Justice and corruption

Some weeks ago, an opinion poll was published at Metroscopia website, gathering Spanish citizen’s opinion about justice and corruption, and the results were rather discouraging.
To the question "Do you think that the investigation on Gürtel case will be completed on a reasonable amount of time and those involved will be eventually prosecuted and condemned?", 78% of respondents replied that they don’t. When this same question is formulated for Urdangarin case, the answer is quite similar: 77% replied that they don’t.
When those polled are asked why justice is so slow when dealing with corruption cases, most people have a clear answer: 85% believe that political parties and lobbies put pressure, and 65% believe that judges are afraid of the negative consequences of such trials on their professional careers if bigwigs are eventually condemned. 
Also, 87% of respondents consider that a unit of anticorruption judges should be created, as there is a unit of anticorruption prosecutors.

Sources:
Metroscopia website: http://www.metroscopia.org/
“Clima social” survey, March 2013: http://www.metroscopia.org/climasocial/item/clima-social-octubre-2012-copy-2-copy-copy-copy-copy?category_id=3
        
     
   
   
    

Responsible water consumption

This summer Barcelona will be host to the 15th World Swimming Championships. It is a good chance to raise awareness about water problems, so we wrote the script of seven videos, each lasting for about one or two minutes, with all kinds of information about water. The producer Brutal Media is the author of these videos, which you can watch here:

1.- How much water is there in the world?





2.- Fresh water, salt water




3.- Drinking water


4.- Water consumption in Barcelona


5.- Virtual water



6.- The water cycle



7.- A finite resource



Sources:

1. Barcelona 2013 15th World Championships:
   http://www.bcn2013.com/en/inicio
2. Our posts about water issues: http://www.deliveringdata.com/search/label/WATER
3. Brutal Media: http://brutalmedia.tv/BRUTALMEDIA.TV/esp_nueva_web.html

     
     
     
    
   

The Spanish army against the French army

Last Easter, François Hollande, President of France, announced that in the following five years the French military expenditure will be not increased, resulting in a cut of 30,000 million euros. He also plans to make redundant one third of the French army, which is currently made up of 300,000 soldiers. This is the most significant cut executed in the French defence budget so far.
Last summer, the British army also announced major cuts: 20,000 out of the current 120,000 soldiers of the British army will be made redundant.
What about Spain, where the financial crisis is much more devastating than in those two countries? No news, on the contrary. In Spain there is twice the number of soldiers than in the UK (despite having 16 million inhabitants less). There are no cuts, but on top of it, the budget for the Spanish army will be increased in 28.21%.
On this same day when these cuts in the French army were announced, newspapers also reported how the Spanish defence budget is wasted: a pilgrimage to Lourdes for 17 military men and police officers, costing 12,331 euros.

Sources:

1. France announces a cut in its military budget: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9955667/French-defence-cuts-could-harm-British-military-partnership.html
2. Cuts in the British army: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2012/07/cutout-soldiers.html
3. Increase in the Spanish defence budget: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2012/09/a-crisis-free-army.html
4. The Spanish Ministry of Defence finances a pilgrimage to Lourdes: http://www.laicismo.org/detalle.php?pk=20067

      
      
      

Advertising in the classroom

Channel One News is a twelve-minute satellite television programme broadcast in the USA. Designed as a ‘current affairs’ bulletin aimed at children and teenagers, the programme is often full of trivial reports about celebrities and attractive lifestyles. Of the twelve-minute running time, two are wholly dedicated to advertisements.

In 1989, the directors of Channel One signed an agreement with 12,000 of the 50,000 primary and high schools across the USA to show the programme in classrooms. In exchange, the broadcaster would subsidise the schools’ video equipment and audiovisual material. Eight million students watch the programme almost daily alongside their teachers.

Of course, the majority of schools that have signed up to the agreement are located in poor and marginalised neighbourhoods, which would not otherwise be able to afford audiovisual resources. The programme has received a lot of criticism due to the fact that these twelve minutes every day add up to six teaching days being lost each year, one of which is entirely dedicated to advertising. The annual cost to the taxpayer of these six teaching days is 1.8 billion dollars.

In addition, the fact that this programme is seen in class accompanied by teachers leaves the children even more vulnerable to the dangers of advertising. If you see it in class, it must be good for you. Therefore, those hamburgers that your teachers showed you must be good for your health.

Research shows that the children that see this programme in class are more willing, on average, to accept statements such as ‘brand clothing is better’ or even ‘a good car is more important than a good education’.

The products advertised include fast food brands, soft drinks, video games, Hollywood films and plenty of other items that are hardly beneficial to the wellbeing of the kids. Advertisements have even included army recruitment campaigns and messages sponsored by tobacco companies.

