Chinese financing boosts Sino-LatAm cooperation: Chinese envoy

English.news.cn   2015-04-23

BUENOS AIRES, April 22 (Xinhua) -- China's ambassador to Argentina, Yang Wanming, suggests Latin American nations make the best use of the financing offered by China as part of integral bilateral cooperation.

"The Chinese government has established a line of credit amounting to 20 billion U.S. dollars, exclusively to fund infrastructure projects in Latin American countries," said Yang, addressing a seminar on China-Argentina relations, organized by the Political, Economic and Social Studies Foundation for the New Argentina (FEPESNA) in Buenos Aires.

In addition, China has helped create the China-Latin America Cooperation Fund, financed with 5 billion U.S. dollars, and another 50 billion-dollar fund especially for joint agricultural projects between the two regions.

"I think Latin American entrepreneurs can make the most of the opportunity to strengthen their connection with their Chinese counterparts," said Yang.

The ambassador invited participants "to explore the potential for cooperation, by taking advantage of institutional mechanisms."

To that end, said Yang, China and LatAm countries are working to organize a business forum "to promote bilateral economic and investment cooperation," as well as "expand industrial cooperation" and "jointly take the global industrial chain to a higher level."

In the case of Argentina, said Yang, "many pioneering bilateral projects have been launched with the help of cooperation financing," and more opportunities lie ahead, as both two nations pursue their national development goals.

To spur economic development, "in China today we give greater importance to quality, efficiency and intensive development," said Yang. "At the same time, Argentina's government is working on modernizing, implementing the 'Argentina 2020' development strategy."

"The similarity in objectives and development orientation, as well as the complementarity of the conditions and necessities of both countries, offer Sino-Argentinean cooperation an immense market, exceptional investment opportunities and greater potentialities," said the ambassador, adding bilateral relations are expected to "move forward at great strides."

"Thanks to the parallel development of mutual investment, financial cooperation and the creation of institutional mechanisms, the economic and trade ties between the two countries have increasingly become integrated," Yang told the seminar participants.

"We are willing to continue diversifying the portfolio of imports from Argentina, and working with you to promote other businesses, to increase the added value of bilateral trade," Yang said.

Editor: Luan

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Russia proposes energy association within BRICS

English.news.cn, 2014-07-10

MOSCOW, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Russia plans to establish an energy association within the BRICS countries, the Kremlin said Thursday.

"Russia is going to propose the establishment of the BRICS energy association, which would guarantee energy security of the member countries, conduct integrated research and analysis of global markets," presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said.

The organization will include a fuel reserve bank and an institution for energy policy, he added.

The official said the initiative has been discussed at the governmental level.

BRICS is the acronym for five major emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The sixth BRICS summit is due to take place on July 15-16 in Brazil.

According to Ushakov, the summit will discuss cooperation in trade, investment and financial sphere, as well as international political affairs like the Ukraine crisis.

The leaders will also sign an agreement on currency reserves pool, "a foundation of macroeconomic coordination of the five countries, to help strengthen the global financial system," Ushakov said.

A BRICS Development Bank was first mooted during the New Delhi summit in March 2012, so as to "establish a BRICS financial safety net."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, South African President Jacob Zuma and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the summit.

South American leaders to attend 6th BRICS Summit

The BRICS Post, June 11, 2014

The 2014 Summit’s debates will focus on the theme “BRICS – inclusive
growth: sustainable solutions” [gov.br]

The Brazilian cities of Fortaleza and Brasilia will host the 6th BRICS Summit on the 14th, 15th, and 16th July, an event that will showcase the growing economic clout of the five countries.

The 2014 Summit’s debates will focus on the theme “BRICS – inclusive growth: sustainable solutions”.

As part of a BRICS outreach strategy to emerging economies, a working session will be held on 16th July between the heads of states of BRICS and their counterparts from the governments of South American nations. Argentina had expressed interest in joining the powerful bloc, although BRICS have ruled out expansion of the group for now.

BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, Trade Ministers meeting, Development Bank Presidents meeting, Business Forum and a session of the BRICS Business Council will be held on 14th July in Fortaleza.

The $100 billion Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA) will be launched at this year’s Summit and final details of the New Development Bank (NBD) will also be unveiled.

In the Durban Summit last year, leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa had approved a $100 billion fund to combat currency crises.

“The establishment of a self-managed contingent reserve arrangement would have a positive precautionary effect, help BRICS countries forestall short-term liquidity pressures, provide mutual support and further strengthen financial stability,” South African President Jacob Zuma said after the five BRICS leaders met in Durban in March.

BRICS have 43 per cent of the world’s population and total foreign-currency reserves of $4.4 trillion.

Brazilian Ambassador José Alfredo Graça Lima addressing a press conference in Brasilia on Tuesday said the keenly awaited BRICS Bank will finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects.

Developing nations have long complained that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are failing to address underdevelopment and Western nations have too much say over the management of these institutions.

The BRICS Bank’s start-up capital of $50 billion would eventually be built up to $100 billion. Russia has proposed that each member contributes an equal, 20 per cent share. All the members of BRICS except Brazil has proposed to host the Bank.

Social inclusion and sustainable development will be in focus during this year’s summit.

The 6th Summit will inaugurate the second cycle of BRICS, with each member country hosting one summit each.

The African Union attended last year’s Summit as observers even as BRICS countries try to increase bilateral trade with the continent. Meanwhile, the invitation this year to Latin American heads of states comes as the region tries to match the inspiring growth rates of above 4.3 per cent of 2004-11.

Meanwhile, South American nations are also jointly exploring the creation of a communications system to curtail US spying in the region.

Latin American countries raised a storm of protest after, according to US NSA leaks by former contractor Edward Snowden, the agency spied on an array of nations in the region, including Brazil.

The meet in Brasilia with a congregation of BRICS and South American leaders in attendance could call for an end to mass surveillance like the one carried out the US intelligence agency and gross invasions of privacy.

TBP

Cuba: Comparing revolutionary goals with realities

Deutsche Welle, 26 July 2013

Exactly 60 years ago, Fidel Castro attempted to take power in Cuba for the first time. He expressed an ambitious revolutionary platform - but how does the Cuba of today measure up to his grand plan?

Cuba's revolution officially began on July 26, 1953, the day after the festival of Saint James. A year earlier, the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Bastista rose to power following a coup. Fidel Castro - at that time a little-known, young lawyer - had first unsuccessfully tried to displace the dictator by running against him in the 1952 elections. Voting was called off before Cuban’s had a chance to cast their ballot.

Castro garnered the support of some 130 people, and together they attempted to overtake the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba and seize weapons being stored there. He had hoped the 400 soldiers stationed there would be exhausted or absent after the previous night's festivities. But the plan failed, and many of the revolutionaries were executed, while the remainder were forced to stand trial.

Castro’s long and ambitious political agenda was well primed, even when he stormed the barracks in 1953. After taking over he wanted to distribute land more evenly, push for industrialization, reduce unemployment, improve the education sector and create a system that would allow all Cuban’s the opportunity to access healthcare – the framework of a democracy.

It was not until 1959 that the rebels finally achieved their revolution. Now, more than 50 years later, what's the situation with the reforms Castro dreamed of all those decades ago?

The Moncada barracks, with reconstructed bullet pockmarks, is now a museum

Between socialism, capitalism and market reform

"The Moncada program was more socialist than that of the old Communist Party," wrote Cuban historian Pedro Campos, an activist with a collective called Participatory and Democratic Socialism (Socialismo Participativo y Democrático).

Castro's original program "didn't promote state capitalism under party control, with some agricultural cooperation, like Stalinism," Campos said. Rather, Castro wanted to see workers directly participating in companies, self-governed agricultural cooperatives, and recovery of democratic citizen participation. All of which have still not been achieved, he added.

Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a former professor of economics and Latin American studies at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, thinks this could be due in part to Cuba's political isolation. "Cuba gained and maintained only conditional sovereignty, because the country is not economically self-sufficient and has always depended upon an external actor - be it Spain, the United States, the Soviet Union, or now Venezuela," Mesa-Lago said.

By the end of the 1980s - just before the fall of the Iron Curtain - Cuba had attained its highest level of social and economic indicators in its history. But this all changed following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, when Cuba lost support from its communist allies. The country was plunged into a time of hardship, which became known on the island as the "special period."

Fidel Castro (left) was succeeded by his brother Raul (right) after falling ill

Today, Fidel Castro's brother Raul Castro's economic reforms continue to challenge the country’s 11 million inhabitants. According to estimates, a million Cubans lack proper housing. The country's trade deficit and state debt have risen to record levels. Income disparity is increasing, and the numbers of poor and vulnerable has grown. Meanwhile, social welfare has been cut, with 70-percent less people receiving state benefits.

Agricultural production continues to stagnate due to centralized planning, with the state owning almost all land. Only 10-percent of the country’s farmers remain independent. Manufacturing continues to be subject to outflows of capital and a lack of industrialization. Raul Castro announced public sector layouts - which could lead to a third of Cuba's employable population losing their jobs, Mesa-Lago said.

Political stagnation and international image

Cuba’s social situation is ambivalent. On the one hand, Cuba has the lowest child mortality and highest life expectancy rate in all of Latin America. On the other hand, there's been a clear worsening of social security, education and health, said Cuban historian and political scientist Armando Chaguaceda, who lectures at the University of Veracruz in Mexico. Not only has the quality of these services been reduced, "but also access, because of cuts to funding in these areas," Chaguaceda added.

"Abandoning infrastructure for water and waste management" has also occurred, Mesa-Lago said, increasing a risk of an epidemic on the island. Trained doctors are leaving the island, leading to a shortage of professional medical services across the country, she added.

The Cuban medical system has a good reputation

The Cuban government has had to make do with less foreign assistance - Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador continue to reduce their financial support for the country. Internally, there's also a lack of citizen support. Above all, it's a problem of "political stagnation - which is continued in an authoritarian regime, a single party with very serious controls on freedom of expression, including no right to public protests or strike. Media, and labor unions,” Mesa-Lago added, “are an extension of the government.”

But things have changed somewhat. Recently, the opportunity for Cubans to travel or migrate from the island has increased, along with private investment. But even these reforms have authoritarian tones, Chaguaceda insisted. He believes that 60 years after Moncada, fundamental changes originally championed by Fidel Castro have not taken place.

"The citizenry is tired and civically disempowered, opinion is split, and there's a lack of reference points for peaceful civic protest," Chaguaceda said. Cuban citizens see themselves in opposition to "an elite rich who control information and the tools of power."

Brazil 'to write off' almost $900m of African debt

BBC News, 25 May 2013

Related Stories 

• Mozambique protest over coal mine
• Does Africa really benefit from foreign investment?
• Lula pays tribute to African role

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff (L)
wants to boost trade with Africa

Brazil has announced that it will cancel or restructure almost $900m (£600m) worth of debt with Africa.

Oil- and gas-rich Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania and Zambia are among the 12 African countries to benefit.

The move is seen as an effort to boost economic ties between the world's seventh largest economy and the African continent.

Official data in Brazil show that its trade with Africa has increased fivefold in the past decade.

The debt announcement was made during the third visit in three months to Africa by Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, who attended the African Union summit in Ethiopia.

'Strategic'

"Almost all (aid) is cancellation," Ms Rousseff's spokesman, Thomas Traumann, told reporters.

"To maintain a special relationship with Africa is strategic for Brazil's foreign policy."

