mercoledì 24 settembre 2008

Il governo tradisce i diritti umani

Migranti, il Vaticano attacca il governo
"Tradisce i diritti umani e gioca al ribasso"

ROMA - Con gli ultimi provvedimenti presi in materia di immigrazione, restrittivi sui ricongiungimenti familiari e sui richiedenti asilo, il governo "si allontana sempre di più, e non solo nel tempo, dallo spirito della lettera di quei diritti umani che trovarono possibilità di essere espressi perché si proveniva forse dagli orrori di una guerra mondiale. Eppure l'uomo e la donna sono gli stessi, hanno bisogno di protezione, specialmente nei casi in questione". La dura presa di posizione arriva da monsignor Agostino Marchetto, segretario del Pontificio consiglio per i migranti e gli itineranti che già a più riprese aveva criticato la politica verso gli immigrati dell'attuale governo e dell'Unione europea.

In sostanza, afferma il prelato in un'intervista a Radio Vaticana, l'esecutivo italiano gioca "al ribasso" sui diritti umani degli immigrati.

Sui temi e le problematiche relative all'immigrazione erano intervenuti di recente anche il Papa e il presidente dei vescovi italiani, cardinale Angelo Bagnasco.

(24 settembre 2008) Tutti gli articoli di politica

China and Africa

CHINA'S QUEST FOR RESOURCES
A ravenous dragon
Mar 13th 2008 From The Economist print edition

China's hunger for natural resources has set off a global commodity boom. Developed countries worry about being left high and dry, but the biggest effects will be felt in China itself, says Edward McBride (interviewed here)
Newspix
BESIDE the railroad track, between two hillocks of rust-red soil in the midst of Congo's mining belt, three Chinese labourers appear as if from nowhere. There are lots of Chinese around these days, explains one of their compatriots, Harvey Lee, who is driving through the scrub to the nearby copper plant he runs for a Canadian metals firm. On his way, he points out several rudimentary smelters. “That one”, he says, waving at a clump of corrugated-iron sheds and belching chimneys, “is owned by a man from Shanghai.” Moments later, when another ramshackle compound comes into view, he adds, “and that one belongs to two ladies from Hong Kong.” In all, he reckons, Chinese entrepreneurs have set up half of Lubumbashi's 50-odd processing plants.
All around Lubumbashi, the capital of Congo's copper-rich province of Katanga, there are signs of a sudden Chinese invasion. Chinese middlemen have begun buying ore from the area's many wildcat miners and selling it on to processing plants like Mr Lee's. Locals point out several villas in the city's leafy colonial cantonment that are occupied by mysterious Chinese businessmen. Katanga Fried Chicken, hitherto Lubumbashi's most popular restaurant, now has three busy Chinese competitors.