Sources:

1. You can find this and other examples of the extremes that child advertising has reached in Juliet B. Schor’s book ‘Born to buy. The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture’: http://www.aef.com/on_campus/classroom/book_excerpts/data/3005
2. Channel One News: http://www.channelone.com/

     
    
    
    

Reordering the ranking

Lists can often be found in the media ranking the richest and poorest countries on the planet, the nations with the greatest economic growth or the lowest rates of corruption and so on. The names at the top of these lists are usually the same countries, perhaps with slight variations in the order. The same can be said at the bottom of the list.
With this in mind, it is refreshing to discover that there are other ways of classifying the levels of development and happiness of a country’s inhabitants, and the results of such rankings can throw up a few surprises. Every year since 2006, the London-based think tank the New Economics Foundation has published the Happy Planet Index which measures each country’s development based on life expectancy, the subjective perception of happiness and the nation’s ecological footprint. According to this ranking, the ten countries where the inhabitants have the longest, happiest and most sustainable life are as follows:
Costa Rica
Vietnam
Colombia
Belize
El Salvador
Jamaica
Panama
Nicaragua
Venezuela
Guatemala
The highest ranking European country does appear until number 18... and it is Albania. The United States of America, which often tops the chart in such rankings, has to settle for position 105 out of 151.

Sources:

1. The New Economics Foundation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economics_Foundation
2. The Happy Planet Index: http://www.happyplanetindex.org

    
    
    
   

A sinking country

Tuvalu is a tiny country in Polynesia (covering just a quarter of the area of Barcelona) made up of nine coral atolls. Not many people have heard of it, although it did make the news a few years ago when it allowed various television companies to use its internet domain (.tv) in return for sums of money that far exceeded the country’s GDP.

The golden toad of Costa Rica has the dubious honour of being the first known case of extinction resulting directly from current climate change. Tuvalu may soon go down in history for being the first country to disappear for the same reason. With the country’s highest point at just five metres, the rising sea levels due to the melting of the polar ice caps will soon swallow the group of islands up. It is not just Tuvalu that is under threat: Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Tokelau and the Maldives are all facing the same watery demise. Around half a million islanders will have to abandon their homelands and become the world’s first climate refugees. Within a few years, the waves will claim the beaches, drown the vegetable patches and engulf the coconut trees with saltwater. Experts believe that it is too late to do anything to save these countries from their fate, but there is still hope for the rest of the world... as long as we take action right away.

Sources:

1. Tuvalu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvalu
2. What is an atoll: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atoll
3. The golden toad of Costa Rica: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_toad
4. Data on the effects of climate change on the atolls of Polynesia are taken from Mark Lynas’s book “Six degrees: Our future on a hotter planet”: http://www.marklynas.org/books/

   
    
    
  

Water in the privacy of our homes

Most water we consume is meant for farming and cattle raising: to be precise, seven out of every ten litres. Two more litres are meant for the industry and transport, and the remaining litre is meant for urban use and direct water consumption.
However, water consumption (in terms of volume and use) varies from country to country and from town to town. For instance, in Barcelona, 64% water is meant for domestic use, 29% is meant for industrial use and trade, and 7% is meant for municipal services.
As average, Barcelona citizens use 122 litres of water every day. Some of it (30%) is wasted when we flush our toilets, another 20% is used when we have a shower and another 20% is used by our washing machines. 10% is used when we wash our hands, 9% when we wash our dishes and only 5% of the total amount of water is directly consumed as drinking water or cooking water. The rest, 4% is used for cleaning and 2% for watering our plants.

Sources:

1. The Water footprint of humanity, a survey on how we manage the water resources of our planet: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/02/06/1109936109.abstract
2. Barcelona water consumption data are taken from the environmental education programme Agenda21, drawn by the Town Council of Barcelona: http://80.33.141.76/ag21/index.php/publicacions-2 (at present, Agenda21 website is still under construction and it can only be read in Catalan language. Some documents are translated into Spanish, but water consumption data are only available in Catalan language)

    
    
    
  

Cluster bombs in Syria

Some time ago we wrote a post about cluster bombs, reporting that even if in 2008 an international treaty was passed to ban the use, manufacture, sale, manipulation and storage of cluster bombs, the truth is that this type of bombs are still circulating. They are mainly used to terrorise civilians because this type of bomb devastates large areas without telling the difference between civilians and military targets. 
The NGO Human Rights Watch published a report accusing the Syrian Government to use these bombs against civilians, causing the death of at least eleven kids during a bombing in November 2012. And it is not the first time that this NGO reports the use of such bombs in Syria.
According to this NGO, Syria is not the only country using cluster bombs. Libya (during Gaddafi’s regime) and Thailand also used these bombs against civilians. In the case of Syria, cluster bombs were manufactured in the Soviet Union during the seventies.
For the moment, only 16 countries condemned the use of cluster bombs in Syria, and Spain is not included in this list… What a coincidence! It just so happens that Gaddafi’s cluster bombs used against his civilians were manufactured in Spain. In the town of Saragossa, to be precise, where the company Instalaza manufactures weapons, including cluster bombs until 2008, when they were banned. 
And guess who was the consultant and representative of Instalaza during the years in which this company manufactured and sold cluster bombs to Gaddafi? None other than Pedro Morenés, the current Spanish Minister of Defence. Maybe that’s why Spain does not condemn the attack of the Syrian regime.