He added that most of the debt was accumulated in the 1970s and had been renegotiated before.

A spokesman for Brazil's Foreign Ministry told Efe news agency that the debt restructuring for some countries would consist of more favourable interest rates and longer repayment terms.

Congo-Brazzaville owes the most to Brazil - $352m - followed by Tanzania ($237m) and Zambia ($113.4m).

The other countries to benefit are Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, and Sudan.

Resource-hungry

Brazil has been increasingly expanding its economic ties with resource-rich Africa as part of the so-called South-South cooperation.

Trade between the two blocks went from $5bn (£3.3bn) in 2000 to $26.5bn (£17.5bn) in 2012. 

Trade between Brazil and Africa has grown fivefold in the
 last decade, fuelled by South America's hunger for
natural resources

Brazilian companies invest heavily in oil and mining in Africa, and have taken on big infrastructure projects.

Latin America's economic powerhouse has also opened 19 new embassies in Africa in the last decade, and is forecast to grow 3.5 percent this year.

But Brazil's hunt for natural resources has not always been easy in Africa.

Last month, hundreds of protesters in Mozambique blocked the entrance to a Brazilian coal mine in a row over a compensation deal agreed after they were displaced.

Human Rights Watch, a rights group, said farming communities had been resettled on arid lands and had suffered food shortages.

The Brazilian giant Vale, which owns the mine, and the government of Mozambique said improvements were being made.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version) 

“… The Future of the Illuminati

Now, I want to tell you something that you didn't expect and something I've reported only one other time. What about all of the money that the Illuminati has? There are trillions and trillions of euro in banks, under their control, waiting. What are they going to do with it and where are they going to use it? It's still here. They're waiting.

This group is waiting for something to happen that they know is going to happen, for they see it coming as much as I do. However, I would like to tell you something that they don't expect. With awareness comes generational shift. Those in charge of this money will not always be elders. The indigos eventually will have it.

They are waiting for something to happen in Africa - the building of a new civilization, a continent that has nothing to unlearn. Once Africa is cured, once it's ready, a new civilization can be created from the ground up. Africans will be ready to learn everything about building a foundation for the most advanced civilization ever and will do it with the most modern and inventive systems available. Eventually, this new continent will even beat the economics of China.

This is the prediction and always has been, and the Illuminati's money will fund it. Did I say the Illuminati will fund it? [Kryon laugh] The Illuminati's money will fund it, but there is a difference from the past, dear ones. The ones who inherit the positions in the Illuminati will be a different consciousness. Listen, they are not suddenly going to be the ones who have the good of everyone in their hearts - hardly. They want to make money, but what they will see instead is a way to make a great deal of money through this investment. In the process, it will automatically help hundreds of thousands, and they will be at the beginning, the foundation, that builds the new Africa. The new African states of unification eventually will create a continent stronger than any of the others, and it will have one currency. The resources alone will dwarf anything in the world. ...”

Conspicuous consumption comes to post-reform Cuba

France24, 22 March 2013

 

A pastry vendor passes by a privately-owned Mercedes Benz in Havana on

 March 18, 2013. Nowadays, it is no longer unusual to see BMWs or Mercedes

 cars cruising along Havana's gritty streets, including many high-end vehicles

bearing the tell-tale yellow license plates belonging to Cubans.

A pastry vendor passes by a privately-owned Mercedes Benz in Havana on March 18, 2013. Nowadays, it is no longer unusual to see BMWs or Mercedes cars cruising along Havana's gritty streets, including many high-end vehicles bearing the tell-tale yellow license plates belonging to Cubans.

A privately-owned Toyota is seen taking a turn in Havana on March 18, 2013. Luxury is slowly reappearing in Cuban society after half a century of egalitarianism and austerity, brought upon by the economic reforms of Cuban President Raul Castro.

Two elderly women walk past posters promoting a nightclub in Havana on March 18, 2013.

