Opinion Sur

Reflections

2012-05-17T16:28:32Z

About aspiring to greatness
About not being sure of being right
About violence

About aspiring to greatness

We can still aspire to greatness. I request us that courage.

Ernesto Sábato.

About not being sure of being right

There should be a party of those who are not sure of being right. That would be mine.

Albert Camus

About violence

We live in a World where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.

John Lennon

Initiatives

2012-05-17T16:16:20Z

Conflicts and violence at schools
Water and Youth Movement – Argentina
Silataj Foundation

Conflicts and violence at schools

From June 14th to 16th, Buenos Aires will be hosting the second International Congress on Conflicts and Violence at Schools. Among other subjects, the following will be addressed: the criminalization of teenage speech and its potential for ‘delinquency'; the construction of authority and the need of discipline as values to redeem in their democratic dimension; the subjective constitution of the new user: students 2.0; the ways in which children and youngsters are numbed when facing subjective apathy and anguish processes; ‘violent' subjects' therapy and their capacity to modify such behavior.

For more information

Water and Youth Movement – Argentina

This initiative seeks to strengthen local actions on issues regarding water and influence public policies that affect the management of this strategic resource in order to build a more equitable and sustainable society.

For more information

Silataj Foundation

Its mission is to improve life standards and promote a greater economic and social development for indigenous people of Argentina, respecting their culture and encouraging their self-management. Silataj's efforts are focused on the creation of job opportunities through craftwork under the principles of Fair Trade. It has developed its activities in northern Argentina: in Salta and Formosa with Wichi, Chané, Toba, Pilagá and Chorote groups; in Jujuy, with Kolla groups.

For more information

Global crisis: adjustment or transformation

Roberto Sansón Mizrahi — 2012-05-17T16:06:40Z

‘Adjustment' is associated to a socioeconomic policy that faces crisis by focusing on public expenditure and public and private over-indebtedness reduction. Leveling public accounts would reinstate ´normal' economic functioning, although at an immense social cost: growth would return and markets would regain their role as organizers of millions of decisions that are made daily worldwide. The purpose is to avoid the collapse of a certain way of functioning and preserving the interests that have sustained and powered it. They do not question that the economic dynamic has generated a tremendous concentration of wealth and, therefore, an equally enormous inequity.

‘Adjustment' has implications regarding social justice and income distribution but also about the role financial capital plays in imposing where savings are channeled (to speculate or to fund production) as well as about ‘externalities' such as environmental destruction, irresponsible consumerism outburst, damage to social cohesion, threats to effective democratic governability and loss of sustainability of economic growth itself.

On its part, ‘transformation' is associated to a different socioeconomic policy that seeks to change the course and the prevailing way of functioning. It implies moving forward towards a sustainable development that knows how to combine equity with organic growth, respecting modalities specific to each country and adjusting to the changing circumstances that characterize every reality. This other perspective accepts fiscal responsibility but based on distributive justice and an equitable sharing of burdens, efforts and results. Economy's steering wheel is not handed over to markets; instead public power is used to orient them in a new direction that does not reproduce the disastrous ‘externalities' (truly inevitable and foreseeable consequences) of the current way of functioning.

Transformation also implies promoting very different values than the unbridled greed of great part of the financial world and not considering the most vulnerable segments of society that constitute our majorities. This perspective prioritizes strengthening social cohesion that provides the foundations for a fuller political, social and economic democracy.

Driving ideas

• With a few honorable exceptions, the world is at the mercy of investment, sovereign, pension and hedge funds managers guided by the desire to attain profits but without obligation to consider the consequences their actions have on society as a whole nor on the system that privileges them. We are in the presence of bureaucracies trained and encouraged to speculate; rewarded depending on their financial accomplishments, usually short-term, that do not measure or consider the collateral effects of their decisions.

• Neither panic nor an astonished gaze help. It is in the stir of a crisis that crucial decisions are made. Solutions are mostly aimed to ‘bail' those who have been helmsmen of the disaster, unloading on the weakest the burden of restoring a dynamic similar to the ones that generated the crisis. Today the alternative is to transform, not to restore.