If all goes according to plan, these fledgling businesses will soon be overshadowed by Chinese investment on a much grander scale. In late 2007 the Congolese government announced that Chinese state-owned firms would build or refurbish various railways, roads and mines around the country at a cost of $12 billion, in exchange for the right to mine copper ore of an equivalent value. That sum is more than three times Congo's annual national budget and roughly ten times the aid that the “consultative group” of Western donors has promised the country each year until 2010. The Chinese authorities, it seems, are so anxious to obtain enough minerals to sustain their country's remarkable economic growth that they are willing to invest billions in a dirt-poor and war-torn place like Congo—billions more, in fact, than Western governments and investors combined are putting in.
And Congo is not the only beneficiary of China's hunger for natural resources. From Canada to Indonesia to Kazakhstan, Chinese firms are gobbling up oil, gas, coal and metals, or paying for the right to explore for them, or buying up firms that produce them. Ships are queuing off Australia's biggest coal port, Newcastle, to load cargoes destined for China (pictured above); at one point last June the line was 79 ships long. African and Latin American economies are growing at their fastest pace in decades, thanks in large part to heavy Chinese demand for their resources.
China's burgeoning consumption has helped push the price of all manner of fuels, metals and grains to new peaks over the past year. Even the price of shipping raw materials recently reached a record. Analysts see little prospect of an end to the boom; the prices of a few commodities have fallen on the back of America's worsening economic outlook, but others, including oil, wheat and iron ore, continue to set new records. China, with about a fifth of the world's population, now consumes half of its cement, a third of its steel and over a quarter of its aluminium. Its imports of many natural resources are growing even faster than its bounding economy. Shipments of iron ore, for example, have risen by an average of 27% a year for the past four years. Western mining firms are enjoying a sustained boom.
Unwelcome advances
But China's sudden global reach is generating as much anxiety as prosperity. In 2005 America's congressmen, citing nebulous national-security concerns, scuppered the proposed takeover of Unocal, an American oil firm, by CNOOC, a state-owned Chinese one. The opposition candidate in Zambia's presidential election in 2006 made a point of attacking the growing Chinese presence in the country. Residents of Russia's far east fear that China is planning to plunder their oil and timber and perhaps even to colonise their empty spaces.
Some non-governmental organisations worry that Chinese firms will ignore basic legal, environmental and labour standards in their rush to secure resources, leaving a trail of corruption, pollution and exploitation in their wake. Western companies fret that the Chinese state-owned firms with which they suddenly find themselves competing have an agenda beyond commercial gain. The Chinese government, they say, is willing to pay over the odds for mining or drilling rights to secure access to physical resources. It also intervenes unfairly on its companies' behalf, they claim, by offering big aid packages to countries that welcome Chinese investment. All this, it is feared, will dent the profits of big oil and mining firms, stoke inflation and imperil the West's access to resources that it needs just as much as China does.
Diplomats and pundits, for their part, fear that the West is “losing” Africa and other resource-rich regions. China's sudden prominence, according to this view, will reduce the clout of America, Europe and other rich democracies in the developing world. China will befriend ostracised regimes and encourage them to defy international norms. Corruption, economic mismanagement, repression and instability will proliferate. If this baleful influence spreads too widely, say the critics, the “Washington consensus” of economic liberalism and democracy will find itself in competition with a “Beijing consensus” of state-led development and despotism.
Such fears are not entirely groundless if the recent conduct of some of Congo's neighbours is anything to go by. Angola, to the south, has been receiving so much aid and investment from China that in 2006 it decided it had no need of the International Monetary Fund's billions and all the tiresome requirements for transparency and sound economic management that come with them. Sudan, to the north, has shrugged off Western threats and sanctions over the continuing atrocities in Darfur, thanks in large part to China's readiness to invest in Sudanese oilfields and buy their output. Farther afield, China's eagerness to do business in Myanmar, and its consequent reluctance to chide the tyrannical generals that run the place, helped to prevent a forceful international response to the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations there last year.
Nonetheless, this special report will argue that concerns about the dire consequences of China's quest for natural resources are overblown. China does indeed treat some dictators with kid gloves, but it is hardly alone in that. Its companies do not always uphold the highest standards, but again, many Western firms are no angels either. Fifty years of European and American aid have not succeeded in bringing much prosperity to Africa and other poor but resource-rich places. A different approach from China might yield better results. At the very least it will spur other donors to seek more effective methods.
For all the hue and cry, China is still just one of many countries looking for raw materials around the world. It has won most influence in countries where Western governments were conspicuous by their absence, and where few important strategic interests are at stake. Moreover, as China is becoming more involved in places such as Congo, its policies are beginning to change. It has promised to co-operate with the World Bank in its development efforts in Africa. It no longer seems prepared to back its most objectionable allies in the face of international opprobrium. Its diplomats, for example, did eventually stop parroting their line about unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and allow United Nations peacekeepers to be deployed in Sudan.
The saga over Sudan shows how sensitive the Chinese authorities have become to criticism, despite their impassive reputation. When Steven Spielberg resigned as an adviser to the Beijing Olympics in protest at China's failure to do more about Darfur, a shrill chorus of criticism arose from China's official media—suggesting that such gestures do indeed have an impact.
Chinese companies will inevitably find themselves in fierce competition with Western ones for natural resources, as they must if global markets are to work efficiently. For the most part, however, they do not operate very differently from their peers. To the extent that the Chinese government does subsidise oil production, it helps to bring down the price for everyone else (its subsidies for oil consumption are another matter). As the world's biggest consumer of many commodities, China naturally wants to ensure a steady supply of them to keep its economy going. But markets for commodities are global, and the risk of any one consumer cornering supplies, or securing them at a lower price, is negligible.
Own goal
The worst fallout from China's quest for natural resources will be seen not in the countries they come from, nor in the countries that are competing for supplies, but in China itself. Over the past few years the volume of raw materials it consumes per unit of output has risen sharply. In particular, China has gone from miser to glutton in its use of energy, and is now struggling to diet. That has involved bigger imports of oil, gas and coal, and so more foreign entanglements. But it has also led to the rapid depletion of resources that China cannot import, such as clean air and water.
China is building a huge stock of grimy heavy industry, just as its coastal provinces are getting rich enough to care about the consequences. Protests about environmental issues are on the increase. There is not enough water in the Yellow River basin, which covers a huge swathe of northern China, to supply both farmers and factories. Acid rain from coal-fired power plants is reducing agricultural yields, raising the spectre of increased rural unrest. As it is, the authorities are struggling to ensure that the air will be fit for athletes to breathe at the Olympics in Beijing this summer. All the while, the number of noxious steel mills, cement kilns and power plants relentlessly increases. Global warming, which is fed by their fumes, will make all these problems even worse.
Environmental concerns are unlikely to bring down the Communist regime, or even to stir as much resentment as the arbitrary confiscation of land currently does among China's poorest. But those concerns are certainly prompting the government to reflect on what sort of economic path it wants to pursue. So far, its efforts to temper economic growth, encourage energy efficiency and wean the country off heavy industry have had little effect. But continued failure would eventually make China a less prosperous and more unstable place.

Dove vanno il latte ed i cibi adulterati?

