Civil society representatives in the Global Forum for Migration and Development 2009 (GFMD) taking place in Athens this week (some weeks ago) have recommended to their governmental counterparts to increase efforts for reducing the cost of remittances and make transfer easier and safer.

The money transfer market, known as the remittance market, has flourished during the last twenty years based mostly on developments relating to immigration flows, disparities among national economies and technological innovation.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit close to one billion people, mostly poor, benefit somehow from remittances. India, China, Mexico and Philippines have been the main destination countries of money transfer in 2007.

The World Bank has calculated remittances sent to developing countries during 2008 up to 338 billion dollars.

The idea, brought up by various participants during roundtable discussions of the forum, for an initiative that will help migrants escape the aggressive profiteering of money transfer agencies received a warm welcome by many delegates in GFMD.

Dilip Ratha, a Senior Economist with the World Bank, argued that the average commission charged on remittances worldwide, which today is past 10 percent, could fall below 1 if appropriate measures are adopted.

Money transferred to developing countries goes mostly for covering immediate needs and living expenses, financing schooling, hygiene and health. “Remittances are the best, and sometimes the only, opportunity many countries have for building up their human capital says Patrick Taran, a migration specialist with International Labour Office in Switcherland.

“Remittances have a direct impact on the quality of peoples’ life” he told. “Eighty percent of families in Seychelles have someone sending money from abroad. As a result the majority of kids don’t have to drop out of school and many attend private ones, thus increasing educational capacity and their chance for better opportunities when they grow up”.

According to Ratha the weight of infants in Sri Lankan households receiving remittances is greater than to the ones who do not.

The decline of this driving force would mean enormous losses for hundreds of thousands around the globe. Thus an urgent question for researchers these days is the estimation of the impact of the global financial recession on money transfers.

Based on data released by central national banks the World Bank estimates that remittance flows to developing countries will fall to 317 billion in 2009, a modest declined. They expect a minor recovery in 2010 and 2011.

Antigoni Liberakis, professor of economics in Panteio University of Athens, says that in order to interpret the impact of recession on remittances one needs to take in account currency balances and other complications of economic activity.

“If a local currency has been recently devaluated, meaning it has lost some of its value towards the dollar, then the transfer of a smaller amount might mean better value than before” she told. “Additionally one should think that the crisis does not affect all sectors of an economy equally, some will face harsher challenges than others”.

Yet again significant risks are still lying ahead. Redirection of migration routes and advancement of restrictive migration policies in the rich western countries, unpredictable exchange rates and the increase of unemployment will continue affecting remittances flows around the globe.

Transfer flows to South Asia have grown more than anywhere else in 2008 but according to Dr. Irudaya Rajan from Centre for Development Studies based in India a decline is expected “since the Gulf countries, where eight million contracted Asian workers are employed are facing economic decline. Ten percent of them will return home next year.”

In spite of the impact of global economic crisis the stock of global migration is increasing making sure that remittances will retain their central economic and social role of fulfilling the hopes and dreams of thousand of people.

International Labour Office www.ilo.org/migrant

Centre for Development Studies http://www.cds.edu/

Global Forum for Migration and Development

http://www.gfmdathens2009.org/index.php?id=9&L=0

Conventional wisdom pictures Europe as the main destination targeted by the biggest wave of migrants. But this is not true. Intra-Asian migration represents nearly 20 percent of all international migration and it is larger than the influxes directed towards Europe from all other regions. Another stereotype challenged by … is emigration from Afrika to Europe. While media have created a picture of mass migration real numbers disprove that. Only three percent of Afrikans live in a country different from where they were born and less than one percent of Afrikans move to Europe.

While those stereotypes are to some extend distorting the proportions of the problem Europe faces, other places receive less attention despite the migration challenges are equal or even wider. A trend that remains largely unnoticed is that South Asian and South East Asian countries account for 60 per cent of temporary workers in the Gulf.

One of the regions facing the serious consequences of the crisis is that of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries which accommodate a large concentration of temporary migrant contract workers. The ILO has estimated that 10 per cent of the unskilled workers from the GCC countries will return home in 2009. The return of a large number of migrant workers and the decline of labour flows to the GCC countries will create serious economic problems and adjustments among migrant workers in the countries of destination and migrant households in the labour exporting countries in both South and South East Asia.

Workers are largely unprotected throughout GCC and very vulnerable to working condition and contract abuses, with harassment of domestic workers being one of the most important problems. Access to legal support and courts is inaccessible. Reduction of migrant workers will deteriorate the position of those already at workplace in those countries.

Mr. Jim Clifton and Mrs Neli Esipova from Gallup Inc. presented the results of an international survey for migration, according to which about of 16% of subjects – that roughly translates to 700 million people – would like to move permanently to another country if they had the opportunity. The United States is the most desired destination country, since approximately 24% of subjects, that is more than 165 million adults – name the United States as their desired country of residence.

As a follow-up on my post on The Wall Street Journal’s false claim that the recent curbs in freedom of expression and media in Turkey are the result of the increased power of Islamist forces within government. This is an article from Osservatorio sui Balcani explaining that the Turkish Armed Forces control websites, suppressing journalists critical of the Army. The website of the Turkish daily Radikal has recently written about a “black list” developed by the Armed Forces. The Turkish Army has created a “Group of Studies on the West” in the late 1990s which aims to counter the Islamic Prosperity Party of Necmettin Erbakan.

