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viernes, 24 de enero de 2014

Un informe de Oxfam descubre la pobreza.

No olviden sus nombres. Son los verdaderos dueños del planeta: Alberto Bailleres (82) en el sector minero, Jorge Paulo Lemann (74) en el sector de la cerveza, Alisher Usmanov (60) en acero y  telecomunicaciones, Iris Fonthona (71) en minas. Al jovencito Mark Zuckerberg (29) con Facebook, ya hay que tenerlo en cuenta. Son algunos de los principales multimillonarios, de Forbes.
 

Casi la mitad de la riqueza mundial está en manos de sólo el 1% de la población.

La riqueza del 1% de la población más rica del mundo asciende a 110 billones de dólares, una cifra 65 veces mayor que el total de la riqueza que posee la mitad pobre del mundo.

 La mitad más pobre de la población mundial posee la misma riqueza que las 85 personas más ricas del mundo.

Siete de cada diez personas viven en países donde la desigualdad económica ha aumentado en los últimos 30 años.

El 1% más rico de la población ha visto cómo se incrementaba su participación en la renta entre 1980 y 2012 en 24 de los 26 países de los que tenemos datos.

En Estados Unidos, el 1% más rico ha acumulado el 95% del crecimiento total posterior a la crisis desde 2009, mientras que el 90% más pobre de la población se ha empobrecido aún más.



Esta masiva concentración de los recursos económicos en manos de unos pocos supone una gran amenaza para los sistemas políticos y económicos inclusivos. El poder económico y político está separando cada vez más a las personas, en lugar de hacer que avancen juntas, de modo que es inevitable que se intensifiquen las tensiones sociales y aumente el riesgo de ruptura social.

Los sondeos de Oxfam en todo el mundo reflejan que la mayoría de la población cree que las leyes y normativas actuales están concebidas para beneficiar a los ricos. Una encuesta realizada en seis países (España, Brasil, India, Sudáfrica, el Reino Unido y Estados Unidos) pone de manifiesto que la mayor parte de la población considera que las leyes están diseñadas para favorecer a los ricos –en España, ocho de cada diez personas estaban de acuerdo con esta afirmación–. Otra reciente encuesta de Oxfam a trabajadores con salarios bajos en Estados Unidos revela que el 65% de ellos considera que el Congreso aprueba leyes que benefician principalmente a los ricos.

La apropiación de los procesos políticos y democráticos por parte de las élites económicas tiene unos efectos notables, que afectan por igual a países ricos y pobres. El presente informe ofrece ejemplos relacionados con la desregulación financiera, la inequidad de los sistemas fiscales, las leyes que facilitan la evasión


miércoles, 22 de enero de 2014

Primeras damas: oficio sexista.


Nabila Ramdani, en "The Guardian", llama la atención sobre la verdadera naturaleza de una posición femenina prominente, la de Primera Dama. Y no puedo estar más de acuerdo con ella que la situación de las mujeres de algunos presidentes de gobierno es penosa. Se institucionaliza su dedicación y afán a mayor gloria de su pareja. Dejan de ser ellas a cambio de arrumacos públicos. Claro que las hay que asumen gozosas tal oportunidad de ser estrellas públicas. Tal es el caso de la señora Obama. Michelle Obama se ha convertido en "la mejor vestida", "la que su maridito adora". En fin, un florón lujoso y parlante.

"Even Michelle Obama, who trained as a lawyer, had no hope of practising on taking up the role. Now her main job is as "hostess of the White House", allowing her to invite stars such as Beyoncé to her bashes, as she did last Saturday. Yes, Flotus has an office and a press secretary, but she has no salary and the majority of her tasks are decidedly shallow. As throughout history, first ladies around the world are largely required to be presentable escorts when called upon, and to make their husbands look good.
Michelle Obama has tried to make a difference, mainly through campaigns about obesity and other social ills. But it is as a winner of "best dressed" and "most inspiring" awards that she remains well-known. In this sense, popular perceptions of what a modern first lady does are sexist and trite. Michelle dances, she sings, she cries in appropriate situations and she is a close confidante of Oprah Winfrey. Thus highly educated, talented women such as her are effectively told to suspend their careers to become state-sponsored ladies who lunch.
David Cameron's wife, Samantha, is not an official first lady – British heads of state are royals – but when her husband became prime minister, she left her job as a creative designer to adopt part-time roles, mainly for charities and fashion organisations. As far as Mrs Cameron's potential influence as a dynamic prime ministerial partner is concerned, forget it. It is getting to the stage where people do not even know what her voice sounds like. The once much-vaunted "Sam Cam" brand has never taken off, leaving Mrs Cameron as a bizarrely hollow public figure.
In this respect, she has become a female version of German chancellor Angela Merkel's husband, the scientist Joachim Sauer, who is known as the "phantom" because of his ghostly lack of presence (on the subject of pervading sexism, it is noticeable that Sauer is never referred to as the "first man"). He stayed at home to watch Merkel's inauguration on TV. Because of his gender, he is not expected to entertain or smile sweetly. Germany's actual first lady, presidential partner Daniela Schadt, is by no means a household name either.
Schadt is, like Trierweiler, unmarried. While many social conservatives point to this single status as being a huge disadvantage in itself, in France it merely highlights the pervading misogyny of the political establishment. Gallic leaders since Napoleon have traditionally kept lovers hovering in antechambers, to the extent that they are interchangeable with spouses. François Mitterrand, France's most famously monarchical socialist president, kept a family hidden at the taxpayers' expense.
Even now, Hollande is using disingenuous references to "privacy" to cover up what looks like a callous treatment of his girlfriends. These have included not just Trierwiler but also Ségolène Royal, the mother of his four children who was dumped while running to become head of state herself in 2007. Gayet will certainly not come out of the quasi-feudal presidential courting system unscathed either.
Trierweiler always claimed that she would not become a presidential "wallflower". If, as expected, she is kicked out of the Élysée in the coming days, she will get no compensation. The role of première dame comes with five clerical staff costing around £17,000 a month, but everything else is down to the bon vouloir of the president. Pointedly, Hollande stressed last week that the role was an "unofficial one" with "more to do with tradition" than anything else. Senior colleagues even called for it to be scrapped.
First ladies have no financial security, nor guaranteed tenure. Their ill-defined, awkward job may be temporarily perk-rich, but it ultimately leaves the incumbent in a fragile position. Trierweiler's slow exit from presidential life has been brutally humiliating. The sole consolation for a female journalist who has held on to her job at Paris Match might be a tell-all autobiography. It will be grim, but it will at least make clear that the job of ex-first lady is invariably more fulfilling and lucrative than the real thing".