• A more or less aggressive, more or less regulated capitalism prevails in the western world, which functions associated to democratic regimes all imperfect though perfectible, limited by a diversity of democratic traps that vary from country to country in terms of its nature and severity.

• ‘Emergency' solutions that, with suspicious haste, propose rebuilding what existed before the crisis blew up constitute one of the possible alternatives: they represent a complex web of interests, some legitimate but others illegitimate, structured to disguise what cannot be openly defended. If the option is reinstating the preexisting dynamic, the most beaten by the crisis will also be the most affected throughout the reconstruction.

• While it is essential to strengthen the level of demand, to avoid the destruction of corporate assets and to reinstate the capital formation process, this does not at all imply that the structure of demand has to be rebuilt just as it used to be in the pre-crisis, nor that it is advisable to restore the same capital formation process whose dynamic lead to the crisis and, much less, that the bail-out should be financed by the most vulnerable.

• Transformational adjustment must aim to increasing equity and socioeconomic productivity of public expenditure and debt; replacing ineffective expenditure for growth promoting expenditure.

• It is inevitable to reflect upon the fact that a scam performed by an individual is penalized as it should and, instead, the scam that is structured as an economic policy with even more devastating effects receives very different treatment.

• Once the financial veil was dislodged, the rupture in organic growth was exposed.

• The crisis allows to tame unions and reinforces the role of financial creditors: they ensure ways of collecting credits and obtaining greater compensations since, with other sources of resources drained, speculators have their last victory refinancing debt at higher rates and acquiring the assets in trouble at a vile price.

• A fundamentalism is not overcome with another one.

• In the pre-crisis trajectory, thoughts were inclined to accompanying the apparent systemic stability with a dangerous tendency towards the homogenization of approaches and interpretations which slanted perceptions and silenced alarms.

• Segregating the poor and small producers does not help transform their reality but instead tends to reproduce the conditions in which they operate.

• Inequity inflames and leads to instability; it mines social cohesion and affects democratic governability. It is extremely difficult to bear the irritating overabundance of some while others are being left behind; painful to accept the squandering of superfluous consumption while poverty asphyxiates half the planet and causes more casualties than any known disease.

• Inequity, poverty, a fair and sustainable economic system, must be faced from and through the main variables and not with a specific action that complements the central strategies.

• Along with the crisis xenophobia reemerges in Europe and the United States. Immigrants are rejected ignoring their contribution to development and without considering that wealthy countries are the foremost responsible for generating backwardness and poverty in African and Latin-American migrant-sending countries.

• Capital flight by the wealthy is two times larger than the amount politicians and organized crime leak combined.

• Every accumulation process tends almost naturally to concentration unless decisions that are exogenous to the economic system intervene to compensate that tendency.

• An international system where some countries are rich and others miserable is not sustainable, nor are the countries where privileged minorities concentrate the national income while huge underdeveloped or excluded sectors endure; and a planet where the excess of some (around 20% of mankind) and the unsatisfied needs of the rest produce an environmental deterioration of eventually catastrophic proportions is not sustainable either.

• We need to confront the hypocrisy of those who impose decisions that lead to protecting sordid interests of absolutely minority sectors.

Opinión Sur is completing the edition of the fifth title of its Book Collection ‘Global Crisis: adjustment or transformation´. This article presents the book's introduction and lists some of its driving ideas.

Enhancing Child Rights when Addressing Child Poverty

Marta Maurás — 2012-05-17T16:01:50Z

The strategy for child poverty prevention and protection needs to be multi-pronged, strongly focused on social policies and programmes that fulfil the obligations of the States under international human rights law.

From a child rights perspective this means:

Ensuring a comprehensive legal and institutional framework for rights, even guaranteed at the constitutional level thus defining the roles of rights holders (children) and duty bearers (States, families, parents, private sector). While some States have ratified the Convention, not all have incorporated it in their national legislation, as was done, for example, by Brazil with its constitutional level Estatuto da Crianca (Child Act) that has enabled the federal state to apply the Convention at all states and local levels as well as nationally. Regionally, the EU could commit to mandatory implementation at the Union level.

