Querido Roberto,

Estamos en lo mismo y esperanzados al hacerlo, ¿verdad amigo querido?
Por mi lado, te sigo considerando uno de los grandes periodistas y
analistas del mundo, sin pretender ser 100% objetivo - ya que los amigos no
solemos serlo 😉

Seguimos tocando el tamborcito de la resistencia, mientras que Trump sigue
haciendo el juego desfachatado que favorece a los intereses "ocultos"
detrás de los Clintons (en forma consciente o inadvertida - algo dudoso en
una persona de los medios comunicacionales y payaso millonario...una
hipótesis no del todo descabellada de una colega africana que lo conoce de
Nueva York  ¿verdad?).

Hace bien recordar a Theilard de Chardin, en estos momentos turbulentos que
evocan a la crisis de refugiados del siglo pasado y a los años previos a la
segunda guerra mundial.

Otros fuertes abrazos por el 2016!!!
Azril

______________

On Fri, Jan 1, 2016 at 9:03 PM, Roberto Savio <utopie@...> wrote:

> Azril, yo escribo solo con la idea de ayudar  a reflexionar.No hay nada
> mas aburrido escribir cosas que uno ya sabe.  Lo que espero es que la
> gente,concientizada por hechos que la prensa comercial no da, se activen, y
> se ocupen en lugar de preocuparse…yo  no soy un gran periodista, esto lo
> fui , tal vez, en mi vida anterior. Ahora soy  solo un activista…y te doy
> mis fuertes abrazos para el 2016...
> Roberto Savio
> utopie@...
>
>
>
> On 01/gen/2016, at 20:43, Azril Bacal <bazril1@...> wrote:
>
> *El buen amigo y gran periodista Roberto identifica algunos retos del
> 2016. Le respondo con el llamado a leer los signos de los tiempos con el
> pesimismo de la mente y el optimismo del corazón, en el sendero del PODER
> PUDIENDO de PODEMOS - ¿o nos quedamos contemplando a las espinas sin
> podarlas para que la rosa nos brinde sus efluvios? *
>
> *Malgrait tout, abrazotes por el año nuevo 2016 😊*
>
> Azril
>
> _______________________
>
> *POOR 2016, SO MANY HANDICAPS*
>
> *By Roberto Savio**
>
> San Salvador, Bahamas, December 31, 2015 - At this time, we all wish “ a
> very good year”. While the wish is always a positive thing, we should also
> realize that we cannot expect too much from the new born year. He is
> loaded by so  many handicaps, that we  should have lot of sympathy for
> him…He is part of a negative circle that started with the financial crisis
> of 2008, and that will probably conclude in 2017, a cathartic year in
> which   elections in several key countries and other crucial appointments
> could open a new cycle. Unless a  republican victory in the American
> Elections will anticipate a global crisis of governance faster…
>
> Here is a list of the major handicaps for 2016, which is of course a
> personal view: but supported  by many data…
>
> *Handicap 1:  Climate change.*
>
> After Paris conference on climate change, this year will be crucial to
> understand in which direction the wind of change is blowing. Of course, the
> process of saving our planet at its present level, is planned over a span
> going to 2050. Let us briefly recall  that the engagements taken in Paris
> are insufficient to reach the goal of not surpassing 2 Centigrade above the
> level that prevailed before the Industrial Revolution( we have already used
> 1 centigrade). As now, the Paris Pact  will at least reach 3.7 Centigrade,
> which means, among many things, 850 millions people displaced. In fact,
> there is a consensus that we should not  go beyond 1.5 Centigrades, to be
> really safe.
>
> Well, we will take just two examples, to show that the threat to the
> planet is a very concrete one, and that political subjection to the energy
> sector continues. The British Parliament has just approved legislation
> allowing use of the shale gas extraction technology , know has hydraulic
> fracking. This is also allowed beneath protected sites, including national
> parks.British government has announced that they will award new licenses
> for shale gas and oil exploration, including national parks.
