EUROPE’S DILEMMA ON HUMANITARIAN AID & CRISIS FUNDS

EUROPE’S DILEMMA ON HUMANITARIAN AID & CRISIS FUNDS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The West just may be so immersed in internal crisis and power squabbles that the Europeans seemed to have forgotten the basics in budgetary essentials.

A raging issue within continental institutions is whether to merge humanitarian aid and crisis management budgets. Africa, which comprises the greatest client-states of Europe, is the most direly affected by the debates and dilemmas.

Below is a summary situationer regarding the dilemma.

[Philippines, 06 July 2011]

Source: http://www.devex.com/en/articles/planned-merger-of-eu-humanitarian-crisis-budgets-draws-flak
Planned Merger of EU Humanitarian, Crisis Budgets Draws Flak
By Ma. Rizza Leonzon on 11 February 2011
A refugee camp in Burundi that is supported by the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department. Aid groups and members of the European Parliament fear that the proposed merger of the European Union’s humanitarian aid and crisis management budgets after 2013 would increasingly politicize the bloc’s aid. Photo by: Yves Horent / European Commission / ECHO
Aid groups and members of the European Parliament fear that the proposed merger of the European Union’s humanitarian aid and crisis management budgets after 2013 would increasingly politicize the bloc’s aid.
“There is an idea on the table [to merge the two budgets] which is being considered by some people,” a European Commission official working in the humanitarian aid sector told Euobserver on Feb. 10 on condition of anonymity. “It’s not a formal proposal at the moment and it’s not something we would support.”
The European Commission is expected to propose a blueprint for the EU’s next multiannual budget in June, Euobserver reports.
There have been speculations that the merger of the EU’s humanitarian aid and crisis management budgets will prompt EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton to call the shots in humanitarian aid spending.
“I don’t know where the idea came from or how developed it is. It may be a wrongly interpreted idea of efficiency or part of the inter-institutional power politics currently going on,” Dutch Socialist MEP Thijs Berman told Euobserver.
“If it ends up in the June proposals I will fight it. Humanitarian aid needs to be impartial in order to ensure that all parties in a recipient country accept it as not favouring one side or the other. This is also crucial for the safety of humanitarian aid workers distributing support on the ground,” Berman said.
The EU’s humanitarian aid budget is managed by Bulgarian commissioner Kristalina Georgieva, while crisis management resources are administered by the newly launched European External Action Service, which is led by Ashton.
Read more development aid news.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEVELOPMENT

HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEVELOPMENT

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Improving human rights as a sine qua non in socio-economic development is a big challenge to development stakeholders. Human rights the world over is agog in barbarities, as I said in one article writ in December 2010.

Human rights is among the governance prerequisites of welfare goals of equity and redistribution. Political culture factors into the governance equation, and a culture of violence to a large extent contributes to flagrant violations of human rights.

Below is an article that nourishes discourses on human rights and development. The position is taken by a technocrat of the World Bank, which allows you to examine the psyche or mindsets of technocrats of international organizations.

[Philippines, 05 July 2010]

Source: http://www.devex.com/en/blogs/the-development-newswire/what-is-the-role-of-human-rights-in-human-development-outcomes
What is the Role of Human Rights in Human Development Outcomes?
Posted by Ivy Mungcal on 21 June 2011 04:39:31 AM
Is concern for human rights needed in order to achieve human development results, particularly better health and education services? Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, says such concern is not necessary nor sufficient.
Devarajan explains that concern for human rights is not necessary because a number of countries that have poor human rights records, such as Cuba and China, score high on various education and health indicators. It is also not sufficient because there are countries like South Africa and India that do well on human rights indicators but have relatively poor human development results, he adds.

The World Bank official says a possible reason for the latter is that making education and health human rights implies that a country’s government should fund and provide education and health services. However, there is evidence that governments of many countries have poor records in delivering such services to their people, Devarajan says.
“In short, achieving human development outcomes requires improving accountability in service delivery, which may or may not be driven by a concern for human rights,” he explains.
Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders – emailed to you FREE every business day.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEVELOPMENT

HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEVELOPMENT

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Improving human rights as a sine qua non in socio-economic development is a big challenge to development stakeholders. Human rights the world over is agog in barbarities, as I said in one article writ in December 2010.

Human rights is among the governance prerequisites of welfare goals of equity and redistribution. Political culture factors into the governance equation, and a culture of violence to a large extent contributes to flagrant violations of human rights.

Below is an article that nourishes discourses on human rights and development. The position is taken by a technocrat of the World Bank, which allows you to examine the psyche or mindsets of technocrats of international organizations.

[Philippines, 05 July 2010]

Source: http://www.devex.com/en/blogs/the-development-newswire/what-is-the-role-of-human-rights-in-human-development-outcomes
What is the Role of Human Rights in Human Development Outcomes?
Posted by Ivy Mungcal on 21 June 2011 04:39:31 AM
Is concern for human rights needed in order to achieve human development results, particularly better health and education services? Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, says such concern is not necessary nor sufficient.
Devarajan explains that concern for human rights is not necessary because a number of countries that have poor human rights records, such as Cuba and China, score high on various education and health indicators. It is also not sufficient because there are countries like South Africa and India that do well on human rights indicators but have relatively poor human development results, he adds.

The World Bank official says a possible reason for the latter is that making education and health human rights implies that a country’s government should fund and provide education and health services. However, there is evidence that governments of many countries have poor records in delivering such services to their people, Devarajan says.
“In short, achieving human development outcomes requires improving accountability in service delivery, which may or may not be driven by a concern for human rights,” he explains.
Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders – emailed to you FREE every business day.

17 NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES AS GLOBAL KILLERS

17 NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES AS GLOBAL KILLERS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

World population today is nearing the 7 billion mark. 1/6 of our globe’s population, or roughly 1.4 Billion, is afflicted by a relatively short list of ailments known as ‘neglected tropical diseases’.