Children´s rights should be mainstreamed into broader development policy debates and decisions to ensure coherence, as they remain at the core of overall development policy. A National Plan to combat child poverty which establishes a coherent framework identifying priority actions against the exclusion of children, with specific and measurable objectives, clear indicators, deadlines and sufficient economic and financial support should be created. This plan must be capable of effectively coordinating actions at the national, regional and local levels, actions in different areas (particularly labour and economy, healthcare, housing, social policy and education) that are particularly responsible for children, and must include the necessary participation of girls and boys¨.

While universal policies to ensure appropriate outcomes and processes need to continue to be guaranteed for all children, priority should be given to children and families most at risk, namely the children living in poverty, migrants, asylum-seekers and refugee children, children from minorities, children deprived of a family environment, and adolescents and young people at risk. When it comes to children in institutions, the Committee has recommended to review legal frameworks to prevent the placement of children in institutions and, to this end, provide families with social and economic assistance for parenting and legal aid, if necessary. It also has recommended that family-type care settings should receive priiority over institutionalized placements.

Focus on inequality: where data is available, systematic inequalities are shown to play an enormous role in determining life prospects before a child is even born, suggesting that there is a two-way causal relationship between poverty and inequality. Moreover the international human rights framework commits governments to uphold equity. If policy does not address inequalities, the pattern will be reinforced as is shown by malnutrition figures affecting differently the various income groups or the gap in infant mortality rates between indigenous and non-indigenous populations in the same country. Even rich countries like Luxemburg have higher-than-expected poverty rates showing that economic growth alone will not ¨trickle down¨ in the absence of a package of economic and social policies that range from decent employment, higher and equitable (especially for women) salaries, redistributive taxation policies, universal access to quality services as well as targeting those in situations of vulnerability. An example of policy is Chile Crece Contigo (Chile grows with you), a comprehensive protection system for early childhood set up in 2007 that provides integrated financial, educational and health support for children's development until four years of age. One of its main objectives is to reduce the effects of socioeconomic inequalities by the time children finish primary school. It targets children and families from the two lowest income quintiles.

In summary, preventing poverty from a child rights perspective requires from every State a comprehensive and global approach to make complex policy decisions; a multi-pronged strategy that covers economic, social policies and social protection measures, and a decision to press forward with the Strategy on the Rights of the Child as a comprehensive system that sets standards for country implementation of the CRC protecting gains obtained till now and improving the chances of children to lead meaningful lives.

Marta Maurás Vice President – UN Committee on Child Rights [1]

[1] Quoted from the text of a conference dictated at the European Union Conference on Child Poverty, Copenhagen, march 19th 2012.

Capitalism, eternal system?

Roberto Sansón Mizrahi — 2012-05-17T15:35:50Z

There are those who think concentrative capitalism is the only way an economy, our countries, the entire planet can function. They acknowledge it is a flawed system but they claim there is not a better one, similar to what is usually said about democracy (which is the less imperfect of the known government systems). In their opinion, contemporary capitalism would be the last stage in the development of economic systems; an illusionary and in fact delusional end of history; something that has come here to stay; that can be adjusted here and there but that, in essence, becomes an eternal system.

This perspective expresses a certain ignorance or arrogance, qualities that usually grow hand in hand, although it might also be considered an ideological defense of privileges acquired by those who have benefited from the wealth concentration process that prevails almost worldwide. History, social sciences, the experience of communities and societies show there are no eternal systems since that eternity is of impossible nature. Ernesto Sábato claimed with refined irony that “eternal systems have one characteristic: they last very little. They all aspire being an Absolute Truth, but the history of philosophy is the history of Systems, meaning the history of Systems' Collapse”.

Capitalism as we know it today has caused breakthroughs and also tremendous negative impacts: vast extraction of value by minority sectors, social inequity, conflicts among countries, environmental damage, recurrent systemic instability, irresponsible consumerism, aggravated criminal systems, unwanted migrations, media concentration, democratic system manipulation with severe consequences regarding representation of people's will and governance, prevalence of values of greed without taking fellow countrymen into consideration, alienation and loss of existential meaning, to name a few of the most important. Those negative consequences of the way concentrative capitalism works are part of the so called ‘externalities', perhaps not sought but that result from, or are foreseeable outcomes of, that particular way of functioning.

