Wealth of world’s billionaires surges past $7 trillion

Joseph Kishore

The combined net worth of the world’s billionaires has reached a new high in 2015 of $7.05 trillion, according to the latest compilation published by Forbes magazine on Monday.

There are a record 1,826 billionaires, each with an average wealth of $3.8 billion. Relative to last year, the world’s billionaires have increased their combined wealth by more than 10 percent, from $6.4 trillion in 2014, while the total number of billionaires has grown by 11 percent.

In introducing its report, Forbes noted the striking disconnect between the continued surge in the wealth of the world’s ultra-rich and the state of the world economy. “Despite plunging oil prices and a weakened euro, the ranks of the world’s wealthiest defied global economic turmoil and expanded once again,” the magazine commented.

This growth in the wealth of billionaires is bound up with the continued rise in global equity markets. The FTSE All-World Index surged to record highs last month, and US markets have continued to break records. Stock ownership is overwhelmingly concentrated in the hands of the wealthy, who have been the prime beneficiaries of “quantitative easing,” record low interest rates and other government policies.

The wealth of the world's billionaires

The United States, the home of Wall Street and center of global financial capital, again has far and away the highest number of billionaires—536. Since the beginning of the so-called “economic recovery,” in 2009, some 95 percent of all income gains in the United States have gone to the top 1 percent. Meanwhile, nearly one in four children in the country lives in poverty.

At the top of the list of billionaires in the US are familiar names, including Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, whose individual wealth alone surged by $3.2 billion, to $79.2 billion. Among Americans, Gates was followed by investor Warren Buffet, the list’s biggest gainer for the year, who now has a net worth of $72.7 billion, up $14.5 billion from last year.

Further down the list, one finds individuals like hedge fund manager Steven Cohen, a personification of the essentially criminal character of American capitalism. A year ago, Cohen’s former hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, pleaded guilty to insider trading charges. Cohen himself was never charged, and he simply transferred his fortune to a new firm, Point72 Asset Management. Cohen made $1.3 billion last year, bringing his total net worth to $11.4 billion.

If categorized as a separate country, California, with 131 billionaires, would be second on the Forbes list, following only the US as a whole and China. Among the new billionaires in California are Travis Kalanick and Garett Camp, co-founders of Uber, a car-sharing service that specializes in coordinating drivers who are paid low wages, with uncertain and irregular hours. Such labor is increasingly being seen as a model for the American economy as a whole.

Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecommunications magnate, was second on the global list, with $77.1 billion. Half of Mexico’s population of 122 million people lives in poverty, defined as an income of less than about $6 a day (2,329 pesos a month). Slim’s personal fortune is roughly comparable to the combined annual income of these 60 million impoverished Mexican workers.

While Slim is the richest single individual in Latin America, the country with the largest number of billionaires in the region is Brazil, with 54. Half of Brazil’s 60 million children live in poverty.

Overall, the country with the second largest number of billionaires is China, with 213, followed by Germany, India and Russia.

China, which remains a cheap labor platform for world capitalism, is home to 71 of the 290 billionaires on the Forbes list this year, or about a quarter of the total. The richest individual in China is Wang Jianlin ($24.2 billion), a real estate magnate, followed by Jack Ma ($22.7 billion), the founder of Alibaba Group, an Internet trading company.

A surge in equity markets in China last year has benefited not only Chinese billionaires. Forbes commented, “If you invested in the companies run by billionaires on the top 20 China billionaire list, you’re tracking their wealth right into your brokerage account.” The initial public offering of Alibaba last year became an international spectacle of speculation and greed, netting global investors tens of billions in profits.

On India, Forbes commented that the country’s 90 billionaires “are riding high on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of ‘good times.’” The right-wing Hindu fundamentalist politician, elected last year, has quickly pushed through a raft of pro-business measures, while promoting the country as the world’s sweat shop.

The richest Indian is Mukesh Ambani (net worth of $21 billion), the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited. About 60 percent of the population in India, or 750 million people, live on less than $2 a day.

Russia has seen a significant decline in the number of billionaires, from 111 to 88, dropping from third to fifth on the overall list of countries. This is one result of the economic crisis that has engulfed the country, due to the sharp drop in oil prices and crippling economic sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe. One of the primary aims of these sanctions is to encourage a section of the Russian oligarchs, fearful of the impact on their wealth, to turn against the government of Vladimir Putin.

Certain broader comparisons are revealing. The debt that Greece owes the banks of Europe, for example, is about $90 billion. The wealth of the world’s billionaires is more than 77 times this amount.

In the United States, the city of Detroit has a debt of $6.9 billion, or one one-thousandth of the collective wealth of the world’s billionaires.

Both Greece and Detroit have been dragged through a disastrous restructuring dictated by the banks and endorsed by the entire political establishment, resulting in mass impoverishment and the decimation of living standards.

The Forbes list gives expression to the parasitic character of world capitalism as a whole. Whatever the particular sector of the economy with which their wealth is associated—finance, manufacturing, telecommunications—the fortunes of the ultra-rich are invariably tied to surging stock markets.

The concentration of such enormous sums in the hands of so few is not simply the product of abstract economic processes, but deliberate government policies, intensified since the financial crash of 2008. As the World Socialist Web Site noted at the time, the crisis was “the form in which a fundamental restructuring of the American and global economy, and the social and class relations upon which it is based, is taking place.”

Since 2009, when the policies of bank bailouts, near-zero interest rates and “quantitative easing” were fully implemented, the wealth of the world’s billionaires has nearly tripled. Led by the Obama administration in the US, the ruling class has funneled trillions of dollars into the financial markets while carrying out a relentless assault on the working class.

The universal character of these processes makes clear that what is at issue is the very nature of the existing economic order. The extraordinary growth of social inequality and the immense transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top are expressions of a bankrupt and diseased social system, capitalism. The decay and crisis of this system are producing the means for its own demise—the eruption of social conflict and class struggle on a world scale.

The police killing in Los Angeles

Andre Damon & Barry Grey

On Sunday, in broad daylight and in full view of horrified bystanders, six police officers converged on a homeless, mentally unstable man living in a tent on Los Angeles’s Skid Row, only a few blocks from downtown.

Ignoring the protests of shocked and outraged onlookers, the police proceeded to tase and beat the unarmed man. Three of the cops fired a total of five shots into their prostrate victim, killing him.

Like a number of similar police atrocities in the US in recent months, this event was taped by a witness. The four-minute video has circulated around the world, evoking in millions of people a combination of revulsion and disbelief. The wanton murder of a human being. Why? For what reason?

The killing of Charley Saturmin Robinet, known as “Africa,” is only the latest in a string of police atrocities. Virtually every day, somewhere in “democratic” America, uniformed thugs wearing badges savagely beat or kill someone—almost always someone who is struggling to make ends meet in a society dominated by wealth and privilege.

Police killed 1,102 people last year. Nearly 200 more have died at the hands of police since the start of this year. The list of victims includes eighteen-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York; twelve-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; sixteen-year-old Jessica Hernandez in Denver, Colorado; and Antonio Zambrano-Montes in Pasco, Washington.