>
> The other is an interview from Gian Luca Galletti, Italian minister for
> environment, back from Paris.He defends his new program of oil extraction
> in land and sea, by declaring: “One of the key themes of Paris is the
> equitable exploration of natural resources. We live in a country that is
> still uses petrol and gas, and I do not see why we should  use energies
> from others.”The Prime Minister Renzi has applauded the “green criteria”
> with which the new plan of drilling, for  2 billion euro. . Meanwhile in
> Gela, Sicily, one of the refining places, child cancer has gone to 159.2
> percent, Hodgkin to 72.4, stomach tumor 47.5 percent, versus the national
> norma.
>
> According to the International Energy Agency, direct and indirect
> subsidies to the fossil industries, coal and oil, amount to  5.3 trillion
> dollars dollars per year. The subsidy requested in Paris for introducing
> green technologies, world wide, is 100 billion dollars. This data is
> sufficient to illustrate the gap between good intentions and vested
> interests.
>
> If this trend will continue in 2016, it is clear that the Paris climate
> agreement swill never reach its goals.
>
> *Handicap 2: ISIS and terrorism *
>
> While everybody keeps focusing on the war to the Caliphate in Siria, it is
> time to look more in long term.The war in Siria has become a proxy war by
> Saudi Arabia (which  is directly responsible for the diffusion of the
> radical islam imposed by ISIS, wahabism), Qatar, United Arab Emirates,
> Turkey, Russia, United States, France, Great Britain, and now with support
> from Germany and theoretically from the European Union. Now, all muslim
> countries worldwide are supposed to join Saudi Arabia.They are all ready to
> fight this war to the last syrian, but not to risk any man. As bombing
> has never been sufficient to win,  this is a war that in 2016 will go
> nowhere. But what we have to start to reflect  is that ISIS is  a local
> project, and  is becoming a global one. A Security Council  report
> estimates that 25.000 people from 100 countries have joined Al Qaida and
> ISIS. The number of foreign fighters went up by 71% in just ten months. And
> the massacres of Paris and San Bernardino were perpetuated by local people,
> who were not part of the ISIS structure.
>
> The main difference between Al Qaida and ISIS, according About Zeid, from
> the Carnegie  Center in Beirut, is that Al Qaida has as its main goal to
> fight against Western domination. But ISIS is especially interested to a
> depuration of  the muslim world, fighting  other branches of Islam, from
> Shia to Sufi to YAZIDI , ismaeliti etc, to eliminate them and oblige  Sunni
> to accept a strict wahabist practice, or suffer violence.
>
> It is in that light that ISIS messages to muslim living in the West is
> insistent and clear :Take side, or with the West as apostates, or with us
> as real Muslim.
>
> The problem is that mistrust of Muslims  the West is increasing. Hate
> crimes have tripled in the last month in US, spurred by the irresponsible
> Republican presidential candidates. The growing rightwing  xenophobic
> european parties, led by demagogues like Salvini in Italy, Geert Wilders in
> the Nederland, or Le Pen in France, are subjecting Muslim to harsh times.
> It obliges them to define more their allegiances, and this can push young
> and marginalized muslim into  the ISIS camp.
>
> Refugees from muslim countries, like Siria, are depicted  as infiltrated
> by ISIS.If this trend of radicalization continues, it will become a
> phenomena which will survive  ISIS. itself. Over 25.000 people from 100
> countries have joined the ISIS: a 715 increase of foreign fighters in just
> ten months. According to the Pew Institute, Islam is now at 1.6 billion
> people, but in 2050 will be close to the christians ( 1.8 billions), in
> 2075 will have the same consistency, and in 2.100 will be the largest
> religion in the world. By the way, is the religion who has the largest
> number of under 15.
>
> The long terms project of ISIS is a clash of civilization. A continues
> polarization, with the West as a clear enemy, is what ISIS legacy could be.
> It means to go global, from local.