This is a link to the very good article (in Italian): http://www.osservatoriobalcani.org/article/articleview/12137/1/167/

One of the downsides of my job is that I have to keep tabs regularly on ‘respectable publications’ like the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch’s pamphlet hasn’t ceased to add insult to injury with its recent articles.

Last week, there was an opinion piece arguing that Turkey should be kind of pushed out of Western political and military structures because its Prime Minister wants to trade with Iran and what’s more, Islamists are encroaching on power and cracking down on human rights and freedom of expression. Hellooo!? I thought it was the secular military establishment in Turkey that was doing the crackdown for decades (extra-judicial execution, torture and arrest of Kurds, leftists and anyone under suspicion of undermining the great Ataturk state). And what’s with the human rights and the West argument? Weren’t Franco and Salazar’s fascist regimes part of NATO? Weren’t Western generals and intelligence officials behind the Piazza Fontana bombing and many other atrocities during the Anni di Piombo?!?

But our respectable publication is just a paragon of virtue. Witness the righteous indignation against Prosecutor Armando Spataro’s successful legal case against 23 Americans involved in the kidnapping from Milan, and subsequent move to Egypt for torture, of Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr in 2003. For the patient, and those who would give it the benefit of the doubt, please read the article and holler if you don’t see anything wrong with it. For the less-impervious, here are the major (and there’s more, I’m sure, it’s like a ‘find all the errors’ visual game in a magazine) contradictions:

- Ideology oozes out of the very first sentence. WSJ mentions that Spataro ‘cut his teeth as a prosecutor hunting down Red Brigade terrorists in Italy.’ The second sentence opens with the contrasting conjunction ‘But’ signalling that the author (unsigned) thinks that it is wrong to convict ‘23 Americans’ who have been found guilty of a crime by an independent court. In short, it’s good to ‘hunt down’ the Red Brigades who are unequivocally, it seems, ‘terrorists’ but it’s wrong to hunt down the CIA operatives who are, well, ‘Americans.’

- What’s wrong with the following sentence? ‘It is long-standing principle of international law that officials of foreign governments operating in a country with the consent of its government should be immune from prosecution.’ What international law? Seems like a leaf taken from George W. Bush and Richard (Dick) Cheney International Law in the War on Terror. Well, sure enough, the US has set plenty of precedents on this, in Latin America and elsewhere (and continues to do so). So maybe it’s customary law WSJ is talking about. fait accompli!

- In an article on, ultimately, justice, the argument revolves around the presumption of Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr’s guilt. After all, he has been ‘under surveillance’ by the Italian authorities since 2005 (like, I guess, most of us, by our respective authorities these days).  Nowhere does the article mention that Nasr never got a Court hearing and never faced any formal charges. He was just hijacked into Egypt where he was simply held in prison and tortured. So, WSJ says it is fine to abduct and torture an individual, keep him/her incommunicado without any formal charge, only on suspicion of a plot against the US Embassy in Rome which might have killed ‘Americans and Italians.’

This is Agamben’s homo sacer at its purest and when arguments like this are in the public arena, we are all reduced to less-than-citizens, to ‘bare life’. Zizek already warned that even the possibility to have a debate on torture legitimises it and is a horrible reduction of human dignity. Yet, we see it more and more now, after we should have seen ‘change’ – the platforms of liberalism are reducing us to disposable objects in the name of that obscure goal of security

‘Bravo’ to Armando Spataro and the Italian Court this time! Judicial independence in Italy is one of the few things that keep the country from turning into a complete fascist state.

For more on Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr’s case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Mustafa_Osama_Nasr

And here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imam_rapito_affair

Whether we are from Eastern Europe or just care for the region, I think it might be our role to see this group of countries in a different light. To leave aside the eternal victimization and point out some of its responsibilities towards the rest of the world. This might play a role not only in creating a more just world, but also in strengthening Eastern Europe itself.

As I am writing this text, the world is getting ready for the summit on climate change to take place in December in Copenhagen. One of the main issues to be settled is how much aid are rich countries willing to give to the developing ones in order for the latter to invest in green technologies, and thus grow without sacrificing the environment (as the global North has done). Meeting in late October, European Union leaders agreed that the developing world should receive 50 billion euros per year until 2020, but failed to make a strong commitment on how much money the union itself will give. The new Bulgarian prime minister, Boiko Borissov, came back satisfied from the negotiations. Nine Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, had managed to persuade the other EU leaders that they need to pay reduced amounts. Borisov estimated that Bulgaria would save 40-50 million euros in this way. Whether the Eastern Europeans’ reduced contributions will deacrease the final amount made available by the EU is not clear. But what comes across from the attitude of the Eastern European leaders is clear: these countries are too poor to help others. However, the aid to be given by rich states to countries from the global South is a matter of justice. The global North has achieved current levels of prosperity through massive industrialization, which led directly to the environmental damage threatening the entire world today. Eastern European countries grew through state-driven industrial production, the other countries through capitalist industrialization, but it is environmentally-damaging industrialization in both cases. The responsibility belongs to Eastern Europeans too and the excuse that they are poorer cannot be used. Otherwise, why should countries in the global South accept the idea that their own economic growth strategies should take environmental concerns into consideration? After all, many of these countries are even poorer than Bulgaria.

Denying responsibilities to the rest of the world is quite a trend in the region, all explained away through self-victimization, i.e., “we are poor” and “we are victims of Communism”.