In each case, the response of the local, state and federal governments has been the same—to shield the killer cops. Rigged grand juries refused to indict the officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner, despite eyewitness accounts and even video evidence establishing that the victims were unarmed and posed no threat to their killers.

Obama administration officials have leaked to the press the fact that the Justice Department will not bring federal charges against Darren Wilson, the Ferguson cop who murdered Michael Brown.

Last week, authorities in Cleveland argued in court that Tamir Rice bore responsibility for his own death at the hands of the police because he was playing with a toy pistol.

The net result of the string of police murders, which sparked nationwide protests, has been an unambiguous signal from the state that the police can beat and kill with impunity. Not a single cop has been prosecuted. On the other hand, hundreds of protesters have been arrested and dozens of people have been charged for criticizing the police in social network postings.

The brutality and violence of social relations in America found expression in another horrific and very public event this week. On Monday, for the second time in less than a week, the execution of a Georgia woman was postponed only hours before her lethal injection was scheduled to take place. Forty-six-year-old Kelly Renee Gissendaner was returned to death row to face yet another date with the executioner. This in a country whose Constitution bans “cruel and unusual punishment!”

The particular circumstances behind Sunday’s killing of Robinet are indicative of the broader state of social relations in the US. Los Angeles’s Skid Row is home to some 1,700 homeless people, many of them mentally ill, who have ended up in the street as a result of decades of budget cuts and chronic mass unemployment.

The police officers involved in the shooting are part of the “Safer Cities Initiative,” a special unit formed for the purpose of cracking down on “quality of life” crimes, i.e., harassing and brutalizing the poor and destitute, as part of a drive to force the homeless out of an area targeted for gentrification.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that “an explosion of downtown development and gentrification” has put “pressure on city officials to clean up the street.” As one Skid Row resident told the Times, “The cops don’t want us here. They tried to make an example out of [Robinet].”

These practices are mirrored in cities throughout the country. In Detroit, water and utility shutoffs are being used to drive out much of the city’s poor population, while a portion of the city center is transformed into an enclave for the wealthy.

The psychopathic actions of cops reflect the increasingly malignant and explosive social contradictions building up within the United States. The American ruling class, whose wealth and property the police and the state apparatus as a whole defend, looks on the working class with a combination of hatred and fear.

The Wall Street oligarchs and corporate CEOs are aware that their relentless attacks on working people and youth, compounded by their own insatiable greed, are leading inevitably to social upheavals. Their basic response is to crack down violently on every expression of social opposition and build up the infrastructure of a police state.

Hence the transformation of police forces across the country into domestic counterinsurgency paramilitaries. The working population within the country is looked upon in a similar manner as the people of Iraq and Afghanistan—as a hostile and potentially insurrectionary force.

More and more, the methods of foreign occupation are directly applied within the US. In Boston in 2013 and Ferguson in 2014, the police and military were used to lock down entire cities.

All of this has been promoted at the highest levels of government. The Obama administration has overseen the transfer of billions of dollars in military hardware to local police forces. It has defended the Defense Department’s program to arm local police with tanks, helicopters and military-grade weapons.

This is in line with the White House’s defense of the NSA domestic spying program, its assertion of the right to assassinate American citizens, and its shielding of those responsible for the Bush administration’s torture program.

Military-police repression within the United States is the outcome of endless war abroad and social counterrevolution at home. It is the response of the ruling class to the staggering growth of social inequality.

War, inequality and dictatorship are the inevitable products of capitalism. The defense of democratic rights, including the right to live, is inseparable from the fight to overthrow this brutal, corrupt and obsolete social order, and establish a new, egalitarian form of social organization—socialism.

Open Letter to Somalia President

Abdinur Sh. Mohamud

It was barely two years ago when literally the whole nation rejoiced over your rise to power and elated on the notion that an ordinary civil society leader can assume the presidency of a war ravaged fragile state where warlord-ism reigned for so many years. In retrospect, your relative obscurity and detachment from Somalia’s past ills, gave you the edge and made you a safe bet over other deeply entrenched contenders. In essence, you were afforded a lifetime opportunity to serve your nation, bestowed without reservation, the highest favorable rating imaginable, carrying on your shoulders the hope and aspiration of a war fatigued society. Because of your humble background, contagious smile and soothing demeanor, Somalis and friends of Somalia were relived in your selection and found in you a ray of hope that the nation’s intractable political conflict may be a thing of the past and a new dawn for effective leadership, statehood and development is in the offing.  In fact, you are among rare leaders afforded a massive political mandate sufficient to carry the nation forward, rekindle its dimming appetite for nationhood and restore social and political stability.

Mr. President, it is not an overstatement to underscore the fact that unfortunately you did not live up to these expectations and on the contrary the nation may return back to a period of conflict and mayhem if the current political trajectory prevails before the expiration of your term. 

Mr. President, a great deal of opportunity and momentum were lost during your presidency and a very valuable political capital carelessly squandered that could have catapulted the nation into political stability. Consequently, public confidence in your leadership is at arguably all-time low, clan-ism and warlord-ism is unabashedly on the rise and after a sharp military and economic decline, Al-shabab is breathing once again and flexing its muscles in and around your presidential compound.

Mr. President, I am writing this letter not as a critic of your administration, but out of concern for our country’s future and a burning desire to shake your inner spirits for immediate positive change before it is too late. My concern, Mr. President, is that if left to your own devices, you may leave Somalia much worse than you found it.Here is a glimpse of current political realities that your advisors may not relate to you.

Growing Insecurity

Mr. President, you promised the Somali people a national vision in your post-election plan called the “six pillar policy”, giving heightened emphasis on national security and signaling your unwavering pledge to restore peace and security to the nation. This now forgotten policy focused on the creation of political stability; speeding up of economic recovery; rebuilding peace and removing main drivers of conflict; improving institutional capacity for public service delivery; and increasing international partnerships. Mr. President, the welcome sound of these well-intentioned slogans aside, Somalia is nowhere closer to achieving any of these critical objectives, and on the contrary remains less secure today than the day you were elected president. Even with the support of over 22,000 African troops , Al-shabab seems to have an invisible psychological grip over the nation, rendering your Government noticeably ineffective. It is undeniable fact that parliamentarians, senior public officials and other innocent civilians continue to lose their lives under your watch with no sense of alarm and serious investigation to bring perpetrators to justice. In fact, one gets the impression that you have resigned to accept the status quo as an inherent part of Somali life, when you were principally elected to be the change agent for peace, security and a better Somalia.

The question many continue to ask today, Mr. President is, whatever happened to your security, security, and security pledge? Was it all an empty rhetoric?

Even though Al-Shabab is militarily on the decline, the political climate created by the endless squabble in the highest levels of your government gives it the breathing space to reconstitute, rearm and wreak havoc on the defenseless public. Undoubtedly, Al-Shabab remains a clear and present danger that acts at will with the added potential to regroup and possibly regain political power. 
     
