Obesity and Hypertension – Signs of Inequality in Chile

March 27, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Promoting friendship and outdoor games for children is part of Elige Vivir Sano’s programme to combat obesity. Credit: Elige Vivir Sano

Marianela Jarroud

SANTIAGO, Mar 27 (IPS) – The prevalence of obesity and hypertension among the poor in Chile is a factor that aggravates inequality, requiring public policies for prevention and mitigation of the high cost of a healthy diet.The most recent national health survey, carried out in 2012, found that 8.9 million people in Chile are overweight or obese, equivalent to 67 percent of the population.

The figures indicate that there are 2.1 million more obese people now than in 2003, when the previous survey was done. Morbid or extreme obesity has increased by more than 100 percent and now affects 300,000 people.

Broken down by socioeconomic level, 35.5 percent of the poorest, least educated segment of the population is overweight, compared to 24.7 percent of the middle-income segment and 18.5 percent of the highest.

Chile’s statistics are in line with the results of a 2012 study by the World Health Organization (WHO), which found that the prevalence of obesity worldwide nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008.

Latin America leads that increase. Mexico has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. And in South America, Chile has the third highest obesity rate, after Argentina and Venezuela. It is also the country with the highest proportion of men with hypertension or high blood pressure in South America.

Juan Carlos Prieto, a cardiologist at the Clinical Hospital of the University of Chile, said the figures are not new and reflect complex aspects of social inequality.

"Chile also has record carbohydrate consumption, especially of refined flours, like bread," he told IPS.

"If you make a quick survey, especially among low-income people, you find the staple food is bread: a person can eat up to six to eight servings a day, which means consuming the same number of grams of salt a day," he said.

In his view, that is the nub of the problem. "A salty diet, plus obesity derived from over-consuming carbohydrates with the calories they imply, explains the environmental factor of the level of hypertension in Chile," he said.

Prieto, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Chile School of Medicine, said the prevalence of hypertension and obesity is higher among people with low incomes, "and there is quite a significant difference" between this group and other sectors of the population.

The problem, he said, is that the prices of fruit and vegetables, essential elements of a healthy diet, have soared in Chile in the past 10 years.

For instance, a kilo of apples used to cost 20 cents of a dollar in street markets, and now costs 1.50 dollars. In supermarkets, the price is even higher.

As a result, Chileans are eating on average 86 kilos of bread a year, an amount that is worrying the experts.

"People on low incomes resort to the cheapest foods, like pasta or bread, which fill them up quickly and do not cost very much," Prieto said.

This, together with sedentary habits and high levels of stress in society, led the government of President Sebastián Piñera to implement the Elige Vivir Sano (Choose Healthy Living) programme, aimed at changing dietary habits and fomenting the practice of sports among Chileans.

When Piñera took office in March 2010, "over 88 percent of the population did less than 20 minutes exercise three times a week," the director of the government initiative, Pauline Kantor, told IPS.

She added that this is a social problem, as it affects mainly the most disadvantaged sectors.

"Chile is a sick country, and if we do not take care now, in another 10 years we will be in deep trouble when it comes to heart disease and diabetes, and we will have health costs that will be difficult to sustain," she said.

Elige Vivir Sano, headed by Piñera’s wife, Cecilia Morel, is one of a number of public policies being taken forward jointly by several organisations.

For example, the Education Ministry decided to increase the time allotted to physical education in schools, from two to four hours a week, while the Health Ministry extended the traditional children’s programme of health control to teenagers, so that overweight adolescents are referred to nutritionists for treatment.

Another novelty is the installation of exercise equipment in public squares, now called "active plazas." These have been set up in 172 out of the 346 municipalities in the country.

"We are not asking people to join a programme at a gym, but only to learn some exercise routines so they can work out at home or in nearby squares," Kantor said. The campaign includes radio and television advertising that invites homemakers to exercise using one-kilo packages of rice or beans as weights, to get people to adopt a home exercise routine.

Kantor said that while it would take 10 years to see real change, some progress has already been made. "The last survey of physical activity and sports found that 500,000 Chileans are no longer sedentary, an important achievement," she said.

Also, "40 percent of the people who contacted Elige Vivir Sano said they had changed at least one habit," she said.

Now the goal is to turn the programme into law. The draft bill, which will be presented to Congress soon, includes the creation of an executive secretariat, under the Ministry of Social Development, that will coordinate programmes from different ministries. The aim of the bill is "to give the changing of habits the priority that Chile needs," said Kantor.

In the view of Prieto, the cardiologist, the initiative is "interesting," but the main thing is to create concrete possibilities for bringing about change.

"When it comes to diet, I repeat, people are urged to eat five fruits a day, but you have to look at the cost of that compared to a plate of pasta, for a family living on the minimum wage," which in Chile is only 400 dollars a month.

"It has to be evaluated whether this depends only on individuals, or whether the state has to take action to make this happen, for instance by increasing access by the lowest-income sectors,” he said.

Promoting friendship and outdoor games for children is part of Elige Vivir Sano’s programme to combat obesity. Credit: Elige Vivir Sano

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Featured, Health, Inequality, Latin America, Poverty Tagged With:

Tenants in Spain Win First Battle against Evictions

February 17, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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The ILP calls for “payment in kind", meaning that a person’s debts are written off once they have surrendered their home. Credit: Inés Benítez

Inés Benítez

MALAGA, Spain, Feb 15 (IPS) – Public outcry against evictions this week led Spain’s parliament to accept a popular initiative against mortgage-related evictions for unpaid debts, which in the past seven days have led to four suicides."The banks chase me to pay every cent," while they are rescued with public money, complained Benigno, a 47-year old unemployed man, who with his three children has for nearly a year occupied one of 29 vacant apartments in a building project in the southern city of Malaga, which closed down when the developer went bankrupt.

Benigno has had two houses foreclosed on. He spent three years working for a company with an open-ended contract when he decided to take out a loan to buy a bigger second home, offering the first as collateral.

"Everybody did it (bought property)," he told IPS. "But overnight I was fired. I’ve lost everything and I owe 102,000 euros (135,000 dollars), payable in 28 years."

The Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP), promoted by the citizen movement Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH) (Platform for those Affected by Mortgage), is backed by nearly a million-and-a-half signatures.