Some of the Eastern European countries now represent Europe’s borders, at a time when Europe itself is struggling to contain the continuous waves of migration coming towards it from Africa, the Middle East or Asia. Bulgaria is on the spot again, as it is the European country which, together with Greece, links Europe to Turkey. This is the land route that migrants coming from Asia or the Middle East use to get into Europe. Greece’s asylum acceptance rates are around 0.1 percent, making it a virtually closed access point. More migrants have turned to Bulgaria over the past years. The response was swift: in 2008, acceptance rates for asylum seekers were dropped radically; Iraqis were especially affected, the number of accepted asylum rates dropping from hundreds before 2008 to tens in that year. An Iraqi refugee I spoke to in Sofia told me asylum seekers from her country are being told by Bulgarian authorities that their country was safe, there was no reason for them to leave Iraq. But the UN said the real reason for the high rejection rates is that Bulgarians do not have the capabilities to receive so many refugees. Even truer is that they do not want to have the capabilities, as they still perceive themselves as a poor country which needs to put its own people first. They do not wish to see that the peace they enjoy is most valuable and really the main thing Iraqi applicants are looking for.

Contributions for developing green production technologies and accepting asylum-seekers from war-torn countries are just two examples of areas where the region denies the positive role it could and should play in the world.

The reluctance to accept responsibility for the world became clear to me as I was speaking to an activist involved in fair trade promotion in Eastern Europe. The activist was speaking about Eastern Europeans’ attitude to global trade, another core issue for global justice, another area where the global North, having benefited from centuries of unequal commercial relationships with the rest of the world, should act more justly. The activist said: “Central and Eastern Europe is not used to think of itself as belonging to ‘the developed part of the world’. Being closed countries for so long (during the Communist period) has also contributed to the limited awareness of problems faced by the global South. So it is important to raise awareness that our region does now belong among the rich and ought to take responsibility for other regions of the world.”

Whether we are from Eastern Europe or just care for the region, I think it might be our role to see this group of countries in a different light. To leave aside the eternal victimization and point out some of its responsibilities towards the rest of the world. This might play a role not only in creating a more just world, but also in strengthening Eastern Europe itself.

Not with a harmonica.

And why a moustache, how does it help anyhow? Too poor to shave? Possibly. Too stressed out to keep appearances the man approaches, moustache, and only a hoodie to shield him from the All Saints rain. “Are you a tourist?” He is asked. “Are you here looking for some fun?”Fun is when the bench is dry and there are warm and clean leftovers from the 24/7 snack bar.Old men have all the money and all the fun. Young men scurry like rats along wet pavements, looking…looking for the work to get the money to get the fun that makes it worth going to find the man with the moustache in Amsterdam. Looking for work – just like that. Easier to find the camel which slid through the needle’s eye. Young men die in old men’s wars, break backs in old men’s factories. Men die young, old men die too. Who shall inherit the Earth?

Anonymous death threats address at Jeta Xharra and to her team of journalists from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) have raised new concerns about the dependence of Kosovo’s media on a newborn political and business elite.

The threat followed the television show ‘Jeta në Kosovë’ (Life in Kosovo) produced by BIRN journalists, on government control over media outlets and the links of former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to organ trafficking of Serbian and Albanian prisoners of war.

“Former KLA leaders dominate Kosovo’s current government, so it wasn’t especially surprising that pro-government newspapers attacked Xharra and BIRN soon after our reports were published,” Michael Montgomery who contributed to the investigation wrote in an opinion piece published by the Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIR). “What was surprising was the viciousness and implicit calls to violence in some of the commentaries.”

Infopress, a government-sponsored newspaper, has said the BIRN journalists were like Serbian spies, and accused them of propaganda. A commentary in the paper said its author would be honoured to shake the hand of anyone who took responsibility to punish the BIRN journalists.

Human Rights Watch, and representatives of the international community and of diplomatic missions in Pristina are defending Xharra and the BIRN reporting team.

The government has issued a press release expressing “support for freedom of expression and the functioning of a free and independent press in the Republic of Kosovo,” but it has refused to launch a formal investigation.

The Xharra case is just the tip of the iceberg, Visar Ymeri, member of the anti-establishment political organisation Vetevendosje (Self-Determination), said in an email interview.

“Thaci’s, Kosovo PM and leader of Partia Demokratike e Kosovës (PDK), government control over media is stronger than that of previous governments. In a period that is being attacked from all sides, the government decided to fight back and chose a spot to do it. This spot is Jeta Xharra.”

“These threats are a high profile example of the daily threats and pressure placed on those opposing the government. Journalists who lose their jobs, organisations that lose their funding, phone calls made by government or international offices. This threat is not a one-off, but a symptom of a much deeper problem.”

According to Ymeri most of Kosovo’s media outlets depend on political parties and their affiliated businessmen. RTK, the public broadcaster and most influential media outlet in the country, depends on government-sponsored funds and consequently is under its partial influence.

There are two other TV stations RTV21 that usually supports the strongest party and KTV. The latter is owned by Veton Surroi, a politician who is currently critical of the government. So is Koha Ditore the newspaper with the biggest circulation. Kosova Sot, the second largest newspaper is owned by Ruzhdi Kadriu owner of large supermarkets in Pristina.

Express, another newspaper is owned by Ipko, who also controls the biggest cable TV and internet network and is the second biggest mobile network provider in Kosovo.