Sources:

1. Post at Delivering Data about cluster bombs: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2011/11/following-cluster-bomb.html
2. Report by the NGO Human Rights Watch about the use of cluster bombs in Syria: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/27/syria-evidence-shows-cluster-bombs-killed-children-0
3. Other attacks performed by the Syrian army with cluster bombs: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/23/syria-despite-denials-more-cluster-bomb-attacks
4. Pedro Morenés, the Spanish minister of Defence: http://www.fincaforsale.co.uk/?p=1759

    
   
   
   

Denying the global warming

We do not know yet the extent and consequences of global warming on our planet, but at least we agree that global warming is occurring and does exist. However, some people and some institutions insist on denying the existence of global warming, arguing that it is all a campaign against fossil fuels, the development of Third World countries or even just the interest of some scientists to get more funds for their climate research after striking fear into citizens’ heart.

It is quite easy to refute climate change denial: just check the research evidence on this issue published by most scientists and you will realise that 95% of scientists doing some research on climate agree that there is global warming. Moreover, there are lots of literature references about the interests of climate change deniers or those who do not accept such evidence.

Nevertheless, climate change denial (like many other conspiracy theories) has some supporters and, above all, generates some sort of confusion among citizens, who do not have enough scientific knowledge to get their own opinion on this issue.

In order to fight against this confusion, here we give you a simple yet solid argument to realise who is behind this false debate: a list of organizations accepting the existence of human-induced global warming and a list of organizations denying it. Needless to say, it is not a thorough list (it includes US organizations mainly) but it will help you understand who is behind each position. Here we go:

Organizations not accepting that there is global warming:
American Petroleum Institute
US Chamber of Commerce
National Association of Manufacturers
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Industrial Minerals Association
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Great Northern Project Development
Rosebud Mining
Massey Energy
Alpha Natural Resources
Southeastern Legal Foundation
Georgia Agribusiness Council
Georgia Motor Trucking Association
Corn Refiners Association
National Association of Home Builders
National Oilseed Processors Association
National Petrochemical and Refiners Association
Western States Petroleum Association
National Agnotology Producers Association
The Astroturfing Consortium

Organizations accepting that there is global warming:
U.S. Agency for International Development
United States Department of Agriculture
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Energy
National Institutes of Health
United States Department of State
United States Department of Transportation
U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
National Center for Atmospheric Research
National Aeronautics & Space Administration
National Science Foundation
Smithsonian Institution
International Arctic Science Committee
Arctic Council
African Academy of Sciences
Australian Academy of Sciences
Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts
Academia Brasileira de Ciéncias
Cameroon Academy of Sciences
Royal Society of Canada
Caribbean Academy of Sciences
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Académie des Sciences, France
Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences
Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina of Germany
Indonesian Academy of Sciences
Royal Irish Academy
Accademia nazionale delle scienze of Italy
Indian National Science Academy
Science Council of Japan
Kenya National Academy of Sciences
Madagascar’s National Academy of Arts,
Letters and Sciences
Academy of Sciences Malaysia
Academia Mexicana de Ciencias
Nigerian Academy of Sciences
Royal Society of New Zealand
Polish Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
Académie des Sciences et Techniques du Sénégal
Academy of Science of South Africa
Sudan Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Tanzania Academy of Sciences
Turkish Academy of Sciences
Uganda National Academy of Sciences
The Royal Society of the United Kingdom
National Academy of Sciences, United States
Zambia Academy of Sciences
Zimbabwe Academy of Science
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians
American Astronomical Society
American Chemical Society
American College of Preventive Medicine
American Geophysical Union
American Institute of Physics
American Medical Association
American Meteorological Society
American Physical Society
American Public Health Association
American Quaternary Association
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Society of Agronomy
American Society for Microbiology
American Society of Plant Biologists
American Statistical Association
Association of Ecosystem Research Centers
Botanical Society of America
Crop Science Society of America
Ecological Society of America
Federation of American Scientists
Geological Society of America
National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Natural Science Collections Alliance
Organization of Biological Field Stations
Society of American Foresters
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society of Systematic Biologists
Soil Science Society of America
Australian Coral Reef Society
Australian Medical Association
Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
Engineers Australia
Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies
Geological Society of Australia
British Antarctic Survey
Institute of Biology, UK
Royal Meteorological Society, UK
Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences
Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
European Federation of Geologists
European Geosciences Union
European Physical Society
European Science Foundation
International Association for Great Lakes Research
International Union for Quaternary Research
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
World Federation of Public Health Associations
World Health Organization
World Meteorological Organization

Sources:

1. Climate change denial and human-induced global warming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_denial
2. 95% of scientists doing research on climate do agree that there is global warming: http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus-intermediate.htm
3. Groups accepting or denying the evidences of global warming: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/01/global-warming-debate-is-no-debate-at-all/

   
    
    
    
    