>
> The year 2016 will be crucial to see if this polarization will increase or
> not. Will the West be able to understand the trap in which he is walking? Anyhow,
> our daily life is already under attack. To travel has become an
> aggravation. US is now tightening its visa policy for Europeans. Cots of
> security are  increasing  by 83 percent in Europe, according to an Interpol
> estimate. Fear is seeping more and more in the collective subconscious. If
> in 2016 there will be more massacres like Paris and San Bernardino, fear
> and polarization will take a trend may be irreversible.
>
> *Handicap 3: Refugees: *
>
> With media covering just events, , the refugee crisis has now passed to a
> second plan. Nothing has changed: people die like before, countries have
> erected walls and continue to adopt stricter measures, but with winter less
> people are ready to risk their life.But let us take a long term view.
> Europe, Australia, United States and other rich countries are simply not
> culturally prepared to accept two inescapable facts. The first, that the
> homogenous, white, christian world that we know, is not sustainable. Is a
> law of physics that an empty space attract overflow. In this moment the
> crisis is due entirely to irresponsible military actions taken to depose an
> unsavory dictator, without any planning for the after. In a short time,
> Saddam Hussein and Gheddafi were successfully deposed, leaving their
> countries in chaos and misery. The last attempt, Assad, become a proxy war
> , with Russia and the Shia ( Iran , Hezbollah), keeping him in place, in
> spite of the efforts of Europe and United States.  Only Siria has now four
> million refugees and just a fourth of them is trying to make a new life in
> Europe.
>
> At the same time, Europe has a significant  demographic decline. According
> to the UN, Europe needs at least 2 more millions of additional people to
> keep its pension system functioning, and the economy running, and will need
> at least 350.000 new immigrants every year, until the population will
> stabilize again, around 2080. Of course, there is no political campaign of
> education to this reality. The right wing parties present a dream: let us
> go back to the time that we were all white, with Christianity as our common
> bond, let us defend our identity and our history.
>
> But if we go beyond our present crisis, let us realize that demographic
> transformations are staggering. According to the last UN projections, the
> world in 2100 will not be 9 billion as thought ( we are now at 7.5
> billion), but 11.2 billions. Africa will be then 4.4 billion people, up
> from its present  billion. Ethiopia, to make a case, is now 100 million
> people: it will l be 243 millions in 2100. Africa will be then 39% of the
> world population, almost as much as Asia, and four times the share of
> Europe and North America put together. Africa is largely muslim..…
>
> Let us remind that now Europe and US are accepting ( US  symbolically)
> refugees, or those who have left their home because of a conflict. That
> leaves outside people who are afraid of mortal discrimination, like gays in
> Africa, Nigerian girls where Boko Haram bring them in slavery, religious
> groups like Christians in the middle east, or rohinyás in Myanmar…and this
> excludes economic migrants, or people who have left their home because it
> does not feed them, and escape hunger, not war…and  we will have to add the
> new category of climate refugees, which does not even exist in the present
> debate.
>
> According to the United Nations High Commission for Refuges, in 50 years,
> according on how we implement the Paris Agreement on climate change, we
> could go with 3  degrees to 250 millions displaced people, and with 4.5 to
> 1.000 million people. According the International Organization for
> Migrations, “ in the last 30 years droughts and inundations have tripled”
> and climate changes have created more displaced people than wars. The
> security Council has released a report which depicts how more than one
> million Syrian farmers, ruined by the drought between 2007 and 2010, took
> refuge in unprepared and fragile towns, and their desperation  plaid a key
> role in the Arab Spring insurrection against Assad.
>
> So it is time to realize that the West is facing an historical change,
> with dramatic consequences in lifestyle, customs, and  daily practices. This
> could be achieved by accepting gradually newcomers to the club, in harmony
> and coexistence  of the Western values, or by showing them a fist, as
> Salvini and Trump do.  The 2016 will be very crucial to see how this will
> go, especially after American Elections.