According to Ymeri Ipko’s close links to PDK makes it a characteristic case of the complex between political and business interests. “Dino Hasanaj, the head of Privatisation Agency Board (responsible for overseeing a long term privatization process of multiple public assets), appointed there by PDK, is said to own shares in Ipko, while there have been talks that Ipko’s CEO Akan Ismaili is going to run for Pristina Mayor on the PDK list.” he says.

Infopress is published by Rexhep Hoti, a close associate of Hashim Thaci, who publicly declares that he supports Thaci regardless of his policies; his newspaper ran the campaign against Jeta Xharra. Epoka e Re is obviously under PDK influence. Epoka e Re and Infopress get the most of governments advertisements, while being the least sold newspapers.

Lajm is owned by Behxhet Pacolli, a businessman turned politician heading the third strongest party Aleanca Kosova e Re (AKR). Zeri is owned by Blerim Shala, Aleanca për Ardhmërinë e Kosovës (AAK) vice president. AAK is the party or Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned as Kosovo’s Prime Minister in March 2005 after his indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, for 37 counts of war crimes. He was acquitted on Apr. 3rd 2008, returned to Kosovo and immediately resumed his duties as president of the party.

The tight weave among politicians, media and business interests in Kosovo plays a significant role on the tough struggle for power undergoing in the newborn republic.

Local elections will take place next November and one can spot a lot of activity with media playing a significant role in promoting various politicians but also legitimizing a widely devaluated political process according to Ymeri. “It started by getting each others members, and it is continuing by accusing each other on who is the most corrupted. This shows that the legitimacy of all the parties is in crises.” In the last elections held on 2007 only 37% voted.

“The restriction of the freedom of expression is a direct consequence of our lack of sovereignty and democracy” he said. “A Government which is accountable to unaccountable international missions, and not to its people, cannot and will not function according to democratic principles. A Government which has no sovereignty will always seek to mask this lack of legitimacy.”

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network

http://www.birn.eu.com/

Center for Investigative reporting

http://www.centerforinvestigativereporting.org/

Human Rights Watch

http://www.hrw.org/

Democratic Party of Kosovo

http://www.pdk-ks.org/advCms/index.php?id=10,1,1,1,a

Aleanca Kosova e Re

http://www.akr-ks.info/

Aleanca për Ardhmërinë e Kosovës

http://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleanca_p%C3%ABr_Ardhm%C3%ABrin%C3%AB_e_Kosov%C3%ABs

Vetevendosje

http://www.vetevendosje.org/

French economist Serge Latouche speaks about the society of degrowth. A shorter version of this text was published in English on www.ipsnews.net, but here is a chance to read his original French answers, in full.

1. In brief, what do you understand by degrowth (a-growth) and what would be the main features of a society of degrowth?

Précisons tout de suite que la décroissance n’est pas un concept et en tout cas, pas le symétrique de la croissance. C’est un slogan politique provocateur qui a surtout pour objet de marquer fortement l’abandon de l’objectif de la croissance pour la croissance, objectif insensé dont les conséquences sont désastreuses pour l’environnement. En particulier, la décroissance n’est pas la croissance négative, expression antinomique et absurde qui traduit bien la domination de l’imaginaire de la croissance[1]. En toute rigueur, il conviendrait de parler d’une “a-croissance”, comme on parle d’a-théisme. C’est d’ailleurs très précisément de l’abandon d’une foi et d’une religion qu’il s’agit : celles de l’économie, de la croissance, du progrès et du développement. D’autre part, la décroissance n’est pas l’alternative, mais une matrice d’alternatives qui ouvre de nouveau l’espace de la créativité en soulevant la chape de plomb du totalitarisme économique. Cela signifie qu’on ne doit pas penser une société de la décroissance de la même façon au Texas et aux Chiapas, au Sénégal et au Portugal. La décroissance réouvre l’aventure humaine à la pluralité de destins. On ne peut donc pas proposer un modèle clefs en mains d’une société de décroissance, mais seulement l’esquisse des fondamentaux de toute société non productiviste soutenable et des exemples concrets de programmes de transition. La société de sobriété choisie qu’implique l’abandon de la religion de la croissance  supposera de travailler moins pour vivre mieux, de consommer moins mais mieux, de produire moins de déchets, de recycler plus. Bref, de retrouver le sens de la mesure et une empreinte écologique soutenable. Inventer la félicité dans la convivialité plutôt que dans l’accumulation frénétique de gadgets.

2 What would be the role of markets in this new society? Today, we associate market economies with the capitalist system, but you explain that markets have existed in the pre-capitalist ages, and that they have a role to play in cooperation, solidarity and poverty reduction.

Le système capitaliste est une société de marché, mais les marchés ne sont pas une institution propre au capitalisme. Un grand nombre de sociétés humaines connaissent des marchés (en particulier l’Afrique). Toutefois, ce ne sont ni des sociétés de Marché, ni des sociétés capitalistes, même si on peut y trouver incidemment du capital et des capitalistes. L’imaginaire de ces sociétés est si peu colonisé par l’économie qu’elles vivent leur économie sans le savoir. Sortir du développement, de l’économie et de la croissance n’implique donc pas de renoncer au marchés, mais de les réenchâsser dans une autre logique, pour sortir de l’omnimarchandisation.