It calls for “payment in kind,” meaning that a person’s debts are written off once they have surrendered their home, and wants this to apply retroactively. It also wants a moratorium on evictions, and the creation of social housing with homes confiscated by banks.

"We are the European country with the most evictions, and at the same time the one with the largest millions of accumulated empty homes," PAH spokesman, Ada Colau, said in a televised interview earlier this month.

Between 2007 and the third quarter of 2012, there were 400,000 foreclosures in Spain, according to data from the General Council of the Judiciary.

"I heard that there were empty houses and I came. I had no other choice. I could not pay rent," said Antonio, a 22-year-old living with his wife Encarni, 19, and their two-year-old daughter. The little he earns as a street vendor, he spends on food.

"I have no electricity and water, but at least I don’t have my daughter on the street," said Antonio, who is a neighbor of Benigno and 20 other families, who make up for the lack of electricity with candles and generators, and fill containers with drinking water from nearby pumps.

The debate over the ILP, which given the social pressure was accepted "in extremis" by the ruling right-wing Popular Party (PP) with a parliamentary majority, "is a first step", said Antonio Alarcón, a core activist of the Malaga PAH, which in four years has stopped more than 500 evictions. It negotiates payments in kind and relocates families into affordable rental schemes.

It remains to be seen whether the measures proposed in the ILP will be incorporated unchanged into a bill on the same subject which is already passing through the parliament.

If by law the banks apply payment in kind retroactively, many people who have lost their homes would avoid facing lifelong debts. "They will save me from a 28-year trap,” said Benigno.

Some in economic circles oppose payment in kind, arguing it will make credit more expensive and hurt the financial system.

"But the fact is that today there is no credit for anyone and the financial system is already broken," Sara Vásquez, an attorney for the PAH in Malaga, told IPS.

For Vásquez, the admission of the ILP project was the result of "arm-twisting " and “marks a milestone in this country". It shows that "the only way out is pressure" by of citizens, who increasingly feel less represented by institutions, and are outraged by the corruption charges shaking the PP and members of the royal family.

"They receive envelopes with money and we receive envelopes with bills," said Azahara, another resident of the occupied building, referring to the alleged illegal payments to members of the PP, as reported by the national newspaper El País.

In the past four months there have been seven suicides of people who were to be evicted, including four in just the last seven days. On Feb. 13, the judicial commission that was to carry out the eviction of a man found him hanging at his home in the southeastern city of Alicante.

Unemployment is now affecting a whopping 26.2 percent of the workforce in Spain, even as there are drastic cuts in key areas such as health and education.

"(The government) is not rescuing people, but the banks," said Alarcon, referring to public money allocated to clean up the financial institutions and the creation of a so-called "bad bank", a manager of unpaid property loans or unsold homes that the banks took from bankrupt construction companies to whom they had lent money.

During the housing boom, "everything in this country was pushing you to buy a home instead of renting… and the banks themselves drafted the mortgage contracts," Colau recalled in the interview.

The PAH has called for demonstrations this Saturday "for the right to housing and against financial genocide".

The Court of Justice of the European Union declared last November that the Spanish foreclosure system is incompatible with the laws of the EU bloc.

In a preliminary ruling, which will serve as a basis for judgment, the court granted national judges the power to suspend evictions until the terms of credit have been reviewed to see whether or not they are abusive.

The debtors come to the PAH with "complete ignorance" about their situation: they don’t know how to negotiate with the bank or how their lawyer can help them, said Alarcon, who criticised the lack of training of lawyers in charge of defending the interests of those affected.

"None of us live here today because we want to," said Benigno. With the help of the PAH, they want to negotiate with the owner and continue to stay in the building, in exchange for its maintenance, for which each of them provides 20 euros per month, according to a list attached to an elevator that never functioned.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economic Crisis, Europe, Human Rights, Lead, Social Justice Tagged With: , , ,

Q&A: FGM Is About Culture, Not Religion

February 7, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Credit: UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

Kitty Stapp

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 07 (IPS) – The fight against female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) continues to gain traction around the world.On Wednesday, the United Nations observed the annual Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM/C, an act that is shocking and inhumane to much of the world but remains a tradition among a significant minority.

This year’s observance is particularly momentous after the General Assembly’s December 2012 unanimous adoption of the resolution on "Intensifying Global Efforts for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilations", which U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin says "speaks volumes to the world’s commitment" and is "the greatest testimony to the work we do".

An estimated 140 million women and girls in the world – 120 million concentrated in 29 African and Middle Eastern countries – are living with FGM/C, which, in addition to being excruciatingly painful, can result in infection, cysts, infertility, childbirth complications, and the need for corrective surgery.

IPS correspondent Marzieh Goudarzi spoke with Dr. Osotimehin on UNFPA’s role in the global fight against FMG/C. Excerpts follow.

Q: According to data from the World Health Organisation, FGM/C-affected communities exist in northern, northeastern, and western Africa and in some Middle Eastern and Asian countries. FGM/C is also practiced in immigrant communities from these countries living in other parts of the world. Are there common elements among these communities that allow FGM/C to continue?

A: It is difficult to find a common thread, but I would like to suggest that it is more cultural than anything else. I do not think it is religion. What UNFPA has done with our partner, UNICEF, is to engage communities across those regions that you mentioned and persuade them that FGM/C has no medical benefits at all and that, for a fact, it causes damage to women and girls physically, psychologically, and emotionally.

Q: Can you discuss some specific mechanisms employed by UNFPA and UNICEF to bring about change?

A: On the ground, community dialogue, making sure we connect directly to the community, and making sure we educate them about the harmful effects of FGM/C, are all crucial. We do this with community leaders, religious leaders, and the women, especially the elderly women, as well as the practitioners themselves, who are engaged in this practice. For some, it has been like this for generations so you have to try and shift them away from that sort of harmful tradition.

We are also encouraging them to abandon FGM/C and we see great success in that area. In fact, a total of 1,775 communities across Africa publicly declared their commitment to end female genital mutilation and cutting. That was very gratifying. We have also worked in countries to put in place a legal system and laws to penalise the practice. Thirty-four African countries that have done this.

Q: To what extent does the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme for the Acceleration of the Abandonment of FGM/C work directly with local implementers on the ground in FGM/C-affected countries? Who are the key local implementers?

