Development worldwide

In the 17th century, Ming China represented roughly one-third of global output, and Mughal India a little less. Together the two countries accounted for more than half of the world’s output, with a corresponding size of populations (as a proportion of the total global population). By the 1950s, Mao China was a mere 5 per cent of global GDP. India only 1 per cent. Today, after several decades of exceptional economic progress, particularly in China, there is now a historic rise of the Global South. The two behemoths – China and India, and others in the South – are now reclaiming their historic economic weight in the world.  The 2013 UNDP Human Development Report documented this rise of the Global South presenting evidence that China, India, and Brazil were collectively in the process of exceeding western developed countries in terms of trade and global output. China is now the largest...

Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash Maria Popova August 3, 2023 “This is an extraordinary time full of vital, transformative movements that could not be foreseen. It’s also a nightmarish time. Full engagement requires the ability to perceive both.” “There is no love of life without despair of life,” wrote Albert Camus — a man who in the midst of World War II, perhaps the darkest period in human history, saw grounds for luminous hope and issued a remarkable clarion call for humanity to rise to its highest potential on those grounds. It was his way of honoring the same duality that artist Maira Kalman would capture nearly a century later in her marvelous meditation on the pursuit of happiness, where she observed: “We hope. We despair. We hope. We despair. That is what governs us. We have a bipolar system.” In my own reflections on hope, cynicism, and the stories we tell ourselves, I’ve considered...

The story of the BRICS countries and their accelerating role in world affairs. We bring you this 13:45 minutes video from US-based Sino Sphere on YouTube about BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Watch it with your colleagues, friends or family and ask yourself why you hear so little about these tremendously important countries and changes in world history. Among many other facts, you’ll learn that BRICS is now economically bigger than the G7 countries… Recommended reading and viewing About BRICS Deutsche WelleA new world order? BRICS nations offer alternative to West Silk Road BriefingThe BRICS Has Overtaken The G7 In Global GDP China’s GovernmentBRICS 2022 China The New Development Bank, NDB (formerly BRICS Development Bank) – including a fine short video presentation.

Meetings of the G7 and NATO (top) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (bottom) Ben Norton March 29, 2023 A study by the elite EU-funded European Council on Foreign Relations found the West is out of touch politically with the rest of the world. Most people in China, India, and Türkiye see Russia as an important ally, and they want multipolarity, not continued “American global supremacy”. Originally published at Geopolitical Economy on February 25, 2023 A study by an elite European government-funded think tank found that, while the United States and Europe are growing closer together, the West is increasingly out of touch politically with the rest of the world. The report, from the EU member state-financed European Council on Foreign Relations, conceded that the system of “American global supremacy” is in rapid decline, and many people in the Global South want a new “multipolar world”. The series of polls concluded that NATO’s proxy...

Source: www.cambodia-roads.fr Sebastian Strangio, In the Dragon’s Shadow – Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2022. Peter PeverelliTFF Associate This text is a combination of a book review and a report of a visit to Cambodia in January 2023. Both texts were published earlier in Dutch on Chinasquare. It seems justified to compare the value of the ASEAN countries to China with that of South America to the US. Turned around, one could expect that the ASEAN countries regard China as a Big Brother that you cannot ignore, even if you want to. This book confirms that expectation, but also shows that any ASEAN member can build a win-win relationship with China in its own specific way. The author, an academic who has been stationed as a journalist in various ASEAN countries for years, builds his arguments on a solid historical foundation, combined...

Photo Credit: The Cradle Pepe Escobar February 1, 2023 As Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative enters its 10th year, a strong Sino-Russian geostrategic partnership has revitalized the BRI across the Global South. The year 2022 ended with a Zoom call to end all Zoom calls: Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping discussing all aspects of the Russia-China strategic partnership in an exclusive video call. Putin told Xi how “Russia and China managed to ensure record high growth rates of mutual trade,” meaning “we will be able to reach our target of $200 billion by 2024 ahead of schedule.” On their coordination to “form a just world order based on international law,” Putin emphasized how “we share the same views on the causes, course, and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape.” Originally published at The Cradle on 6 January 2023 Facing “unprecedented pressure and provocations from the west,”...