Il importe surtout de distinguer le Marché et les marchés. Les seconds n’obéissent jamais à une pure loi de la concurrence idéale et c’est tant mieux. Ils incorporent toujours quelque chose de l’esprit du don qu’une société de décroissance se devrait de retrouver. La convivialité, c’est aussi cela, avoir de rapports humains avec la vendeuse ou la caissière.

3What would be the role of technology?

On dit souvent que la décroissance serait contre la science, technophobe. C’est un contresens énorme sur nos thèses. Nous n’avons pas d’opposition aveugle au progrès, mais une opposition au progrès aveugle ! Le culte de la science est de moins en moins tenable quand la science est mise en marché sous forme de technoscience à consommer. Heureusement, il y a d’authentiques savants raisonnables : Jacques Testart, Albert Jacquart, Christian Velot, Dominique Belpomme, Jean-François Narbonne etc. Nous préconnisons de décréter un moratoire sur l’innovation technoscientifique, faire un bilan sérieux et réorienter la recherche scientifique et technique en fonction des aspirations nouvelles.  Il est possible que se développent à l’avenir des sciences et des techniques non prométhéennes.  C’est déjà le cas avec l’écologie. Il s’agira de développer, par exemple, la “chimie verte” plutôt que les molécules toxiques et la médecine environnementale plutôt que le tout génétique (Dominique Belpomme), de favoriser les recherches en agrobiologie et en agroécologie plutôt que dans l’agroindustrie (O. G. M et autres chimères). Le moratoire devrait s’étendre en aval sur les grands projets (Iter, autoroutes, TGV, incinérateurs. etc.). Il n’est pas impossible et c’est même souhaitable que certaines techniques d’avant-garde puissent résoudre certains problèmes.   Mais la science et la technique ne peuvent pas tout et le principe de précaution s’impose même si la recherche n’est plus sous la dépendance des firmes transnationales.

4. You explain in the book that degrowth involves a radical change in the human consciousness, to replace the domination of economist, profit-oriented, growth-centered thinking. You speak about challenging educational systems, advertising, and consumption patterns to achieve this. But how do you see
these changes as becoming generalized (this generalization seems to me necessary in order to achieve the systemic change towards degrowth)? And won’t this change of consciousness take more time than the planet has?

Le grand défi consiste à briser les cercles qui sont aussi des chaînes, pour sortir du labyrinthe (cher à Castoriadis) où nous sommes captifs : La société de la décroissance, si nous la supposons réalisée, décoloniserait certainement notre imaginaire mais la décolonisation qu’elle engendrerait est requise en préalable pour la construire. Les éducateurs devraient eux-mêmes être désintoxiqués pour transmettre un enseignement non toxique. La rupture des chaînes de la drogue sera d’autant plus difficile qu’il est de l’intérêt des trafiquants (en l’espèce la nébuleuse des firmes transnationales et les pouvoirs politiques à leur service) de nous maintenir dans l’esclavage. Toutefois, il y a toutes les chances pour que nous y soyons incités par le choc salutaire de la nécessité. L’éducation nécessaire s’apparente à une cure de désintoxication, à une véritable thérapie. On sait que Marcel Mauss voyait dans les expériences alternatives ou dissidentes (coopératives, mutuelles, syndicats) des laboratoires pédagogiques pour construire “l’homme nouveau” requis par l’autre monde possible. La gamme s’est aujourd’hui élargie avec certaines ONG, les AMAP (Association pour le maintien de l’agriculture paysanne), les Sels (Systèmes d’échanges locaux), les Rers (Réseaux d’échange réciproque de savoirs), etc. Ces universités populaires visent cet objectif : armer pour résister et décoloniser l’imaginaire[2]. Elles participent de la démocratie créative de John Dewey qui cherche à incorporer l’éducation dans la pratique démocratique. Certes, nous n’avons pas beaucoup de temps, mais à la faveur des évènements, les choses peuvent aller très vite. La crise écologique et la crise financière et économique que nous connaissons pourrait constituer ce choc salutaire. 

5. Who are the main agents of this change of consciousness and eventually of the systemic change? Is a good starting point the change in lifestyle for the Westerners? Or do we, in the West, need to choose government which will focus
on the environment, break monopolies and take measures against corporations, regulate advertising, promote fair trade policies with the countries in the global South? Do international organizations, like the UN, have a role to play?

Fusionné avec la question 8.

6. As you well explain in the book, it is hard to imagine poverty relief without growth given the dominant thought patterns. What types of strategies should the global South countries pursue in order to eliminate poverty in a different way than the North has (at the expense of the environment and producing poverty in the South)?

Pour l’Afrique, la décroissance de l’empreinte écologique (mais aussi du PIB) n’est ni nécessaire ni souhaitable. Mais on ne doit pas en conclure pour autant  qu’il faille y construire une société de croissance. La décroissance concerne les sociétés du Sud dans la mesure où elles sont engagées dans la construction d’économies de croissance afin d’éviter de s’enfoncer plus avant dans l’impasse à laquelle cette aventure les condamne. Loin de faire l’éloge sans nuance de l’économie informelle, nous pensons que les sociétés du Sud pourraient, s’il en est temps encore, se “désenvelopper” c’est à dire se délivrer des obstacles sur leur chemin pour se réaliser autrement. D’abord, il est clair que la décroissance au Nord est une condition de l’épanouissement de toute forme d’alternative au Sud. Tant que l’Éthiopie et la Somalie sont condamnées, au plus fort de la disette, à exporter des aliments pour nos animaux domestiques, tant que nous engraissons notre bétail de boucherie avec les tourteaux de soja obtenus sur les brûlis de la forêt amazonienne, nous asphyxions toute tentative de véritable autonomie pour le Sud[3].