Let’s get this straight: such ailments afflict the ‘3rd world’ and emerging markets of today. A cursory review of what causes such ailments would reveal the most likely causes.

Below is an update report about the ailments.

[Philippines, 03 July 2011]

ource: http://www.devex.com/en/articles/75149
What Afflicts One-Sixth of the World’s Population?
By Eliza Villarino on 22 June 2011
Dengue, leprosy, rabies – these diseases rarely make international headlines. But they, together with 17 other so-called neglected tropical diseases, are nearly four more times widespread than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
Neglected tropical diseases are said to afflict almost a billion people around the globe – or an astounding one-sixth of the world’s population. That’s exactly 364 percent of the combined number of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria cases, which were estimated at 274 million people in 2009. Yet, less than 1 percent of newly registered drugs are meant to address these tropical diseases.
Why are they being neglected?
“They are not highly visible,” the World Health Organization has said. “They do not cause explosive outbreaks that attract public and media attention. They do not travel internationally. They cause great and permanent misery, but do not kill large numbers of people or affect wealthy nations.”
Neglected tropical diseases largely prey on people who reside in remote rural areas and sprawling shantytowns, which typically lack safe drinking water and have poor sanitation, substandard housing and weak health care services.
Although many health experts have pointed out the need to address these tropical diseases – and cost-effective ways of doing so in conjunction with anti-malaria initiatives, for instance – donors have been slow to focus on this issue. But funding is available, with two of the world’s largest global health grant-making foundations – the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust – as the campaign’s biggest patrons.

PROF ARGONZA’S TV5 INTERVIEW ON ‘HENPECKED HUSBANDS’

PROF ARGONZA’S TV5 INTERVIEW ON ‘HENPECKED HUSBANDS’

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

“Are you an under the saya?” is one querry that can put husband off-guard. It is taboo for henpecked husbands in the Philippines to admit to their being 2nd fiddle to their respective wives, and one should share generous thoughts of accolades of one such husband who would make a disclosure of his subordinate state in a marital equation.

This titillating yet controversial topic was among the latest themes of the Tayuan Mo at Panindigan of TV5, among the rising PH media programs on public service talk shows (news & information category). The program just opened this year 2011, and already its informative yet entertaining format has been attracting viewers from diverse sectors, including the intelligentsia.

I was again invited by the program management to guest in the Tayuan stint. The henpecked husband episode was hosted by Aida Uy, Giselle Sanchez, and Jojo Alajar. The thematic discussion focused on socio-psychological factors, notably personality, causing the henpecked husband phenomenon.

Asked whether personality indeed factors into the asymmetry of marriage, I opined affirmatively that such is the fact. Wives who are Choleric personality in make up—strong personality, leader-organizer, stern, commander—will tend to be on top of the marital chain of command. That is, if the respective husbands turn out to be Phlegmatic personality type—passive, routinary worker, subordinates—who tend to work as clerks, utility workers, or related routinary-patterned circumstance.

In any organization, cholerics would tend to be the bosses while the phlegmatics would be better at following commands and helping to put systems to work in a work setting. In marriage, cholerics would be the domineering spouse, while phlegmatics would be subordinate spouse.

Lucky enough for the henpecked husband if his wife happens to be a bit balanced in personality. The wife won’t end up abusing the husband no end. But if the wife is a dysfunctional person, who is sick of antisocial-to-sociopathy syndromes (personality disorder), then expect conflict in the relationship. The 2nd case is what happened to the famed Tiger Woods, who found solace in the company of women he can connect with, as he cannot resonate with his own legal wife—he is henpecked, in other words.

Asked whether ancient Philippine society & culture could also factor into the asymmetry, I likewise answered in the affirmative. It is a consensus among social anthropologists and sociologists that matriarchy preceded matriarchy in cultural evolution.

I recall that in our graduate school class on economic history under the historian Dr. Dery, we did discussed the same phenomenon. Accordingly, before the advent of Western colonialism, women were either co-equal to or superior to men in Philippine society. Patriarchy that was introduced by Western powers didn’t totally erase male subordination to women as a whole, as the subordination appeared in the form of ‘under the saya’.

In the current context of post-modernity, when the vestiges of Victorian Era male-dominated sexism are crumbling by the day, we see more and more of henpecked husbands admitting to the reality. Whether another over-arching historic phase of matriarchy is now confronting us is too contentious an issue, but we must admit at least to the situation where asymmetry co-exists with symmetry in marital equations.

Health-wise, marital asymmetry is 50% healthy and 50% unhealthy. The relationship is like unto a sea-saw, where half the possibility is on one side while the other possibility is on the other side of a tenuous fulcrum. It will be up to the henpecked husband to manage the bond more equitably, to ensure that healthy relation breeds the most optimal growth for both parties.

[Philippines, 12 July 2011]