In order to face those unwanted externalities diverse efforts have been deployed in the attempt of containing the ‘wildest' aspects of contemporary capitalism, which are linked one way or another to its concentrative nature. They were expressed as sustainable development, development with a human face, inclusive capitalism, responsible capitalism and even socialist capitalism (as to being able to integrate China into the capitalism family). All these are valuable attempts oriented to adjust a trajectory that puts the entire planet's fate at risk to favor certain minorities. They were not able, however, to transform one of capitalism's crucial features: capital being the organizer for its own benefit of the global and national economic systems. Concentrated capital holds enough power to decisively influence politics and governments, as well as social values and the mechanisms that impose them (media, educational system, think tanks, among others). This worsens when a segment of capital, financial capital, for the most part parasitic in the sense that it does not generate but extract value, displaces productive capital from the economic and political steering wheel.

Anyhow, transformational attempts have allowed to visualize that other ways of socioeconomic functioning exist and that in order to approach them it is necessary to, on the one hand, preserve the valuable accomplishments achieved so far and, at the same time, dismantle those enormous privileges that, focused on ensuring their reproduction, prevent changing the current systemic course.

It is worth clarifying that transformational energy does not attempt to eliminate capital as a productive factor but it seeks to change its concentrative nature, democratize it so that it belongs to all and not just some actors, to place it and the other factors that make the productive process possible on a more equal footing. This means, that all actors involved in the development process at a local, national and global level, preserving their individual rights and the diversity of identities that enriches social functioning, subordinates their interests and economic ambitions to the general wellbeing and the planet's survival.

The fact is that an economic system that grows produces surpluses that accumulate over time. That surplus accumulation can concentrate in a few hands or, alternatively, be distributed with different equity degrees among the entire population, whether it is done directly or through the State that channels them as to provide justice, security, social and productive services. If the State is dominated by minority sectors, it imposes rules of functioning that tend to generate or facilitate concentration, enabling those minorities to obtain exorbitant privileges [1] . What they are not explicit about is that this type of privileges is attained by taking advantage of the entire existing infrastructure our nations generated and, frequently, at the expense of other people's wellbeing.

Seldom is the imposition of concentrative policies so blunt it becomes easily recognizable. If it were so, it would be more likely that those hard-hit would react and organize to dismantle the exorbitant privileges. What usually happens is that subtle mechanisms of extraction of value [2] that enable concentrating wealth in a more or less concealed manner are implemented; wealth progressively accumulates in a few hands generating a dynamic that feeds itself and accelerates over time.

This heavily based on value extraction and windfall profits accumulation dynamic is accompanied by an intense public opinion manipulation in order to cover up its consequences and minimizing adverse reactions. Those who benefit from concentration accomplish this purpose by financing, acquiring or influencing media, educational institutions and strategic think-tanks that end up being aligned or functional to their interests.

These institutions promote the notion that contemporary capitalism, even with its imperfections, is all there is and no other system can successfully replace it. They set as an example the failure of the communist experience and the coming and going of socialist ideas. They call themselves guardians of human rights despite that a tremendous inequity prevails in the world and that billions of human beings have no access to acceptable levels of physical and psychological wellbeing; they proclaim freedom of speech and circulation of ideas but they vigorously limit their generation and dissemination; they speak of representative democracies but manipulate the democratic system affecting the representativeness of those who are elected and the very democratic governability.

With such powerful forces preaching it, it should not come as a surprise that the belief that beyond capitalism there is nothing but an enormous, dangerous and unpredictable great empty space lasts. An empty space so unknown, and out of ignorance threatening, such as that other one at the end of the fifteenth century when Europeans feared heading their caravels west because many believed the ocean would end abruptly.

[1] Thousand of examples of ‘exorbitant' privileges can be found at all latitudes of this planet. Suffice it is to point out as an outrageous reference that the fortune owned by United States three most wealthy persons is equivalent to the gross domestic product of almost half a hundred countries in the developing world: three people own greater wealth than hundreds of millions of human beings!

[2] See some of these mechanisms in the article Differentiating generation, redistribution and extraction of value.

