Big Business is certainly one of the ‘Big Four’ forces, or global institutions, which control the political and socio-economic life of the planet -- the other three being: the national governments of the rich and of the ‘emerging’ countries; civil society; and the international organisations. Metaphorically speaking, the ‘Big Four’ can be seen as the four wheels of a vehicle -- a truck, for example, or a tractor. All four wheels are obviously necessary for that vehicle to advance on a road that is in bad shape – full of potholes (that represent the various problems of the world). But, it is important to emphasize that only two wheels, Big Business and the governments of the rich and of the ‘emerging’ countries, have real traction. That is so because the money, or the capital, the lifeblood of socio-economic life. The other two wheels, civil society and the international organisations, have no real traction, having little money. In part they are dependent on the generosity of the population, in part on the largesse of the governments of the rich and of the ‘emerging’ countries, and of Big Business.
Only the civil society, through its myriad NGOs representing social, cultural and religious groups -- women, youth, children, workers, peasants, Christians, and so on -- openly opposes the globalisation ‘agenda’. The World Social Forum (WSF), founded some five years ago as a reaction to the WEF, is the main international platform of the civil society. The first gatherings took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil. They were held in three different locations in 2006: Bamako, Caracas and Karachi; in 2007, there will be, again, only one location, in Nairobi, Kenya. The WSFs are increasingly emerging as places where socially-oriented (as opposed to profit-oriented globalisation) alternative models of development are being introduced and tested.So, the conclusion is inescapable: the very rich are getting richer. That does not necessarily mean that the very poor are getting poorer. It is possible that all the boats are rising together, and that the very rich are getting richer while the number of the very poor is decreasing. That does not seem to be the case. The very poor cannot, of course, to get any poorer, they are already as poor as one can get. But, be that as it may, the evidence that the CRIB countries (China, Russia, India and Brazil) appears to be that these four countries were successful, in the last few years, to reduce ordinary poverty, moving poor people into the lower middle class, while not much of a dent has been made the very poor category -- especially in sub-Saharan Africa where there are some 300 million very poor people. Ultimately, of course, the eradication of extreme poverty is a matter of human dignity and human solidarity. Human dignity continues to be trampled under the heavy boot of profit-driven neo-liberal globalisation. Human solidarity demands that the BHN of the extremely poor people are satisfied. That the rich world does not do so is a very serious violation of an essential human right. Extreme poverty is a great evil, because it is like a living death, which goes on until physical death finalises it. Presently what Big Business is doing is to throw some crumbs to the very poor while keeping the loaf for itself. As long as that situation persists, extreme poverty will be a stain on the face of humanity. I would like to close on an optimistic note. Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the UN Millennium Project, said recently: ‘We live in a time of profound paradox, but also profound possibility, and profound hope. The paradox is that this (extreme poverty) continues in a world of vast wealth and knowledge. The hope is the fact that we live in an age of vast possibility. If we choose correctly, this kind of extreme poverty could be ended in our generation.’
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