A privately-owned Toyota is seen taking
a turn in Havana on March 18, 

There now are about 400,000 independent contractors who work for themselves, and these newly affluent private entrepreneurs are discovering the pleasures of consumption, something that has eluded Cuba for five decades.

Tourist take a ride in a fully restored Mercury along the coast in Havana on March 18, 2013. A day at a swank beach resort here costs about $200, and there are thousands of travelers who visit the island each year.

AFP - Aging Chevys and Pontiacs are a familiar symbol of life in Cuba, but many of the vehicles clogging the communist island's streets these days are top of the line and fresh from the showroom.

The recent startling appearance of gleaming Audis, Hummers and other high-end cars are but one sign of change in Cuba, where early hints of affluence can be seen after half a century of communist austerity.

Newlyweds are taking honeymoon getaways at Cuba's five-star hotels.

Health clubs also are sprouting up, with memberships going for the once princely sum of $700 a year.

And suddenly, restaurants are serving up steaming plates of turtle meat, a prized and forbidden delicacy.

The newfound symbols of affluence come thanks in large part to President Raul Castro's economic reforms, which are putting cash in the wallets of some ordinary Cubans and creating something akin to a nascent capitalism.

Two elderly women walk past posters
 promoting a nightclub in Havana on
March 18, 2013. 

Castro, 82, came to power in 2008 -- taking over from his ailing brother Fidel -- and gradually began to overhaul island's antiquated Soviet-style economy.

His goal is to liberalize Cuba's economy and encourage more private entrepreneurship, but at the same time maintain a key role for the Cuban state through joint ventures.

Castro's reforms have allowed Cubans for the first time to own mobile phones and computers, and to stay in swank hotels that previously had been reserved exclusively for foreigners.

In 2011, he let Cubans legally buy and sell homes and automobiles, and earlier this year, he loosened up strict travel restrictions.

But without question, one of the biggest changes has been to allow Cubans to work for themselves rather than the state.

Until then, the average income on this island of 11.1 million inhabitants was $20 per month.

After that reform went into effect, beauty salon, restaurants, appliance repair shops and untold other private businesses sprouted up like mushrooms, bringing pockets of new wealth to the island.

There now are about 400,000 independent contractors who work for themselves, and these newly affluent private entrepreneurs are discovering the pleasures of consumption, something that has eluded Cuba for five decades.

"Things have changed along since the start of these independent business people, one can see that right away," a Havana travel agent told AFP.

Nowadays, it is no longer unusual to see BMWs or Mercedes cars cruising along Havana's gritty streets, including many high-end vehicles bearing the tell-tale yellow license plates belonging to Cubans.

"Now there are Cubans who go on honeymoon in Varadero or in Los Cayos, the travel agent said, referring to two of Cuba's most popular tourist beaches.

"It is the independent business people who have made this happen," the travel agent said.

Another travel industry worker said that business has been booming since the reforms were put in place.

"In 2012, I sold $53,000 in travel packages to Cubans. I was really stunned by that number. Imagine, me, sitting in my little office, doing so much business entirely with Cubans."

The travel agent also noted something of a trickle down effect of the wealth: "I realized that because some Cubans have much more purchasing power, there's a lot more affluence."

Meanwhile, a trainer at one private health club at a Spanish-run hotel in Havana told AFP that

Tourist take a ride in a fully restored
 Mercury along the coast in Havana
on March 18, 2013.

"more of my clients are Cubans than foreigners."

Even the humble "paladar" -- apparently as a result of the reforms -- has gone upscale.

These family-run restaurants that emerged in the 1990s used to consist of a backroom in a private home, offering hearty fare impossible to find in Cuba's economy distorted by rationing.

Now, paladares often occupy an entire house, elaborately decorated and offering imported wine and fancy fare, sometimes served by professional wait staff.

As it has for years, Cuba is also benefiting from wealth brought to the island from outside.

A day at a swank beach resort here costs about $200, and there are thousands of travelers who visit the island each year.