A: The truth of the matter is that we at UNFPA and UNICEF work in countries to provide assistance, support, and advocacy to governments and to civil society. So we see that "tripartite" as an essential to what we do. We don’t do it all by ourselves because of sustainability issues.

You have to build a whole army of stakeholders on the ground, particularly when you do community work, which will consist of local leaders and civil society, to be able to sustain the advocacy and to ensure that communities go forth from where they are now and are able to maintain that pattern.

Q: What is UNFPA/UNICEF’s strategy in approaching a sensitive issue like FGM/C, which communities see as rooted in cultural or religious tradition, and how do you engage communities and community leaders who hold these beliefs while actively working to abolish the practice of FGM/C?

A: We go into communities, first of all, to understand communities. UNFPA initiates community dialogue with interlocutors that have integrity within the community, with mutual respect from both sides, to understand why they do the things they do. We then explain to them that these are things we believe we have to let go because of their consequences, and demonstrate quite clearly to them why that is so.

It takes some time for them to change what has been a part of their culture for years and years. However, this can be done with persistent and continuous engagement, honesty of purpose, and the ability to generate "champions" on the ground who will impact their communities. This is the basis of our success on the ground.

Q: Recent data shows that since the establishment of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme in 2008, nearly 10,000 communities in 15 countries, representing about eight million people, have renounced FGM/C. UNICEF data from 2012 shows that younger women and girls have lower rates of FGM/C than their older counterparts. Looking ahead, what has worked for the countries that are making progress and how will UNFPA and UNICEF continue their work on this issue?

A: Going forth, we want to continue to ensure that we build capacity on the ground, and also ensure that we identify real "champions" who will work on the ground. Sustainability of (the programme) is in community ownership… and in making sure we have data which is reliable, that enables us to track the progress we make and give us a better on handle on what we see.

We have trained about 88,000 health providers and established 15 medical and paramedical schools just to make sure that this is not something which is going to regress.

If the present trend continues, there will still be as many as 30 million girls below the age of 15 that will still be at risk. We need to continue to give visibility to the issue to ensure that we can avoid the unfortunate extent of girls being cut.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Culture, Diplomacy, Gender, Human Rights, Interview Tagged With: , ,

Kenyan Men Turning the Tide Against FGM

February 6, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Miriam Gathigah

NAIROBI, Feb 06 (IPS) – For the Samburu community in northern Kenya it was bad enough that Julius Lekupe had not sired a son – it was even worse that his eldest daughter refused to be “cut”.“Women are like property here. We circumcise them and marry them off – some as young as 10 years old,” Lekupe told IPS.

He knew it was only a matter of time before his 16-year-old daughter, too, was going to have to undergo the ritual against her will.

“She begged me to support and protect her. It was a tough decision, but I agreed. I sent her to Nairobi to live with a friend,” Lekupe recalled.

He is among an increasing number of men belonging to ethnic groups that practice Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) who have begun to speak out against the now-illegal practice in this East African nation.

Legally, the tide turned in Kenya in 2010, when parliament adopted the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, which stipulates that offenders serve up to seven years in prison and can be fined up to 5,800 dollars – a huge sum in a country where the average monthly wage is 250 dollars.

The combination of national legislation and shifting attitudes at the community level seems to bare fruit.

On Wednesday Feb. 6, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), together released new numbers that show FGM/C is becoming less prevalent on the continent and particularly among the younger generation of girls.

In a joint statement, the agencies highlighted Kenya as an example of sharp decline in the region, saying that “women aged 45 to 49 are three times more likely to have been cut than girls aged 15 to 19.”

“This progress shows it is possible to end FGM/C,” underlined UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake, adding that “we can and must end it to help millions of girls and women lead healthier lives.”

Increasingly, men are assuming active roles in initiating this cultural shift, as UNFPA’s 2012 report “Accelerating Change” points out. In addition to fathers like Lekupe, who wish to protect their daughters, young men across Kenya are speaking out publicly to announce their preference to marry uncut girls, according to the report – a significant development in a country where FGM continues to be a prerequisite for marriage in some communities.

What’s more, over two dozen male Muslim leaders made public declarations to fight FGM/C in 2011, UNFPA said.

“We had been misled into believing that FGM/C is the practice of the Prophet, and that His followers must follow it,” Abdi Omar, a husband and father from Garissa in northern Kenya, told IPS. “But all over northern Kenya we have Muslim leaders telling us that it is not. Why should I support it if it isn’t the practice of the Prophet?”

According to Ibrahim Shabo, an FGM/C activist from Isiolo — a town in northern Kenya where the pastoralist community is notorious for practicing FGM/C — this stance by Muslim leaders is particularly significant when it comes to influencing Kenyan Somalis in northern Kenya, who have a FGM/C prevalence rate of 98 percent.

In Kapenguria, Rift Valley, the local council of elders has joined the growing chorus against FGM/C by making a public declaration to abandon the practice in 2011.

“This is a community that is known to practice extremely brutal forms of FGM/C,” Philipo Lotimari, a community leader in the town, told IPS. He went on to describe the practice that involves opening up a girl’s vagina with the horn of a cow the first time she has sex following her circumcision.

The stance of the all-male council has shifted attitudes, according to Lotimari, by sending “a collective message that it is okay to marry a girl who isn’t circumcised.”

His younger sisters have not been circumcised, he added, because he wanted them to have an education and not be married off.

But not all men have altruistic reasons for preventing the practice.

Omar, a father from Garissa, said that male youths in his region are against FGM/C, because they feel they themselves have become “victims” of it.

“If the girl is sewn so tight, you can neither penetrate nor enjoy sex. So marriages are ending because of it,” he said.

Dr. Salim Ali, a reproductive health physician in northern Kenya, told IPS: “Sex with (women who have undergone FGM/C) is uncomfortable and they do it as a duty. They rarely reach orgasm and make sex tedious. Women who haven’t been cut enjoy frequent sex – sex with them is enjoyable.”

In other cases, men whose wives suffered complications at birth were forced to pay for emergency operations to save their wives and children, Grace Gakii, a gender activist who has worked in FGM/C-practicing communities such as the Maasai’s and the Pokot, told IPS.

“The men are forced to sell their livestock to raise the money for surgery. This is a problem because of the attachment they have to their herds,” said Gakii.

While not all men who speak out against FGM are acting as women’s allies, their support for the issue at large is nevertheless crucial for accelerating the eradication of the practice.