The best at tax evasion

Tax Justice Network is an international network of associations, academics and activists with a shared objective: fighting against tax fraud and black economy. In a report published in November 2011 about tax abuse worldwide, there is a list with the countries recording the highest black economy levels in relation to their GNP. Bolivia ranks the first, with 66% of its economy in the black market. Russia ranks number two, with 45%, and the list goes on with Papua New Guinea, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The average world tax evasion is 18%, so one out of every six euros is not taxed.
However, if we get focused on the amount of money evading taxes (instead of the GNP), then the US ranks the first because every year 337,349 million dollars are lost to tax evasion. Brazil is the second and the list goes on with Italy, Russia, Germany and France.
What about Spain? In this report, Spain ranks number ten in the list of countries losing money to tax evasion. To be precise, Spain loses 82,000 million euros every year because black economy is not under control (it represents 22.5% of the Spanish GNP).
It is rather difficult to put such large figures into context, but here you have a good example: these 82,000 million euros lost to tax evasion stand for 14 times the total amount of the health and education budgets in 2013.
 

Health budget 2013: 3,852.27 M€
Education budget 2013: 1,944.73 M€
Total amount: 5.797 M€

Sources:

1. Tax Justice Network website: http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_content.php?idcat=2
2. Post at Delivering Data about black economy in Spain: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2012/04/some-data-about-black-economy-in-spain.html
3. Tax Justice Network report about black economy: http://www.tackletaxhavens.com/Cost_of_Tax_Abuse_TJN_Research_23rd_Nov_2011.pdf
4. The Spanish General State Budget of 2013: http://graficos.lainformacion.com/politica/presupuesto-estatal/presupuestos-2013-en-que-gasta-espana_W4M1nXSktquMQkDRSSpBR6

   
   
   
   

A time for lists

On the last week of the year, mass media offer lists about the most important pieces of news, the blockbuster films, the best-selling books, the best goals or the prettiest celebrities of the year.
Among all these lists, one of the most amazing is the list of the world’s wealthiest people, published by Forbes. However, we should say “wealthiest men” because there are only 4 women included in the fist 50 top rich people. And this list is published worldwide because it seems that everybody wants to know who the richest man on Earth is. Every Christmas, we are reminded that the Mexican Carlos Sim and the Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are the top three, and the Spanish Amancio Ortega is the fifth thanks to his clothing merchandiser Inditex, including brands like Zara.
However, this list never questions the legitimacy of such fortunes. And it is never said that any of the three richest men on Earth, with a wealth of more than 44 billion dollars, is rich enough to end up with the world’s famine for one year, according to FAO. If we take the top five rich men, they have enough money to eradicate the world’s hunger for six years.
This kind of comparison is usually labelled as demagogic because life is never so simple, but in this case it is. Only if one of these men decided to do things differently, the world could make a positive change. However, if they are the richest men on Earth, they are not likely to be willing to change society.

Sources:

1. Forbes magazine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes
2. Forbes’s with the world’s billionaires: http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/
3. A post at Delivering Data about how much money is needed to eradicate world hunger: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2010/11/how-much-money-is-needed-to-eradicate.html

   
    
   
  

How much water is on Earth?

It is estimated that the total amount of water in and on the Earth (including saline and fresh water, liquid and solid water in icecaps, groundwater and surface water) amounts to 1,400 million cubic kilometres –that is, about 332,500,000 cubic miles, which is such a large number that we cannot get a clear picture of it.
This water is distributed as a thin layer with a maximum-low depth of 11,000 metres in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world’s oceans located in the western Pacific Ocean. Taking into account that the Earth radius is more than 6,000 km, this trench is not very deep. Jacques Cousteau, the well-known French oceanographer, used a very graphic explanation to understand how thin this layer of water is: if we immerse a billiard ball into water and then dry it with a towel, the moisture film on the surface of this ball will be proportionally higher than the amount of water on our planet. However, this thin layer takes up 71% of the world’s surface, so most of the Earth is water-covered.
This amount of water has been invariable since it first appeared 4,500 million years ago. Water is neither destroyed nor created, so it will always remain the same. However, what is not the same –be it natural or man made—is the condition and distribution of this water.
 
How much is drinking water?
Only 2.5% of the planet’s water can be considered fresh water for its low saline contents. Most terrestrial ecosystems and its species (including humans) need fresh water to survive, so even if it is not a scarce resource, it is a limited resource. Out of this 2.5% of fresh water, 79% is found in the icecaps, 20% is groundwater and only 1% is on the surface. Moreover, out of this 1% of surface water, 50% is in lakes, 38% is soil moisture, 8% is in the atmosphere, 1% is found in living beings (like us) and 1% in rivers. In short: accessible drinking water represents only 0.008% of the total available water in our planet. Get this picture to better understand it: if we could include all the Earth water into a 5-litre container, fresh water would be a teaspoonful, but humans could only drink a couple of droplets from it.