Rampant Corruption

Political corruption is not new and limited to Somalia. However, as the nation’s foremost national figure, you were elected to set the example of high moral conduct and establish a political culture where ethical practices for good governance, transparency and accountability have the potential to thrive. As a trained academic and social activist, you appeared from a distance the right man for the job, given your first-hand knowledge of Somalia’s social and political ills. Instead, you and your associates unfortunately stand accused of widespread corruption, allegedly ready to sell the nation’s natural resources to the lowest bidder. In fact, the U.N. Monitoring Group is not alone in making these allegations; ordinary citizens now began to scrutinize Government contracts signed with local and foreign agents in secrecy. Whether true or not, your detractors succeeded in painting you and your team as political opportunists with a bent desire for quick riches. Moreover, dismissive denials from your administration continue to fall on deaf ears with far reaching economic and political consequences to the nation.

As a civil society practitioner, you should have known the egregiousness of these allegations; distanced yourself from those directly accused of corruptive practices and reassured the public of your innocence. Instead, you ill-advisedly went on the offensive, questioned the motive of your accusers, blinded yourself from the prevalence of corruptive practices in the war ravaged country and waged a losing battle against your accusers. In doing so, Mr. President, you lost credibility; much needed public confidence in your presidency; and in the process lost international community support which the country desperately needs.

Ineptness and political conflict at the helm

Mr. President, through their political representatives, the Somali people elected you to the highest office of the land, not as a member of a political party or religious group, but on your own individual merits. Not a small feat, one might add. However, as soon as you assumed power, your allegiance to an inexplicable political group became quite evident, even though you denied their existence on numerous occasions. In fact, having a team of political advisers is an advantage and not in and of itself a crime. However, holding the business of the public hostage, time and again, to the personal and political wishes of a few is nothing short of a political suicide.  Mr. President, the public expected you to serve the nation honorably by upholding the constitution, advancing sound policies and solid public infrastructure and institutions of good governance. Instead, you wasted precious national time and resources on petty political squabbles with ineffective public officials you singlehandedly picked yourself in the first place. Moreover, your political selections and appointments for crucial public posts leave much to be desired, given the wealth of human resources potential available to the nation.

Clan-Federalism Run Amuck 

As enshrined in the national constitution, Federalism is the system of governance and political framework chosen for the country provided that it is eventually ratified through a public referendum. Even though this was necessitated by clan acrimony and two decades of statelessness, many contemporary citizens remain apprehensive about its potential to balkanize the nation. Mr. President, you were expected to fairly discharge your constitutional duties by ushering the development of viable regional states,  and ensuring a transparent process that fosters political legitimacy and public ownership for all stakeholders, all the while maintaining the supremacy of the Federal Government. However, you and your Government seem to have politicized the process by suppressing legitimate voices, creating multiple co-presidents with their peculiar foreign policy machinations competing with your Government, in clear violation of the constitution, and effectively diminishing the prestige of the Federal Government. Mr. President, this unhealthy social and political engineering designed, as your critics contend, to advance your potential to retain the presidency for a second term, may sound benign in the short term, but has the potential to rekindle inter-clan warfare to peaceful communities as it already has in some regions.

Trivializing Negotiations with Somaliland

It is commendable, Mr. President, that your Government continues to engage in a political dialogue with our brothers in Somaliland. Unfortunately, it has taken more than two decades to establish meaningful dialogue on the status of Somaliland and the potential to enhance cooperation with the Somaliland administration. However, these talks appear haphazardly organized and continue to send confusing and sometimes alarming signals to the Somali public.  Granted that Somaliland administration and its representatives on these talks appear primed for the cause and sharply express their objectives without reservation, the Federal Government’s position on these talks seems at best rudimentary, trivial and somewhat treacherous. Make no mistake, Mr. President, the issue of Somaliland is an existential matter for the nation, potentially threatening its sovereignty and territorial integrity and deserves heightened urgency, sound national policy framework guiding the talks and full stakeholder awareness. A national policy predicated on the national constitution emphasizing the sanctity of Somali unity addressing the question of Somaliland must be developed and disseminated to the Somali public.

Inability to promote citizenship and national unity

As a nation emerging from prolonged civil war, the country remains polarized across clan and regional lines with little public affinity or Government initiated programs enhancing social cohesion. Regional identities and clan narratives currently suffocate the desire for citizenship and national unity. While the clan power structure invests heavily in the nation’s disunity and clan based power-and resource sharing, national unity, remains elusive and to the new generation an ancient concept. Naturally, presidents occupy the bully pulpit of the nation they serve and have the unique responsibility to advance citizenship, mobilize public support or pacify the nation when necessary. Mr. President, regional narratives and new social identities continue to threaten the core national identity that undergirds the country that you currently lead. It should not surprise you to know that some Diaspora communities today even reject the singing of the Somali national anthem in public events where regional states are celebrated. Unfortunately, your Government has done very little to reverse this dangerous course, advance citizenship, suppress clan loyalties and promote national unity.

Moreover, Mr. President, effective leaders mourn visibly with their public in times of crisis, mingle with their troops to boost morale, honor fallen public servants killed in the line of duty and galvanize the nation to stand with the Government to enhance security and public welfare.

Mr. President, I am privileged to know you in person; hold you in higher esteem and continue to believe that that you possess what it takes to seriously change the course of the country and leave behind a positive legacy. Unfortunately, Somalia faces crisis of epic proportions in the fight against balkanization, clan-ism and Al-shabab in that order. In fact, the menace of Al-Shabab strengthens and thrives as the drumbeat for clan-ism and regionalism gets louder.

Mr. President, Somalia deserves a transformative national figure, willing to surround himself with diverse and qualified professionals to hold this tattering nation together at this critical time. And with all due respect, if you are unable to do so for the remainder of your term, please spare the nation more despair and agony and gracefully consider vacating the office.

Promoting Grassroots Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the IGAD Member States

Mengsteab Tesfayohannes & Mussie Tessema

Introduction

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is an eight-country trade and developmental regional bloc in the greater Horn of Africa. It includes eight states: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, the Republic of South Sudan, and the republic of Sudan. The region is one of the most geo-politically important corners of the world in terms of its diversified climate, potential mineral and human endowments, agricultural endowments, natural panoramic tourism attractions, archaeological and historical heritages, water resources, etc.  Unfortunately, the region did not benefit from its vast potential resources and capabilities as required during the past several decades.

This was due to internal and external destabilizing factors related to past colonialism, ethnicity, tribalism, resource sharing, poverty, superpower rivalry, porous borders, hegemonic desires, ineffective macro-economic management, lack of good governance and undeveloped institutional and socio-economic infrastructures and weak participation of the bulk of the population in vital political and socio-economic developmental activities.

However, the region is now rising up towards a better position. We can validate this optimism by observing the major socio-economic development indicators. In countries like Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda, noticeable growth has been registered during the last 20 years (World Bank, 2013; African Development Bank Report, 2012; IMF, 2013; IGAD Report,2010). However, the region still has a long way to significantly exploit its vast potential of human and physical resources’ endowments and curb its deep-rooted socio-economic, political and peace and security problems (Healy, 2011; Headey, 2012).
 