“If more councils of elders and young men continue to show support for an FGM-free society, Kenya will be heading for zero tolerance of FGM.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Gender, Human Rights, Report Tagged With: ,

Domestic Violence Taking High Toll in Armenia

February 6, 2013 by

Global Political Economy Net / IPS

Gayane Abrahamyan

YEREVAN, Feb 05 (EurasiaNet) – Increasingly the issue of domestic violence in Armenia is a topic for public discussion. Yet greater attention to the issue isn’t yet translating into an expansion of programmes to alleviate suffering and address policy shortcomings.In 2012, Armenia set a grim record for domestic violence when six women, ranging in age from 21 to 50 years old, died over the course of six months in incidents involving their husbands or fathers-in-law. Collectively, the six dead women left behind 12 children.

No official registry of domestic-violence attacks exists in Armenia. But a 2008 survey of 1,000 Armenian women by Amnesty International found that more than three out of 10 had suffered from physical abuse, and 66 percent from psychological abuse.

The outcry over the recent deaths prompted activists to believe that the government would start making state funds available for the protection and treatment of victims of domestic violence. But on Jan. 21, the government blocked passage of what would have been the country’s first domestic-violence law, saying that revisions should be made to existing legislation, or to the bill itself.

In the absence of government funding, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are struggling to meet needs.

“There are many cases, and only NGO efforts do not suffice,” commented Susanna Vardanian, director of the Women’s Rights Center, a Yerevan-based NGO, which is a backer of the stalled draft law.

At present, three private domestic-violence shelters (two in Yerevan and one in the nearby region of Armavir), along with several NGO-run hotlines are all that exist for female domestic violence victims. Over the past two years, the Women’s Rights Centre, which runs two hotlines, four regional crisis centres and one shelter, has received some 2,557 calls from women seeking help, according to Vardanian.

At a facility run by the charitable foundation Lighthouse in the village of Ptghunts, the 55 women residents are mostly unemployed, and either pregnant or raising children. The shelter provides basic job training, as well as psychological counselling.

For decades, domestic violence was a topic that not only battered women, but also officials and law-enforcement authorities shied away from acknowledging or discussing. But now, that has begun to change, with people starting to be held accountable for abusive actions.

For example, Haykanush Mikayelian received a 10-month sentence in 2012 for her role in the abuse of her 23-year-old daughter-in-law, Mariam Gevorgian, over a prolonged period starting in 2009. According to testimony at the trial, Mikayelian burned Gevorgian’s body with an iron and a cigarette lighter, beat her regularly and kept her locked indoors under key.

Although police officers are arguably now more aware of the domestic-violence problem than several years ago, they are often left flummoxed by the lack of state-run shelters and legal mechanisms to prevent ongoing abuse of a woman by a husband or relative.

“As soon as it comes to taking actual steps, we seem to be faced with the same resistance,” remarked Lara Aharomian, director of the Women’s Resource Centre, another Yerevan-based NGO active in addressing domestic violence.

The draft domestic-violence law that the government rejected earlier in January would have tried to strengthen official measures to protect victims by introducing restraining orders and expanding the number of shelters, among other measures.

Activists believe that the six fatal domestic-violence cases in 2012 might have been prevented if Armenia had had a law outlining responses to the abuse, and, correspondingly, providing state assistance for shelters.

“(T)he law proposes the creation of a number of facilities, [and the] training of police, which are preventive measures,” said Anna Nikoghosian, a project manager for the non-governmental organisation A Society Without Violence. If shelters had existed near the homes of the six murdered women, all of whom lived outside of Yerevan, “some . . . might be alive today.”

“There are many badly in need of support, but it is impossible to house all of them in only three shelters,” agreed Lighthouse Director Naira Muradian.

Lala Ghazarian, head of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare’s Department for Family, Women and Childcare Issues, stressed that the domestic-violence bill isn’t gone for good. “It just needs some changes” to bring it into line with existing criminal law, she said. “We are all well aware that we need a law, shelter, trained policemen, functional tools, but it implies extensive work to change legislation, and it will be done.”

Some government members have said that parliament, now controlled by the Republican Party of Armenia, could pass a domestic-violence law by 2014 or 2015, once ongoing amendments to the criminal code are complete.

Meanwhile, as the topic’s stigma fades away, many ordinary Armenians affirm openly that they are eager to find solutions. In the village of Burastan, 30 kilometers outside of Yerevan, women in 2006 told EurasiaNet.org that questions about domestic violence “destroy traditional Armenian families". Seven years later, they admitted that abuse is an issue that “has to be addressed".

“Our children have been growing up in an atmosphere of beatings and fights,” commented 67-year-old Karine Galstian, a mother of four. “Only now we realise how wrong it is to keep silent, because we should at least teach our daughters that the husband has to respect his wife, should not beat her, should not humiliate her in front of the children.”

In the absence of further government measures against domestic violence, such realisations could make a critical difference.

Editor’s note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com in Yerevan.

This story was originally published by EurasiaNet.org.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Europe, Gender, Report Tagged With: , ,

This Is What a Humane Economy Looks Like

February 3, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Inés Benítez

MÁLAGA, Spain, Feb 02 (IPS) – The severe crisis crippling Spain is also sparking some creative responses, such the Okonomía project, a teaching initiative that helps individuals and communities to understand the workings of the economy and make more informed decisions to manage their finances."Things have gotten so bad, with people out of work, losing their homes and watching their savings vanish, that something has to be done to economically empower people," said activist Raúl Contreras, one of the academics behind this initiative that in February will open its first school in Benimaclet, a multicultural neighbourhood in the southeastern city of Valencia.

Contreras – an economist who also heads the company Nittúa, which sponsors this project – spoke with IPS about the powerlessness and fear that is taking hold of many people who do not understand how the economy works and how it affects their lives, and are thus made vulnerable to manipulation.

"Doubts, ignorance and fear – in some cases spread intentionally – lead to mistakes, anxiety and difficult situations that could be avoided if people are better informed and equipped to make decisions or choices," Nittúa’s website reads.