>
> *Handicap 4: Decline of democracy*
>
> It is time to realize that political disaffection is not only increasing
> xenophobic and right wing parties   since the economic crisis of 2009, but
> also sapping the prestige of democracy as an undisputed modern value. We
> have now the Hungarian Prime Minister, who openly advocates an “illiberal
> democracy”, and look to Putin as a  model. Poland is following the same
> direction, and all over Eastern Europe there is  a clear shift to the
> right, marked by pressing request to Nato and United States to enhance
> military barriers to Russia. ( And Nato poking Putin paranoia, by offering
> Montenegro, with 2.000 soldiers, to join).All those countries have refused
> European agreements on receiving  refugees, as well as any other burden
> from Brussels ( money of  course is accepted and requested). Putin has set
> up an informal alliance with the right wing parties , as a leader in the
> defense of identity and religion. He has even given  a 5 million euro loan
> to Le Pen.
>
> In time of crisis, people are more interested in their security and work,
> than who is in power. Many classical voters for the left, like workers
> and unemployed, now vote for the right wing parties, and believe their
> promises of going back to the golden past. They are not interested any
> longer by ideologies or political visions. They think that right and left
> does not exist any more. They are disillusioned with the classical party
> system, and they are ready to try anything new and which is not part of the
> establishment. This is the reason of Le Pen success in France, of the
> disconcerting support for Trump in United States ( and even more puzzling
> the success of  Bernie Sanders , a declared socialist, a term which is
> close to anathema  in US).
>
> Of course, right wing xenophobic parties are not very useful for
> international cooperation and dialogue with others. But the real problem
> is that we are in a crisis of  political vision.When ideologies are
> discarded as relics, and the following step is to adopt pragmatism as a
> solution, in fact you are making of politics a number of ad hoc solutions,
> without any final view of the society.  Each action is chosen as the most
> useful for that specific issue. That is not pragmatism, is utilitarism,
> which downgrade policy to administrative, and this does not attract
> people’s participation, especially young people. And the administrative
> level of politics, without any vision,  is prone to corruption, which is
> clearly growing in the western democracies.
>
> Fear is strengthening  the right, not the left. Today fear is creeping
> into our daily lives, according to different polls. A survey from The World
> Value System, found out that today only one  fifth of Americans consider
> democracy as a fundamental principle.  The same is happening in Europe,
> according to the same survey. In other words, nazism and stalinism are
> faded memories. And the Chinese model, where decision can be taken in a
> short time, bolstering productivity and action., is becoming popular.
>
> We  are, of course, not yet in the Weimar climate. But we are getting in
> place many of the ingredients which brought an obscure demagogue to run
> the most advanced country of the time.
>
> It will be important to see  how in this year demagogy will continue its
> growth, or will abate. But what would be important is that we all start to
> put democracy under observation, not  longer a  value over the fray. It is
> under attack, not only from ISIS and terrorism, but from leaders elected by
> their citizens, be  Orban or Putin, and whit a phenomenal approval rate. So
> it is time we take into account that a growing segment of the population in
> the West is finding refuge in the dreams of the past, with political en
> economic agendas which are out of reality. Democracy, sadly, is on the wane.
>
> *Handicap 5: The decline  of Europe. *
>
> In 2016 probably Cameron will call a referendum on leaving the European
> Union or not.  This is    trap in which the British PM put himself, by
> promising to renegotiate Britain permanence in the EU, or  having several
> benefits or quitting. It is clear now that with empty hands, he would loose
> the referendum ( he is supposed to want to remain). Negotiations with
> Europe will go ahed in the first months of the year. Germany considers a
> catastrophe if Britain leaves, so it will help Cameron. Whatever the EU
> will concede to Britain, will be immediately requested by all East European
> countries.This will mark the  end  of european integration. The 2016 could
> be the year when  this will happen.
>
> *Handicap 6 : Nationalism in Asia.  *
>
> It is a worrying reality that for the first time since the end of the last
> war, the major Asian countries, China, India and Japan, are run at the same
> time by nationalist leaders. While obviously different in their reality and
> style (nothing like the twins Putin-Erdogan), they are revamping the
> glorious past and the humiliations that they did suffer in the World War 2,
> to stir citizens to their support.