Benefiting from the Technological and Entrepreneurial Innovation

During the last thirty years, our world has gone through an avalanche of socio-economic, technological and political changes and developmental milestones (Rodrick, 2014; Lin, 2011). Ground breaking technological inventions and entrepreneurial innovation are now mushrooming everywhere including in the developing nations. Our planet is becoming vastly interconnected, more interdependent and fast integrating. Acquiring useful knowledge at all levels is now cheaper than any time before due to the power of modern information technology and wider outreach of educational facilities.Nations have now more opportunities to benefit from the currently available global stock of knowledge and technological revolution.

The IGAD nations should also benefit from this widely available window of opportunities and valuable vast resources.  This can be done by promoting entrepreneurial innovation in a broader way. Promoting entrepreneurship and innovation by expanding its outreach in a smarter way and sediment it as a culture in everyday life of the society in general and that of the young population in special is essential. The young generation in particular needs to actively engage in the national economic developmental process at mega, macro, mezzo and micro levels incorporating all stakeholders. It is true that enhancing the vital nation building process, among others, emanates from disseminating the culture of innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives among the bulk of the population. IGAD nations can attain sustainable socio-economic development by boosting the capability and competitiveness of entrepreneurially motivated private sector stretching all the way up to the survivalist business (entrepreneurial) activities in both urban and rural areas.

Searching for an Alternative Gem

One important strategic action that should be taken is searching for an alternative gem for the establishment of an effective strategic and foundational roadmap focused on promoting innovation and entrepreneurial activities in the midst of the population at large in a broader, deeper and dynamic fashion. Popularizing entrepreneurial innovation at the grassroots level is not simply about how one creates a business or the workings of the economy. It is more about how we organize today’s society (Brenkert, 2002). As the developmental strategy guru, C.K., Parhalad (2002) said it rightly, “popularizing entrepreneurial innovation at all levels has a pivotal role to play in creating fortune at the bottom of the pyramid and creating a more sustained and better world.” Genuine entrepreneurial initiatives and innovative activities are helpful solutions to enhance the eradication of poverty and promote justified income inequality in national economies. Above all, ensuring active grassroots participation in the developmental process is essential for sustainable economic progress. If the desired opportunity is given, the populace has the wisdom, proven ability and prudence to actively engage in solving the acute and chronic socio-economic developmental problems surfaced in the region.

What IGAD Nations Should Do

IGAD nations are keen to popularize grassroots entrepreneurship education as one of their major national development agendas. However, recognition alone is not sufficient if it is not complemented with effective implementation course of actions and modalities. Therefore, concerted efforts should be exerted by all stakeholders including concerned governmental organs, private sectors agencies, academic institutions, business cooperatives, established entrepreneurs and many other segments of society. These comprehensive efforts are needed in order to build and mobilize the desired resources and capabilities for the broader promotion of grassroots entrepreneurship and innovation in both rural and urban areas. The desired resources and capabilities can be categorized as: Physical and Infrastructural; Technological and Operational; Economic (Financial, etc.); Human, managerial and governance at all levels; Information and Knowledge (KNOW HOW, KNOW-WHAT, and KNOW-WHY); and Socio-Cultural and Political.

The pertinent question is: what should be done to acquire the desired resources and capabilities to promote and popularize grassroots entrepreneurship and innovation among the ordinary population in a broader sense? This leads to the necessity of proper and savvy utilization and management of the available scarce resources and capabilities. It is true, IGAD members are developing nations. Their resources and capabilities are limited. They need to work hard and take further savvy courses actions to build-up their desired resources and capabilities are indispensable. This means that they need to deal with the HOWs and WHYs of enhancing their desired resources and capabilities as the main preconditions for achieving the intended objectives.

It is true that society’s developmental dynamics should be considered, measured and evaluated in several dimensions in order to have a full and holistic framework. These are: economic, technological, political, human, environmental, socio-cultural, historical, scientific and geographical dimensions. In the same way, it is also useful to develop grassroots entrepreneurship eco-system that incorporated at least the contribution and involvement of the following core stakeholders: Government sectors’ support; Civil society organizations and community based infrastructures; Educational establishments support; Business Sector Support; Internationally geared  technical, human capacity and economic endowments support; Diaspora’s Support; and other stakeholder capacities. Developing comprehensive and participative eco-system framework can help to gain a wider outreached support and facilitation. It is useful for IGAD nations to build customized Entrepreneurship Eco-System that reflects their unique objective situation.

Conclusion

Academic institutions and educators in the region have a mandate to create an entrepreneurial climate in the experiential learning environment all the way up to the most disadvantaged and poverty stricken segment of the population. Finally let me quote the words of wisdom, from the able and renaissance leader, President Paul Kagame, 

“I submit to you that Africa’s position and relevance in the world in an increasingly competitive global environment will be ensured by a leadership and people that refuse to be second best and that stand up for their shared interests” 

If policies and implementation strategies are formulated in congruence with the existing and forthcoming social and economic situations at all specified levels, the expected result will be undoubtedly fruitful. I believe that assessing the possibilities and problems of promoting grassroots based economic development approaches in the region can be a viable precondition for achieving sustainable economic development that each member nation aspires to do so.

Tanzania's Street Hawkers: An Economic Potential

 Elias Mhegera

Economists have advised the Tanzanian Government to change its attitude towards street hawkers and other petty traders by viewing them as contributors to the economic transformation rather than a public nuisance. The call was made on Monday this week by a senior economist Prof. Alison Brown lecturer in economics, Cardiff University and Department for International Development (DFID) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Growth Research Programme (DEGRP) Researchers fellow.

She was delivering her speech during the one day workshop that was organized by the Growth Research Programme (GRP)  in collaboration with the Policy Research for Development (REPOA), under the theme “Shaping Economic Transformation in Tanzania: Challenges and Potential Solutions.”

Prof. Brown challenged Tanzania to borrow a leaf from Kenya where the ‘jua kali’ (as petty traders are known) and in so many other places whereby the petty traders have been gradually streamlined into their countries’ economic set up. “Instead of harassing them, they should be streamlined into productive ventures, they can contribute enormously to the country’s economy once there is an appreciation of their contribution,” she defended.

Expounding on how the Government should tackle them, Prof. Brown said that there are a variety of strategies that can be used. For instance, one strategy is to ensure that they are allocated in permanent areas in order to develop clientele relationships. The main areas that she suggested are: to know the urban economic potentials where this population can be properly fit in, knowing the small scale businesses around the urban areas, and the potential dynamics of the contributions of these subsectors.

“They need to be integrated to the realm of microfinance, let them have a choice, allow them to have savings, and make them meet their pertinent demands, with these elements they will start to earn their incomes smoothly,” she commented. She revisited the historical trend where every effort was made to make them go back to their roots in the rural sector, and concluded that this has eventually proved not to be a permanent solution because it is the same Government that is turning into commercial agriculture which to a large extent has reduced land shares to peasant farmers.

“The main questions now are; to know who is using what, and find ways of institutionalizing this group into formal banks, Savings and Credit Co-operatives (SACCOs), and other small productive groups the types of Village Community Bank (VICOBA) and Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs)” She suggested.She also added that petty traders can accumulate capital over time and engage themselves in forming small companies; they can as well be trained to produce items like soap or even owning Bajaj, a tricycle motor bike. She also suggested of mobile banks through mobile phone companies like M-Pesa, Airtel Money and Tigo-Pesa.

