation of crisis by hoarding millions of tons of specific commodities, e.g. rice. The instantaneous effect is the sign given off to traders in the commodities markets to play it up on the trading engagements, and elevating the emotive facet of the matter to the level of panic and near-hysteria.

Remember that time three (3) years back or so when rice suddenly began to disappear in the retail end of the market in the Philippines. There was a bounty season at that juncture, which came as a shock to me upon knowing from insiders (ground-level traders) that gargantuan hoards of rice were hidden inside many warehouses. President Arroyo then announced to the world that the PH will buy rice from overseas no matter how much the price is.

Of course, the commodities traders (speculative investors) heard the signal well. And voila! Rice prices across continents skyrocketed almost overnight! I even went on to forecast that it the near future, a cartel of sorts will be organized by certain countries to protect themselves versus the attackers. To make my hair rise on ends, hardly a day passed when I published my blog article about the forecast, certain Southeast Asian countries announced the formation precisely of such a rice cartel.

As the conflict situation in pan-Arabia boils up for some time, mark it down that the same coterie of financier speculators will keep on pursuing speculative attacks on certain prime commodities. Let’s not be surprised at all if the major staples—wheat, rice, sorghum, barley, oat, potatoes, yam—will experience inflationary upsets on the retail end over the next forty-five (45) days or so.

I have to prepare myself psychologically for the hyper-criminal speculative attacks this time. During the global rice crisis mentioned, I experienced sudden hypertension attack, as my cardiac condition quickly reacted to the rapidity of the crisis up to the pronouncement of rice cartel formation, rendering my forecasts a 100% mark hit.

So you fellow global citizens better watch out for the unfolding events, so as to prepare yourselves psychologically and financially too.

[Philippines, 08 March 2011]

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