Sources:

1. These data are taken from the book Guía de bolsillo para personas inquietas: http://www.intermonoxfam.org/es/informate/productos/libros/ciencias-sociales/guia-de-bolsillo-para-personas-inquietas
2. You can read this book online here: http://books.google.es/books?id=a7vZ4P8KlssC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

   
   
   
   

How do we spend our money?

At the end of October 2012, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics published the Survey of family budget 2011 to check how Spaniards spend their money. This report concludes that the average household expenditure in 2011 amounted to 29,482 € --that is, 1% less than in 2010. The rent item shows the greatest increase, whereas car purchase has been reduced a lot.
But beyond these conclusions, this survey helps us understand our set of values and how we do spend our little money: Spanish households spend 272 € every year in press, books and stationery, standing for 0.9% of our family budget, whereas we spend 894 € in phone services, which represents 3% of our budget. Education represents 1.1 % (311 €), which is less than our budget for shoes (382 €, 1.3%). Medication, pharmaceutical products and other health material represents 1.3% of our expenditure (374 €), which is less than our expenditure in tobacco (436 €, 1.5%). And finally, flowers, pets and other leisure items or equipment stand for 1% (386 €) and jewellery stands for 0.7% (207 €), more or less like our expenditure in press and books.
How does the financial crisis affect our consumption? If we take a look at the family budget of 2006, we’ll realise that the item “press and books” has been reduced in 20.5%, but tobacco has increased in 11.4%.

Sources:

1. The Spanish National Institute of Statistics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instituto_Nacional_de_Estad%C3%ADstica_%28Spain%29
2. Survey of family budgets 2011: http://www.ine.es/en/prensa/epf_prensa_en.htm

   
   
    

Light against the death penalty

On 30 November 1786, that is 226 years ago, death penalty was abolished in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It was the first time that a European country legally abolished this penalty. Leopold I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, as enlightened prince, introduced this reform of the penal code, as well as other laws to boost trade, industry and agrarian productivity, and he suppressed the naval force kept up by the Medici.
To celebrate the first abolition of the death penalty in Europe, the Community of Sant’Egidio, together with 300 more organizations worldwide, launched the international campaign Cities for life to fight against death penalty in the world. For 10 years, every 30 November, more than 1,500 cities around the world light some of their most emblematic buildings to raise public awareness against executions. According to a report drawn by Amnesty International, in 2011 there were 676 people executed in 20 different countries, not including the thousands of people believed to be executed in China, where these figures are top secret. Some other countries like Iran also keep a secret list of executions not included as official information, so the total amount of executed people could double the officially reported figures.
So far, death penalty is abolished in 140 countries. It is quite a major step if we take into account that by the end of the 60s only 55 countries followed the example of Tuscany. At present, there are still 58 countries where death penalty is legal, even if not always applied.
As of 31 December 2011, there were 18,750 people under death sentence worldwide in the death row of many prisons.

Sources:

1. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchy_of_Tuscany
2. Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany (later on known as Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
3. Community of Sant’Egidio: http://www.santegidio.org/index.php?langID=en
4. Cities for Life campaign: http://nodeathpenalty.santegidio.org/
5. Death penalty in 2011, according to Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/001/2012/en/241a8301-05b4-41c0-bfd9-2fe72899cda4/act500012012en.pdf

   
   
   
   

Deconstructing international cooperation

The investment of public resources in international cooperation has never been too generous. During the 90s, citizens pushed governments of rich countries into donating 0.7% of their gross national product to cooperation projects, but so far only five countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Norway and Sweden) meet this target. The rest of countries don’t, with an average contribution of only 0.3%. And even worse, with the current financial crisis, there have been some cuts in international cooperation budgets. In Spain, regional governments have cut in four years this budget meant for official development assistance (ODA) in 71%.
During the 10th annual meeting of NGO regional coordination held some days ago in Bilbao (Spain), regional governments were reported to go on with such dramatic cuts in 2013. Regional governments are expected to cut an extra 44% on ODA: from the current 240 millions to just 134 million euros.
This dramatic cut has direct consequences: many health, education and nourishment projects in Third World countries are now blocked, and most of the on-going projects are likely to be blocked too at this rate. Moreover, the budget for development education also suffers cuts, affecting all the programmes and campaigns of social awareness and advocacy meant to promote cooperation among Spanish citizens, as well as the importance of individual actions (like what and where we buy things) in our global world.
Contrary to the (relatively) significant social support shown in the demonstrations against the cuts in education and health, cutting the cooperation budget does not seem to be considered unacceptable, as if international cooperation could be left aside during our financial crisis. Maybe we are not aware of the importance of cooperation projects. After all, it is not such a huge budget. By cutting in international cooperation, our financial problems will not get solved: regional cooperation only means 5 euros/year per citizen. However, the defence budget represents 368 euros/year per citizen: we’d rather learn to cut better!