She therefore called for their legal recognition and proper identifications so that they can access the world of mortgages so that Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) can recognize them.  She revealed that currently petty traders cannot access soft loans because they fear debts and they are not officially recognized in the mainstream production sectors.

Reacting to the presentation Ms. Falecia Masaki, an industrial policy analyst from the Ministry of Industry and Trade appreciated that this was a good food for thought idea, but it depends entirely on political decisions. While she did not dwell much on how politics is linked, but it is a well-known fact that in Tanzania, all areas of accumulations of the petty traders are as well strong political bases of the opposition parties.

Dr Blandina Kilama, contributing to the debate, said that there have been major transformations in the banking sector due to the fact that they have to adjust and regulate themselves to the competitions and nature of financial operations accordingly. She said that her institution REPOA has conducted researches on how these banks operate and found that the classical banks like CRDB, AKIBA and NBC had to adjust themselves in the wake of other key players like the Pension Funds and mobile phone companies.

For his part Msafiri Mgimwa from Pamoja Twajenga Project, said that the Tanzanian Government should create more enabling environment for small producers and give them a space so that they can enhance a country’s economy into robust one.

The question of handling street vendors has been criticized several times by politicians, experts and other stakeholders. It has been argued that they must be empowered in order to reduce the crime rate, but on its part the Tanzanian Government has been responding that preparation are under way but what is lacking is finance for funding their projects.

Happiness in Nigeria: Chasing a Mirage?

 Andrew A. Moemeka

Happiness is not a personal object; it is a universal property. It is large enough for all human beings to share from it satisfactorily, yet it is extremely elusive when the search for it is motivated by strict personal gain or morbid selfishness. True happiness derives from actions and behavior motivated by love, trust, honesty, respect, duty, responsibility and tolerance. These ethical factors do not obtain through convenience but deliberate and conscientious actions dictated by the need for creating understanding and building a harmonious community – a harmonious nation.Both leaders and the public in Nigeria are, by their actions, seeking happiness, which has been described as “the ultimate desire of humans on earth.” But to achieve this ultimate objective, there is need to follow the ‘right’ path, and create harmony in society. It requires people to consciously imbibe the right behavior. Short-cuts or taking the easy way out complicates issues. The political, economic and social fate of Nigeria has shown that selfishness, egocentrism, hatred, false image-building, exploitation and inordinate ambition do not produce harmony, positive development or happiness. As the Nation has bitterly learnt, these anti-social behaviors lead to deceit, disappointment, falsehood, disillusionment, heart-break, insecurity and despair.

The socio-economic campaign now being waged against communalistic principles is a campaign against ethical standards, which the ‘optimists’ consider too strict to allow for personal freedom and rights without responsibilities.  It is a vote for convenience – that is, for doing things the way one feels good doing them. But when freedom is detached from responsibility - from objective truth - it becomes impossible to establish personal rights on a firm rational basis; and the ground is laid for society to be at the mercy of the unscrupulous, the unrestrained will of dubiously selfish individuals and/or the subtle yet oppressive totalitarianism of public authority. 

The utility of anything stands and falls with the values which it embodies and promotes. This is true of convenience as it is of personal freedom. It is also true of ethical standards. What has happened in Nigeria in the past thirty to fifty years, has shown that the ‘values’ of convenience-of-action and of personal freedom (or rights)  have, to the detriment of the Nation, gained widespread acceptance. But as Keith Tester (1997: p. 2) has noted –

A community possessed of rights, which has failed to grow into duties, would be socially imbecile. The rights of the members would be worthless; their liberty, a sham; their government, if they had one, the laughing stock of the world.

The values of the ethical standards embodied in communalistic principles, though often drowned by the euphoric noise of superficial selfish contentment, constantly rear up their wisdom heads, beckoning on society to take a hard look at itself and return to the path of sanity, honesty, justice, self-control, moderation and humane behavior. However, majority of the people in Nigeria are modernity-conscious, restless, and selfish; they are the end-justifies-the-means, and get-rich-quick individuals. They are dead-bent not to listen to the call for a return to cultural moral principles. Any chance of coercing them to do otherwise is seriously negated by the nonchalant, selfish and greedy attitudes of our leaders. But the truth remains that as long as Nigeria continues to ignore the positive controls and restraints of communalistic principles or what American and European social scientists have now called Communitarianism, so long will the nation continue to face serious political, economic, social and cultural/moral problems. 

It is worth noting here that the call for return to authentic and functional communalism as a positive check on the evils of the morbid selfishness and rugged individualism of modernity-conscious Nigerian leaders and citizens, is not a lone voice in the wilderness. The Western world has discovered that there is a widespread misinterpretation of the concepts of freedom, individualism and collectivism; and that much of the social problems facing that continent can be traced to this misconception. Redirecting society back to the true meanings of these concepts does not seem possible or even feasible. In spite of this, a change is seen as very desirable, if not imperative. Hence, a middle-of-the-course social order aimed at creating a happy balance between (or, in fact, replacing) individualism and collectivism has been championed. It is communitarianism (Christians, Ferre, and Fackler, 1993, pp. 44-48; Etzioni, 1993) – a social order whose main goal is the achievement of appropriate and necessary public good without denying the primacy of individual rights. This makes it a comrade-in-arms with communalism for which community welfare is also a primary objective.

It would seem that the world is waking up to the need for placing public good on a pedestal that it deserves – one that ensures that both the community and its individual members work for, and reap the benefits accruing to the community for the benefit of all. This would be recognizing that societal harmony is imperative for sustainable progress and national development. Communalism and/or Communitarianism would appear to be the road to this harmony. All the fundamental principles of communalism point to the need for and provide the ingredients of, social harmony, which paves the way to positive socio-economic and socio-cultural development based on the rationale of public good. 

Harmony as a principle for moral order, says Magesa, 1997, does not mean that people would lose their (authentic) freedom. Harmony is the agent of freedom and is meant to enhance it…Without harmony… greed, selfishness and exploitation – in a word, chaos – set in and triumph over universal moral order.

Angola: The Tale of an African Oil Economy

Flavio G. I. Inocencio

Angola is the 3rd (third) largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa.It is a country endowed with significant oil reserves (being the 2nd largest oil producer in the world) and as such, it is member of OPEC.Angola is also a significant exporter of oil to the West and the largest exporter of oil to China after Saudi Arabia.

The country suffered from a long civil war spurred by the Cold war from its independence in 1975 until 2002. During that period, the ruling Party (MPLA) aided by the Soviet Union adopted a communist regime and a planned economy. The advent of the Peace and the market reforms of the early 1990s did not fully liberalise the economy. The prolongation of the war associated with the lax policies of its Central Bank (to finance Government deficits by printing money) created hyperinflation in the country, an experience remembered by every Angolan.

