G- 8 versus BRICS

 G-8 - a forum for the governments of eight of the world's wealthiest countries, excluding Brazil 6th, India 9th and China 2nd. is meeting in Irland today.The forum was established in 1975 summit hosted by France.

G8 today is facing criticism for its failure to resolve conflict in Syria, reduce globalization problems such as Third World Debt, global warming, the Aids epidemic, lack of transparency, tax inequality where certain global companies such as Amazon, Google and Apple do not pay tax in markets where they earn huge profits and trade liberalization between USA and EU.

Critics say the G8 has now become unrepresentative of the world's most powerful economies. In particular, China has surpassed every economy but the United States, while Brazil has surpassed Canada and Italy acc. to IMF. India is already larger than Brazil, and according to the IMF and the CIA Factbook, has surpassed Japan in terms of purchasing power parity. This has given rise to the idea of enlarging G8 to the G8+5, which includes these other economically powerful nations. (Source:Wikepedia)

The BRICs countries consisting of Brazil, Russia, India and China had a financial summit in South Africa last March and tackled major projects designed to challenge the existing financial systems. It has agreed to dump the Euro and create its own development bank.

The BRICS nations financial summit in South Africa from 26 to 28 March is officially called "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation".

In this financial meet, the heads of the emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) – agreed to cut their foreign currency reserves in euro, having sold €45 billion of the currency in 2012, according to data gathered by the International Monetary Fund.

After the cut, the euro represents just 24% of the BRICS foreign reserves, the lowest level since 2002 – the year when euro coins and banknotes first entered circulation – and down from a peak of 31% in 2009, according to reports in the financial press.

The move reportedly due to the developing world’s disillusionment with the status quo of world financial institutions. The World Bank and IMF continue to favor US and Europe over BRICS nations. And in 2010, the US failed to ratify a 2010 agreement which would allow more IMF funds to be allocated to developing nations.

Once a loose political affiliation, the BRICS bloc is now a serious economic contender in the world economy, representing 40% of the world’s population, and accounting for one fifth of global GDP.

The five countries hold foreign-currency reserves of $4.4 trillion (€3.4 trillion), and need an institution to safeguard this tremendous wealth. The reserve will also protect members from short-term liquidity volatility and balance-of-payment problems.

Is the G-8 coming together with BRICS for a better and more effective global management of the world's resources and fair distribution of wealth and profits. This is a question that defies any easy answer.

When leaders of the world's wealthiest countries meet to decide on the fate of the less wealthy, the poor and the deeply-marginalised countries whose state of poverty remains unchanged and whose freedom from wars and ethnic conflicts is the least priority, one wonders what these organizations really achieve other than securing its members' continued access to wealth and power.#

　







　

Stockholm archipelago - a tourist paradise

I used to say with great pride that the Philippines has "7, 700 islands depending upon the tide". But the Swedish archipelago consists of 30,000 islands, rocks and skerries . Many of these islands are inhabited all-year-round or as summer residences. From the month of May, the tourist boat traffic to several of these islands and within Stockholm city's nearest waterways attractions gather momentum and reaches its peak in the month of June.

The boat trips offer varied destinations and time length, from regular passenger trips to "hop in, hop off", to special sightseeing ( 7 bridges under ) or a 1 and 1/2 hour trip with an English-speaking guide mainly for foreign tourists who want a bit more info on the historical landmarks and buildings along the way.

The state through the "landsting" operates a regular ferry service to several farther islands. These are bigger white boats moored infront of the Grand Hotel. They serve food. And then there are a few privately-owned shipping companies that have been serving the Swedish archipelago since many years back, which owns boats as old as 100 years. They say that it is part of the charm of the archipelago with these aged boats.

Many boat trips are chartered fór many celebratory reasons: corporate parties, weddings. birthdays, student parties, even funerals - spreading ashes in the lake. Weddings are done either in the boat, in the Stockholm city hall, in a church in an island or in one of the many castles near Stockholm.

Last June 1, my significant other (SO) who is a ship captain drove this 100-year old Gurli boat from Stockholm city to Västerås city, a trip that started at 4 in the morning and ended at 22.00 in the evening. It took six hours to negotiate the distance, counting some five bridges of which three had to be opened for the boat to pass through.

All these bridge openings and closings were very interesting for me, in particular the Hammarby-Slussen or lock. The boat waits inside as the lock opens and water fills the narrow passageway. Then it closes again.