Oser la décroissance au Sud, c’est tenter d’enclencher un mouvement en spirale pour se mettre sur l’orbite du cercle vertueux des 8 R. Cette spirale introductive à la décroissance au Sud pourrait s’organiser avec d’autres “R”, à la fois alternatifs et complémentaires, comme Rompre, Renouer, Retrouver, Réintroduire, Récupérer, etc. Rompre avec la dépendance économique et culturelle vis-à-vis du Nord. Renouer avec le fil d’une histoire interrompue par la colonisation, le développement et la mondialisation. Retrouver et se réapproprier une identité culturelle propre. Réintroduire les produits spécifiques oubliés ou abandonnés et les valeurs “antiéconomiques” liées au passé de ces pays. Récupérer les techniques et savoir-faire traditionnels.
 
7. What are some examples of good practices taking place already in the world which are compatible with degrowth (perhaps the agricultural movement in Latin America, what others)?

La décroissance rejoint aussi ou retrouve par des voies différentes des réflexions théoriques et des démarches pratiques menées ailleurs (tant dans le monde anglo-saxon que dans les univers non-occidentaux. Citons l’écologie sociale de l’anarchiste Murray Bookchin, l’écologie profonde du Norvégien Arne Naess, l’hypothése Gaia de Sir James Lovelock, le powerdown de Richard Heinberg, le mouvement nord-amèricain du downshifting, celui britannique des transition towns de Rop Hopkins, mais aussi la tentative de zone autonome des néo-zapatistes du Chiapas et les nombreuses expériences Sud-américaines, indiennes ou autres, comme celle de l’Équateur qui vient d’inscrire dans sa constitution l’objectif du Sumak Kausai (bien vivre en quechua). Ce peut être l’occasion de voir s’épanouir au Nord toutes sortes d’initiatives décroissantes et solidaires : AMAP(Association pour le maintien d’une agriculture paysanne), Sels, jardins partagés, l’autoréhabilitation des logements, l’autoproduction assistée ou accompagnée : jardins, cuisine, selon l’expérience du PADES (Programme auto production et développement social)[4]. Le mouvement des villes en transition né en Irlande (Kinsale près de Cork) et qui s’épanouit en Angleterre est peut-être la forme de construction par le bas de ce qui se rapproche le plus d’une société de décroissance. Ces villes, selon la charte du réseau, visent d’abord à l’autosuffisance énergétique en prévision de la fin des énergies fossiles et plus généralement à la résilience. Ce concept emprunté à l’écologie scientifique peut être défini comme la permanence qualitative du réseau d’interactions d’un écosystème, ou, plus généralement, comme la capacité d’un système à absorber les perturbations et à se réorganiser en conservant essentiellement ses fonctions, sa structure, son identité et ses rétroactions[5].

8. You have criticized the turning of many Greens (parties and NGOs) to the mainstream, which reduced their impetus towards radical change. Are there actors among the environmentalists, or community preservationists that you could still see as central to promoting a degrowth society?

Même si le travail d’autotransformation en profondeur de la société et des citoyens nous semble plus important que les échéances électorales, cela ne veut pas dire que, pour autant, nous préconisions l’abstention, ni que nous nous refusions à l’élaboration de propositions concrètes. Toutefois, il nous semble plus important de peser dans le débat, infléchir les positions des uns et des autres, faire prendre en considération certains arguments, contribuer à faire évoluer ainsi les mentalités. S’il vise à rendre toute sa dignité au politique, notre projet ne s’inscrit pas dans l’espace de la politique politicienne. Celle-ci, en effet, a peu de prise aujourd’hui sur les réalités qu’il faut changer et il convient d’être prudent dans la façon d’en user. Dans le meilleur des cas, les gouvernements ne peuvent que freiner, ralentir, adoucir des processus sur lesquels ils n’ont plus de prise, s’ils veulent aller à contre-courant. Il existe une “cosmocratie” mondiale qui, sans décision explicite, vide le politique de sa substance et impose “ses” volontés. Tous les gouvernements sont, qu’ils le veuillent ou non, les “fonctionnaires” du capital. Et les politiciens, même dans l’opposition, ne peuvent échapper aux pièges de la politique-spectacle, sinon aux séductions d’une professionnalisation généreusement rétribuée. Sans doute cela n’est-il pas étranger à la décomposition aussi navrante que délétère du parti socialiste, mais aussi des Verts et de l’extrème-gauche. Les magouilles, les querelles d’ego, les conflits d’ambitions sordides entre le N. P. A, Le parti de la gauche, le P. C. F, Europe-écologie, les groupuscules divers, Utopia, Les alternatifs, plus quelques électrons-libres atteints du virus électoraliste, et au sein de chacune de ses fractions avec ses exclusions à coup de fausse rigueur idéologique, sans que soit jamais clairement posée la question du rejet du productivisme, même si la décroissance est souvent évoquée, nous confirment dans la justesse de notre analyse. Malgré tout, le succès relatif récent des listes écologiques en France et en Belgique qui, plus que les autres, ont repris une partie des idées de la décroissance est une première avancée.