However, since the end of war in 2002 and fuelled by its oil wealth, Angola enjoyed some of the highest growth rates in the World. Nonetheless, these growth rates were elusive as they were based solely on the oil revenues and did not alter significantly the human development level of its citizens as The Economist stated: “Oil provides few jobs for locals and Angola is horribly unequal. The quality of life of people in rural areas and slums, such as Luanda’s Chicala, has barely improved since 2002. Most Angolans lack running water or electricity.”

This meant that the fluctuations of oil prices have a significant impact on its economy. That was the case after the 2008 economic crisis and it is the case with the current economic crisis in 2015.

For some economists, Angola suffers from the “Dutch disease,” which is the economic effect of having an increase of imports because of the appreciation of its national currency which is sustained by an influx of Dollars which derive from the oil revenues and thus create disincentives for investment in other sectors. Many are unaware that Luanda, the capital city is the most expensive city in the world for expatriates. The price of food is extremely high, because it’s cheaper to import. That is why many call this economic effect a “resource curse.”

One of the main problems in the resource rich countries is the misallocation of resources in the economy. Angola is a good example.  The end of the civil war created huge opportunities for reconstruction of the country; particularly with the resources available, considering that the revenues of oil provide the country with about Forty (40) Billion US Dollars per year.

The Government has pursued a Keynesian approach by assuming that spending alone would necessarily increase the total wealth of the country and increasing the standards of living without reforming profoundly the institutions and bureaucracy inherited from its Communist past. What followed was a crisis in the economy, particularly in the construction sector that was heavily dependent on Government contracts and subsidies when oil prices suddenly dropped in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis. The same events will happen in 2015.

Furthermore, it is important to point out that the recent plunge in oil prices was caused by the strategy of increasing market share of the Gulf Arab Countries led by Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately oil revenues are not being used to spur diversification of the economy, but are used instead as “rents” by politically powerful groups, particularly in the property market by expanding artificially the construction sector through government spending, creating unproductive investments or “mal-investments.”

Furthermore, those investments created huge asset bubbles in the property market, making the cost of housing prohibitively high for most households and businesses. Other distortions were created with the entrenchment of monopolies attributed to certain interest groups, thus damaging competition, particularly for consumers, who now have to pay higher prices for goods and services.

The revenues from oil created an economy dependent on consumption in its entirety and that meant that the incentives to diversify the economy for entrepreneurs and businesses do not exist, considering the problems of market access to international investors and national entrepreneurs. This model will soon run out, particularly with the inflationary pressure from the devaluation of the national currency (the Kwanza) because of the reduction of the Foreign Exchange Reserves, which mostly are denominated in US Dollars.

The requirement to sustain the unsustainable consumption based on crude oil prompted the Angolan Central National Bank (BNA) to embark on the sale of US Dollars through auctions in order to sustain the national currency, the Kwanza through the “Hard Kwanza policy.” However, the demand for the national currency (the Kwanza) is not higher because of the extreme fragility of the Angolan economy and its dependence on imports caused by the Dutch Disease.

The problem of Angola is that its foreign exchange earnings (Dollars) are not being allocated to the most productive uses in the Economy.  For those reasons, Angola offers a cautionary tale, of how powerful interest groups can capture government policy to promote their own interests at expense of everybody else and that sometimes Government policy does the wrong things instead of promoting entrepreneurship and removal of barriers for businesses in general.

The diversification of the economy will occur when those barriers are removed and when economic agents are protected by a stable legal regime that guarantees the protection of property rights, in order to avoid what Bastiat calls “legal plunder.”

Hence, the protection of property rights should be seen as a foundation for development and in a country such as Angola with a deficient court system and Government policies that encourage misallocation of resources, it is difficult to have a solid framework for economic growth without a proper functioning legal framework. As Hayek argues: “An effective competitive system needs an intelligently designed and continuously adjusted legal framework as much as any other.

What Angola needs is a proper legal framework with a capable judiciary, a proper monetary policy and an effective liberalisation of its economy and the elimination of monopolies and privileges to politically connected groups and individuals. The focus should be the creation of a skilled labour force in order to free the entrepreneurial forces of its population, as the Economist wrote about Angola:

Yet Angola remains a difficult place for investors and entrepreneurs. In the World Bank’s latest “ease of doing business” survey, the country ranks 179th out of 189. Enforcing a contract through Angola’s inefficient and sometimes corrupt courts can take years. Getting a visa is a hassle. A dire shortage of electricity means local firms struggle to compete with imported goods.

In Angola, the ghosts of its communist past still remain, and a culture of entitlement looms large. Angola has now a “degenerated capitalism” based on special privileges and a welfare State based on relations of patronage.²⁰

For all of those reasons, when formulating its economic policies, the Government should consider their impact not just to one group but to the society as a whole and not just in the short term but also in the long term. Henry Hazlit made it clear: “the art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

Migration and Trafficking in Ghana: Challenges and Concerns

 Samuel Zan Akologo

Introduction

Whenever we are dealing with people on the move, then they are either immigrants, refugees, internally displaced persons (IPDs) or trafficked persons. Conceptually, migration is essentially the movement of people from one place to another. The reason can either be economic, social, political or environmental. Therefore the difference or distinction is normally deduced from the reason for movement. Sometimes the geographical nature of the movement can also introduce minor distinctions as in Refugees – those who have moved out of their country of origin and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) – those who have been displaced from their original area of settlement within their own country. In recent times there is a push to make further distinctions with regards to levels of vulnerability, as in the movement of children – both accompanied and unaccompanied.

The nature and scope of human movements keep changing with emerging global trends. These dynamics call for frequent examination of the subject matter, sharing of new knowledge and review of our response to the situation. Migration generally has both positive and negative implications for human development which cannot be ignored and should not be handled in an arbitrary manner. In short, migration is a call for both a policy and programme response at all levels of governance; national, regional and global.

Highlights of the Situation of Migration in Ghana

Perhaps the situation of migration in Ghana manifests all the types of human movements that I have outlined above. The emerging dynamics of the field may soon also manifest earlier than we expect in Ghana. The following are key highlights in Ghana:

1. Refugees: Over 20,000 refugees are currently in Ghana from Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d Ivoire, Mali and Niger. There are four settled refugee camps while some from Togo and Liberia have now been integrated into the local community due to cessation arrangements. Children are included and affected by this kind of movement.

2. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): There are no reliable statistics on this type of human movement in Ghana. The main cause for IDPs is seasonal eruptions of inter-ethnic conflicts and violence due to disputes over natural resources (land, territory, inland water bodies etc.) and chieftaincy succession. Notable in this category is the Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo conflict in the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese. The situation of children on the move applies in this category of migrants.

3. Rural – Urban and North – South Migration: The biggest push factor here is poverty and lack of alternative opportunities, especially for young people. This movement also include children who are used as head- potters, popularly referred to as ‘Kayayee,’ in the cities. There are limited cases of urban-rural drifts mainly for illegal mining activities, also called ‘Galamsey.’

4. Emigration: Many young people are risking their life through the desert or Mediterranean Sea to leave Ghana for perceived well-being and better conditions in Europe. This is well documented and well known to us. However, professionals like Medical doctors and Nurses are also leaving Ghana for Europe or other well-endowed economies in Africa like South Africa and Botswana. They become Immigrants, legal or illegal, in their destinations or transit points.