>
> President Xi has launched “the Chinese dream”,  which is rooted in
> bringing back the ancient glories of the Empire of the Middle, and revenge
> the humiliations of the european occupation, Japanese occupation, and the
> oppium war. Two years ago mobs destroyed Japanese shops and properties,
> without initially any police intervention.China has embarked in a plan of
> influences to counter United Sates, by financing several grandiose
> projects: the creation of a Bank alternative to the World Bank, under
> Washington control. On Xi invitation, 45 countries did join the bank, who
> will have a total of 200 billion dollars, in spite of Washington
> opposition.It is also planning to recreate the ancient “Silk Road”, by
> investing over 50 billion dollars. And it is planning  to finance the
> “twin Ocean Railroad connection, a planned 5.000 km railway from the Peru
> coast to Brasil.
>
> It has given to Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, loans for over 80 billion
> dollars, sending a message to the  traditional “backyard” of United States:
> wane yourself from Washington, I have more resources ( China reserves are
> 3.8 trillion dollars). It has been intervening heavily in Africa, to the
> point that Zimbabwe is considering pegging its currency to the yuan. And it
> is expanding its maritime zone  in the sea, by building bases on some small
> rocks, which were claimed by several asian countries. China will  increased
> its military budget by 7% during  the new five year plan.
>
> Abe, the Japanese PM, has gone in the same direction. It has just
> increased the military budget by 7%, and more importantly he has made an
> interpretation of the constitution, that allows again the Japanese Defense
> Force to act abroad. He defends that change by saying that it is for
> limited cases. Yet, is like to give liquors filled chocolates to an ex
> alcoholic. Polls show a growing surge of the right and of the nostalgics,
> who feel the defeat in the second world war as an humiliation to erase. Abe
> has refused to apologize for the violence used against civilians by
> Japanese troops in China, and to recognize Japanese responsibilities in the
> forcible recruitment of over 60.000 Korean girls to be used as “sex help”,
> for the Japanese soldiers.
>
> Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, is also recalling the glorious
> past, tacitly condoning right wing and nationalist acts, and speaking of “
> a new indian glory" .In 2050, according the Un projections, India will
> overtake China as the largest population  of the world. The difference is
> that India has 41% of his population under 18;China by that time will have
> only 23% of young people, in a sea of old people, because of its one child
> policy.
>
> Modi has projected India at the forefront of the international scene, by
> using his leverage in the Paris Conference on climate change. He now speaks
> on behalf of the non industrialized country ( China attempt to do that in
> Paris went nowhere), and he is also increasing the military budget. He just
> bought armament from China for 12 b million dollars, an hefty amount for a
> country which needs dramatic injections in its social, educational and
> health system, beside of course infrastructures.
>
> In other words, if there is a place where a new world war could coming, is
> Asia. And its scale would be really unprecedented. What is worrying is that
> ALL asian  countries are increasing their defense budget, How much this
> will bring some significant events in 2016, is difficult to predict. But it
> would be important to loom at Asia as a place of concern for the world
> peace.
>
> *Handicap 7: Decline in Latin America*.
>
>  While this is more of a  regional problem, in an interconnected world
> everything  has relevance for everybody. Latin America has been for the
> last decade an active international actor, contributing to the world
> development. The decline of Chinese imports of raw material, and  the
> increase of interest rates from the Federal Reserve in Washington, ( which
> will shift investments from Latin America to the US market) are a two piece
> prong, that is affecting seriously the region.
>
> Some economists are already talking of a new negative cycle, that could
> last for some years. The low prices of commodities is affecting all the
> region, from copper in Chile to oil in Venezuela, Ecuador, and agricultural
> commodities in Argentina. in Venezuela, Maduro is still ignoring the new
> reality, and the World Bank predicts a decline of 10% in 2016. He could
> remain in power only solving problems, for which he has no funds.