Sources:

1. The five countries donating 0.7% of their gross national product to cooperation: http://www.oecd.org/investment/aidstatistics/developmentaidrosein2009andmostdonorswillmeet2010aidtargets.htm
2. The data for this post are taken from official documents of the 10th annual meeting of NGO regional coordination (in Spanish): http://www.congde.org/index.php/noticias/vernoticia/id_noticia/1791

    
    
    
    

The first cooperative

On October 24, 1844, twenty-eight weavers of Rochdale, a town on the outskirts of Manchester, founded a small co-operative society with the aim of running their own store of basic products (flour, candles, vegetables, tea, clothes…). Members could buy what they needed while getting some benefits too. It was not the first time workers founded a cooperative. The history of the working-class movement includes many attempts towards cooperatives at the beginning of the 19th century, most of them in the UK. But the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, which is the full name of this society in Rochdale, was the first cooperative sharing benefits among its members, so it is the pioneer society for future cooperatives.
The beginning of this venture was rather hard: it was difficult to get money to set up a store among poor textile workers. After twenty-two calls to its members, there was not enough money to buy a sack of flour. But people soon realised that investing their savings into such society was a good business because this way they could buy good-quality products at affordable prices and, by the end of the year, they could share benefits (a patronage dividend). Soon, this society reported 5% benefits to its members, which is a good interest rate. However, Rochdale weavers could not easily understand what 5% stands for, so they forgot about percentages and rates and started talking about getting 5 extra pounds out of every 100 pound invested. All clear!
By the end of 1844, they could open a store at Toad Lane, and soon, as this society developed, they took the whole building and set up other stores in Rochdale. In 1849, there were 390 members and a capital of 1,193 pounds. In the following year, its membership got doubled and by 1893 there were 12,570 members. This was the onset of the cooperative movement.
At first, the Equitable Pioneers set up a mill (to control the whole process from grains to selling flour), a slaughterhouse, a butcher’s, stables and even a mutual fund. They opened other branches and they helped other cooperatives to develop. In 1863, following Rochdale’s success, there were more than five hundred cooperative stores around the UK. And in 1943, just one century afterwards, the cooperative movement had nine million members in this island.
The key to success for this cooperative was not only sharing patronage dividends, but also caring for education. From the very beginning, when there was not even enough money to buy flour, 2.5% benefits were invested in education. Soon, they could have a library, a bookstore and a newspaper room. In 1850, soon after its foundation, the bookstore had 200 books every week. On the second floor at Toad Lane, every evening and every weekend there were conferences and courses on science, history, politics and economy. Thanks to the promotion of education and culture, Rochdale workers could make the best of their skills, favouring the cooperative management, people’s involvement and participation and the spreading of their principles.
The “28 people” in Rochdale who set up a dim store in the outskirts of an industrial town more than 150 years ago have now become an icon of the cooperative movement. Most of their principles are still valid. Therefore, it was a very significant milestone in our history, but most people never heard about it.
At school, when we talk about crucial moments in our history, we always refer to battles, treaties and scientific or geographic discoveries, but we rarely talk about such social landmarks. Maybe we should give more importance to people and movements changing our society and working towards justice and social welfare.

Sources:

1. Most information in this post is taken from George Jacob Holyoake’s book The History of the Rochdale Pioneers: http://www26.us.archive.org/details/historyofrochdal00holyuoft
2. Rochdale, on the outskirts of Manchester: http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/
3. The onset of the working-class movements: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism
4. About the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_Society_of_Equitable_Pioneers
5. Rochdale principles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_Principles

     
     
     

Buying clothes at the supermarket

There are more and more people who buy clothes at the supermarket. These clothes are cheaper and you can buy them while filling your shopping cart with groceries. Convenience and low prices are key to turn discount retailers into an outlet of clothes and shoes. In 2005, giant retailers sold 54,000 million euros in clothes and shoes, which represents 6% of global sales. And these figures increase every year. 
At present, the largest corporation is a department store: Walmart, from the US, is largest retailer in the world. Every week, 175 million people buy there. The second and third top supermarkets are the English Tesco (with 30 million customers every week) and the French Carrefour (with 25 million customers). The fourth and fifth positions are for German discount retailers Lidl and Aldi. All these retailers offer such low prices that they are becoming more and more popular (thanks to the financial crisis too) and in 2012 they represented 20% of the market share.
Clothes sold in such department stores are of poor quality, like most other products. But it is so cheap that customers find it convenient and when it wears out, people throw it away and buy new clothes. However, such low prices hide a secret. The Clean Clothes Campaign, launched by many NGOs, unions and consumer’s associations worldwide, advocates to improve the work conditions in the garment industry and minimize the environmental impact of clothes manufacturing. This campaign includes a report about clothes sold by giant retailers. The conclusions of this report are clear: working conditions in the garment industry are very precarious because supermarkets and retailers push suppliers into selling at very low prices. Under such pressure, manufacturers (working always in poor countries with inadequate or inexistent work regulations) pay miserable salaries, offer no safety to their employees and dump chemical products into the environment.
Just to set an example: in 2006, the number of garment companies supplying clothes to Walmart with a “medium-risk” or “high-risk” violation of work standards represented 91%. And bear in mind that these working standards are very low: most clothes manufacturers set a minimum wage of just 50% of the living wage. In Bangalore (India), for instance, an average family needs 80 euros to cover their basic needs, but most workers in this area just earn 42 euros. In Sri Lanka, only 43.9% of workers earn a salary equal to or greater than the minimum living wage established by law in this country. Moreover, most of these companies do not allow unions, and work contracts are for the short-term and very precarious.
Not only clothes manufacturers have a hard time: shop assistants and store clerks also have poor work conditions. Walmart employs 2 million people for distribution and sales (not including product manufacturers) with the following work conditions: a maximum of 72 hours/week, no minimum wage and worse conditions every day. Therefore, it is easy to understand how such discount retailers can offer really low prices. But it is worth buying these products?
Two more data to better understand the consequences of buying cheap clothes. As these clothes are imported from very far-away countries, every department store releases three times more CO2 emissions than any local shop. And, as average, having a giant retailer involves loosing 276 job posts and closing local shops within a 12-km radius.