5. Trafficking: While some of the children leave voluntarily from Northern Ghana to the South, others are actually trafficked there or even beyond Ghana. Even those who move voluntarily to the cities in the South of Ghana later fall into the trap of being trafficked due to the hardships they encounter at their planned intended destination. We have come across ‘Kayayee’ in Accra being trafficked to Nigeria and Benin. Some were actually rescued.

6. Nomads and Herdsmen: Seasonal movements of herdsmen from Mali, Niger and Chad into Northern Ghana have created situations of over-grazing, destruction of farms and crops and occasional skirmishes between them and native inhabitants. Now the movement is going southwards due to reduction of grass cover/fodder in Northern Ghana. The implications of this kind of movement are now regularly being reported in some areas in Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Volta and Eastern Regions, all to the south of Ghana.

Caritas – Ghana Response

1. Direct intervention for protection and provision of well-fare services. This is normally at the level of the Diocesan Caritas or other Church-related organizations. Notable examples are: Navrongo-Bolgatanga Street Children project, Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS) in Accra and Kumasi, and the Christian Mothers’ Association projects in the cities.

2. Direct intervention in the provision of habitat and social services for refugees in Ghana. The Migrants, Refugees and Relief Unit of Caritas – Ghana is the official Implementation Partner (IP) of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ghana for this purpose.

3. Public Policy Advocacy: Research work and direct engagement with Government and relevant state agencies, are the responsibility of the national office. Research work is currently limited due to lack of capacity (staff and resources). Policy education is key component of our advocacy work.

4. Networking and Partnerships: At the national level, we deliberately use networking and strategic partnership approach to mitigate limitations of individual organizations. It is also a way of building synergies for multi-dimensional attack on the problems of migration and human trafficking. For instance, the African Development Organization for Migration (AFDOM) which is based in Northern Ghana focuses on reducing illegal cross-border migration yet helps to resettle or re-integrate rescued children from transit points in southern Ghana.The Marshallan Relief and Development Services (MAREDES) have research potential and influence in high-level policy spaces in Ghana. Regional and International networking is limited to the Regional and International structures of CARITAS. So for instance, we are a member of the CI Working Group on Migration and Trafficking.

Some Challenges and Concerns

1. Migration has a very strong international relations dimension. The fact that the African Union has a Common Position on Migration and Development and the Strategic Migration Policy Framework is a very positive move. However, how much of this is known? How is it being implemented? Is there accountability or monitoring systems for these frameworks? Can Caritas – Africa and SECAM prioritize this in their strategic engagement with the Africa Union?

2. Locally, Ghana has no clear cut policy on migration and development. A national policy would have been critical for domesticating the Africa Union Frameworks. Government interest itself in Immigration service and Remittances of Ghanaian emigrants. Occasionally it reacts to embarrassing news arising from migration, without a clear policy articulation on the issue of migration and development.

3. Limited research on this field to expose empirical evidence of the scope, nature and implications is a serious concern. I have indicated earlier in my introduction that the dynamics of the field of migration calls for constant examination and sharing of new knowledge. Our inability to do this is a serious setback.

4. The recent outbreak of the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) has raised new challenges to migration and development. Suddenly the refugee camps in Ghana hosting displaced Liberians and Sierra Leoneans is posing new health challenges for the Government of Ghana than one has hitherto imagined.

5. Powerful economic interests affect our work on migration. For instance, powerful individuals in the cities (both men and women) are benefiting from trafficking and the menial services provided by youth who have migrated from poorer regions; especially as house-helps. Also, our over-crowded local market centres in the cities can hardly function without the migrant head potters who move goods from one point to the other. So economic interest and exploitation of services of migrants combine to perpetuate the situation in the cities.

6. Diminishing livelihood opportunities and lack of social amenities in our rural areas will continue to push the youth out of those places to the cities. Yet their situation is even likely to get worse in the cities because of the absence of social safety nets. The support services provided by our Caritas Organizations at the destinations may only be a mitigating factor but not the solution. How can we therefore re-strategize to tackle the problem from the root?

Conclusion

There are no ready answers to the challenges and concerns. However, this is a good medium and space to share preliminary ideas and provoke further thinking and strategic response. While local actions are important, there is a strong need for international relations for more far-reaching policy response. The on-going Post-2015 Development discourses are a great opportunity to flag migration as a critical development issue.

Honoring the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe for Their Continued Care

 Asia Alsgaard

This past October, the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe was one of four other tribes to receive the Honoring Nations award for excellence in the governance, effectiveness, and sustainability for their Child Welfare Program.  Awarded by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe was one of six finalists to receive the award. To continue their line of firsts, the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe has also recently become the first tribe to qualify for the Title IV-E waiver, which will allow them more flexibility in how “family” is defined and financial allocation.

The Honoring Nations Award came after having established a direct agreement with the U.S. department of Health and Human Services in 2012. This agreement allows the tribe to have direct control over child welfare services such as adoption and foster care services. Furthermore, the S’klallam tribe has the prerogative to try and place displaced children with close family members or with other tribal families rather than the standard of placing tribally associated children in non-Native homes. This was an important first step for the recognition of tribal rights across the United States and has changed the outcome of foster care situations for the Port Gamble S’klallam tribe. In some states, Aaliyah, a 4-year old with an absentee mother and incarcerated father, might have been placed in a non-Native home without appropriate tribal consultation. However, because of Port Gamble’s direct agreement and foster care system, Aaliyah was able to be placed with her grandmother, Juanita Holtyn instead of a family with whom Aaliyah had no connection.

This outcome is drastically different than those of the past. Jessie Scheibner, a member of the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe born during the 1940s remembers being taken from her family on the reservation at the age of three, spending the next four years being shuffled from foster home to foster home before finally being reunited with her mother and sister at the age of seven. She would not return to the reservation until she was eighteen years old. In an interview with Jullian Sullivan, she recalled her experience, “I just existed. Nobody cuddled me, nobody would play with me. Back then there was a lot of racism.”

In response to cases like Jessie’s, the Indian Child Welfare Act was enacted in 1978, establishing guidelines for dealing with Native child welfare cases. The act was an attempt to recognize the rights of tribal governments in cases dealing with Native children; however, the process was still controlled and operated by the state. Then in 2008, the passage of the Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act allowed tribal governments to apply for the ability to directly operate programs covered under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. It would be another four years before the Port Gamble K’lallam Tribe would be the first tribe authorized to direct such a program.

The Port Gamble K’lallam Tribe saw the program authorization as an opportunity to prevent a repeat of the past while claiming control over their children and future. In an interview with Konnie Lemay, Andrea Smith, the attorney for the tribes’ Children and Family Services program commented that “there’s a lot of federal language that’s historically been used against Indian children. Historically, ‘in the best interests of the child’ was used to pull children out of their homes. We don’t use that language in our code.” Since directly operating their own program, the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe has operated tribal child support, Head Start, assistance for families in need, foster care programs and a nurse home visiting program.