One out of every four economically active persons is currently unemployed in Spain, where dozens of families are evicted daily from their homes for failure to meet their mortgage payments, and the measures implemented by the right-wing government of Mariano Rajoy to address the crisis involve huge cuts to health, education and other basic services.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Spain fell prey to "preferential shares" and other financial product schemes and lost all their savings. As the crisis deepened and banks became desperate for cash, they convinced more and more savers to buy these products, taking advantage of their lack of understanding of the ins and outs of investment, and using misleading and distorted sales pitches.

Okonomía – which is financing its start-up needs through a crowdfunding campaign – calls itself a "popular economics school" that "develops dialectical educational processes, building on the reality and economic knowledge of each participant, to enable participants to understand their economic situation so that they can make informed and conscious decisions, both individually and collectively, that will lead to the transformation of society through economic empowerment."

The school is formed by professionals from the fields of economics and education and its activities include training multiplying agents who will spread their newly-acquired knowledge in their immediate social environment.

"The school won’t solve people’s problems, but it will provide a toolbox to help individuals make more informed decisions based on their specific needs," Contreras explained, highlighting the project’s cross-cutting approach to solidarity economy, as it emphasises sustainable alternatives.

While the head of Nittúa stresses the solidarity aspect of this economic model, he says it is not the school’s intent to preach any one model or solution. Rather it seeks to give participants an understanding of economics in general, including a range of economic alternatives, such as ethical banking, responsible consumption, fair trade and the cooperative model.

"A large part of society has realised that a different way of teaching economics is needed," Carlos Ballesteros, a lecturer on consumer behaviour at Madrid’s Comillas Pontifical University, told IPS. "Ninety-nine percent of the world’s business schools stick close to the neoliberal paradigm," which is profit-driven and based on maximising earnings.

Ballesteros said that while Okonomía’s target public is civil society as a whole and its main objective is to teach and inform, on the understanding that "the economy is everyone’s responsibility," it also aims to gather and systematise knowledge on solidarity economy practices that may prove useful to people working in that field.

Okonomía offers semester courses, with in-person classes held every two weeks. The methodology is based on the popular education model developed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1921-1997), who believed that "to teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge."

In each session an issue is presented and material is provided to facilitate reflection. "The learning process is a group activity. The classes are not lectures, but rather dialogue-based and interactive," Contreras said.

He added that after each session the conclusions drawn from the group’s discussions are published online and posted in an intranet, which will form a database of the school’s results, a sort of "Wikipedia of Popular Economy".

Economist Arcadi Oliveres, one of Okonomía’s advisers, said this project is valuable because it "seeks to reveal to the people the underlying workings of the economy" and "because we’re really in the dark" when it comes to the financial world, he told IPS.

Oliveres, a professor of applied economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, believes that "people don’t know that there are alternatives to the traditional economic system" and calls for critically aware citizens who can make informed decisions.

Independently of how financial markets and governments behave, the actions of common citizens also have an impact on the economy, so that people must be conscious that they too can make irresponsible choices as consumers or that their deposits can go to financing environmentally-harmful corporate activities, the economist argued.

"We have to start asking ourselves where our money goes – what do I do with my savings, where do I deposit them and why? – and learn to take control of our finances," Contreras said.

The aim of the school is to help people "understand and then make free, but conscious decisions," he added.

The expert noted that he has not found similar projects anywhere else in the world and that Okonomía, which combines a methodology inspired by Paulo Freire with social innovation methods, has the potential to be replicated outside of Spain "with the support of the social fabric of neighbourhoods and communities".

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economic Crisis, Education, Europe, Poverty, Report Tagged With: , ,

Murder of Landless Workers’ Leader Recalls Brazil’s Dictatorship

February 3, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Fabiana Frayssinet

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 31 (IPS) – The execution-style killing of a leader of the Landless Workers’ Movement in a sugarcane plantation in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, where bodies of opponents of the dictatorship were incinerated in the 1970s, recalls one of the most tragic chapters in this country’s history.

In the book "Memórias de uma Guerra Suja" (Memoirs of a Dirty War), Cláudio Guerra, formerly an agent of the Departamento de Ordem Política e Social (DOPS), the 1964-1985 military regime’s political police, tells how the bodies of 10 leftwing activists were burned, in order to leave no trace, in the oven of the Usina Cambahyba sugarcane plant in Campos dos Goytacazes, a municipality in the north of the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Forty years later, the name of this agroindustrial complex of seven plantations with a total area of 3,500 hectares is again linked to the silencing of a bothersome voice, but this time under a full democracy.

Fifty-four-year-old Cícero Guedes was an outstanding leader in the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST). He led the land occupation of the Usina Cambahyba plant which gave rise to the Luiz Maranhão encampment.

"He was a real symbol, and (his murder) sends a powerful message to the MST, which is organising the land claims of rural workers in the area," one of the MST national directors, Marcelo Durão, told IPS.

"We are in conflict with the forces of oppression in the region," he said, and he described Guedes as "a staunch activist, consistent and very focused on the struggle for land, as well as an authority on agroecological production."

Marcos Pedlowski, a professor at the State University of North Fluminense who has studied land reform issues there since 1998, said the murder "is clearly an attempt to break up the organisation, rather than a petty dispute." Guedes was "an icon of efforts in the struggle for land", he said.

guedes

The MST leader was cut down by at least 10 bullets in an ambush in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 26, near the sugarcane industrial complex. He was cycling home from a meeting to negotiate the legalisation of the situation of the 100 landless families in the encampment.

The dispute over land ownership with agribusiness owners in the region "has been exacerbated by the delay in legal procedures involving properties regarded as unproductive, and therefore subject to expropriation for agrarian reform purposes," said Maria do Rosário Nunes, the human rights secretary for the Brazilian Presidency. The Cambahyba case is an example, she said in a communiqué.

Legal authorisation for the expropriation, which effectively allows it to go ahead, was granted in August 2012, 14 years after the ruling by the Institute for Colonisation and Agrarian Reform (INCRA).

"The backdrop (to the murder) is the slowness of federal justice," Marcelo Freixo, a state legislator for the Socialism and Freedom Party and chair of the Human Rights Commission of the Rio de Janeiro state legislature, told IPS in an interview.

"The large plantations in the sugarcane processing region are bankrupt and are in debt to the state, in an area where there is a great concentration of poor and landless people. This is where INCRA really has to ensure land reform," he said.

The large estates belonged to the late Heli Ribeiro Gomes, a former deputy governor of Rio de Janeiro, and were passed on to his heirs.