>
>  The same is happening in Ecuador. Argentina has already changed
> direction, and is going back to the neoliberal policies of the past.Brazil
> is in the middle of a crisis  for corruption, which is hiding a very
> difficult economic situation. The Economic Commission for Latin America has
> published an alarmed report, in which it forecast a serious decline. In the
> report, it indicates that at the end of 2016 we will have a more clear
> picture, once is clear if the Chinese locomotor is in a temporary loss of
> speed, or in  a more durable process.
>
> *Handicap 8:  Armament increase.*
>
>  According to the projections of the Swedish Institute for Peace, the
> 2016 will see increase in armament costs close to 3%. That increase  is the
> equivalent of 600 billion dollars, an amount which could have solved the
> ambitious goals of the  Millennium Development goals established by the
> UN,;the amount requested in Paris by the non industrialized countries to
> give them clean technology,( an unresolved problem yet ). But the debate
> on reduction of armaments  ignores a stunning reality: the five Permanent
> Members of the Security Council of the UN ( in charge  with securing
> peace), make  82% of the global arm’s sale. And with China entering
> massively into weapons manufacturing, that percentage is bound to grow.
>
> United Nations started to authorize  “humanitarian intervention”, in
> Somalia(December 5, 1992 - May 4, 1993). The scope of the american led
> invasion was to bring humanitarian aid in a rogue country, where
> conflicting militia were starving the population. The balance of that
> operation ( with a quick exit of US, after several of his soldiers were
> drawn as corpses in the main street of Mogadishu), was a total cost of the
> military operations of 900 million dollars.
>
>  The value of the food and other supplies distributed was 90 million
> dollars. That proportion has been kept in every case. Except that it is
> always much more easy to find resources for military operations, than for
> humanitarian ones. The massive wave of refugees for all the local wars in
> Africa and Middle East, is a consequence of that priority. Europe has
> accepted to give 3 billions dollars to Turkey, and eliminate visas, so to
> keep Syrian refugees there. It is now spending for refugees  an amount
> which is  not yet quantifiable, but that certainly goes in billion of
> dollars. If that money would have been spent for assisting populations in
> the conflict zone, certainly the number of refugees pounding on the doors
> would have been considerably smaller.
>
> Unfortunately, 2016 is going in that direction. Armaments costs will
> increase, while development assistance is being curtailed everywhere. The
> budget for aid is now being used to finance the incoming refugees, and
> probably to finance the commitments of Paris. Therefore, the amount of aid
> reaching poor populations, is decreasing. The last Un Conference for
> pledging resources, held on Nov. 10th in NewYork, saw a “ dramatic decline”
> in donors contributions, from 560 million dollars in 2014, to 77 million
> dollars, ,largely covering 2015. Of course, this is going to increase
> economic migrants.
>
> *Handicap 9: increase of inequality *
>
> The Economist itself has been noting” that the rich are becoming richer
> and  the richest are getting richer faster, is beyond doubt”. A research
> by the University of California found out that the share of  American
> wealth held the 0.1 percent of the richest households rose from 7% in 1979,
> to 22% in 2012. And  that of the richest 0.01 per cent ( about 16.000
> household), jumped from 2% to 11%. Of course, they do not get money printed
> especially for them. They suck the money from the total monetary
> circulation, which means that some people are surrendering their wealth. An
> other study has documented that since 2008, the american middle class has
> shrunk by 10 million families.
>
> This is a worldwide trend. In Spain, rich people have increased by 40%
> since 2008. In 2014, the number of millionaires did increase worldwide by
> 920.000 individual. There are now in the world , according the Bank of
> Canada 14.6 millions who owns more than million dollars in cash beside the
> primary house, cars and different goods. The gap between managers and
> employees and  workers is growing yearly, with little protest.  The CEO  of
> the 500 Fortune Companies (the most successful) had a median income of 17.5
> million dollars, with some of course over 200 millions.