Sources:

1. Clean Clothes Campaign: http://www.cleanclothes.org/
2. The data of this post is taken from the report Cashing In: Giant retailers, purchasing practice and working conditions in the garment industry drawn by the Clean Clothes Campaign (available in several languages): https://www.cleanclothes.org/resources/ccc/working-conditions/cashing-in

     
    
 

Become a fish fighter!

Not long ago, we published a post in this blog about the problems of overfishing and the extinction of ocean resources. At present, oceans are in dire straits. In the last 60 years, 90% of large fish have disappeared and, at this rate, in 2050 there will be no more fish to catch. 75% of the world’s fish stocks are overexploited and, in the Mediterranean Sea, which is small but with densely populated shores, this percentage is even larger: 87%.

In terms of consumption, Spain is one of the countries with the highest fish consumption in the world. But it is not fish caught in the Spanish shores: Spaniards eat fish from all around the world. If in 2012 Spaniards ate fish from its shores, in May 2012 there would be no fish left there. Therefore, fish consumption in Spain exceeds its reasonable amounts. And on top of that, a lot of fish caught from the ocean is not even consumed: it is thrown back overboard dead, because it does not have a good size, or it is not a popular species to eat, or it exceeds the number of tonnes fished of a given species allowed for each boat.

And we are not talking of just some fish: we are talking of 42% of fish trawled by large fishing boats which is thrown back overboard dead. This way, every year in Europe, one million tonnes of fish is discarded. What an insane waste!

In order to avoid this malpractice, the international campaign Fish Fight is collecting signatures to put pressure on the European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. The EU fishery policies are being discussed and it is important to be heard so that this insane waste is put to an end.

More data: trawling boats discard 42% of the fish caught, whereas small traditional fishing boats only discard 3% of fish. And also, the later employ more people, preserve millenary traditions and the catch is local.

Sources

1. Post at Delivering Data about salmon fishing:
2. Website about overfishing, a global disaster: http://overfishing.org/
3. Every year, one million tons of fish is thrown overboard dead in Europe: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/13/fishing-discards-ban-eu
4. Large fishing boats: http://gustavoduch.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/la-extincion-2/
5. Fish Fight campaign: http://www.fishfight.net/
6. A very interesting website about the EU fisheries policies: http://www.fishforthefuture.eu/

    
    
     
    

Lo que hay que Wert!

For the first time in our blog, we are not the authors of this post. Our guest is José Ignacio Wert, the current Spanish Minister of Education, Culture and Sports, because writing about cuts in the Spanish education system only requires a copy-paste of the Spanish Minister’s best quotes about education.  Such shameful pearls of wisdom are published in the website Lo que hay que Wert, which is a campaign launched by the NGO Educación Sin Fronteras (Education Without Borders) to claim that the education budget of 2013 should be at least like the education budget of 2011.
The Spanish Minister of Education, Culture and Sports said:

• "Public education is no longer contributing to our society".
• "Populist temptation is everywhere, but when people say that government should help people instead of helping banks, the claim is formulated wrongly, because helping banks means helping people".
• [About overcrowded schools] "We should bear in mind that, besides learning, kids go to school to mingle with other kids, communicate with each other, have different experiences… And this would be very difficult if there were few kids in each classroom”.
• [About the brain drain] "I don’t think it should be called brain drain. It is not negative at all to have young people with skills and willingness to move around, who can speak foreign languages, who are willing to live far from home, who wish to broaden their professional scope…".
• "The concept of school community is abusive and invasive. The idea of a managing board made up of parents, students, teachers and non-teaching staff is not possible because schools are not a democracy, as education is not a democratic process”.
• "What do you mean that some families do not have enough resources to pay school taxes? Maybe these families prefer spending their money on other things than schooling ".

If you are against cuts in education, sign up here, and talk about it.

