Pulling The Tiger By Its Tail  

The first few days of the World Summit on Social Development have not been encouraging. Listening to the speeches and reports emanating from the major players in development and the drivers of the global economy, on the face of it, one would think that finally, everyone has woken up to the fact that we live in a divided and unequal world, and that this must change.  Not so.

The language of social development has been co-opted by the Bretton Wood's institutions; an unholy alliance seems to have emerged between the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations; and in the context of the ongoing negotiations of the document that will be brought out of this week's gathering, the North-South divide emerges once again.

Worrying too is the proposal in the draft document under discussion for the development of "guidelines on sound principles and good practices in social policy". Given the current trends on guidelines in international trade negotiations, one wonders whether the 'two-headed dragons' of good governance, rule of law, transparency and accountability will creep into the final document, which will emerge out of this week's negotiations. Both heads of these dragons, are firmly fixed on the regions of the world that have no influence in shaping the global political and economic hegemony, which is running wild.

This is in spite of the fact that social exclusion, corruption, poverty, discrimination, rights violations, etc are also resting comfortably too in the industrialised countries in the United States, Europe and Asia .

While there is general global agreement on the need for these principles in all societies, the context in which they have become used as sticks to 'whip' the developing regions of the world into line and to withhold money for development, still needs to be interrogated much further than just saying that this is the medicine to be used to stop military spending, corruption and to make governments spend funds earmarked for development. There are large pockets on 'underdevelopment' and human rights violations within the very countries which wield the 'good governance, human rights' stick .

 There are no easy answers at this stage to the challenges of globalisation and the rising numbers of those who are being socially excluded. As the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson says: "Globalisation is the privatisation of power", and this has had social and economic consequences which have made more and more people across the globe, from a vast number of sectors, stand up and take notice.  The tail of the tiger of globalisation is long, but there is a long line of actors getting in place to pull the tiger by its tail.

 Even the recent court decision in the United States to break up the giant Microsoft, is a step in the right direction of using the law to reign in the monopolies that not only swallow up and compete unfairly within their own borders, but which spread their tentacles across various boundaries, even in the guise of philanthropy.  But there are two strategies to pulling the tiger of globalisation by its tail, which those who are committed to change must latch onto quickly.  A rights-based framework to poverty eradication must be one agenda for action .

Everyone - regardless of age, sex, race or ethnicity - has been guaranteed by the universal human rights instruments political, civil, cultural, social and economic rights, which lead to the overall right to development and the right to live one's life in dignity. "It is not credible to talk about human rights and preventing conflict, and then cut ODA budgets," Mary Robinson said in an address at the Council of Europe's international seminar on The Dual Challenge of Globalisation and Transition held here last week.

 Along with the urgent need to talk about poverty in the context of human rights, a strong peoples movement of global solidarity must emerge so that the 'divides' of North-South, East-West, Developed-Developing, are risen above in order to give more strength to the actions to contain and transform the process of globalisation.  Divide and rule is an old tactic. No one region, no one grouping, no one person can tackle the challenges of globalisation. If the world forgets that poverty , in one sense, is equal in that it is present in all regions on the world, affects women, men and children regardless of race, age, ethnicity and all the other factors we use to divide each other, then divide and rule will continue to keep everyone paralysed. A global movement across regions, involving all people regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, etc must be built to counter the negative trends of a process that has become completely ungovernable.

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Solidarity 2000 starting 17th of June!

MS's big summer event Solidarity 2000 will start very soon now, with a week-long variety of debates and arrangements. The activities range from encounters between young people from Balkan, Africa and Central America to big conferences on the planet's social development and environment.

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The 1996 Copenhagen Social Summit final report in English, French and Spanish.