Anchored in fundamentalisms to protect privileges

2012-05-17T15:28:20Z

Fundamentalisms believe they hold eternal truths. Decisions emerge from that belief causing singular situations to be faced with the same policies, even though situations are always different due to their nature and context; an absurdity of extremely costly and tragic consequences. Those who control economic and political power in Europe and other countries face the crisis with a fundamentalism that, in essence, seeks to preserve disproportionate privileges subordinating general wellbeing and environmental responsibility to them. They charge against an unbridled fiscal deficit and an enormous private and sovereign over indebtedness without acknowledging their responsibility in generating them.

They are driven by greed but not stupid: they know they cannot openly defend profiting at the expense of great majorities because their victims would end up displacing them. Therefore they mask their privileges, building mechanisms they try to consecrate as if they were revealed truths and eternal systems. They do not support a market where millions of voices and interests find ways to coordinate and complement each other for everyone's sake; instead they impose the euphemism of ‘the markets' as organizers of our way of functioning and living, concealing they are the ones that from those platforms make the main economic decisions.

Privilege never intends to commit suicide, at least not consciously, but to accomplish ways of assuring its privileges are preserved; it disguises objectives and resists transformations that threaten to abolish them. It is therefore absolutely critical to raise our understanding and the ability to build an economic system lead by those who stand for society as a whole. Fundamentalisms that conceal the interests of unbridled privilege need to be banished and in such a way as to avoid other fundamentalisms from replacing those that today subjugate us. Our north is full democracy, a democracy without disguises, without obstacles, privileges and manipulations; democracies that will need to be transformed along with the circumstances and as we as individuals and societies are able to attain better levels of understanding, generosity and organization. A permanent effort, open to ever changing challenges, that is really worth undertaking.

We trust this month's articles will contribute in that direction.

Cordial Greetings.

The Editors

Reflexões

2012-05-11T08:09:11Z

Sobre aspirar à grandeza
Sobre não estar seguro de ter razão
Sobre a violência

Sobre aspirar à grandeza

Apesar de tudo, podemos aspirar à grandeza. Peço-nos esta coragem.

Ernesto Sábato

Sobre não estar seguro de ter razão

Deveria existir um partido dos que não estão seguros de ter razão. Seria o meu.

Albert Camus

Sobre a violência

Vivemos em um mundo em que nos escondemos para fazer amor... mas a violência é praticada em plena luz do dia.

John Lennon

Iniciativas em destaque

2012-05-11T07:56:28Z

Conflitos e violência nas escolas
Movimento Água e Juventude – Argentina
Fundação Silataj

Conflitos e violência nas escolas

Entre 14 e 16 de junho se realizará em Buenos Aires o Segundo Congresso Internacional sobre Conflitos e Violências nas Escolas. Entre outros temas, serão abordados os seguintes: a criminalização do discurso adolescente e seu potencial “delitivo”; a construção de autoridade e a necessidade de disciplina como valores a resgatar em sua dimensão democrática; a constituição subjetiva do novo usuário: alunos 2.0; as formas em que se anestesia crianças e jovens frente a processos subjetivos de apatia e angústia; a clínica com sujeitos “violentos” e sua capacidade para modificar tal conduta.

Mais informações

Movimento Água e Juventude – Argentina

Esta organização faz parte do Movimento Internacional Água e Juventude que, trabalhando na construção de uma sociedade mais equitativa e sustentável, procura fortalecer ações locais em temas relacionados com a água e incidir nas políticas públicas que impactam a gestão deste recursos estratégico.

Mais informações

Fundação Silataj

Tem como missão melhorar a qualidade de vida e promover um maior desenvolvimento econômico e social para povos originários da Argentina, respeitando suas culturas e alentando sua autogestão. Centra seu esforço na criação de fontes de trabalho por meio do artesanato sob os princípios do Comércio Justo. Desenvolve sua atividade no norte argentino: em Salta e Formosa com grupos Wichi, Chané, Toba, Pilagá e Chorote; em Jujuy, com grupos Kolla.