Many of the tourists are Cuban emigrants traveling to see relatives, and their numbers have increased since President Barack Obama relaxed restrictions making it easier for Cuban emigres to visit.

According to official data, a record 400,000 Cuban emigrants visited the island in 2012 and Cuban emigrants send about $2 billion each year to their relatives on the island.

Latin American Middle Class Grows by 50 Percent

ABC News, ALBERT SABATÉ, November 14, 2012

The middle class grown 50 percent over the last decade, but the economically

 vulnerable -- or lower middle class -- has grown even larger. In this photo, a

 fisherman takes a nap on fishing nets after deep sea fishing all night in 

El Callao, Peru, Nov. 3, 2012. Small scale fishermen in this area work 24 hour shifts, 

catching mostly anchovy, mackerel and silverside. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) 

The middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 50 percent in roughly the last decade, according to a recent report by the World Bank.

In 2003 the group represented about 103 million people. In 2009, the most recent count, it's an estimated 152 million. Experts hailed the 49 million-person increase as a successful result of economic policy by Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) governments, but also cautioned that much more remains to be done.

"The recent experience of Latin America and the Caribbean shows the world that policies balancing economic growth while still expanding opportunities for the most vulnerable can spread prosperity to millions of people," said World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim. "Governments […] still need to do much more – one third of the population is still in poverty."

For decades, little progress was made in the region to reduce poverty and grow the middle class, according to the report. But economic stability and growth in the region, coupled with more recent changes emphasizing the delivery of social programs, spurred this meteoric boost.

"It's a remarkable phenomenon," said Augusto de la Torre, chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank. " [But] I think we in Latin America have to be very careful not to sing victory, yet, because this has been accompanied by very strong tail winds in the last ten years – very favorable economic conditions."

Researchers define the middle class within LAC as those who are not rich but are still economically secure – or have less than a 10 percent chance of slipping into poverty. Earning $10 to $50 a day, or at least $14,000 per year, would put a family of four into the middle class. A household making less than $4 a day is considered poor, while those earning from $4 to $10 are economically vulnerable.

  

Rates of poverty have fallen rapidly as more have transitioned into the economically vulnerable category and the middle class, according to the report. Today, the middle class and the poor account for roughly the same share of the population – 29 percent and 31 percent respectively – while the economically vulnerable now make up the majority (38 percent).

The World Bank called for a second round of reforms to continue addressing poverty and moving economically vulnerable populations into the middle class.

De la Torre noted that the favorable conditions that have spurred middle class growth could change – erasing recent progress. "We have to be particularly vigilant to introduce the policies that preserve what we have gained," he said.

World Bank researchers hammered on the need to disrupt the "vicious cycle" of low taxation and low quality of public services. The average tax rate in LAC is 17 percent – half that of OECD member countries.

Historically within the region, the upper and middle classes often opt out of public services. For example they may send their children to private school if they have the means to do so. World Bank researchers worry that the region may not benefit from the positives that come from a strong middle class – including the pressure to improve public services (like education and health care) because the middle class has a stake in those services.

Bolivian president understands Dutch cuts to development aid

RNW, 25 May 2012

Bolivian President Evo Morales says he can understand the Dutch decision to end development aid to his country.

Bolivian President Evo Morales/

Photo: RNW

Mr Morales said that Bolivia substantially improved its financial position and no longer needed foreign assistance. In an interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide, the Bolivian president said:

“Some countries told me, ‘Evo we have helped you so far, but now we want to help other countries.’ They are right. Bolivia is in a much better position than before; that is our economic liberation.”

The Netherlands decided to end its development aid to 15 countries as part of last year’s revision of development aid policies.

Mr Morales said he was seriously concerned about the environmental activism in his country and the interference of other countries. He spoke of a new colonialism. “Capitalist countries destroyed the environment, but are now holding us responsible.”