Sources:

1. José Ignacio Wert: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ignacio_Wert
2. Campaign Lo que hay que Wert: www.loquehayquewert.org
3. Educación Sin Fronteras: http://www.educacionsinfronteras.org
4. Sign here against the cuts in education: http://www.loquehayquewert.org/firma.php

     
       
         

Immigration Detention Centres, our next-door concentration camps

In 1985 the Spanish government approved an immigration law including detention centres (CIES in Spanish) for immigrants who do not have papers in order, but are not to be imprisoned. According to this law, immigrants should spend a maximum of 40 days in those detention centres until they are expelled from Spain.  

In 1995, with the implementation of the Schengen Agreement, many detention centres were built around Europe. In Spain, even if these centres are managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, there is no official information about the exact number of centres and the exact number of people in detention. According to the campaign Stop CIES, conducted by the NGO “SOS Racisme” and the Barcelona Youth Council, there are 280 detention centres in Europe, including 11 in Spain. Now-a-days, with the new detention law, immigrants can spend there 60 days. 

Several organisations denounced that immigrants are ill-treated in these centres, to the point that in the detention centre of Barcelona there have been four casualties so far. The Spanish Minister of Home Affairs argues that they were all natural deaths, except for a suicide, but there is no way to check it out. There is no control on police actions in these centres, there are no annual reports, no lists of immigrants in detention, no financial reports and no public information made available. In short, it is like a concentration camp for people who have committed no crime (not having your papers in order is not a crime but just an administrative offence), and these people are denied most of their rights.

At the beginning of 2012, several campaigns against these shameful centres were reported in the mass media. The Catalan ombudsman decided to enter the detention centre in Barcelona with some journalists to make an inspection, but they were not allowed in. Some days later, the Spanish Minister of Home Affairs allowed some journalists to enter this centre in an attempt to improve the public opinion about CIES. As a result, from now on, detention centres will be named CECE in Spain (Centres for the Controlled Stay of Foreigners), which allegedly sounds better. But they are still the same: detention centres without any transparent information.

As citizens, we get almost no information about the existence of detention centres or what happens there, but we are an accessory nonetheless. Detention centres are like concentration camps, and they may be located next door.

Sources:

1. Organic Law 7/1985 on Rights and Liberties of the Foreigners in Spain: http://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1985-12767
2. The Schengen Agreement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement
3. Information of the Spanish Ministry of Home Affairs about detention centres: http://www.interior.gob.es/extranjeria-28/regimen-general-189/centro-de-internamiento-de-extranjeros-208?locale=es
4. Campaign against detention centres: http://ciesno.wordpress.com/about/
5. A young man dies in the detention centre of Barcelona: http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/01/06/inenglish/1325830851_850210.html
6. Not having your papers in order is not a crime but an administrative offence: http://www.papelesespana.com/documentacion/sin-papeles.html
7. Journalist entering the detention centre in Barcelona: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/04/26/barcelona/1335425279.html
8. Detention centres are named differently: http://www.abc.es/20120612/espana/abci-cies-anteproyecto-novedades-201206112037.html

   
   
   
    

A living planet

With more than five million members, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is the world’s largest conservation organisation. 

In spring 2012 it became notorious because one of its honorary presidents, the Spanish King Juan Carlos, went hunting elephants in Botswana. This NGO received mass criticism to have a hunter as honorary president of the Spanish section, being a wildlife conservation organization. In July, an extraordinary assembly decided to sack him with a vote carried by a 94% majority. However, it was a hard blow for the image of this organization and some members resigned.

WWF has been linked to the monarchies for a long time. One of its founders was the Prince Consort of the Netherlands, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, and its current president is Charles, Prince of Wales. The aim is having international projection and making sure that WWF acts and campaigns appear not only in environmental publications but also in gossip magazines, to reach many more people, more or less as if we were talking of goodwill ambassadors. 

Leaving this issue aside, WWF plays a very important role. This NGO creates and manages many protected areas, launches campaigns to protect species, collaborates with indigenous communities to preserve territories… WWF has more than 1,200 projects around the world. 

And besides this field work, WWF also plays a significant role in denouncing environmental problems of our planet. Among other documents, this organization publishes a report called the Living Planet, analysing the health of our planet, with many data and proposals for a better future. Read this report and you will learn how things are and which problems we should face. And, most importantly, you will realise that we should change many things: either we reduce the impact of human activity on the environment or our future is doomed to failure. 

Some data from this report, which we encourage you to read:

• The planet biodiversity in the last 35 years has been reduced by 30%.
• Our current consumption of raw materials exceeds by 50% the planet’s regenerating capacity. We live in one planet, but we consume as if we were living in one and a half planets. 
• Deforestation and forest degradation account for 20% of our CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. 
• Only a third of the world’s rivers longer than 1,000 km are free flowing, without dams.
• In the last 50 years, global sea fishing has increased five-fold, so many species are overexploited. 
• The past few decades have been warmer than any other comparable period for the last 400 years.

Sources:

1. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Fund_for_Nature
2. WWF removes King Juan Carlos as its honorary president: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18942736
3. Goodwill ambassadors: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2011/07/goodwill-ambassadors.html
4. Living Planet Report 2012: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/1_lpr_2012_online_full_size_single_pages_final_120516.pdf