The estimated cost of the humanitarian response going into 2023 is US$ 51.5 billion, a 25% increase compared to the beginning of 2022. That is less than one-tenth of the total sales of weapons which reached 592 billion US dollars just in one year: 2021. Baher Kamal January 30, 2023 MADRID, Dec 22, 2022 (IPS) – Day after day, international humanitarian organisations launch desperate appeals for funding to continue saving some of the many lives at high risk. When they get a handful of dollars –even just one million– from a rich country, they welcome it as manna from heaven. Not only the available funding for humanitarian aid is already short, but 2023 will also set another record for humanitarian relief requirements, with 339 million people in need of assistance in 69 countries, an increase of 65 million people compared to the same time last year, the United Nations and...

Controlling the loss and waste of food is a crucial factor in reaching the goal of eradicating hunger in the world. Credit: FAO October 17, 2022 Baher Kamal MADRID, Sep 28 2022 (IPS)* – These are facts, not guesses: about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted and lost … every single year, the equivalent of one ton per each of the one billion hungry people, many of them are those who produced the food. Originally published at Human Wrongs Watch on September 28, 2022 The findings have been reported by the World Bank, whose recent study: What a Waste 2.0 also informs that the number of wasted calories “could fill hunger gaps in the developing world.” On this, it reports on the breakdown of the number of calories wasted per day and per person – out of the recommended 2.000: 1.520 calories in rich North America and Oceania of which 61% are by...

Image: Wikimedia Commons By P&I Guest Writers August 24, 2022 The G-7 countries are democratic domestically but are dictatorial globally. By contrast, the G-20 group, which has many autocratic regimes, represents a more democratic forum for governance. The G-7 is dictatorial, while the G-20 is democratic. This statement is obviously paradoxical. The G-7 countries are very proud of their liberal democratic societies. And they should be. However, while they are democratic domestically, they are dictatorial globally. By contrast, the G-20 group, which has many autocratic regimes, is more representative of the world’s population. The spiritual essence of democracy is conveyed in the phrase: a government of the people, by the people, for the people. In short, it must represent a hundred per cent of the people. The G-7 represent just 10 per cent of the world’s population. Yet, they make decisions and take actions that disrupt the lives of billions of...

Russia says half its gold assets were frozen – is this for real or a slick play by Moscow? Photo Credit: The Cradle Pepe Escobar March 29, 2022 The Russia-led Eurasia Economic Union and China just agreed to design the mechanism for an independent financial and monetary system that would bypass dollar transactions. Originally posted on The Cradle on March 15, 2022 here It was a long time coming, but finally some key lineaments of the multipolar world’s new foundations are being revealed. After a recent video conference meeting, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and China agreed to design the mechanism for an independent international monetary and financial system. The EAEU consists of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia, is establishing free trade deals with other Eurasian nations, and is progressively interconnecting with the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). For all practical purposes, the idea comes from Sergei Glazyev, Russia’s...

Please read this carefully because it is essentially important and not on the front page of all media – while Djokovic, Britney Spears, Epstein/Maxwell and the latest Netflix series you just must see all are: “UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 2022 (IPS) The numbers are unbelievably staggering: the world’s 10 richest men more than doubled their fortunes from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion —at a rate of $15,000 per second or $1.3 billion a day, according to a new study from Oxfam International. These phenomenal changes in fortunes took place during the first two years of a Covid-19 pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall, and over 160 million more people forced into poverty—60 million more than the figures released by the World Bank in 2020. “If these ten men were to lose 99.999 percent of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be richer than 99...

By Baher Kamal December 25, 2021 MADRID, Dec 6 2021 (IPS) – ”All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” These words are a sound introduction to the transcendental issue of human rights and equalities, as stated by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Declaration proclaims the “inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” “All Human, All Equal” is the slogan for the 2021 Human Rights Day, marked 10 December. Its theme relates to equality: “The principles of equality and non-discrimination are at the heart of human rights.”According to the UN, “equality, inclusion and non-discrimination, in other words – a human rights-based approach to development  – is the best way to reduce inequalities and resume the path towards realising the 2030 Agenda” “Equality includes addressing...