The president pointed to the need to build power plants for the population of rural areas but said that construction of the necessary roads meets with strong domestic opposition, which Mr Morales said was being encouraged from abroad.

“The bosses of the NGOs and foundations live in cities, they have electricity and running water, while the indigenous brothers do not even have electricity. It’s a national debate, which has been raised to an international level."

Countries which have not even ratified the Kyoto Protocol now present themselves as zealous defenders of the environment. Not at home, but here, to make us turn on each other.”

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In a networked world, why is the geography of knowledge still uneven?

User-generated internet content is weighted towards the global north; the division of digital labour urgently needs rebalancing

guardian.co.uk, Mark Graham, 9 January 2012

Children in an internet shop in Jakarta. The distribution of online knowledge
is heavily weighted towards the global north. Photograph: Romeo Gacad/
AFP / Getty Images

Digital information – photographs, blogs, videos, tweets, Wikipedia articles, reviews, descriptions, stories, and myriad other types of content – surrounds us. The amount of (mostly unpaid) human labour behind this content is astonishing. Wikipedia alone is the result of over 100m hours of work.

These online layers of content matter not just because they are an increasingly important way in which we access and produce information, but also because they materially shape how we move through, understand, and enact our physical environments.

Traditionally, information and knowledge about the world have been geographically constrained. The transmission of information required either the movement of people or the availability of some other medium of communication. Historical maps offer perhaps the best illustration of the geographic limitations to knowledge transmission. Take the 13th-century Carta Pisana, the world's oldest surviving navigational chart. Produced in Italy, the chart depicts relatively accurate information about the Mediterranean, less accurate information about the fringes of Europe, but no information at all about the world beyond Europe.

Up until the late 20th century, almost all mediums of information – books, newspapers, academic journals, patents and the like – were characterised by similar huge geographic inequalities (pdf). The global north produced, consumed and controlled much of the world's codified knowledge, while the global south was largely left out.

In the internet era, however, the movement of information is no longer constrained by distance. Very few parts of the world remain disconnected from the grid, and over 2 billion people are now online (most of them in the south). IBM, recognising this fact, has recently proclaimed the "digital divide will cease to exist" in the next five years.

Unsurprisingly, many believe we now have the potential to access what Wikipedia's founder refers to as "the sum of all human knowledge". Theoretically, parts of the world traditionally left out of flows and representations of knowledge can quite literally be put back on the map.

However, potential has too often been confused with actual practice. Profound digital divisions of labour are evident in all open platforms that rely on user-generated content.

On Flickr, countries in the north are covered by much thicker clouds of information. Google's databases contain more indexed user-generated content about the Tokyo metropolitan region than the entire continent of Africa. While on Wikipedia, there is more written about Germany than South America and Africa combined. In other words, there are massive inequalities that cannot simply be explained by uneven internet penetration rates. A range of other physical, social, political and economic barriers reinforce the digital divide, amplifying the informational power of the already powerful and visible.

That's not to say the internet doesn't have important implications for the developing world. People use it not just to connect with friends and family, but to learn, share information, trade, and represent their communities.

Consequently, it's important to be aware of the internet's highly uneven geographies of information. These inequalities matter to the south, because connectivity – though a clear prerequisite for access to most 21st-century platforms of knowledge sharing – is by no means a determinant of knowledge production and digital participation.

How do we move towards encouraging participation from and about parts of the world left out of virtual representations? The first step is allowing people to see what is, and isn't, represented. After that, there is also a clear need for plans like Kenya's strategy to boost local digital content, or Wikimedia's Arabic Catalyst project, which aims to encourage the creation of content in Arabic and provide information about the Middle East.

It remains to be seen how effective such strategies will be in changing the highly uneven digital division of labour. As we rely increasingly on user-generated platforms, there is a real possibility that we will see the widening of divides between digital cores and peripheries. It is crucial to keep asking where visibility, voice and power reside in an increasingly networked world.

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The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)