In the book, Guerra says he took advantage of his friendship with Ribeiro Gomes to "disappear" the bodies of the leftwing activists, using the factory oven.

The story is "absurd", according to Ribeiro Gomes’s relatives, but other equally macabre tales have been borne out in reality, even in the present day, like the killing of Guedes and other rural activists whose deaths did not receive as much publicity.

"They say 10 activists were cremated. But we can well believe there were many more," said Durão. The area is notorious for its history of violence against rural workers on the part of the "sugar kings" and their hired killers.

Durão drew attention to the "brutality" of the killing, and its "premeditated nature", with four shots to the head and six to the left side of the chest.

Freixo said it was "a murder by several killers, an ambush… and nothing was taken. Clearly it was an execution."

The northern part of the Fluminense flats has not changed much – at least in terms of fundamental issues like land ownership, human exploitation and violence – since the dictatorship era, nor since previous centuries, when the first forms of slavery in Brazil were introduced on sugarcane plantations.

In 2009, a Labour Ministry report said Campos dos Goytacazes was the area with the highest number of workers labouring in slave-like conditions, a shocking situation in the 21st century, Freixo said. However, it is not surprising, since this region was the last in the country to abolish slavery.

Pedlowski, author of the book "Desconstruindo o Latifúndio – a Saga da Reforma Agrária no Norte Fluminense" (Dismantling the Large Estates – the Saga of Land Reform in North Fluminense), stressed the concentration of land ownership, linked to sugarcane monoculture and violence.

The Gini coefficient, which measures inequality on a rising scale from 0 to 1, is 0.8 for land ownership in Campos dos Goytacazes, the highest inequality coefficient in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

"The same families always rule the roost in Campos," a region that is "the traditional cradle of the extreme right, like Tradition, Family and Property (TFP, a traditional Catholic civic organisation, now-dissolved)," and a place where political corruption scandals have erupted in modern times, the book says.

Guedes fought tirelessly against the use of toxic pesticides in agriculture, in addition to fighting injustice. He was a sugarcane cutter in the northern state of Alagoas before joining MST in 1996 and obtaining a plot of land in the Zumbi dos Palmares settlement.

A father of five, Guedes ran an agroecological farm and was regularly to be found at organic produce markets, as well as participating in local coordination with the government food purchasing programme, which buys produce from family farms to provide school meals.

"He did not learn at the university. The rest of us learned from him," Pedlowski said.

"The MST was his life. He made great sacrifices to form marketing groups for producers…and he was not satisfied with having his own land. He led from the front at other land occupations. He was the animator," he said.

"The elimination of such a dynamic leader shows the degree of impunity and the state of paralysis of land reform, especially since (Brazilian President) Dilma (Rousseff) took office," he said.

According to the MST, the current administration not only has not solved the problem of 150,000 families camped by the roadside waiting for land, but has increased the concentration of land ownership, some of it in the hands of foreign companies.

An INCRA report says that in 2012 the agency invested 1.05 billion dollars and benefited 23,000 families in 117 settlements.

Last year, it says, the agency obtained declarations of public interest on 31 properties for the purposes of land reform.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Crime, Featured, Human Rights, Latin America, Politics, Social Justice Tagged With: , , , ,

Daunting Development Challenges Ahead

December 28, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By Richard Johnson

IDN-InDepth NewsReport

PARIS (IDN) – Despite development successes over the past 20 years and the progress of many emerging economies, inequality is increasing in all countries and 1.4 billion people still live in absolute poverty. This gloomy situation was acknowledged by development ministers from industrial and emerging economies, who met in London on December 4 and 5 for the High Level Meeting (HLM) of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which comprises 24 of the 34-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

A communique emerging from the meeting points out there is unequivocal evidence of absolute poverty having been halved, and progress achieved on all Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed at a summit in September 2000 at the turn of the millennium. Economic growth has been a key factor in reducing absolute poverty, in the success stories of many

Yet daunting challenges persist: 1.4 billion people are mired in absolute poverty; food insecurity affects 850 million people, and 1.3 billion of the world’s people – including many women – have no access to electricity. Social inequalities are increasing in all countries – developed, emerging and developing – and are a growing concern given the threat they pose to social, political and economic stability, the ministers agreed.

The HLM also recognised important risks. The world’s population will reach 9 billion people in 2050 which, when coupled with changing consumption patterns, is estimated to require a 70% increase in food production by 2050. Within that same timeframe, global GDP may quadruple.

Given current trends and policies, this will result in an 80% increase of primary energy consumption which will impact on climate change and, as a consequence, global health, water management, food security, and poverty reduction prospects – and the protection of natural capital for future generations.

"Sustainable development and green growth are key approaches to address these challenges, and participating governments welcomed the Rio +20 commitment to integrate sustainable development goals in the post-2015 agenda," the development ministers stressed in a communique.

They also recognised that the context for development co-operation has now irrevocably changed. Shifting global wealth is breaking down the former division between North and South.

Co-operation among South-South partners, as well as triangular co-operation, is complementing North-South co-operation, thereby increasing the scope, reach and effectiveness of the international development assistance system. Likewise, civil society and the private sector are playing an increasingly important role as partners in development co-operation.

To address these challenges and opportunities, the ministers said, a new and ambitious global partnership has been established. They expect the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation – launched at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness from November 29 to December 1, 2011 in Busan. South Korea – to pave the way forward by providing a forum of equal partners with shared principles and differentiated but well-defined commitments.

"This Partnership will enable all providers and partners to focus on results at the country level in support of both national and global goals. For too long a lack of coordination, the fragmentation of efforts and failure to honour country ownership have inhibited the pursuit of goals to which all are committed. The Global Partnership offers a space within the international community to discuss these matters as full and equal partners," the communique stated.

Summarizing the outcomes, DAC Chair J. Brian Atwood stated: "This high-level meeting was a reflection of the changing world of development co-operation: DAC members and developing countries working in tandem with civil society, the private sector and other partners; strong support for a UN-led process for determining development goals; and innovative finance for development at a time of constrained budgets."

The ministers committed to make the effort to connect different agendas – MDGs, financing for development, development effectiveness and policy coherence for development – and thereby ensure that these vital elements are more in sync in the cause of development progress. They recognised that this broader agenda engages a larger set of partners who can contribute in different ways to development progress.