Mais informações

Crise global: ajuste ou transformação

Roberto Sansón Mizrahi — 2012-05-11T07:51:05Z

O “ajuste” se associa com uma política socioeconômica que encara a crise centrando-se na redução do gasto público e do superendividamento público e privado. Nivelar as contas públicas restabeleceria o “normal” funcionamento econômico, se bem com um imenso custo social: voltaria o crescimento e os mercados recuperariam seu papel como ordenadores de milhões de decisões tomadas cotidianamente em todo o mundo.

O objetivo é evitar o colapso de uma certa forma de funcionar e proteger os interesses que a tem sustentado e motorizado. Não se questiona que a dinâmica econômica tenha gerado uma tremenda concentração da riqueza e, por fim, uma igualmente enorme desigualdade.

O “ajuste” tem implicações quanto à justiça social e a distribuição da renda, mas também com relação ao papel do capital financeiro para impor para onde se canaliza a poupança (para especular ou para financiar a produção), assim como as “externalidades”, que fazem a destruição do meio ambiente, o desborde do consumismo irresponsável, o dano à coesão social, as ameaças a uma efetiva governabilidade democrática e a perda de sustentabilidade do próprio crescimento econômico.

De sua parte, a “transformação” se associa com uma diferente política socioeconômica que busca mudar rumo e a forma de funcionar prevalecente. Implica avançar para um desenvolvimento sustentável que saiba combinar equidade com crescimento orgânico, respeitando modalidades próprias para cada país e ajustando-se às cambiantes circunstâncias que caracterizam toda a realidade. Essa outra perspectiva aceita a responsabilidade fiscal, porém embasada na justiça distributiva e em uma partição equitativa de encargos, esforços e resultados. Não se entrega o timão da economia aos mercados, mas se utiliza o poder público para orientá-los em uma nova direção que não reproduza as desastrosas “externalidades” (em verdade, inevitáveis e esperáveis consequências) da presente forma de funcionar.

Transformação também implica promover valores muito distintos da desaforada cobiça de boa parte do mundo financeiro e da indiferença com que se condena os segmentos mais vulneráveis que são nossas maiorias. Essa visão prioriza o fortalecimento da coesão social que serve de sustento a uma democracia mais plena no político, social e econômico.

Ideias-força

• Com poucas honrosas exceções, fica o mundo a mercê de gestores de fundos de investimento, fundos soberanos, de pensões e hegde funds, orientados pelo afã de lograr resultados, mas sem obrigação de considerar as consequências de sua ação sobre o conjunto social nem o sistema que os privilegia. Estamos na presença de burocracias treinadas e alentadas a especular, compensadas em função de sucessos financeiros, geralmente de curto prazo, que não medem nem consideram os efeitos colaterais de suas decisões.

• Nem o pânico, nem um olhar aturdido ajudam. É no fragor da crise que se tomam as cruciais decisões. Soluções que em sua maioria se orientam a “resgatar” os que tem sido os timoneiros do desastre, descarregando sobre os mais frágeis o peso de uma restauração de dinâmicas semelhantes às que geraram a crise. Hoje, a opção é transformar, não restaurar.

• Prevalece no mundo ocidental um capitalismo mais ou menos agressivo, mais ou menos regulado, que funciona associado com regimes democráticos todos imperfeitos ainda que perfectíveis, condicionados por uma diversidade de armadilhas democráticas que variam por países quanto a natureza e gravidade.

• As soluções de “emergência” que, com suspeito apuro, projetam reconstruir o que existia antes que a crise estalasse constituem uma das opções possíveis: representam uma complexa trama de interesses, alguns legítimos, mas outros ilegítimos, estruturados para camuflar o que não é possível defender abertamente. Se a opção é reconstruir a dinâmica preexistente, os mais golpeados pela crise serão também os mais prejudicados no curso da “reconstrução”.

• Se bem seja imprescindível reforçar o nível de demanda, evitar a destruição de ativos corporativos e voltar a por de pé o processo de formação de capital, isto nada implica em que se tenha que recompor a estrutura da demanda tal qual era no pré-crise, nem que seja aconselhável restaurar o mesmo processo de formação de capital cuja dinâmica conduzira à crise e, muito menos, que este resgate deva ser financiado pelos mais vulneráveis.