>
> A number of economists, among them from the World Bank and the IMF, have
> been warning that inequality has not only social and political
> implications, but also economic, as it reduces buying power from the poor,
> eliminates small shops and companies, and erodes the middle class, which is
> the basis for social stability. The famous book “Capital in the
> Twenty-First
>
> Century”, by Thomas Piketty, makes this point central: as wealth
> concentrates, democratic societies lose faith in the fairness of
> governments, which are seen as allied to the big capital. Le Pen campaign
> against “plutocrats” is reminiscent of the language used by Mussolini and
> Hitler: all right wing parties denounce bankers as enemies, and that stirs
> with those who see their lifestyle decline, or their sons without a job,
> why a few are obscenely rich.
>
> What is disconcerting in this unprecedented explosion of inequality (
> according Oxfam in 2025 England will have the same level   of the time of
> Queen Victoria),  that the banner has been generally taken more by the
> right wing parties, than from those on the left. And inequality has not
> become a big political issue. If it were not for Sanders, it would be
> totally absent in the american elections.
>
> And now, two researchers, the Russian economist Vladimir Gimpelson ad the
> American political scientist Daniel Treisman have come up with an
> illuminating study. They looked at a collection of survey from 40
> countries, both rich and poor. The  conclusion is that people’s guess about
> the distribution of incomes and where they  are  is as wrong as it could
> be. Those who were relatively poor people tended to depict them as middle
> class. In Italy, more than half of the needy though they were at the middle
> of the income scales. In France and Sweden, the proportion was more than
> one third. In contrast, those who are better off tend to think that they
> have not yet made it. In France, Italy and Britain, 40 percent or more of
> the people who owned second homes put themselves in the bottom half.
>
> This, in Marxists  terms, means that people have lost a sense of class,
> and therefore they do not resent inequality as it was done before. And
> this means that the political class does not feel inequality as a crucial
> issue.It is not by chance that the term “social justice” has disappeared
> from the political debate. But how long this will last?
>
> The 2016 will see this trend to continue. It is difficult for people to
> realize how this concentration process is becoming extreme. Let us take two
> noble examples, to illustrate it. Mark Zuckeberg, the founder of Facebook,
> has announced that he will donate 99% of his shares, valued at 45 billion
> dollars, to philanthropy. It is an amount that competes with China project
> for its railroad spanning from Beijing to Europe, so is an extreme act  of
> philanthropy. But let us keep in mind that the 1% left to him is 450
> million dollars: 400 times the lifetime income of a collage graduate.
>
>  And that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation,a very important
> institution,  which is supported by 44 billions, has given away 5 billion
> in 2014: this was anyhow less than the 7.4 billion it accumulated thanks to
> new contributions, investment income and rising value assets.In other
> words, money brings so much money, when  you have plenty of it, that it
> will be always there ( unless you waste it…but billionaires usually do not
> do..when  Zuckeberg  was in Rome in honeymoon, in the jewish quarter,  he
> did not leave any tip to the astonished waiter)
>
> *Handicap  10: your personal commitment.  *
>
> This list of handicaps is highly subjective, and leaves outside several
> issues which are very important, like gender, human rights, development
> assistance, finance control, migrants, etc. If you have reached this
> point of my paper, it means that you  are committed to a  better world, and
> you are an unusual reader.  According to a study from Unesco, only 3% of
> the world population can read 5.000 words of abstract material, without
> giving up.It also means that you have some commitment probably to issues
> that I have left out. It would be the most positive result to this
> writing,  if you could make an effort and  think how they will fare in
> 2016: if the Newborn  year looks positive for your commitments. The purpose
> of Othernews is to stimulate thinking and awareness. Let us this  be the
> New Year wishes from the publisher to all of you!
>
> **Italian-Argentine journalist. Co-founder and former
> Director General of Inter Press Service (IPS). In recent years he also
> founded Other News, a service that
> provides "information markets eliminate". Other News. In Spanish: http://www.other-news.info/noticias/
> <http://www.other-news.info/noticias/> In
> English: http://www.other-net.info/ <http://www.other-net.info/>*
>
>
>
>
>
>  Roberto Savio
> utopie@...
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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