They also recognised that the international community is at an historic juncture. Work on post-2015 development goals will define development co-operation for years to come. In fact the agenda for the meeting provided for briefings by members of the United Nations (UN) High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, providing important insights from their contributions.

ODA

According to the communique, the ministers engaged in forward-thinking on development finance and the importance of official development assistance (ODA) and other flows that impact on development. They set out below their views and agreed on next steps regarding each of these important topics.

In their discussions about the future of ODA the ministers and agencies agreed that it must be directed to where it is most needed and can best catalyse other flows. They asked the DAC to work with the UN system together with the IMF and the World Bank on proposals for new measures of total official support for development, including defining what constitutes ODA.

With a view to ensuring that ODA is directed to where it is most needed and where it can catalyse other flows and promote accountability, the DAC will:

- Elaborate a proposal for a new measure of total official support for development.

- Explore ways of representing both “donor effort” and “recipient benefit” of development finance.

- Investigate whether any resulting new measures of external development finance (including any new approaches to measurement of donor effort) suggest the need to modernise the ODA concept.

- Undertake this work in close collaboration with other interested international agencies, in particular the United Nations, and also the IMF and World Bank, while engaging others in this exercise. A first report should be completed in 2013.

According to the communique, DAC members discussed the reporting of ODA loans in light of multiple views on the interpretation of "concessional in character" in relation to such loans. They agreed about a number of key principles that ODA measurement should meet. These are that ODA reporting should:

- Withstand a critical assessment from the public;

- Avoid creating major fluctuations in overall ODA levels;

- Be generally consistent with the way concessionality is defined in multilateral development finance;

- Maintain the definition of ODA, and only attempt to clarify the interpretation of loans that qualify as ODA;

- Prevent notions that ODA loan schemes follow a commercial logic: this includes the principle that financial reflows should be reinvested as development resources.

In this spirit, they agreed to: transparency regarding the terms of individual ODA loans; ensure equal treatment of all DAC members; establish, as soon as possible, and at the latest by 2015, a clear, quantitative definition of "concessional in character", in line with prevailing financial market conditions.

They also agreed to recognise development loans extended at preferential rates – whether "concessional in character" under a future post-2015 definition or not – as making an important contribution to development.

Post-2015 development goals

Participating governments in the London meeting committed to keep their focus on achieving the existing MDGs. "These unique development goals have rallied the global community behind a common vision that has had lasting impact on the lives of hundreds of millions of people. The establishment of a common global development agenda has been an immensely important force for galvanising support, mobilising resources, focusing efforts and making it possible to assess progress," the communique stated.

The ministers pledged to go forward, and agreed to:

- Focus their efforts on achieving the MDGs by 2015, and to work together with partners and new providers to enhance effectiveness, improve co-ordination of development activities and apply innovative methods to reach these goals.

- Strongly support the High Level Panel and the UN-led process to define a successor set of goals and a framework around which the global community can unite. This process should be inclusive of all partners, not donor-driven. Participating governments were greatly encouraged to hear of the active participation of all regions and of both state and non-state actors in this endeavour. They expressed support for goals that would expand and amplify the overall development impact of the current set of goals, including measurable targets for the global partnership as expressed in MDG8.

- Recognise that global goals were vital in establishing a common accountability agenda for development, and that national goals should be owned by all members of society and reflect the context of a particular country, its state of development and the particular needs of society as determined through the full participation of citizens.

- Recognise the importance of supporting enhanced goals for the future. Participating governments focused on the centrality of poverty reduction, with many expressing support for its eradication. They expressed concern about evidence of growing inequality, and acknowledged the special needs of fragile states.

- Support, in line with the agreement reached at the Rio +20 UN conference on sustainable development, the full integration of the sustainability dimension in the new set of goals, as essential in any development context.

- Emphasise that human rights principles will be important in developing any set of viable goals and the means for achieving them. Development of these goals should also take account of the role of democratic institutions, human security and references to the quality of life as a complementary measure to traditional benchmarks such as national income measures.

- Express the hope that, like their predecessors, future goals will be clearly defined, realistic, politically salient and measurable.

The London High Level Meeting was attended also by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and other UN representatives, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and co-Chairs of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation. Invited high-level representatives from Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa were also present as observers to this meeting. [IDN-InDepthNews – December 19, 2012]

2012 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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Filed Under: Analysis, Development, Diplomacy, Poverty Tagged With: , ,

Fear of Rape Stalks Indian Women

December 28, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Sujoy Dhar

NEW DELHI, Dic 28 (IPS) – While a 23-year-old woman battles for life in a New Delhi hospital after she was gang raped and brutalised on a moving bus in India’s prosperous national capital earlier this month, women across the nation say they live in constant fear of sexual assault.The incident sparked widespread protests across New Delhi, with huge numbers of women and even school children braving police batons, water cannons and teargas shells in a wave of public fury.

Anti-rape walks in other Indian metropolises were more peaceful but the turnouts spoke volumes.

Many protesters say they are stalked by the fear of sexual assault each time they venture out of their homes, while rights activists charge that India is devoid of a proper system to deter offenders.

In a nation of 1.2 billion people, where official crime statistics say a woman is raped every 28 minutes, women’s groups say law enforcement and prosecution measures are abysmal.

"The country simply has no infrastructure to protect its women or punish their attackers with investigation and speedy trials," Sukanya Gupta, coordinator of Swayam, a Kolkata-based women’s rights organisation, told IPS.

"Six decades after independence, we will no longer tolerate these (crimes). The chain of fear must be broken," she stressed.

Women feel unsafe in big cities, while in rural India rape is rampant, with the victim herself often at the receiving end of punitive laws.

Rampant insecurity

According to a survey released in December by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), 92 percent of working women say they feel insecure, especially during the night, in all major economic hubs across the country.

Among the metropolitan areas, New Delhi topped the list with 92 percent of women respondents complaining that they feel unsafe, followed by 85 percent of women in Bangalore and 82 percent in Kolkata.

Women say they feel insecure working in key industries like information technology, hospitality, civil aviation, healthcare and garments.

The study by ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) is based on the feedback received from both working and non-working women.

The random survey of women in the Delhi National Capital Region, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Dehradun found that 100 percent of women respondents feel that the problem of women’s insecurity is bigger than any other challenge currently facing India.