• O ajuste transformador deve apontar para o aumento da equidade e da produtividade socioeconômica do gasto público e do endividamento; substituir gasto inefetivo por gasto promotor de crescimento.

• É inevitável refletir sobre o fato de que um calote cometido por um indivíduo seja apenado como correspondente e, em troca, o calote estruturado como política econômica com efeitos ainda mais devastadores receba muito distinto tratamento.

• A descoberta do véu financeiro deixou exposta a quebra do crescimento orgânico.

• A crise permite domesticar os sindicatos e reforça o papel dos credores financeiros: assegura-se a cobrança de créditos e obtêm-se maiores compensações já que, ao drenarem-se outras fontes de recursos, os especuladores fazem a festa ao refinanciar as dívidas a taxas superiores e adquirindo a preço vil os ativos problemáticos.

• Um fundamentalismo não se supera com outro.

• Na trajetória do pré-crise, o pensamento tendeu a acompanhar a aparente estabilidade sistêmica com uma perigosa tendência para a homogeneização de enfoques e interpretações que enviesou percepções e amordaçou alarmes.

• Segregar produtivamente os pobres e pequenos não ajuda a transformar sua realidade, mas tende a reproduzir as condições em que se desenvolvem.

• A desigualdade inflama e leva à instabilidade; mina a coesão social e afeta a governabilidade democrática. Bem difícil tolerar a irritante superabundância de uns e o atraso do resto; doloroso aceitar o esbanjamento do consumo supérfluo enquanto a pobreza asfixia a metade do planeta e causa mais mortes que qualquer enfermidade conhecida.

• A desigualdade, a pobreza, um sistema econômico justo e sustentável encaram-se a partir e através de variáveis principais e não com uma ação específica que complementar as estratégias centrais.

• Com a crise, surge a xenofobia em países europeus e nos Estados Unidos. Imigrantes são rechaçados ignorando sua contribuição ao desenvolvimento sem relacionar que os países afluentes são os principais responsáveis pela geração do atraso e da pobreza nos países africanos e latinoamericanos expulsores de população.

• Os ricos evadem o dobro do dinheiro que os políticos e o crime organizado juntos.

• Transformação também implica promover outros valores muito distintos da desaforada cobiça de boa parte do mundo financeiro e da indiferença com que se condena os segmentos mais vulneráveis que são nossas maiorias. Esta visão prioriza o fortalecimento da coesão social que serve de sustento a uma democracia mais plena no político, social e econômico.

• Todo o processo de acumulação tende quase naturalmente à concentração, a menos que decisões exógenas ao sistema econômico intervenham para compensar essa tendência.

• Não é sustentável um sistema internacional com alguns países ricos e outros muito miseráveis, nem são sustentáveis os países onde minorias privilegiadas concentram as rendas enquanto persistem enormes setores atrasados ou excluídos; e não é sustentável um planeta onde o excesso de uns (cerca de 20% da humanidade) e as necessidades não cobertas do resto produzem uma deterioração ambiental de proporções eventualmente catastróficas.

• Cabe reagir diante da hipocrisia dos que impõem decisões que levam à proteção de sórdidos interesses de setores absolutamente minoritários.

Opinión Sur está completando a edição do quinto título de sua Coleção de livros “Crisis Global: ajuste o transformación”. O presente artigo remete à introdução desse livro e lista algumas das ideias-força que o vão estruturando.

Focando os direitos da criança ao abordar a pobreza infantil

Marta Maurás — 2012-05-11T07:43:37Z

A estratégia da proteção e da prevenção da pobreza infantil precisa ser multi-direcional e fortemente focada em políticas sociais e programas que satisfaçam as obrigações dos Estados sob as leis internacionais de direitos humanos.

Isso significa, a partir da perspectiva dos direitos da criança:

Garantir uma estrutura legal e institucional abrangente para os direitos, incluindo garantias em nível constitucional, definindo, assim, os papéis dos sujeitos de direitos (as crianças) e os responsáveis (Estados, famílias, pais, setor privado). Enquanto alguns Estados ratificaram a Convenção, nem todos a incorporaram em suas legislações nacionais, como foi feito, por exemplo, pelo Brasil, com seu Estatuto da Criança, de equivalência constitucional, que permitiu que a União aplicasse a Convenção em todos os estados e governos locais, bem como nacionalmente. Regionalmente, em organizações políticas como OEA, a União Europeia e a União Africana, cujas cartas fundacionais permitiriam comprometer a implantação obrigatória dos países membros, se assim o decidirem coletivamente.