IN AID OF CITIES: REGIONAL BANK SHOWCASE

IN AID OF CITIES: REGIONAL BANK SHOWCASE
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Tapping Official Development Assistance or ODA by city administrators is no easy task to do. Often than not, a central/national government does the job of assessing local needs and recommending ODA allocations to specific towns and cities.
However, there are showcase cities in Asia that were able to tap World Bank funds directly for their development needs. One of them is Marikina for their infrastructure development. Another one is Quezon City, with a $300 million fund tapped for the development of North Triangle into a commercial hub. The two cities are component cities of the metropolitan Manila which is among the 35 or so ‘global nexus’ cities.
Such showcases of expertise and initiatives coming from the local government units or LGUs is surely a highly appreciable feat of self-reliance and good governance. Below is another showcase city in Asia, that of Tianshui City of China, moving along the same track as the Manila component cities.
[Philippines, 3 July 2011]
Source: http://beta.adb.org/news/adb-100-million-loan-upgrades-urban-services-western-prcs-tianshui-city
ADB $100 Million Loan Upgrades Urban Services in Western PRC’s Tianshui City
Date
30 Jun 2011
Countries
China, People’s Republic of
Subjects
Environment; Urban development; Water supply and sanitation
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending a $100 million loan to upgrade urban services and improve living conditions in Tianshui City in Gansu―one of the poorest and least developed provinces in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The ADB Board of Directors yesterday approved the loan for the Gansu Tianshui Urban Infrastructure Project, which will fund new roads and bridges, strengthen flood control facilities, and introduce a new environmentally friendly heating system using recycled wastewater. The project will deliver health and environmental benefits to around 670,000 residents in and around the city and create hundreds of jobs.
Tianshui lies along the ancient Silk Road trading route and has, like many cities in western PRC, lagged eastern and southern counterparts in terms of economic growth, investment, and poverty reduction. The PRC government is moving to redress that imbalance under its current five-year plan through to 2015.
Upgrading the existing district heating network to improve service quality and reduce harmful pollutants from coal-fired boilers and stoves is a key goal of the ADB project. A new transmission network will also be funded to carry recycled wastewater to a combined heat and power plant with the resultant hot water then piped back for heating needs.
“Reusing wastewater for district heating will improve air quality, reduce the need for municipal subsidies and improve affordability for the poor,” said Barry Reid, Senior Finance Specialist in ADB’s East Asia Department.
A flood control embankment more than 10 km long will be built to combat seasonal overflows from the Xi and Wei rivers while the road improvements will help make the city’s transport system safer and more efficient. The project will also support government efforts to turn the Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone into a key area of sustainable growth and investment for the northwest of the country.
Along with ADB, the China Development Bank is extending over $68 million and the Tianshui Municipal Government over $61 million, for a total project cost of nearly $230 million. The Tianshui Municipal Government is the executing agency for the project which is due for completion in December 2016.

PROMOTING SOUTH-SOUTH MUTUAL AID

PROMOTING SOUTH-SOUTH MUTUAL AID
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good day from the Pearl of the Orient!
South-South mutual aid is increasing in scale intensively and extensively. This phenomenon isn’t exactly new, as it commenced when some former 3rd world economies such as South Korea achieved development maturity despite the shackling policies that Western oligarchs imposed upon the south.
Today the imperialistic shackling by hegemon states and powers is eroding. Emerging markets are rising, thus upping the south-south mutual aid to higher ante. As the emerging markets increase in wealth and influence, the traditional wealthy nations are stagnating and decreasing in their hegemonism.
Below is an instance of two continental development banks closing ranks in advancement of mutual aid and development. This analyst is fully supportive of such efforts.
[Philippines, 03 July 2011]
Source: http://beta.adb.org/news/adb-african-development-bank-cooperate-set-trade-finance-program-africa
ADB, African Development Bank to Cooperate to Set Up Trade Finance Program for Africa
Date
27 Jun 2011
Subjects
Industry and trade
TUNIS, TUNISIA – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have signed an agreement to help AfDB set up a trade finance program to boost African trade and, more broadly, South-South trade.
AfDB is scaling up its trade finance activities to channel critical trade support to companies across the African continent, much as the ADB’s program has done in developing Asia.
Companies in developing countries have difficulties in getting the trade finance they need from banks in order to buy key components from overseas or to sell their goods to other countries. This prevents them from participating fully in global trade which grew 14.5% in 2010, its fastest annual pace on record.
ADB’s Trade Finance Program provides guarantees and loans in support of trade in developing Asia through over 200 partner banks. Under the just-signed Memorandum of Understanding, ADB will share all legal document templates, operation manuals, information technology, and know-how related to its Trade Finance Program with AfDB.
ADB and AfDB expect cooperation to grow in the future, including sharing access to their programs to link banks in both regions. ADB already has such an agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank.
“Partnerships are key to promoting economic growth, and using the Trade Finance Program framework developed by ADB will help AfDB to achieve in Africa the success ADB has achieved in Asia, but much faster and at a fraction of the start-up cost,” said Philip Erquiaga, Director General of ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department which oversees the Trade Finance Program. “In time, we would expect the relationships between developing Africa and developing Asia to expand, resulting in much greater South-South trade which could help ease global economic imbalances.”
By transferring all tools and knowledge of the Trade Finance Program, the two development banks will reduce duplication of effort and cost and will share best practices, as encouraged under the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the framework to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Speaking at a ceremony in Tunis to mark the handover of documents, Tim Turner, Director, AfDB’s Private Sector Department underscored the importance of trade finance in Africa. “By scaling up its trade finance activities, the African Development Bank is supporting an important growth-enabling activity, which has been affected by the recent global financial crisis,” he said. “By leveraging the experience of strategic partners, such as ADB, AfDB will not only be reducing the financial commitment necessary to ramp up its activities but also facilitate the expansion of African trade with Asia.”
ADB’s Trade Finance Program provided support for $2.8 billion worth of trade in 2010, up from $1.9 billion in 2009. It focuses on countries where trade finance is less readily available. As such, the program does not assume any risk in the People’s Republic of China, India, Republic of Korea, Malaysia or Thailand. The five most active users of the program last year were banks in Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The program also aims to support smaller firms that typically have more trouble accessing trade finance and to promote trade between developing countries. Around 270 of the 783 deals supported by the program last year involved small and medium-sized enterprises, while half were conducted between two developing Asian economies.
In 2009, AfDB’s Board of Directors approved the Bank’s Trade Finance Initiative (TFI) to provide up to $1 billion of support to African commercial banks and other financial institutions to reinvigorate their trade finance operations. Under the TFI, the Bank initially allocated $500 million for short-term trade finance lines of credit (TF LOC) and $500 million for the Global Trade Liquidity Program (GTLP) in cooperation with the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The overarching objective of the African Development Bank Group is to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its regional member countries (RMCs), thus contributing to poverty reduction. The Bank Group achieves this objective by: (i) mobilizing and allocating resources for investment in RMCs; and (ii) providing policy advice and technical assistance to support development efforts. http://www.afdb.org