23/09/2008
Il latte ai poveri
Scritto da: Fabio Cavalera alle 16:28
Lo scandalo del latte "arricchito" con la melamina è l'ultimo di una lunga serie. Forse il più odioso. E per almeno quattro ragioni:
1) i protagonisti - imprenditori e dirigenti sia della pubblica aministrazione sia del partito - erano perfettamente a conoscenza dell'avvelenamento, sapevano che stavano vendendo un prodotto tossico o ne stavano autorizzando la vendita. Non si è dunque trattato di un errore ma di quello che in altre parole si potrebbe definire un volontario tentativo di strage;
2) i numeri (22 aziende coinvolte, 13 mila bambini ricoverati, 53 mila sotto osservazione medica) chiamano in causa non un singolo o pochi individui senza scrupoli ma l'intero sistema, giacchè la questione del cibo adulterato resta irrisolta da anni, dando l'impressione (e alla fine la certezza) che nessuno abbia la voglia di invertire la rotta considerando la salute pubblica più importante del profitto;
3) i consumatori sono stati scientificamente raggirati, poi per settimane tenuti all'oscuro sulla gravità delle analisi effettuate, in nome di un obiettivo più alto (la perfetta riuscita delle Olimpiadi) smentendo con ciò chi sperava che la Cina avesse scelto la stada di una maggiore trasparenza comunicativa;
4) il latte tossico oltre che a bambini era destinato soprattutto ai Paesi poveri del Terzo Mondo, in Asia e in Africa (questo è un particolare sfuggito a molti).
Si dirà che anche nel mondo industriale avanzato si sono verificati casi simili. E' vero: chi dimentica il vino al metanolo in Italia? Ma, a parte che quello era un episodio isolato (nessuna giustificazione, per carità) e che i responsabili hanno pagato con alcuni anni di carcere (come era sacrosanto), viene da chiedersi per quale motivo in Cina la contraffazione del cibo sia una pratica tanto diffusa e le più elementari regole di tutela della saluta pubblica siano poco più di una fastidiosa litania. E' solo colpa della sfrenata corsa ai profitti che ha generato egoismo? O è perchè la classe dirigente cinese offre un esempio di eticità politica assai discutibile? O, ancora, è perchè il senso della legalità non ha messo radici profonde? Possibile che la Cina non faccia tesoro degli errori altrui e in particolare delle negatività proposte dal modello occidentale?
La Cina rivendica giustamente la sua via e la percorre. Non si occidentalizza ma si modernizza però emula il nostro peggio. E addirittura lo amplifica come se la Storia non fosse lì da leggere. Questo è il grave. E non vi è una giustificazione. La circostanza che il prodotto tossico fosse destinato ai poveri dell'Asia e dell'Africa può dare ragione al settimanale inglese Economist quando qualche mese addietro titolò in prima pagina "I nuovi colonialisti". Provocatorio. Ma lo scandalo del latte rafforza il sospetto che un certo tarlo si sia insinuato nella cultura politica ed economica della Cina. Sarà capace Pechino di cancellare i dubbi?
dal Corriere della Sera on line

e...la strage continua

Il barcone avvistato nei giorni scorsi ma il maltempo ha reso impossibili le ricerche
La tragedia avvenuta probabilmente fra venerdì e sabato. Proseguono le ricerche
Immigrazione, naufragio a Malta
Recuperati decine di cadaveri

LA VALLETTA - Strage di immigrati al largo di Malta. Recuperati decine di cadaveri a circa 30 miglia dalla costa. Secondo il quotidiano locale L-Orizont, gli annegati sarebbero almeno 35. Il barcone, stracarico di clandestini, era stato avvistato da un elicottero tedesco nei giorni scorsi. Nonostante il mare grosso e venti forti, un aereo militare ed una motovedetta della marina maltese avevano perlustrato lo specchio di mare indicato dal pilota dell'elicottero, ma il barcone non fu trovato. Le ricerche sono proseguite sabato scorso per tutta la giornata senza successo. Solo ieri sera, l'incrociatore francese Arago ha avvistato i corpi. Le autorità ritengono quindi che il naufragio sia avvenuto fra venerdì e sabato. Ma il mare si è di nuovo ingrossato e le ricerche sono state sospese. Appena un mese fa, sempre al largo dell'isola di Malta, 70 clandestini caddero in mare da un barcone carico di clandestini: furono recuperati solo 8 cadaveri. L'ultima tragedia di un'infinita catena di disgrazie del mare accadute sulle rotte della speranza. La maggior parte dei migrati che raggiungono Malta o che sono aiutati a largo delle coste dell'isola partono dai porti libici. Medici senza frontiere Italia ha recentemente fatto riferimento ad un bilancio di 380 clandestini morti nel canale di Sicilia - il braccio di mare situato nel Mare Mediterraneo tra la Sicilia e la Tunisia - durante i primi sei mesi di quest'anno, dopo i 500 nel 2007. Secondo il bilancio dell'associazione Fortress Europa, rassegna stampa che fa memoria delle vittime della frontiera, dal 1988 il bilancio sarebbe di 12.566 morti e di 4.646 dispersi nel canale di Sicilia.
(24 settembre 2008)


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