Västerås city I know from few years back when I was actively chairing the Women Rights Forum or Kvinnorättsforum. I travelled to these places to meet Filipinos, get to know them and introduce the association. A very good friend of mine, Monica Dahlström Lannes lives here. She was a police commissioner who became an ardent advocate of children rights. In 1994-95, we worked together on my SIDA-funded project - a one-month training program for senior Philippine social workers involved in the rehabilitation of sexually-abused children.

Historically, Västerås which is one of the largest cities in Sweden is today a major industrial area with ABB and Atlas Copco among others. In 1947, global company HM started its first store here.
And in the 16th century or so, Sweden's powerful king Gustav Vasa decided to take away the powers and riches of the Catholic church and established Lutheranism as state religion.

The boat trip I got myself into - for a new sightseeing experience was chartered for a wedding party by some wealthy people who all came in fine formal gowns and tuxedos. The caterer was a Thai company that served Thai delicacies and fruits, as well as bubbles opened by a sable.

 

They were in the boat for two hours, afterwhich they were deposited in a big castle in Västerås. They were picked up by a tourist bus for the short ride, which was good for the ladies wearing three inches heeled shoes.

 

Today, the Stockholm archipelago is a tourist paradise where the locals and tourists can visit any of the 50,000 cottages in different islands and have boat trips in any of the 150,000 pleasure boats and ferries that are available for short days trips, as well as water transport to various places of interest in the city such as the Djurgården park, Vasa museum, the new ABBA museum, the palace on Skeppsholmen, Grönalund-Stockholm's Disneyland, the Fjäderholm islands - are just some landmarks in the sighteeeing tour.

 

Stockholm suburbs under seige

Immigrant group spreads violence in Stockholm suburbs.
May 23, 2013. This is the fourth day of violence triggered by a group of immigrant youngsters in at least 15 Stockholm suburbs. There have been massive destruction to vehicles and properties set on fire, as well as injuries suffered by members of the police force and bystanders caught in the crossfire.

Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt commented on the matter in a press conference at the Riksdag on Tuesday afternoon.

"We've had two nights with great unrest, damage, and an intimidating atmosphere in Husby and there is a risk it will continue," he said.

"We have groups of young men who think that that they can and should change society with violence. Let's be clear: This is not OK. We cannot be ruled by violence."

Wednesday night saw more burning cars, smashed windows, and stone throwing at police in at least 15 suburbs around Stockholm, as the fourth night of riots swept the Swedish capital.

The unrest began shortly after 10pm in Husby, northwestern Stockholm where the riots began on Sunday night. Youths gathered in the town square, some of them masked.

Hagsätra in southern Stockholm came under fire at roughly the same time. A police patrol was attacked, and one officer was taken to hospital with serious injuries to the head.

By 2am, Stockholm's fire service had attended 75-80 incidents across the city. Much of their work was delayed by youths throwing stones at them, meaning police were left to attend to the stone-throwers to allow the fire fighters access to the fires.

A restaurant went up in flames in Skogås, southern Stockholm. Police labelled the crime as aggravated arson.

In Rågsved, a police station was set on fire, with officers gathering young people in a police bus and escorting them away to other parts of the city.

Many believe the catalyst to the riots was the fatal police shooting of a machete-wielding 69-year-old man in the area last Monday.

　Police arrested eight people on Tuesday night as thirty cars were torched across southern and western Stockholm, in what was the third consecutive night of unrest in the Swedish capital.
Rioters lit fires in cars in western and southern Stockholm, and threw stones at police officers and fire fighters. Cars were torched in Rinkeby, Skarpnäck, Norsborg, Kista, Fittja, Bredäng, Flemingsberg, Edsberg, and Tensta.

"These are places that have not been affected by this before and this is sad to hear. It feels like people are taking the opportunity in other areas because of the attention given to Husby," Kjell Lindgren of the Stockholm police told the Aftonbladet newspaper.
fatal police shooting of a 69-year-old man in Husby last Monday.
"You have to see what happened from a wider point of view. It's not the first time something like this has happened, and it's not the last. This is the kind of reaction when there isn't equality between people, which is the case in Sweden," Rami al-Khamisi, a law student and founder of local youth organization Megafonen, told The Local.


Restless immigrant youth with little to do

Lebanon-born Marianne Farede, 26, said that high youth unemployment was part of the problem, she put more blame on parents rather than a lack of support programmes from the Swedish state.

"It's how they've been raised. Everything comes back to their parents," she explained. "It's not the state's fault. You have to take control of your life, you can't just go out and ruin things for everyone else. That's doesn't help anything."