[2]Michel Renault in Hiroko Amemiya et alii, L’agriculture participative. P. U de Rennes, 2007.

[3]Sans compter que ces “déménagements” planétaires contribuent à déréguler un peu plus le climat, que ces cultures spéculatives de latifondiaires privent les pauvres du Brésil de haricots et qu’en prime on risque d’avoir des catastrophes biogénétiques du genre vaches folles…

[4] Voir, Daniel Cérézuelle, Silence, N° 360 sept.2008 Autoproduire pour se reconstruire

[5] Rob Hopkins, The Transition handbook. From Oil Dependancy to Local Resilience, Green Books Ltd, 2008.

The Green Ecologist Party of Romania has two platforms: one asking for complete deregulation and withdrawal of the state from all aspects of economic life. And another one which asks for more regulation of financial markets and governmental intervention to tackle inequality and the activity of corporations. Which is it then? Obviously none, it’s just fun to have a party and why not have it as a green party? Seems pretty neutral and cool and fashionable, even though the guys who run it are neither neutral nor cool nor fashionable.

At the end of last year, getting ready for parliamentary elections, the two small ecologist parties in Romania, forever bickering before over who is greener, better, fitter, decided to make an alliance and create the Green Ecologist Party (even the name is absurd, why does it have to be both called Green and Ecologist, just choose one of them, but I bet none of the parties wanted to relinquish its own name from the final title of the new party, supposed to stand for reconciliation in the interests of the nature of Romania). They also thought it is a good idea to get the support of the European Greens. They must have thought, as long as we have the support of any group with a “European” title and whose members walk around in Brussels, we might get more votes. But, as it happened, they didn’t really think that what they have been saying to Romanians and what the Europeans Greens are saying is somewhat different to say the least. So, as I noticed a few days ago, in an attempt to figure out the “ideology” of Romanian Greens, the new party ended up with two contradictory programmes, which they have posted on their website, with no shame, no worry for the contradictions, and swearing allegiance to both.

One is the Green New Deal for Europe, which they have adopted as their status. Which says:

“The global financial crisis has emphasized the weakness of current economic and social policies and revealed a generalized malfunctioning of the system. The crisis should be considered as an opportunity to transform our economic and social system into one which will be able to offer guarantees for future generations and a future based on stability, autonomy and durability. The neoliberal ideology dominating Europe has created a system in which the interests of the few have priority over the well-being of citizens. For them, the profits derived from polluting industries take precedence over the environment and public health.” (A New Green Deal for Europe, adopted by the Romanian Green Ecologist Party, member of the European Greens, and posted as a charter on the website of the party

http://www.partidulverde.ro/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=185&Itemid=27)

The other is the party’s own platform:

“It is necessary to privatize all productive, commercial and financial units and to exclude the state from all these activities because only in this way can a true market economy be developed. The entire industry, including strategic sectors, will be privatized, as they represent remnants of the secretive practices of the Communist Party.” (Political Platform of the Romanian Green Party as published on the website of the party

http://www.partidulverde.ro/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=26)

So guys, do we privatize and deregulate everything? Or do we regulate the financial sector, involve governments in green investments and ask from it to take measures to address inequalities? Which one is it, because, even if it doesn’t feel that way to you, you can’t have both?

by Claudia (venting her frustrations)

As many other students in London, I work part-time in a restaurant. Yesterday, I attended a compulsory training on „upselling”, which means, basically, to keep suggesting to customers that they need and want to buy more things — even though they are full or drunk, they could still get more. The whole thing lasted for 2 and a half hours, but it was, from my perspective (not that of the trainer, I am sure) deliriously funny.

There are so many objections I have to this whole idea of upselling and to paying a company (“Progressive Training”) probably somewhere around 1,000 pounds to brainwash your employees into thinking it is great for them and for the customers (and, of course, for the business to which they should feel some sort of allegiance) to sell more…

We were about 7-8 people in this particular session, waiters, porters, gym assistants, receptionists, each and every one of us, no matter which department we work in (even the guy who carries the luggage of the people coming into the hotel—I work in the restaurant of a hotel), can and should sell more!

We are all paid around 6.5 pounds an hour, little above the minimum wage. In this particular company, we are not being paid overtime if we work more, which they often ask us to do. Instead, we are given free time for the hours worked extra, which we never get to take, as they are chronically short of staff. So, you have basically a group of poor guys, who, on top of it, are deeply frustrated with how they are treated by their managers, to listen for close to 3 hours about how they can help make more profits to the company.

But, of course, they didn’t put it exactly in those terms. It is not profits you are increasing by upselling, rather, it is revenues for the company, which will later on mean more opportunities for you (in the same way, as we all know, that the benefits of capitalism eventually trickle down in society and will help to emancipate the poor). And how is that going to happen, how???

We were told that, by upselling, we would gain the following: skills, confidence, product knowledge, attentiveness, and feedback. Excuse me, what the hell are those? How are these a benefit for me, when all I really want from you is a better salary. I am not a waitress because I want to acquire confidence, for sure, I am a waitress because I need money.