DEPOPULATION, GENOCIDE: GLOBAL OLIGARCHY’S POPULATION AGENDA

DEPOPULATION, GENOCIDE: GLOBAL OLIGARCHY’S POPULATION AGENDA
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good morning from Manila!
Those more aware fellows on Earth may be reflecting right now about the long-term agenda of the global oligarchy regarding population. We note the rise of the neo-Malthusians within and outside the UN and international bodies from the 70s onwards, their position buttressing the toxic ‘greenies’ demonization of humans as the cause of the planet’s predicament.
The greenies’ and Malthusian’s causes do tie up, as they are among the paid Pied Pipers of the global oligarchy for the long-term agenda of depopulating the planet. The global elite’s disdain of masses of humans, who they refer to as ‘useless Eaters’, do make sense when we reflect about the wars, pandemics, induced cyclones and earthquakes, and many more phenomena that tend to reduce the populations en masse at any given instance.
Below is a summary of the said long-term agenda, culled from the database of the Executive Intelligence Review. See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylIoU_Hnt4k
[28 July 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
WORLD DEPOPULATION IS TOP NSA AGENDA: CLUB OF ROME
A Timely Repost:
The Haig-Kissinger depopulation policy by Lonnie Wolfe
Special Report EIR (Executive Intelligence Review) March 10, 1981
Investigations by EIR have uncovered a planning apparatus operating outside the control of the White House whose sole purpose is to reduce the world’s population by 2 billion people through war, famine, disease and any other means necessary. This apparatus, which includes various levels of the government is determining U.S. foreign policy. In every political hotspot — El Salvador, the so-called arc of crisis in the Persian Gulf, Latin America, Southeast Asia and in Africa- the goal of U.S. foreign policy is population reduction. The targeting agency for the operation is the National Security Council’s Ad Hoc Group on Population Policy. Its policy-planning group is in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Population Affairs, established in 1975 by Henry Kissinger. This group drafted the Carter administration’s Global 2000 document, which calls for global population reduction, and the same apparatus is conducting the civil war in El Salvador as a conscious depopulation project.
“There is a single theme behind all our work-we must reduce population levels,” said Thomas Ferguson, the Latin American case officer for the State Department’s Office of Population Affairs (OPA). “Either they [governments] do it our way, through nice clean methods or they will get the kind of mess that we have in El Salvador, or in Iran, or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once population is out of control it requires authoritarian government, even fascism, to reduce it “The professionals,” said Ferguson, “aren’t interested in lowering population for humanitarian reasons. That sounds nice. We look at resources and environmental constraints. We look at our strategic needs, and we say that this country must lower its population-or else we will have trouble.
So steps are taken. El Salvador is an example where our failure to lower population by simple means has created the basis for a national security crisis. The government of El Salvador failed to use our programs to lower their population. Now they get a civil war because of it…. There will be dislocation and food shortages. They still have too many people there.”
Civil wars are somewhat drawn-out ways to reduce population, the OPA official added. “The quickest way to reduce population is through famine, like in Africa or through disease like the Black Death,” all of which might occur in El Salvador. Ferguson’s OPA monitors populations in the Third World and maps strategies to reduce them. Its budget for FY 1980 was $190 million; for FY 198l, it will be $220 million. The Global 2000 report calls for doubling that figure. The sphere of Kissinger In 1975, OPA was brought under a reorganized State Department Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental, and Scientific Affairs– a body created by Henry Kissinger.
The agency was assigned to carry out the directives of the NSC Ad Hoc Group. According to an NSC spokesman, Kissinger initiated both groups after discussion with leaders of the Club of Rome during the 1974 population conferences in Bucharest and Rome. The Club of Rome, controlled by Europe’s black nobility, is the primary promotion agency for the genocidal reduction of world population levels. The Ad Hoc Group was given “high priority” by the Carter administration, through the intervention of National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and Secretaries of State Cyrus Vance and Edmund Muskie.
According to OPA expert Ferguson, Kissinger initiated a full about-face on U.S. development policy toward the Third World. “For a long time,” Ferguson stated, “people here were timid” They listened to arguments from Third World leaders that said that the best contraceptive was economic reform and development. So we pushed development programs, and we helped create a population time bomb. “We are letting people breed like flies without allowing for natural causes to keep population down. We raised the birth survival rates, extended life-spans by lowering death rates, and did nothing about lowering birth rates.
That policy is finished. We are saying with Global 2000 and in real policy that you must lower population rates. Population reduction and control is now our primary policy objective- then you can have some development.”Accordingly, the Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental, and Scientific Affairs has consistently blocked industrialization policies in the Third World, denying developing nations access to nuclear energy technology–the policies that would enable countries to sustain a growing population. According to State Department sources, and Ferguson himself, Alexander Haig is a “firm believer” in population control.
“We will go into a country,” said Ferguson, “and say, here is your goddamn development plan. Throw it out the window. Start looking at the size of your population and figure out what must be done to reduce it.”If you don’t like that, if you don’t want to choose to do it through planning, then you’ll have an El Salvador or an Iran, or worse, a Cambodia.” According to an NSC spokesman, the United States now shares the view of former World Bank President Robert McNamara that the “population crisis” is a greater threat to U.S. national security interests than “nuclear annihilation.” “Every hot spot in the world corresponds to a population crisis point,” said Ferguson who would rename Brzezinski’s arc of crisis doctrine the “arc of population crisis.”
This is corroborated by statements in the NSC Ad Hoc Group’s April 1980 report. There is “an increased potential for social unrest, economic and political instability, mass migration and possible international conflicts over control of land and resources,” says the NSC report. It then cites “demographic pressures” as key to understanding “examples of recent warfare in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, El Salvador. Honduras, and Ethiopia, and the growing potential forinstability in such places as Turkey, the Philippines, Central America, Iran, and Pakistan.” Through extraordinary efforts, the Ad Hoc Group and OPA estimate that they may be able to keep a billion people from being born through contraceptive programs.
But as the Ad Hoc Group’s report states, the best efforts of the Shah of Iran to institute “clean programs” of birth control failed to make a significant dent in the country’s birth rate. The promise of jobs, through an ambitious industrialization program, encouraged migration toward “overcrowded cities” like Teheran. Now under Ayatollah Khomeini, the “clean programs” have been dismantled. The government may make progress because it has a program “to induce up to half of Teheran’s 6 million residents to relocate, as well as possible measures to keep rural migrants from moving to the cities.” Behind the back of the President Ferguson and others involved with the OPA and NSC group maintain that the United States will continue a foreign policy based on a genocidal reduction of the world’s population.
“We have a network in place of cothinkers in the government,” said the OPA case officer. “We keep going, no matter who is in the White House.” But Ferguson reports that the “White House” does not really understand what they are saying and that the President “thinks that population policy means how do we speed up population increase. “As long as no one says differently,” said Ferguson, “we will continue to do our jobs. “
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs & website anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com

Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon

Website:
PROF. ERLE FRAYNE ARGONZA: http://erleargonza.com

LARGE CLASS, MAD DISCOURSE: SAME ROOTS

LARGE CLASS, MAD DISCOURSE: SAME ROOTS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

Classes have resumed here in Manila/Philippines, and our campuses are again swarming with pupils, students, teachers. Focused on their tasks, the same stakeholders are barely aware of what’s going on in the world around them, a world that is changing fast at confusing rate.

While the rugs under our feet our changing, the old context of large classes (class sizes of 100-250) are still in vogue in many universities worldwide. Some other universities that may have abolished them in the past, are re-instituting the large class platform.

As I’ve said in a previous article, the large class platform belongs to the past ages of medievalism and industrialism. To implement it now, at this time, is a regressive decision.

The large class, which unconsciously glues students to the ‘Herd instinct’, is anathema to the overall evolutionary movement of the human psyche towards greater individuation. University education is supposedly an opportunity field for the flourishing of that individuation.

The ‘mad discourse’ is finding expression in many venues today. The large class platform feeds inputs to the mad discourse, and is subtly rooted in it in fact. Its rationale hides under the rubric of technocratese language, but any sharp observer will easily unveil the illusion and show the large class platform’s connection to the ‘mad discourse’.

Imagine if all students are subjected to the same large classes, where they cannot air feedbacks or questions at all as they are consigned to passive receivers of inputs from a lecture professor. Imagine exposing freshmen students to this platform for 4-5 years, and assess the degeneration of the same students into the hovels of passivity.

Such a regimentation is just but one step short of what the Phase III cybernetics is up to these days: chipping humans. Phase III cybernetics had worked out to erase the dividing line between human behavior and machine behavior, with practical uses aimed at chipping all humans in the future.

The same chipped humans can then be put under the control of mega-computer systems, their behavior eventually reprogrammable to make them more in tune with what the System demands. They can be sent to war fronts as armies and technicians, and will experience no fear as fear will be deleted or subjugated by mega-control commands from their own psyche.

Wars and police states of the near future will be easily justified with every technocratese language conceivable, rendering them as typical ‘mad discourse’ in the argot of Michel Foucault. Mad, in that the erasure of the boundary between reason and the irrational has been effectively erased or deleted.

If there is anything that university policy makers must do now, it is to abolish all large classes while there is still time. Globally, we concerned citizens are doing what we can to deter moves by elites to install nazi-type regimes in the West, leading to a global state later that will be in need of compliant citizens.

Let us all do our tasks now to take down school platforms that will be the launching pads for compliant humans who can be chipped in couples of years’ time. The VeriChip by Verizon Corp is now out, and before 2015 a more perfected prototype will be out, ready to be implanted to humans via syringe (by trained doctors/medics).

We still have the time to act, to note. Any decision that infringes on human liberties is dangerously fascistic, such as re-instituting or maintaining large classes.

Failing to act in time, we shall watch in horror as new ‘das boots’ kids will be churned out from our youth, commanded via chips to participate in building a Draconian deux ex machina of the near future. And they’re products of our universities, products of large classes.

By then, I will be having the last laugh. With resonating guffaws will I declare “I told you so.”

[Philippines, 27 June 2010]

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs & website anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com

Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon

Website:
PROF. ERLE FRAYNE ARGONZA: http://erleargonza.com

LARGE CLASS IN UNIVERSITIES: OUTDATED, AUTHORITARIAN!

LARGE CLASS IN UNIVERSITIES: OUTDATED, AUTHORITARIAN!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

It’s late afternoon as I write this piece, and it’s the longest day in the northern hemisphere too (summer solstice). I will devote this piece to the matter of large university classes that are the mode of instruction in many academic institutions across the globe.

Large classes are a thing of the past. The large class modality was referred to as ‘Great Man pedagogy’ in Europe, and was critically challenged by the youth and professors during the stormy youth heydays of the 1960s and ‘70s.

The human psyche is rapidly evolving towards greater individuation. As we humans become more individuated, the educational instruction fit for us is one that should account for and enable our individuality, even up to the point of providing ample space for eccentricity in each one.

In the olden days, when the Herd Mind or folk mind was the characteristic psyche of the people, the modality of instructions was one that would fit them well. Large classes evoked the ‘Herd instinct’ (Nietszchean label for the same), and unconsciously provided a semblance of community for peoples of those ancient times who were cut off from family & village to study in the university.