She also thought the young people of Husby and surrounding districts seem to have failed to realize how good they have it.

"If I lived in my homeland, I wouldn't have it as good as I do now. That's something I really appreciate," Farede explained.

"There aren't enough who do appreciate what they have. They want even more. You don't have to feel like a Swede to adjust to Swedish society."

Shahnaz Darabi, who runs a flower shop on Husby's main square, also attributed the recent violence to a group of disgruntled youths with too much time on their hands.

"It's just a bunch of young people who have no jobs and nothing to do. They think it's fun," she said.

Darabi, a native of Iran who has lived in Sweden for 19 years, also cited a lack of involvement by parents as a contributing factor to the riots.

"Parents are ultimately responsible. They need to set boundaries. They need to have more of a check on their children's lives," she said.

"If parents try to discipline their children, the kids complain in school, and say their parents have done this or that, and then [social services] steps in and tries to take the children away. Parents are scared they'll have their children taken from them."

The transition to life in Sweden is hardest for those who come to Sweden as young children, she added.

"They don't know what they are supposed to do, how they are supposed to act. They were raised differently in their home countries, where things are tougher. Here things are more lax. Too lax," the mother of two explained.

Darabi believes that too many immigrant parents fail to integrate into Swedish society, thus making it harder for their children.

"Many sit at home and watch television from their home countries, don't learn the Swedish language, they are out of work and living on benefits and can't move forward. They are stuck," she said.

"It's the individual and parents who need to take responsibility. But many don't; they only think about money and how to get benefits this month and next month. That affects their children. There has to be a limit. The state has given them too much, frankly." ( Summary from THE LOCAL's news reports)

The Meaning of Dreams

I have dreams almost every night. Some are so real that I could be watching a film. Mostly, they are combinations of scenes and places I have never been to, people that have nothing to do with my real world. I used to be more interested in the meaning of dreams and what I dream of. My dead sister Daisy was a believer in astrology.

A long time ago, my dreams were kind of prophetic. It was on three occasions when I dreamt of the Virgin Mary. I just lost my job in Dept. of Trade as Foreign Trade Officer after Alejando Melchor published a list of 5,000 "undesirable" government employees, those with records of political activism and a "wanted" kin in the underground. It was an awful situation for a single mother to wake up one morning, read in the papers that she has no more job. Then the Lady of the Immaculate Conception came to me ..as a dream. I woke up to the soft music from my stereo in the living room, went out of the bedroom and saw the front door open with so much light streaming in. She was there in the middle of a flowering garden and was floating closer to me, smiling, her hands outstreached. I stood, half paralyzed and then after some minutes the apparition gently receded behind some clouds. She came to bring you dramatic changes in your life, my astrology expert sister told me.

A few days later, I got a call from Johnny Gatbonton of Editorial Associates. He asked me if I was interested to do media representation work for a Hongkong company. I said yes and that's how the media door opened to me, first via advertising and much later, editorially.

The second time I had an apparition of the the Virgin, it was the Lady of Mt Carmel - floating in a field of tulips with the blue ocean in the background. I was then in a Batangas resort learning to dive. I had already began my new job as media representative for major foreign publications. With the supportive help of former bosses I had in the banking sector, I succeeded to put together Philippine supplements for Financial Times and later, for Int'l. Herald Tribune. At that time, Manila was being promoted as a financial centre.

The third apparition was of the Lady of Lourdes sorrounded by a sea of devotees. By this time, I had switched jobs as media representative for Financial Times and the Int'l. Herald Tribune to being a regular contributor to Far Eastern Economic Review. It was on one of my visits to London when I met FEER's business manager who asked me if I wanted to work for Review, instead of FT. Jokingly, I thought. But then Rodney Tasker materialised from one of these FOCAP happy hours. He had a book review to write and asked me if I would do it as he was leaving for Bangkok next day or so.  I gave him the 1000-worded book review, was fully satisfied and disappeared from Manila's radar. He was also ASEAN correspondent which required him to travel regularly.

Then I got an urgent message from FEER's editor in Hongkong. It said that Tasker may not be able to return anytime soon. FEER and Tasker were sued for libel by then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile. I don't know if it was seriously or jokingly said, but Derek Davies said they needed someone with "balls" to write political report on the Marcos regime. Leo Gonzaga was the business correspondent. These were days of dictatorship and press censorship.