ASSOCHAM Secretary General D. S. Rawat told IPS, "Female employees remain extremely concerned and anxious (for their own security) even in places like hospitals."

Poor infrastructure and response

ASSOCHAM says a highly effective and responsive GPS system is required to reach out to distressed women using public transport.

To provide safety and security to their employees, especially females, companies and firms should provide small security devices to their workforce to preempt attacks.

Other experts have recommended measures like police verification of cab drivers’ identification.

According to the ASSOCHAM survey, the key issues that contribute to women feeling “unsafe or uncomfortable” are poor lighting, no access to emergency assistance and inadequate police security.

Women’s groups in Kolkata, where many were shocked after a woman was raped inside a car by a group who accosted her on the city’s sunset boulevard Park Street back in February, say they are fed up with this “insensitive system”.

"Close to Kolkata, a suburban town called Barasat has gained notoriety for periodic assaults on women and yet there is no proper deployment of police (to assist) girls reaching home safely," according to Gupta.

"There is a total lack of action and that encourages the men to be aggressive towards women," she added.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics for 2011, West Bengal reported 12.7 percent of total cases of crime against women in the country, accounting for 29,133 out of a reported 228,650 crimes registered across India.

The Park Street rape victim, who spoke out on TV channels after the most recent Delhi incident, says she is still awaiting justice, with two accused absconding and the trial yet to begin.

Rape law and trial lacunae

According to Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research (CSR) in New Delhi, India needs to immediately review its rape laws and the definition of rape itself.

"An amendment to the law has been pending for seven years. The new amendments have been prepared after lots of consultation but the government is not serious about passing it in Parliament," she told IPS.

"Our rape laws do not define rape adequately. They talk only about penile penetration. There should be an increase in punishment, too, and economic assistance to a raped woman should not be called ‘compensation’," she added.

"We are also against any kind of reconciliation between the rapist and the raped. Some estimates say 100,000 rape cases are pending in various courts. We have a count of 40,000. But irrespective of the figures there is a need to fast track the cases in special courts,” said Kumari.

India’s young citizens also want to see changes in the laws.

A student group in Kolkata, which recently drew about 6,000 citizens to a rally after the Delhi rape, says it will continue to demand a change in the system and the country’s laws.

Altamash Hamid (21), a student in the mass communications department in the city’s ivy league St. Xavier’s College, who led the Kolkata march, told IPS, "We want to keep the movement going and petition the President of India to change the rape laws, inculcate the fear of law in people and provide more security on the streets.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Crime, Featured, Gender, Human Rights Tagged With: , ,

Kinshasa Graveyard Home to Hundreds

December 28, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Emmanuel Chaco

KINSHASA, Dic 27 (IPS) – Despite the health risks, hundreds of families are living in a cemetery in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. Municipal authorities seem powerless to act.Visiting the Kinsuka cemetery in early December, IPS counted 100 families, including around 500 children aged from less than a year old to 10.

The first structures sprang up here in 2010. Fridolin Kaweshi, the minister in charge of land-use planning, urbanisation and housing, told IPS that the government has repeatedly banned the construction of homes on this site.

In April, houses in the cemetery were demolished on orders from the provincial governor, but late at night, the occupants rebuilt their small shelters of earth and wood.

"We have nowhere else to go," resident Cynthia Bukasa told IPS. "The government has to take steps to protect us and give us a place where we can build."

Bukasa explained that her husband, a police officer, is stationed in Bas-Congo Province, in the western part of the country. He had built a small house for her here and then left. She added that living on his salary of around 50 dollars, the family doesn’t have the resources to pay rent elsewhere.

Olivier Mandja, mayor of Mont Ngafula Commune, within whose boundaries the cemetery lies, told IPS, "The structures on this site are the work of soldiers and members of the police force over which the commune has no authority."

Approached by IPS, soldiers and police officers at Kinsuka refused to speak, preferring to let their wives answer questions. Even the higher-ranking officers preferred to remain silent.

Other residents were happy to speak. "We got official authorisation from the authorities to build houses here and live in them," said Jean Mbulu, a resident at the cemetery and father of three little girls, the oldest of whom is six.

Mbulu said he bought the plot from Eddy Mambuya, the traditional chief of Mont Ngafula – though he declined to show IPS the documents proving this. "I was stunned when people said we were illegally occupying this land," he said.

Reached by IPS, Chief Mambuya, stated that while he is an authority established and recognised by the law, he denied all responsibility for the sale of land for construction on the site.

"It’s thanks to us that the cemetery is regularly cleaned up," said Michel Aveledi, another Kinsuka resident. "We pull up the grass and pick up the plastic bags which invade the place from time to time."

He said he wanted to see the government decommission the cemetery and build a school for the children next to the houses that are already there.

But experts believe the health of the families who live on this site is at risk, and have called on the government to take urgent steps to protect the children in particular.

Jean Myasukila is an epidemiologist based in Kinshasa. “The health risks for people living in houses built in a cemetery are enormous," he told IPS.

"When bodies decompose, they give off odours and gases which are very harmful to health, especially of children," he said.

"We also have to consider the flies which land on particles of bodies or bones which become unearthed, which can then alight on food or kitchen utensils. These flies are vectors for harmful microbes," according to Myasukila. "It’s not acceptable to leave these families there, if only for reasons of hygiene."

Chancey Maroy, a member of civil society and an environmental protection expert, told IPS that the land the graveyard is built on is not stable, as it is on a slope that is not protected by any anti-erosion mechanisms. "The structures on the burial site could also accelerate landslides, which have already been seen there. This adds to the dangers faced by the families who live there," he said.

Kinsuka residents have also come into conflict with those using the graveyard for its intended purpose. In early December, a group of people coming to bury a body encountered strong resistance from the cemetery’s residents. On the eve of the burial, residents built a shack on the spot purchased by the bereaved family of the interment. The family was forced to bury their loved one elsewhere in the cemetery, but the authorities took no action.

Damas Balinga, director of the DRC’s Ministry for Planning and Monitoring the Implementation of the Revolution of Modernity, told IPS, "In the framework the five-year plan of action, the government is preparing the implementation of its programme to modernise the city of Kinshasa. New housing developments are in the process of being created. Families in distress need only have confidence in the government in order to benefit."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Poverty, Report Tagged With: ,
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