The coming of the Industrial Age, right after the conclusion of the 30 Years War (1618-48), ushered the ‘assembly line’ of mass production of articles of manufactures. The ‘assembly line’ method found its concomitant equivalent in the Great Man pedagogy which churned out collegiate graduates like commodities for sale in a rapidly expanding labor market.

Up until the late 19th century, during the Victorian Era that is the nadir of the modern age, Great Man pedagogy was a largely unquestioned modality of instruction. As the crisis of the early 20th century set in, the same pedagogy found perfect compatibility with the nascent totalitarian ideologies and systems of that era (fascism, Nazism, communism).

Indubitably, the success of ‘assembly line’ classes was effective only insofar as the psyche remained as more folk-mind or herd-oriented. As the psyche mutates to more individuated type, it will militate against anything that brings it back to the Herd: subject to manipulation and shaping by authoritarian if not sociopathic interest groups and persons.

Sure enough, as the youth rebellion of the 60s set in, the students of the Sorbonne in Paris burst out in revolt against the Great Man pedagogy circa 1968. Other universities quickly caught up the fiery flames of the revolt and followed suit in a tempo of upheavals that were largely unplanned and spontaneous.

Accustomed to bureaucratism and pork barrel largesse that went with mainstream political power, the French Communist Party was caught flat-footed by that revolt. Tailing behind the event that indicated its being mired in intellectual bankruptcy and betrayed its archaic mindset, the communists lose relevance almost overnight.

Had the communists grasped that event quickly and seized the opportunity by siding with the anti-large class youth, the sociopolitical landscape of France and Europe could have changed forever. A social revolution of a new kind, bred by a fusion of working class militancy and youth revulsion against archaic pedagogy and culture, could have been registered in the annals of history as worth our positive valuation.

It is shocking to find out that the large class modality is still around with us today. It is anathema to the goal of human liberation, even as it could be a launching ground to breed new ‘boot camp’ babies for certain interest groups of a fascistic/authoritarian nature.

The Industrial Age had now passed away, and the Post-Industrial/Postmodern Age has brought along with it an erasure (sous rapture) of the dividing line between Reason and Madness. Fascism is resurgent worldwide, and before we’d notice it a global state would be in the offing that is orchestrated by an ideological force of global Bonaparte.

If the large class modality is re-introduced in any university whatsoever, it should only be on an interim phase. It is a regressive move, and running counter to the gamut of psychical individuation, it will erode in time and be abolished across the globe.

Should there be a youth revolt against this antiquated pedagogy in my own home country, I will be glad to make my presence in the barricades to be set up.

[Philippines, 21 June 2010]

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs & website anytime!
Social Blogs:
IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com
UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com

Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

Poetry & Art Blogs:
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Mixed Blends Blogs:
@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com
@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com
@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon

Website:
PROF. ERLE FRAYNE ARGONZA: http://erleargonza.com

HACIENDA LUISITA REMAINS THORNY & THREAT-FILLED

HACIENDA LUISITA REMAINS THORNY & THREAT-FILLED
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Good day!
The thorny Hacienda Luisita, among the grand estates of the Cojuangco family, remains as threat-filled as ever. It is a showcase of a land reform executive decision that has gone haywire. The Supreme Court’s lackadaisical behavior shown with respect to this case has made the issue more murky.
The PH Supreme Court has earned the monicker of ‘hoodlums in robes’ in the 1990s. Have the noblesse Justices of the highest court remained as just as expected with regards to issues affecting the marginal sectors in particular? Hasn’t PH dropped off that ‘hoodlums’ image yet for the Justices of its highest court?
Below is a statement from the Hacienda Luisita Peasant Supporters Network Tarlac. It sums up the update on the thorny estate.
[Philippines, 06 July 2011]

Hacienda Luista Peasant Supporters Network Tarlac
SC Decision on Luisita Land Dispute: Legalizing the Theft of Farmworkers’ Lands
We, members of the Hacienda Luisita Peasant Supporters Network – a group of individuals and organizations supporting the farmers and farm workers of Hacienda Luisita – express our utmost outrage over decision of the Supreme Court to bring the case of the Hacienda Luista back to square one by ordering the Department of Agrarian Reform to conduct another referendum among farm worker-beneficiaries to choose between shares of stocks or land.
The Network believes that the High Court’s decision today is a setback for the Hacienda Luisita farmers’ struggle for land and justice. It subjects the longest-running land dispute in the country to a mere “popularity” vote instead of advancing what is right and just – that is, to install the legitimate farm worker beneficiaries to their land by freely distributing the Luisita lands to its rightful owners. This decision sets a bad precedent for all land disputes in the country – especially those involving the anti-farmer Stock Distribution Scheme currently in place in Hacienda Luisita.
The High Court’s decision is a bitter pill sugar-coated with nice-sounding phrases revoking the Stock Distribution Option to make it acceptable to the farmers workers but, in reality, retaining the corporate scheme which prevents the actual distribution of land to the farm workers.
For more than two decades, HLI has tried to manipulate the farm workers for years. They have already raked in multi-billion profits by selling and converting sizable portions of the land and by exploiting the labor of the farm workers. But the great strike of more than 5,000 farm workers in 2004 is testament that farm workers have already rejected this kind of arrangement. Furthermore, the success of the Bungkalan campaign where Hacienda Luisita farmers and their families collectively till the land for their benefit only shows that the farmers are capable of uplifting their condition without the onerous partnership with the Cojuangcos.
Also, we believe that the referendum is a tool for machinations and maneuverings of the Cojuangcos to retain their ownership and control over the sprawling hacienda. The compromise deal cooked up last August 2010 witnessed the excessive release of money, with the HLI dangling a P150-million financial assistance package to the farmers so that the latter would give up their claims to the land.
Finally, we call all peasant advocates, truth- and justice-loving Filipinos to join the mobilizations of the Hacienda Luisita farmers in the coming days expressing their disappointment and anger over the Supreme Court’s anti-farmer ruling.

UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES IS NO. 34 IN WORLD’S BEST UNIVERSITIES IN ENGLISH

UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES IS NO. 34 IN WORLD’S BEST UNIVERSITIES IN ENGLISH

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day from the Pearl of the Orient!

The University of the Philippines or UP, my country’s national university and among the esteemed world universities in ASEAN, recently landed at No. 34 rank among the world’s top universities in terms of English instruction, besting many world universities in the West and Asia. This is a gladdening news not only for my country and ASEAN, the news likewise glows my heart to euphoria as I am a sanguine alumnus of the noble UP.

Please note that UP’s English instruction goes further than instruction, as many of its professors and alumni dominate the prestigious literary and scientific writing awards in the country, such as the Palanca award. The UP is also home to professors who are holders of the very prestigious National Artist, National Scientist, and Ramon Magsaysay Awards.

UP’s professors, in other words, are active creators of ideas and ‘best practices’, a legacy that they have passed on to their students. Since the late 1990s, 1/7 of all the country’s patents and copyrights in any given year are those registered by professors, researchers and experts of the University of the Philippines.

Such a high level of instruction, creation, and practices by UP’s professors, who stand out in articulation and philosophic discourse, is a legacy of the American professors of colonial-era history. UP’s first professors were largely Ivy League alumni, seconded by alumni of top state universities in the USA. They were among the first professional volunteers to render immense service of enabling Filipino minds to meet the challenges of the modern world.

UP was envisioned, since the time of the Filipino revolutionary government of Aguinaldo yet, as the premier university that will train tomorrow’s leaders for the country. The American educators took off from that vision, as they were the ones mandated to chart the destiny of the university and provide it with the foundational professors.

The same professors brought along with them AngloSaxon philosophy, culture, and language. The AngloSaxon tradition had stayed with UP ever since, which begins with the perfection of English articulation (oral & writ), mastery of AngloSaxon philosophy (empiricism, positivism, pragmatism, analytic philosophy), critical thinking, debating method & style, and conversational savvy for high culture (legacy of Victorian culture).

UP’s language articulation belongs to the ‘school of Elegance’. The same American professors ensured that discursive elegance will endure, and they succeeded in their noble tasks. Till these days, amid the greater stress for social responsibility in UP, a trend that began in the ‘60s yet with the rise of campus radicalism, which could have shifted articulation to the ‘schoof of Simplicity’, elegance had persisted.

Having been in UP for a long time as student (bachelor’s to graduate school) and faculty (social sciences), I can share endless testimonials to the discursive rigor that one has to pass through in my alma mater. One has to learn elegance first of all and employ the same elegance in practice, with preponderance for your profession’s argot while in the company of professional peers.

Simplicity in articulation comes as you face a broader audience among social clientele, such as the marginal sectors and layman. Sure, learn to talk and write with simplicity as you’d face broader audiences and readers after leaving the UP’s august halls. But first of all, learn to be elegant.

And don’t forget, discourse with depth, be as recondite as the philosophical thinkers that shaped your mental bank and professors that mentored you. Perfect your English, be elegant, be philosophically recondite, and you’ll end up being well cultured and highly-bred.

Passing through UP’s language training is akin to entering an eye of a needle. It is truly tough, yet very psychically rewarding. At least the former dictator Marcos, whose English and philosophical sophistication are as polished as Berkeley’s or Hume’s, won’t scoff at your simpleton-sounding language if you happen to be an activist who wished imperialism and tyranny away, thus earning you astronomical insults from UP’s alumni stalwarts.

By the way, the Ateneo De Manila University, another world university and the country’s best private university, landed at No. 35. De La Salle University, an international-class institution, landed at No. 51. UP, Ateneo and De La Salle form a consortium, and they comprise a triune of universities whose alumni are a class in their own, class sui generis.

Big kudos to the UP, Ateneo, and La Salle for the triumph in the AngloSaxon language!

[Philippines, 12 July 2011]
I

PROF ARGONZA’S TV5 INTERVIEW ON FILIPINOS’ HAPPINESS

PROF ARGONZA’S TV5 INTERVIEW ON FILIPINOS’ HAPPINESS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day, fellow global citizens!

Yours truly was interviewed anew by the TV5 program Tayuan Mo at Panindigan, with the topic focused on Filipinos’ happiness. Hosting the episode were Aida Uy, Wilma Dosent, and Izza Litton whose magnetic stage presence did give life to the occasion.

Interestingly, an urban poor woman agreed to be interviewed too, as a living witness to what makes Filipinos happy. She brought along her four (4) daughters who joined her in the customary Pinoy ‘salo-salo’ treat to guests offered by the Channel 5 network.

The latest research of the National Statistics Coordination Board or NSCB, chief government survey agency, showed that Filipinos put top priority on family, health, and religion in that rank order, when asked what are the topmost indicators that make them happy. The same research showed other important happiness sources as friends, financial security, education, love life, and work. Sex was among the bottom 5 happiness indices, which surprised the NSCB.

Being the sociologist/expert for the occasion, I was asked to explain the patterns that make Filipinos happy. I first had to weigh the results of the latest research, before I could present my own analysis.

In standard sociological discourse, values provide frames for individual choices. Values are those matters that people regard as social premiums, they are the core foundations of culture, and they are largely shared across classes and ethnicities. They are also the ones that define what is happiness for persons and aids them in prioritizing happiness indicators.

Filipinos put a great premium of relationships—to fellow Pinoys, family members, God & divine beings. Kapwa and loob are the pillars of our values, with kapwa governing the interpersonal domain while loob guides the intrapersonal.

By social relationships we refer here to the personalistic, traditional, informal ties in the domain of the ‘private sphere’. That contrasts to the that are impersonal, segmented, utilitarian valued highly in Western, industrial societies, ties that may enable one to shine career-wise but do not necessarily make people happy.

