Sometimes, the most revealing aspect of the shrieking babble of the 24/7 news agenda is the silence. Often the most important facts are hiding beneath the noise, unmentioned and undiscussed.
So the fact that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is facing trial for allegedly raping a maid in a New York hotel room is – rightly – big news. But imagine a prominent figure was charged not with raping a maid, but starving her to death, along with her children, her parents, and thousands of other people. That is what the IMF has done to innocent people in the recent past. That is what it will do again, unless we transform it beyond all recognition. But that is left in the silence.
To understand this story, you have to reel back to the birth of the IMF. In 1944, the countries that were poised to win the Second World War gathered in a hotel in rural New Hampshire to divvy up the spoils. With a few honorable exceptions, like the great British economist John Maynard Keynes, the negotiators were determined to do one thing. They wanted to build a global financial system that ensured the money and resources of the planet were forever hoovered towards them. They set up a series of institutions designed for that purpose – and so the IMF was delivered into the world.
The IMF’s official job sounds simple and attractive. It is supposedly there to ensure poor countries don’t fall into debt, and if they do, to lift them out with loans and economic expertise. It is presented as the poor world’s best friend and guardian. But beyond the rhetoric, the IMF was designed to be dominated by a handful of rich countries – and, more specifically, by their bankers and financial speculators. The IMF works in their interests, every step of the way.
Let’s look at how this plays out on the ground. In the 1990s, the small country of Malawi in Southeastern Africa was facing severe economic problems after enduring one of the worst HIV-AIDS epidemics in the world and surviving a horrific dictatorship. They had to ask the IMF for help. If the IMF has acted in its official role, it would have given loans and guided the country to develop in the same way that Britain and the US and every other successful country had developed – by protecting its infant industries, subsidising its farmers, and investing in the education and health of its people.
That’s what an institution that was concerned with ordinary people – and accountable to them – would look like. But the IMF did something very different. They said they would only give assistance if Malawi agreed to the ‘structural adjustments’ the IMF demanded. They ordered Malawi to sell off almost everything the state owned to private companies and speculators, and to slash spending on the population. They demanded they stop subsidising fertilizer, even though it was the only thing that made it possible for farmers – most of the population – to grow anything in the country’s feeble and depleted soil. They told them to prioritise giving money to international bankers over giving money to the Malawian people.
So when in 2001 the IMF found out the Malawian government had built up large stockpiles of grain in case there was a crop failure, they ordered them to sell it off to private companies at once. They told Malawi to get their priorities straight by using the proceeds to pay off a loan from a large bank the IMF had told them to take out in the first place, at a 56 per cent annual rate of interest. The Malawian president protested and said this was dangerous. But he had little choice. The grain was sold. The banks were paid.
In the lush mountains of western Uganda, tourists come to the dense forests in search of rare and exotic animals. What they don’t anticipate is coming in contact with some of the world’s rarest diseases.
That’s what recently happened to an American tourist who came down with a mysterious and deadly disease after visiting a cave known for its bats.
“We’re still not exactly sure how she acquired the infection,” says Dr. Stuart Nichol of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “We know that she did enter the mouth of the cave but didn’t go very deep into the cave.”
A team from the CDC found that she’d contracted Marburg virus -- a hemorrhagic fever that causes extensive internal bleeding. Hers was the first case to reach the United States.
During the same period, another outbreak of hemorrhagic fever was devastating a remote village in the same region. It was discovered to be a new strain of the Ebola virus, which scientists believe was transmitted to humans who ate infected bush meat.
“Uganda is a really good example of a hot spot for where these diseases arise,” says Dr. Ali Khan of the CDC. “The infections due to animals represent 75 percent of all the emerging infectious diseases, and so if you’re really going to tackle these diseases, you can’t just focus on people. You need to focus on the animals, you need to focus on the environment, and on the interface where those come together to decrease infectious diseases worldwide.”
Pope Benedict's repeated gaffes and the Vatican's inability to manage his message in the internet era are threatening to undermine his papacy, Vatican insiders have said.
The Holy See is struggling to contain international anger over the Pope's claim on his first official visit to Africa that Aids "cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems". The Pope's remarks about condoms, and a recent furore over his lifting of the 20-year excommunication of a British bishop who has questioned the Holocaust, has left him looking isolated and out of touch, prompting calls for a radical shake-up of the way the Holy See delivers its message. The Pope is isolated and fails to adequately consult his advisers, said a Vatican source with 20 years' knowledge of the Holy See. Another Vatican insider described Pope Benedict's four-year-old papacy as "a disaster", recalling the pontiff's previous inflammatory remarks on Islam and homosexuality. "He's out of touch with the real world," the Italian insider said. "On the condom issue, for example, there are priests and bishops in Africa who accept that condoms are a key part of the fight against Aids, and yet the pope adheres to this very conservative line that they encourage promiscuity. The Vatican is far removed from the reality on the ground." The Vatican's traditional culture of secrecy has made it ill-equipped to communicate its message in the internet age. The Holy See claimed that the Pope had no idea that British bishop Richard Williamson had denied the extent of the Holocaust, but critics have pointed out that a simple Google search would have uncovered the maverick's anti-Semitic views. "Until recently the Vatican was secretive and their way of controlling the message of the Church was to release information slowly and highly selectively through carefully worded documents," said Francis X Rocca, Vatican correspondent for Religion News Service. "The problem now is that the internet and the blogosphere won't wait for the Vatican, so its message gets swamped." The pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, also wears two other hats – he is also the head of Vatican radio and of its television service. Observers question whether he can effectively handle such an onerous workload. "He's got too many jobs. There's talk that he is going to go," said a third Vatican source. "You have people around the pope who seem to be out of their depth. There needs to be a major re-think of the operation, not the structure necessarily but the people." The Vatican's press office works to a timetable from a gentler era, closing each day at 3pm, and familiarity with the internet appears barely to have penetrated the Vatican's cloistered confines. The pontiff's message is further confused by disagreement within the ranks. Cardinals and archbishops within the Curia, the Holy See's administration, often appear to be at odds with each other, most recently over the excommunication in Brazil of doctors who performed an abortion on a nine-year-old girl who had fallen pregnant after being raped by her stepfather. A senior Vatican figure, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, spoke out in favour of the Brazilian archbishop who announced the excommunication, only to be contradicted a few days later by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life. "I think there's a good story to be told about this pope but it just doesn't get out because of the colossal ineptitude of the Vatican in terms of communications," said John Allen, a veteran Vatican analyst with National Catholic Reporter who is travelling with the pope in Africa.