Then they figured that explaining to us how the revenues and profits are generated through upselling would make us more prone to engage in the practice. Let’s take the example of a bottle of water, sold at the price of 3 pounds, when its actual cost is 40 p. The profit the company gets from selling just one of these bottles of water per day amounts to 900 pounds in a year!!! Just one little bottle of water. The best thing in the whole story though was the genuine reactions of the people at hearing the difference between the selling price in the restaurant and the costs of this bottle. Forgetting completely the context (we are, after all, in a seminar about upselling, paid for by a company which wants to increase its profits, and conducted by another company which makes loads of money by selling trainings on how to sell), the guys were commenting: “this is a rip-off”, “I can get this in the supermarket for 60 p”. Of course it is a rip off, but that’s why we are here, to learn how to better rip off the customers, and not even for our sake, but for the sake of bigger thieves.

The fact that this is a rip-off training seminar became more and more obvious with time. We moved on to discuss the various types of customers and which are more prone to overspend, therefore, good targets for upselling. What kind of people we get in the restaurant and at the bar? Families, groups of friends, regulars, etc Then the bartenders says: depressed people, I get a lot of depressed people. The seminar leader’s eyes gleam and she suggests, naturally, that these are good targets for selling alcohol. Not explicitly, she wouldn’t say this explicitly, she is, after all, a very polite and self-controlled person, but she lets us know that we know what she knows, that depressed vulnerable people are a good milking cow. After all, we are doing this for the good of the company, we are trying to overcome the selling targets, and, by the way, overcoming the selling targets is supposed to mobilize us, the employees, and give us a sense of purpose, thus making us better at what we do.

We were told that when we come to work and put on our uniform, we are like actors stepping onto the stage. We have to forget our personal troubles and “smile and sell”, “smile and sell”. On this point, the same trainer from “Progressive Training” has given us another seminar a few months back, on how to have a positive attitude towards the customer. The crucial point was to smile. And then she went really nuts and said: but, remember, this smile has to be an honest smile, otherwise the people will know (so, I gather, it has to be an honest smile even though you are in one of those days when you put on a mask to hide your personal troubles???). And, she went on, in order to smile honestly, what you have to do is engage all the muscles on your face, especially the cheek ones. “Progressive training” are so good at their job that they even know how to teach people to smile honestly!!!

Towards the end, we did role playing games in which we practised how to upsell. In the discussions, a girl from the reception mentions, with a genuine desire to contribute to our learning from the training, that when she used to work as a waitress they would sometimes…well…lie. If the customer asked about a product, say, how is your sausage and mash, even though she had no clue, she would say, “they are excellent sir, they are one of our most popular products”. The trainer was a little embarrassed, but finally pleased to admit that, indeed, lying is a good strategy, why not?

So, in a nutshell, the whole point is to lie to vulnerable people to get them to buy more things that they don’t really need, because, and this is a crucial point for the hospitality industry, “the customer doesn’t know what he wants, you know what they want, and you have to show confidence and tell him what he wants”.

Interestingly enough, the restaurant where I work is quite poorly managed. That means, supplies are often not there (even basic ones, such as bread, eggs, coffee), because they don’t do the orders properly. They also cut down on costs by working with only one chef which is not enough. Which means, you often do not really have what to sell to customers. Someone wants an omelet and we have to tell him “we don’t have it today, sir, I am sorry” (because someone forgot to order eggs!) And, in this context, they figured out that what we really need is for the waiters to learn how to upsell. And, that, for me, is very symbolic of how our businesses function today. It doesn’t matter what the product is, really, all that matters is how good we are at selling it. Companies exist only to teach others how to sell, and they use the same strategies whether the product is an egg, a book, or a show. And, yes, I would like to get out of this line of business, but looking at the job sites often ends up a frustrating experience: 90 percent of the jobs advertised in the media sector are sales positions; the same for social work and other sectors. After all, this is the most important thing, not what you do, but how you market it.

As my Italian friend would say, this is all “palate di merda” (meaning, scoops — or shovels — of shit; used first in reference to what the managers told him in a conversation about his role in the company; and then easily transferred to an adequate description of everything else that happens while we are at work).

I have seen this in the news yesterday. Two Iranian exiles asked for the permission to use the characters and drawing style of Persepolis from its author, in order to depict the pro-Moussavi demonstrations taking place this month after the elections in Teheran. They want to use the popularity of Persepolis to gather more worldwide sympathy for the anti-Ahmadinejad opposition. 

It is worth noting that the creator of Persepolis, M. Satrapi, gave her approval for this, but she was not involved in conceiving the new cartoons. I was very curious because I really liked Persepolis. 

I was also disappointed, because it is a pretty skematic good vs. evil depiction of what happened around the elections, and makes the people who support Ahmadinejad into an indetermined mass of individuals who don’t think. Things are bound to be more complicated than that, and it’s a pity that it feels that this cartoon could have been drawn by anyone in the West who, say, wants to see Ahmadinejad go down. I doubt it will gather more worldwide support than that of the people who already sympathize with Moussavi. 

Here is the link, it is still an interesting read:

http://www.spreadpersepolis.com/ 

In any case, the problem with its simplicity is not that it criticizes the oppression and the police violence against the demonstrators–that should be criticized. It’s more that, being created by Iranians and not by Europeans or Americans (even if exiles), I would have liked to see the faces of those people who support Ahmadinejad; it’s, regardless of the election results being accurate or not, half of the country. And I would have liked to see a hint of who Moussavi is, apart of this image of apostle of freedom emerging over the last month. In any case, it is good to see the old faces from Persepolis again, though I wonder what those characters would really think and comment in this situation…Maybe they would be on the same side, but with more clever argumentation.