Three dreams, three apparitions and life on a fast changing lane. It was never anything like one I've dreamt of. It was a dream and a reality all at once. Today, early Sunday morning, I woke up early due to an attack of severe coughing. Got out of bed, took some ginger tea, opened my Facebook and read through words of wisdom regularly coming from FB friends. You are always compelled to measure your own adequacy and inadequacies. I went back to bed and fell asleep deeply. And I dreamt I was having a stroll on a sunny day with my best friend. I wanted to take pictures of spring. I tried to fish out my camera from my handbag. It wasn't there. My HTC was also missing. There was another camera but it wasn't mine. Then I took the Saltsjöbanan train and there I met the face of Sweden's postal code lottery, Rikard Sjöberg who was joking with the driver. Rather undramatic and unprophetic! But maybe I'll get the lottery and start a women livelihood foundation in Cape Verde.#

Reconnections

 

Life is all the experiences lived through from birth, distilled in different memory chambers. Many memories of growing up are just stored, oftentimes undisturbed in one's passage through life. Some return because they trigger unforgettable events that refuse to pass into oblivion. There is no life I believe is uninteresting, wherever it is or in whatever time and space it occupied. They are just untold, and therefore uncherished and forgotten. Mine is a chain of living events.

I wrote not too long ago, how amazing Facebook had become in making reconnections with the past, with people and events that crossed one's life. I could never imagine how one midnight, while reading Facebook updates, someone from the very distant past just came up to say " Good evening! " This is so and so. I wonder if you still remember the last time we met."

The name rang a bell and catapulted me to the early 60s. I said: "Of course, it was in Baguio city. Was it not the Editors' Guild or was it the National Council Presidents' conference." He said: " You have a good memory. It was the College Editor's Guild conference." He was Editor of U.P Collegian. I was Editor of "The Mentor", the publication of Albay Normal School ( now Bicol University ) as well as Council President. Later in the 60s, I moved to Manila and started a family and studied for another degree in Lyceum University. I also became Editor of "The Lycean".

Being a student leader in the 6os was a very interesting time. From the narrow confines of a small town and college, I suddenly found myself in the national arena where politics and student participation were intimately woven. I needed to learn very fast how I could become part of this challenging time and to find my place as an active participant. The 60s saw students, labour, farmers, urban poor in a united front to oppose certain policies of the Marcos government, for instance involvement in the Vietnam war. It was too much " isms " to understand all at once.

Such memories rushed back one midnight just because a distant friend made the reconnection. He has gone a long way in the world of academe. I've also gone a long way from government service to journalism, and from a small town at the foot of Mayon Volcano, to places I have never thought existed.

As I reminisced the 60s, my FB chat box opened. It was someone I have not actually met, but who accidentally inherited some books I left during my one month's political detention in Camp Vicente Lim. She knew my family and Albay High School, where I finished my secondary education. She said: " You were the very first to wear the mini skirt on campus. A feminist!" And I added: "...and to wear heeled shoes that drove my Home Economics teacher insane." I refused to be a vendor of meriendas cooked in the H.E. building.

I had a flood of memories of my high school year- how I won in the regional oratorical contest, played a strict Mother Superior in a school play, got only First Honourable Mention on my graduation because I lacked residency. I moved to Albay from Camarines Sur after my father died. The Junior and Senior Proms, my aunt as watchdog against aspiring suitors, the Albay town fiestas and the multi-layered petticoats so much so that buses refused to stop as I took so much space.

All these flashbacks and reconnections in one midnight , from one based in the USA and the other in Albay, Philippines. Does that sound believable? It is on Facebook and I am making no commercials. On another FB session, someone opened my chat box. The flashback was not too long ago. Maybe 30 years or something. He asked me if I still remember Tipanan in Manila Peninsula. And that I used dance there. I don't remember this one but I know that there was a Tipanan and I had been there to eat. It was a disco? Manila Pen was a favourite hangout of media people and politicians, as much as Inter-Continental Hotel had its famous Coffee shop breakfasts presided over by the Lords of Philippine column writing like Doroy Valencia.

As my list of FB friends increase, so does my reconnections with the past become a regularity. Even after I've closed the chat box, I lean back in my chair and continue the travel back in time. Two weeks, my boss in the Financial Times of London where I was Philippine rep in the late 60s to early 70s, just materialised from nowhere and reminded me that it is only 33 years ago since I met him for a special supplement project on RP.