Articulo analiza la situación dentro del Vaticano, la alianza de derecha entre la iglesia cómplice y gobiernos hipócritas se tambalea, el Papa no es mas una parte útil del "ve agachado a cumplir tu destino sin protestar" ¿Acaso lo van a enfermar para que se largue y deje el negocio de la manipulacion de la pobreza a otros?
Declaran personas Dentro del Vaticano que el Papa es un "desastre"
Las repetidas meteduras de pata del Papa Benedicto y la incapacidad del Vaticano de dirigir su mensaje en la era de Internet están amenazando con minar su papado, dicen miembros del Vaticano.La Santa Sede está luchando por contener la cólera internacional sobre el reclamo durante su primera visita oficial para África donde el Papa dijo que el Sida no "Puede ser superado a través de la distribución de condones, que incluso agravan el problema".Los comentarios sobre condones del Papa, y un furor reciente sobre el levantamiento de la excomunión de 20 años de un obispo británico que ha cuestionado sobre el Holocausto, lo ha dejado aislado e incita a los llamados para una reorganización radical de la manera en que la Santa Sede difunde su mensaje fuera del orbe.El Papa está aislado y deja de consultar con sus consejeros suficientemente, dijo una fuente con conocimientos de 20 años sobre el Vaticano.Otro miembro del Vaticano describió el papado de cuatro años de Papa Benedicto como "Un desastre", recordando los comentarios incitantes previos del pontífice sobre el Islam y la homosexualidad."Está sin contacto con el mundo real", el miembro italiano dijo. "Sobre el asunto del condón, por ejemplo, hay sacerdotes y obispos en África que aceptan que los condones son una parte importante de la pelea contra Sida, y con todo el Papa se adhiere a esta línea muy conservadora de que apoyan la promiscuidad. El Vaticano está muy lejos de la realidad."La tradicional cultura del secreto en el vaticano secreto ha hecho mal para comunicar su mensaje en la era de Internet.La Santa Sede afirmó que el Papa no tenía ninguna idea de que el obispo británico Richard Williamson quien negó el tamaño del Holocausto, pero los críticos han señalado que una simple búsqueda de Google habría revelado las opiniones antisemitas del disidente."Hasta hace poco el Vaticano era reservado y su manera de controlar el mensaje de la iglesia fue liberar la información despacio y muy de forma selectiva a través de documentos cuidadosamente formulados", dijo Francis X Rocca, corresponsal en el Vaticano para el Religion News Service."El problema es que la Internet y la blogosfera no esperarán ahora por el Vaticano así que su mensaje se pone abrumado."El portavoz del Papa, padre Federico Lombardi, también lleva otros dos nombramientos- es también la cabeza de la radio del Vaticano y de su servicio de televisión. Los observadores preguntan si puede manejar tal trabajo oneroso eficazmente."Tiene demasiados trabajos. Hay comentarios de que va a irse", una tercera fuente del Vaticano dijo. "Usted tiene personas alrededor del Papa que parecen estar sin su profundidad. Tiene que haber un importante repensar en la operacion, no necesariamente la estructura, pero si en la gente."La oficina de prensa del Vaticano viene de una era más apacible que, se cierran todos los días a las 3 p.m. con un programa, y el conocimiento con la Internet no parece haber traspasado los confines enclaustrados del Vaticano.El mensaje del pontífice es enredado por el desacuerdo más alejado dentro de los rangos. Cardenales y arzobispos dentro de la Curia, la administración de la Santa Sede, parecen estar en desacuerdo entre ellos, más recientemente sobre la excomunión en Brasil de los doctores que llevaron a cabo un aborto sobre una niña de nueve años que habían terminado embarazada después de ser violada por su padrastro continuamente.Un alto personaje del Vaticano, el cardenal Giovanni Battista Re, hablo en favor del arzobispo brasileño, que anunció la excomunión, sólo fue contradicho a los pocos días por el arzobispo Rino Fisichella, que dirige la Academia Vaticana Pontificia para la Vida."Creo que hay una buena historia para contar acerca de este papa, pero simplemente no se dice debido a la colosal ineptitud del Vaticano en materia de comunicaciones", dijo John Allen, un veterano analista del Vaticano en National Catholic Reporter que acompaña al Papa en África.
Causan polémica declaraciones del Papa Benedicto XVI El Papa declara que el uso del preservativo más que una solución es un problema en la lucha contra el SIDA. ¿Será? Aquí en video
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