Happiness, as a positive intrapsychic state, can range from contentment to euphoria and bliss. Jobs and money do make Filipinos happy, but they matter only insofar as these enable Pinoys to have the means to face people, satisfy the needs and caprices of their fellows, and pay homage to Supreme Deity (payback through some donations to church or humanitarian groups).

Asked about the ranking of Pinoys in the global happiness surveys, I shared the facts that Pinoys would rank in the range of middle-to-high ranks. Pinoys never fell short of the middle range in happiness, and are among the happiest peoples in Asia.

No wonder that suicides don’t occur in the Philippines as high as they occur in Western/industrial countries, where as high as 5,000-10,000 deaths per year happen in major cities. Loneliness and depression are often the driving forces behind suicides, so the message is clear that Pinoys don’t do suicides a lot given their middle-to-high happiness inclinations.

It was another truly informative exchange of ideas and opinions. TV5 audiences surely will have much to benefit from such an informative program as the Tayuan Mo at Panindigan.

[Philippines, 07 July 2011]

THAILAND’S REDS REGAIN DOMINANCE

THAILAND’S REDS REGAIN DOMINANCE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Thailand’s Red Shirts are back in power, as the For Thai Party of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra won landslide victory in the latest parliamentary polls. Yingluck Shinawatra, younger sister of the deposed premier, won as premier, rendering her the first woman chief executive of modern Thailand.

The victory is a big slap on the faces of the traditional elites of Thailand, who brooked no quarters in deposing any political party or movement that will not tow the globalization line. The message to detractors is “tow the line, no matter if the poor peasants, urban poor, and lowly artisans would eke a living.” Madly insane!

Thailand’s traditional elites are the king (and family), military offircers’ corps, big business, and technocrats. The elites are largely pro-West, with the King leading them in kowtowing to the dictates of the Western financiers led by Queen Elizabeth and the House of Rothschilds.

Under the rulership of the same elites and the Yellow Shirts that they have spawned, the benefits of growth have accrued to them only, with a negligible ‘trickle down’ of the same to the clerical class and underclasses. It has been a very lopsided development for Thailand as a whole, a prosperity track that left out many poor peasants, fisherfolks, urban poor, and poor artisans.

Incidentally, a populist party, the For Thai, arose from the bedrocks of obscurity to fame, led at first by its charismatic leader Thaksin Shinawatra. Healthcare and related welfare policies were thus crafted and executed with audacity during the brief stint of the deposed leader, welfare policies that mattered not to the callous elites.

Thus, Thailand has been so badly polarized along class lines, a polarity that will ensue in the foreseeable future. The populist For Thai is back in power, and most likely Big Business is again in jitters this early over the prospects of them paying up more (taxes) for redistribution as general welfare to the broad underclasses.

Thailand’s Reds are getting to be more homogenous through time, so the other ‘reds’ (social democrats, communists, Left anarchists, nationalists) can at best play the roles of swampy fringe groups vis a vis the mainstreamed populists. The latter better play it up as coalition partners with the populists or else face the consequences of irrelevance and low esteem by the underclasses who were badly marginalized by the globalization policies of liberalization, privatization, and deregulation.

Meantime, let me say my own kudos to the lady premier Yingluck Shinawatra over her victory. Kudos very big! Mabuhay!

[Philippines, 05 July 2011]

G8 INROADS IN ARAB STATES: DEVELOPMENT OR SPIRAL DOWNFALLS?

G8 INROADS IN ARAB STATES: DEVELOPMENT OR SPIRAL DOWNFALLS?
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Western powers, via the G8 headhammer nations, are re-charting development tracks for the Arab states. Such re-directions are being rushed, in light of the uprisings in the Arab region that threatens the very investments as well as the degree of continuing control and manipulation of the latter countries by Western financier oligarchs.
How far the G8 can carve out new development arrangements that can re-secure their hold of the said regions is surely in question. Emerging markets that are purse-rich are now much engaged in North Africa and the Middle East, rendering them as alternative orbits for dependence in case the newly installed Arab regimes will lose the old ‘chocolate bar sweeteners’ of aid and investments from their Western masters.
Below is an update report from the DevEx regarding the G8 contingency steps being taken for the Arab states.
[Philippines, 15 June 2011]

From: DevEx – http://www.devex.com
At Deauville Summit: G8 Outlines New MENA Partnership, Reaffirms Aid Commitments
G-8 leaders ended their 37th summit in France on Friday (May 27) with the announcement of a new partnership with countries in the Middle East and North Africa and a confirmation of their commitment to global development efforts. Both partnership and overall G-8 development plans drew mixed reactions from experts and members of the international development community.
The Deauville Partnership is the G-8’s response to the so-called Arab Spring and outlines the leaders’ commitment to support stabilization and economic modernization in Egypt and Tunisia, and possibly other MENA countries that will be open to reforms. The partnership commits $20 billion worth of economic aid from multilateral banks, and G-8 leaders said they aim to mobilize up to $20 billion more from bilateral sources.
Some experts praised the Deauville Partnership for laying out an important vision for engagement with MENA countries, but others criticized the G-8 for not outlining a detailed aid timeline or specific financial contributions per country. There were also others who voiced concern that the partnership and the assistance G-8 countries plan to channel through it could affect budgets for development programs in other regions of the world.
The G-8’s commitments to global efforts to improve health and food security were also outlined in the group’s final communique. These included calls for a successful pledging conference for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and an announcement of support for reform efforts at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The leaders also affirmed their commitment to fulfill past pledges to increase aid for agricultural development and to boost the effectiveness and transparency of their aid information.
Members of the international development community were mostly disappointed with this part of the G-8 communique, which most aid groups said was vague and largely lacking in concrete targets.
“World leaders have got the right words, but until action is delivered, their dither and delay will continue to cost lives,” Chris Page of World Vision U.K. noted.