Os direitos da criança devem ser tratados como prioridade em amplos debates de desenvolvimento de políticas e decisões para assegurar a coerência, dado que estão colocados no núcleo da política de desenvolvimento em geral. Deveria ser criado um Plano Nacional para combater a pobreza infantil que estabeleça uma estrutura coerente para identificar ações prioritárias contra a exclusão infantil, no marco das políticas universais de igualdade e combate à pobreza, com objetivos específicos e mensuráveis, indicadores claros, prazos e apoio financeiro e econômico suficiente. Este plano deve ser capaz de coordenar de forma efetiva ações nos níveis nacionais, regionais e locais e ações específicas para a infância em diferentes áreas (particularmente trabalho e economia, saúde, habitação, políticas sociais e educação), e deve incluir a participação de meninas e meninos.

Enquanto políticas universais que assegurem apropriados resultados e processos precisam continuar garantidos para todas as crianças, deve ser dado prioridade às crianças e famílias em maior risco, especialmente, crianças vivendo na pobreza, migrantes, crianças em busca de asilo e refúgio, crianças privadas de ambiente familiar, e adolescentes e jovens em risco. Quando se trata de crianças em instituições, a Comissão da ONU para os Direitos da Criança recomendou a revisão e a reforma dos marcos legais específicos com o fim de prevenir que as crianças sejam admitidas e mantidas em instituições e prover as famílias com assistência social e econômica necessária para a criação das crianças e a ajuda legal quando necessária. A Comissão também recomendou que sejam priorizados sistemas de assistência familiar sobre internações em instituições.

Foco na desigualdade: onde haja dados disponíveis, as desigualdades sistemáticas têm desempenhado enorme papel na determinação dos prospectos de vida antes mesmo que a criança nasça, sugerindo que há uma relação causal de mão dupla entre pobreza e desigualdade. Ademais, a estrutura internacional de direitos humanos implica no compromisso dos governos com a manutenção da igualdade. Se a política pública não aborda as desigualdades, o padrão será reforçado, como mostram os números sobre como a desnutrição afeta diferentemente os vários grupos de renda ou a brecha entre a mortalidade infantil entre populações indígenas e não indígenas no mesmo país. Mesmo países ricos, como Luxemburgo, têm índices de pobreza maiores do que o esperado, mostrando que o crescimento econômico, por si só, não irá se difundir na ausência de um pacote de políticas econômicas e sociais que alcancem emprego decente, salários maiores e mais iguais (especialmente para mulheres), políticas fiscais redistributivas, acesso universal a serviços de qualidade, assim como a focalização dos mesmos em circunstâncias de vulnerabilidade.Um exemplo de políticas públicas é Chile Crece Contigo (“O Chile Cresce com Você”, em tradução livre), um sistema de proteção abrangente para a primeira infância estabelecido em 2007 que provê assistência financeira, educacional e de saúde integrados para o desenvolvimento de crianças de até quatro anos. Um de seus principais objetivos é reduzir os efeitos das desigualdades socioeconômicas até o fim de sua educação primária. O alvo é crianças e famílias dos dois mais baixos quintis de renda.

Em suma, prevenir a pobreza a partir de uma percepção dos direitos da criança requer de cada Estado uma abordagem global para tomar decisões complexas de políticas públicas; uma estratégia multi-direcionada que cubra políticas econômicas, sociais e medidas de proteção social específicas contra a pobreza e a desigualdade, e uma decisão que pressione para levar adiante a Estratégia ou o Plano dos Direitos da Criança como um sistema amplo que estabeleça padrões para a implantação, no país, da Convenção dos Direitos da Criança, de forma que proteja os ganhos obtidos até o momento e melhore as chances das crianças de terem uma vida com plena satisfação de seus direitos.

Marta Maurás

Vice Presidente

Comissão das Nações Unidas para os Direitos da Criança