MEDP – Mitigating Endemic Democratic Problems

There are currently two major types of terrorism found internationally. The first being non-hegemonic which means a group or individual that has no cohesive culture or class in particular but still commits terrorism to gain an end or lash out at abuses, etc. Non-hegemonic terrorism is typically the sort found in Al-Quaeda, the Taliban, and many other smaller terrorist groups. By attaching a piece of territory and a distinct group of people (whether culture or class), you’ve got hegemony. Hegemonic terrorism is the sort found in Georgia, the southern Philippines, Kurdish Iraq and Kurdish Turkey, as well as Corsica and other countries in the world with popularly disputed government legitimacy over the right to rule.  There exists, as well, a middle ground which can be a mix of the two.

Essentially, governments which have trouble in these areas can use two methods the help mitigate them. The first with non-hegemonic terrorism is to work to build the legitimacy of government and heighten trust of the government in their citizens. It is extremely important to recognize the sovereignty of the people within borders and represent their needs to the greatest extent. Without representing their needs, such opens the doors for other groups to supplant government and gain the trust and confidence of populations they are aiding. Hegemonic terrorism is different yet. The key therein is to recognize whether or not the population(s) living in the disputed territory is in majority wanting to separate. By borrowing from the Canadian referendum which gave citizens of Quebec the choice to separate or not, a country can ascertain the level of division within the disputed territory. It would then be essential to act as an arbiter and partner in developing a stable nation which is not conflicted with its minority populations but rather integrates them as citizens. Without doing this, there is risk of civil war.

These previous descriptions are both pretty condensed and simplified but they are here to give you a notion of what MEDP’s second international program is about. The International Association of Islamic Peoples Against Terrorism (IAIPAT) is a proposed international body that will allow governments with a history or terrorist attacks and supranational challenges to work collectively by sharing experiences and building stronger networks for greater communication between meetings. The reason “Islamic People” are the focus of the body is due to the fact that most terrorism occurs within Islamic cultures and societies. Whether this fact has to do with the long history of abuse many Islamic societies had to deal with during the rise of Europe and the “West” or the current state of inequality between cultures, it is still in the interest of the people of Islam to work together to help preserve peace and continue improving their lives.

It has been a busy couple of months! Namely, trying to balance my PhD work with a couple of new MEDP initiatives and some lecturing and tutoring makes for a hectic time. Balancing, however, is a skill most CEOs pick up fast I’m told. It’s really amazing at times to think of the immense pressures that corporate leaders undergo when trying to steer a massive business. Although I am not the leader of an incorporated entity but rather a privately held organization, I have some issues with the ways corporations are run, primarily the fact that most – if not all – by law are required to keep the interest of their shareholders as a primary concern. That means the most important facet of a corporation is profit. Who knows whether ethics will change in regards to this in the future…in other words, will neoliberalism meet its decline? We shall indeed have to see. I for one do not ascribe to any convention whether it be political, religious, or social. The only classification I would be willing to fall into would be that of pure and simple logic, practicality, and reason.  Throw in concern for my fellow humans and the natural environment, along with the principles of equality and you should get a picture of what I am all about and how I run MEDP.

This post is about the initiative MEDP is taking to offer an alternative accord -internationally- to oppose the neoliberal tendencies of the global economy and finance markets. Why? Because trans-national corporations, structural adjustment policies, and much international “development” is subversive to the sovereignty of citizens in the world’s poorest or most troubled nation-states. Most notably it’s the machinations of the global economy which are depredatious to the democratic elements of the poorer countries of the world. Take Bolivia for an example: the mandates given to the government in order to repay loans stipulated the need to privatize public resources owned by the “people” (government). Many of you will know this example from the very popular documentary “The Corporation.” The situation reached its boiling point when a foreign corporation began charging for water (it bought the water provisions rights), apparently including that which fell from the sky. The Bolivians put up with the privatization of their oil and other mineral wealth, telecommunications, health care, etc., but water they said was an inalienable right to the people. It took violence, maiming, uprisings, and death to ultimately topple the government and free the people from what I call the “tyranny of profit.” It really didn’t need to be that way. If the sovereignty of citizens in Bolivia was respected, if structural adjustment programs were dealt with in a democratic fashion with the people deciding how to deal with “their” public debt, things would have gone down quite differently.

It’s interesting to note how a government can rack up a sizable debt and call it the debt of the “nation.” Did citizens give their consent to have money borrowed? Not directly. They elected, in many cases but not all, representatives to do their bidding as is the common practice in democracies around the world. They didn’t however elect representatives on the mandate of going into debt to realize public programs. Honestly calling decisions made beyond the reach and often beyond the comprehension of citizens as legitimate is farcical. Latin America, as can be seen by consulting the UNDP’s publications concerning Latin American democracy, is undergoing a critical re-evaluation of how to include the poor (majority) in the decisions of the nation-state. It is a backlash against neoliberalism and typically American styled developmental practices.  There is no cookie cutter format for developing any nation in the world. Each country is composed of a very unique medley of cultures, groups, and individual interests which cannot be forced to do what multinational organizations or trans-national corporations think is right. That is a clear abuse of their sovereignty and it can no longer be tolerated.

MEDP will be officially launching the International Accord on Regulating the Global Economy (IARGE) on Friday the 19th of September, 2008. There, on our website, countries and organizations can sign-up their delegates to take part in the inaugural gathering  (Geneva, 20-24, April, 2008). Also, individuals from around the world will be able to sign their names on a global petition showing their support for this accord. IARGE’s goal is to create an international and legally binding accord between the world poorest and medium wealth nations on labor conditions. This accord seeks to banish the near slave-labor and unethical pay rates trans-national corporations use to manufacture their products. It simply cannot be tolerated that a shirt selling for $50.00 US costs only 6 cents to make. The accord seeks to finally end child labor which ruins the childhood of millions of children in the world. The accord seeks a guarantee of proper treatment for laborers everywhere in the world. If IARGE is successful, there will be no quarter of the Earth that a trans-national corporation can go to for cheap labor. It is time to stand up collectively for the world’s poor, for those who cannot afford to take part in protecting their rights, for those who spend their days toiling for food and dreaming of a better life.

MEDP stands on behalf of over 5 billion people, will you stand with us?

The conventional neoliberal arguments regarding extremely low wages have been made for well over 30 years and have shown little promise. GDP has increased drastically globally over that time span, but who holds the wealth? It is still concentrated in the top 0.1% of the worlds population. There is talk of a “trickle-down effect” but signs of such are minimal. The case of India as being a success story for neoliberalism and trans-national corporations is laughable. It is not laughable that people have worked extremely hard initially and saved money to give their children a chance to grasp that so very illusive “first-rung” of the development ladder and thus allowing their grandchildren to reach the ever higher ones; that is simply amazing and inspirational. What is laughable is that corporations think they are noble in reaping billions of dollars in profit whilst only giving a pittance to their workers. By guaranteeing an international increase in base wages, the PPP and GDP of the poorest and medium wealth economies will skyrocket and thus allow for greater development and lessen the harsher effects of living poor. What arguments are there against this?

- Jean-Paul