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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Human Rights Reader
130<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">HOW WE, HR ACTIVISTS, ARE DUPED: JUST A FEW
EXAMPLES.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">1. The official neoliberal
paradigm has actually created its own ‘counter-paradigm’; one that, for looks,
embodies a highly ethical (yet apolitical) discourse. Its name: “Sustainable
Development”, Sustainable development is a discourse with a big focus on the
environment and an accompanying strategy of ‘poverty alleviation’. It is here
contended that sustainable development mostly brushes-over policy issues
pertaining to the defense of human rights (HR) --including the right to health
and the social rights of women. It also does not look into the structural
measures needed for the eradication of poverty, of ill-health and malnutrition
and of other HR violations. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">2. The beauty of this --for
pro-status-quo ideologues-- is that this ‘counter-ideology’ rarely challenges
neoliberal policy prescriptions; it develops alongside and in harmony, rather
than in opposition, to the official neoliberal dogma --perhaps only giving the
‘system’ an occasional cold, but not a real
pneumonia…<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">3. Within this
counter-ideology, development scholars find a comfortable niche; their role is
to generate a semblance of critical debate without prominently addressing the
negative social aspects of the global market system. The ethical focus on the
environment and on the poor with their health and other problems provides the
sustainable development discourse with a ‘human face’ and with a semblance of
commitment to some kind of social change. Bottom line, it really does not
constitute a threat to the neoliberal economic agenda; so it is let
be.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">4. In the ethical outlook
of alleviating poverty, figures are being manipulated. Let us take a telling
example: The 1U$/capita/day is actually a hoax. Through clever gross
manipulation of income statistics, mainly (but not only) the World Bank presents
us with figures that serve the useful purpose of representing (and making us
believe that) the poor in developing countries are a minority group; groups with
per capita income above 1U$ a day, we are told, are somehow not-so-poor. But the
1U$/day standard has no rational base; population groups in developing countries
with per capita incomes of 2, 3 or even U$5/day remain poverty stricken and
suffer from preventable deaths and diseases. The entire 1U$/day framework is
totally removed from an examination of real life situations since it does not
analyze expenditures on food, shelter and social services (especially health and
education), among other --all inalienable human rights. We all know poverty
indicators are computed in a mechanical fashion. The estimation of poverty
indicators has thus become a numerical exercise which usefully serves to conceal
the galloping globalization of poverty.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">5. Moreover, double
standards prevail in the measurement of poverty. The 1U$/day criterion applies
only to developing countries. In the West, methods of measuring poverty have
been based on minimum levels of household spending required to meet essential
expenditures. In the </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">US</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">, the cost of a minimum adequate diet is multiplied by 3
to allow for other expenses; this comes up to around 11U$/cap/day. If this
methodology would be applied in developing countries, the overwhelming majority
of the population would be categorized as poor. In fact, with deregulation and
free trade, the cost of living in many </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Third World</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"> countries is now higher than in the
</SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">US</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">6. Poverty assessments are
largely office-based exercises conducted in the capitals of the rich countries
with insufficient awareness of local realities; these realities --the burden of
ill-health of the poor, for example-- are often even deliberately concealed. So,
poverty indicators misrepresent country-level situations, as well as the
seriousness of unrelenting global poverty; they serve the purpose of portraying
the poor as a minority group representing only some 20% of the world’s
population. Future trends are forecast <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>making poverty appear declining…thus
vindicating free market policies. The free market system can then be presented
as the most effective means of achieving poverty alleviation. The benefits of
the technological revolution and the contributions foreign investment and trade
liberalization make are then quickly added to the rosy picture (as a ‘topping on
the cake’) without identifying how these global trends foster increased poverty
levels. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">7. Now briefly back to the
social rights of women. In the market-oriented approach, women’s programs are
framed in relation to the opportunity costs and efficiency of focusing on
women’s rights, i.e., investments in women’s programs (including those in
reproductive health) are considered vital in achieving the economic efficiency
needed for development. The main objective of such a justification is,
therefore, not to enhance women’s rights, but --thru the economics of the free
market-- to make purportedly gender-centered investments that eventually end up
demobilizing the women’s movement. The structural causes of the poverty of women
and of the way they are discriminated are thus hidden or even
denied.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Caveat:<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">8. We need to become more
and more aware of these avenues of deceit we are bombarded-with day-in-day-out.
We need to debunk these myths and communicate more effectively while doing
so.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">9. The globalization of the
HR struggle is fundamental; it requires solidarity and an internationalism of a
degree with little precedents in history. The current global economic system
feeds on the social divisiveness between and within countries. Worldwide
coordination among all social movements that support the HR-based approach is
crucial. This Reader has insisted on this urgency before, but it reiterates it
here.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Claudio Schuftan,
</SPAN><st1:City><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Ho Chi Minh
City</SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><A href="mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn</FONT></A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Mostly adapted from the
book <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“The Globalization of Poverty
and the New Order” by Michel Chossudovsky. Copies of this highly recommended
book can be obtained from </FONT><A href="mailto:chosso@uottawa.ca"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">chosso@uottawa.ca</FONT></A><FONT face="Times New Roman">
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