I sometimes laugh alone at funny incidents I remember, or become sad over the loss of close friends like Nelly Sindayen. Many things in the past that enriched my years of growing up, of becoming an adult, of taking risks and challenges along the way, of struggling for survival as "enemy of the state", of loving and being loved. They are beyond replacement. No matter how far I have travelled, I want to go back to certain places and times I have been before, even for some moments.#

Nobility in poverty, humility in wealth

I recently received an inspiring story from a dear friend about getting paid back from what one has done in kindness, without thoughts of self-gain or personal reward. As the story of Easter goes, life is a continuing cycle of paybacks - what you owe and are owed, that comes with giving to those in need and in distress. And there is also payback for failures and apathy toward others suffering and misfortune. Simply put, we reap what we plant.

The following is a story of nobility in poverty and humility in wealth.

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his toolsand ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'

'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked.
'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.

'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.

Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill .. His son's name?

Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around.

Work like you don't need the money.

Love like you've never been hurt.

Dance like nobody's watching.

Sing like nobody's listening.

Live like it's Heaven on Earth. #

Blending...becoming

I come from exotic Philippines, land of seven thousand, seven hundred islands lying in close proximity to Indonesia and Malaysia in the Pacific ocean. That was many moons ago. Today, I am in Cape Verde - home of some half a million Creoles scattered in ten islands. It is situated on an archipelago in the northern Atlantic Ocean, off the west coast of Africa. It is the land of Amilcar Cabral, the freedom fighter and of Evora Cesaria, the barefoot diva who lives on with her famous music, the "mornas".

I am in the process of "blending...and becoming", what I would describe the metamorphosis of being outside and coming inside a new community. I blended in many communities before and almost became a part of. The local language helps the way to "becoming" because unless you try to learn the local tongue, you will always be an outsider. Yet, understanding the nuances of a foreign tongue takes time.

In Cape Verde, they speak Creole - a dialect they developed under Portuguese tutelage in order not to be understood by the conquerors. They understand Portuguese and Spanish and few speak English as well as Italian. I learned Portuguese during five years of diplomatic residence in Mozambique - former colony of Portugal until the fall of the Salazar govenment and the Frelimo freedom fighters took over the government.

After three years of straddling between two continents, that is to say, half-year living in Sal island or rather three winter seasons of five months from November to May since 2010, I visited four Cape Verdean islands, all distinctly different from each other. Praia, Santiago is the seat of government - an old capital that linked East and West, North and South via the slave trade. Walking around the city on a plateau and then visiting Cidade Velha - where Christianity and slavery co-existed, transported me to the bygone days of abductions, auctions and transport of slaves to America and Europe.

Mindelo, capital of Sao Vicente is the maritime centre - home to sailors and ships needing anchor for rest and supply. Mindelo has problems with a growing criminality - house break-ins and street holdups. It seems that many menfolk who can work don't like work. It is a daily sport to spot and follow foreigners and beg for money.

Then we came to San Antao, Cape Verde's second biggest island that is famous for its "rebeiras" that become raging rivers during the rainy months from August to September. Hence the thriving agriculture on man-made terraces by the mountain sides. San Antao boasts of an almost 100 percent Creole population.

If Sal island is looking like a lunar landscape of volcanic rocks, sorrounded by the ocean- where the Sahara sand-carrying wind blows hard from the East, and where waves come as high as 4 to 5 meters high, San Antao offers a lush tropical vegetation of terraced agriculture and deep "rebeiras". The contrasts of landscapes between islands offer a myriad of environments to experience.

Sta. Maria, the town centre of Sal has become a miniature melting pot of many cultures - both transients and residents. Senegalese curio vendors accoust you with " Hello, how are you today? Come and visit my shop! No stress." Some go after certain women and asks : " What's your name? Are you married?" It seems that these West African men have learned a new livelihood as sex partners for lonely single women on holiday, much like the "ladies of the night" solicit sexual favours from tourists as well as local men.

In these different places of the same people and history, one cannot say that "blending...and becoming" is easy and that there is reciprocity of friendship and purpose. I have the feeling that friendship varies from person to person and that there is that guarded distance between the insider and the outsider. The outsider, like we who have our second home in this island are not really accepted as being part of "them". We are "those" that the local population - at least here in Sta. Maria, can dole out small monies for beer and food. We are "those" who have enough food, water and money for things to buy. There are two separate prices here: the Cape Verdean price and the tourist's price. This is particulartly true with for instance the WiFi vouchers of Cabocom. It is also true when you want to buy a small boat. Yes, two prices in most areas of transaction.

"Blending" is a delightful social experience, yet the "blending" that has offered interesting friendships have not been with the locals. Instead, we found friends and kinship with Europeans those who like us have second homes here in Cape Verde.#