IDEALS

BRASILIA, (Jun. 2, 2010) IPS/GIN – Not only do Latin America and
the Caribbean collect less tax revenue than any other region in the
world, in spite of positive economic growth this decade, but
national tax systems are unfair, as they rely heavily on indirect
taxes that are levied equally on rich and poor, according to a new
study by ECLAC.

The tax burden in Latin America averages 18.4 percent of GDP, only
half the average in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), which includes all the industrialized nations,
says ECLAC (the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean).
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SAMUT PRAKARN, Thailand, (Jun. 3, 2010) IPS/GIN – From a high of
1,000 when they began, the number of women working at Try Arm is
down to 30, yet those running the cooperative that makes women’s
undergarments are determined to succeed.

They probably have few other options. Rungnapa Boonmala, a
49-year-old who is the breadwinner in her family, remarks, “I’m
trying to live as normal a life as possible. I used to live
comfortably, but now I have to work harder.”
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CARACAS, (May 26, 2010) IPS/GIN – The Venezuelan government put a
chokehold on the foreign exchange system by closing down the
“parallel” currency market, which in a country so heavily dependent
on imports may stifle an economy already plagued by recession,
inflation and shortages of certain products.

The unofficial “permuta” market, in which stocks and bonds could
be traded for dollars in stock exchanges and brokerages, was closed
May 17 and will be replaced by a system of exchange rate bands
under the control of the Central Bank (BCV), due to become
operational in the first or second week of June. Read the rest of this entry →

BENTO GONÄALVES, Brazil, (Aug. 17, 2009) IPS/GIN – In 1875 a
handful of families from the Veneto region of northern Italy,
fleeing hardship and hunger, took ship for the Empire of Brazil.
Disembarking in Porto Alegre in the southeast, they hacked their
way through densely wooded country for over 100 kilometres into the
Serra Ga£cha hills, up to 800 metres above sea level.

Land, 25 to 50 hectares per family, was distributed free to these
self-reliant pioneers in an area of the southern state of Rio
Grande do Sul named Dona Isabel, after his daughter, by the emperor
Dom Pedro II (1831-1889). This imperial policy, which followed the
abolition of slavery in 1871, was aimed at populating the land and
making it productive.
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BUCHAREST, (Aug. 18, 2009) IPS/GIN – “Our country would have gone
through the economic crisis much smoother had we invested more in
agriculture over the past 20 years, and had we not wasted so many
resources on consumption,” Romanian President Traian Basescu
declared Aug. 7. That remark has drawn attention to serious
questions whether countries like Romania are wasting their
potential for agriculture.

“Romania’s agricultural potential could ensure food for 80 million
people,” Basescu had said at a conference on agriculture in Arad
in western Romania. “Unfortunately, statistics show that last year
we, 20 million Romanians, imported 70 percent of what we ate.”
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CAIRO, (Aug. 18, 2009) IPS/GIN – Property tax collectors from
across Egypt gathered last week in Cairo to protest fresh attempts
by the official state trade union to undermine their independent
labor syndicate.

“By soul, by blood…we will fight for our fund”, they chanted,
accusing state union leaders of attempting to “hijack” their worker
retirement fund.

It is the latest charge in the escalating feud between the mammoth
Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) and members of the newly
formed Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees (URETAE),
Egypt’s first independent trade union since 1957.
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LISBON, (May 24, 2010) IPS/GIN – First Angola, and now Brazil,
Portugal’s two largest former colonial possessions, are extending
a helping hand to the battered Portuguese economy.

Besieged on all sides by international speculators, who according
to local economists are trying to turn this country into “another
Greece,” Portugal may find a remedy for its weakness in stronger
economic ties with its two “sister nations.”

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WASHINGTON, (May 17, 2010) IPS/GIN – The U.S. Senate is moving
forward with a 59-billion-dollar spending bill, of which 33.5
billion dollars would be allocated for the war in Afghanistan.

However, some experts here in Washington are raising concerns that
the war may be unwinnable and that the money being spent on
military operations in Afghanistan could be better spent. Read the rest of this entry →

BELGRADE, (May 18, 2010) IPS/GIN – Almost two decades after
Yugoslavia fell apart, the majority of the defunct socialist
country’s people are insecure and uncertain for their future with
the booming economy and rapid development that capitalism promised
remaining a pipe dream.

‘How did we become so poor?’ is the one question that is heard all
over the region. Millions have slipped into poverty and perhaps
two or three percent of the population is statistically recognized
as rich. Read the rest of this entry →

GENEVA, (May 20, 2010) IPS/GIN – The global economic crisis
highlighted the necessity of transforming global economic
governance. But least developed countries (LDCs) have little voice
in this process. It is time they are allowed a seat at the meetings
of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging economies.

“LDCs face a double challenge: they have to absorb the impact of
the economic and financial crisis, but in the resolution of the
crisis itself they have a very marginal role to play,” stated
Debapriya Bhattacharya, special advisor on LDCs at the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Read the rest of this entry →