Their efforts have provided a model plan for other tribes looking to directly operate programs—they have gone out of their way to provide seminars and webinars discussing the steps necessary to take in order to pursue funding for and how to administer a program. As of January 2014, four other tribes have an approved Title IV-E plan: Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana, South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency of Washington, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of Michigan, and the Navajo Nation of Arizona.

The Port Gamble S’Kllalam Tribe is an exception to the situations of many other tribes within the United States. There are still many Native children who are being taken off of reservations only to be placed in outside foster homes without the consultation of the tribal government. An NPR report was released in 2011 on the state of Native children Foster Care in South Dakota. The findings were disturbing, recounting the disproportionate number of Native children placed into foster care under the state each year without notifying the tribal government or providing a proper hearing. In an NPR interview with Laura Sullivan, Stephen Pevar, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU said, “These were virtually kangaroo courts. There was nothing-nothing- that any of the parents did or could have done. It was a predetermined outcome in every one of these cases.” Equally, the Lakota People’s Project says the state violated Title IV-E, placing caps on funding despite provisions intending to prevent such actions. Some argue the state ignored the rights of Native tribes in order to gain monetary profit. Others say that Native children were taken from their homes in an attempt to remove them from places, such as the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, that are traditionally characterized by alcoholism, depression, and poverty.

Regardless of the reason, the fact remains that Native sovereignty was not recognized and basic provisions outlined in both the Indian Child Welfare Act and Title IV-E were violated. In the same NPR interview, Chase Iron Eyes, a staff attorney with the Lakota People’s Law Project stated “It's a crisis. It's a human rights crisis - what's going on.” However, current actions are being taken to rectify the situation. The Lakota People’s Law Project verified the initially contested findings, submitting a report to Congress last year. Currently, the Department of Justice is supporting South Dakota tribes in a class action lawsuit against the state. Not only is this a major step in providing relief for Native families whose rights have been violated by the state, but as stated by Rapid City attorney Dana Hanna in an interview with Andrea Cook, “That’s huge in terms of Indian law. I’m not aware of any other example of a tribe or really any plaintiff taking on the state actors in a class action to vindicate Indian Child Welfare Act rights.” Also this past year, two tribes of the Lakota Sioux nation, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, have received Title IV-E planning grants with the goal for the grant to establish foster care services within these tribes. This would allow them more control over the lives of Native children who find themselves in foster care situations.

Even with these advances, much work remains, both within the governmental system, but also within the Pine Ridge Reservation itself. In an interview with Sara Nelson and Metthew Renda, Jesse Taken Alive, the former Chairman of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, stated: “We will be working on our constitutions, our customary laws and traditions, our Court system, our codes, our available buildings, our kinship and foster care networks, our educational access to Master Degrees, our creation of these permanent jobs, and our trauma and parent training based on our own values. This effort will strengthen our families and build tribal capacity across our structures.” Much work remains to be done for the Lakota Sioux Nation; however, the government is beginning to take steps to ensure Native rights are recognized both inside and outside South Dakota. Alongside Lakota Sioux tribes, other Native tribes such as the Ketchikan Indian Community and Aleut Community of Alaska and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community of Arizona received planning grants this past year. For Native tribes, it represents a chance to regain control over their families and sovereignty, but also something much more basic. Without their children, Native tribes have no future.

Nepal’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Where Does It Stand?

Kalpana Jha

While truth is a mirror to the past, reconciliation is the road into the future. Uncovering the truth to attain reconciliation is an intrinsic step for all post-conflict societies. In such societies, reconciliation involves an elaborate engagement with those who were directly and indirectly affected by the conflict. It is an extremely cautious process of helping people conquer their past and establish an environment conducive for the nation to move forward. Although reconciliation does not directly translate to delivering justice, the process itself is of utmost importance.

However, there has never been a serious effort towards this end in the Nepalese context. The long awaited Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission on Enforced Disappearances (CED) in Nepal were finally formed eight years after signing the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), but upon shaky grounds. Section 22 gave the TRC powers to mediate between the victims and the perpetrators on the request of either party - the perpetrator or the victim. In addition, Section 26 stipulated that "the Commission shall not recommend for amnesty to the perpetrators involved in rape and other crimes of serious nature in which the Commission follows the investigation and does not find sufficient reasons and grounds for amnesty.” Therefore, the Commission could recommend amnesty for all crimes under its jurisdiction if sufficient reason and ground was found. These provisions have now been annulled by the Supreme Court on 26 February 2015. This is definitely a promising step forward in the delayed process of recognition of the victim’s concerns.

At least three attempts to form a TRC have failed in the past due to the same flaws mentioned above. Despite the court ruling of 2 January 2014, the recommended changes were never incorporated in the previous TRC.

Further, Nepal has not yet criminalised torture. Neither has Nepal defined extrajudicial killings as crimes against humanity, which clearly places the perpetrators at an advantage in any hearing. Adding to this plight are the laws that provide protection to the army and the police which have not yet been re-defined in the interest of the public. The 1959 Army Act had a provision requiring a court of inquiry board and a court martial for any violations of the Act. There are no provisions in the 1959 Act or any other law that stipulate the situations in which the army is obliged to release full and complete details of court-martial proceedings and any judgments, including if a First Information Report (FIR) was filed and if police commenced criminal investigations.

The army has manipulated the provisions calling for army inquiries and courts martials in order to avoid accountability before civilian courts. It has obstructed police investigations into alleged extrajudicial executions and other abuses. This was apparent in the Maina Sunuwar (a 15-year-old girl killed by the Nepalese Army in February 2004) case - the army’s refused to share the results of the court martial with the police and her family, despite a court directive. Similarly, The Public Security Act of 1989 Section 22 provides immunity for any acts committed by State officials in good faith during the course of duty. These protective laws in favour of the police and the army will play a significant role in thwarting the truth and reconciliation process even if the changes are incorporated by the TRC. 

These concerns are heightened in the Nepalese context where the power imbalances between the victim and the perpetrator are apparent. The perpetrators are part of well-established State structures like the army and the third largest political party of Nepal, the Maoists. Importantly, as the process has already been delayed for eight years, finding evidence of the crimes will itself be challenging, thus complicating the very first step of uncovering the truth.

Another major factor complicating the entire truth and reconciliation process is the lack of a fuller understanding of democracy by the citizens as well as the institutions of the nation. There remains a major lacuna in Nepal in this regard as the source of democratic institutions - the constitution - remains in limbo.

Finally, the very definition of the term 'reconciliation' still remains vague. The term has been limited to mean settlement or mediation where the process of engagement has totally been undermined, placing total stress on the end result. This is particularly problematic when the emphasis of the entire process is placed on achieving reconciliation. Therefore, with the deliberately skewed attitude clearly manifesting in faulty laws, the chances of the successful discovery of truth and lasting reconciliation appear bleak. Despite all these ills, even if the Commission comes up with recommendations, the government has not yet formulated the laws required for their implementation.

Engendering a sense of justice in the victims could pave the way for peaceful co-existence between the victims and perpetrators. It could also help in preventing the nation from slipping into another conflict. For this, an honest effort to scrutinise the past and begin a long-term engagement is essential. With all these aspects missing from the Nepalese context, things can only be expected to get worse before they get any better.