Transferring power from the state to private capital and creating profitable new markets in public services, including for the essentials of life, are driving imperatives of neoliberal globalization. The term ‘privatization’ describes this broad ideological and political agenda. Privatization policies and practices are the primary tools that have enabled transnational corporations and private elites to plunder the public domain for private gain, while the costs and losses are socialized and/or nationalized.

The International Migrants Alliance (IMA), the first ever global formation of migrants, immigrants and other displaced peoples, held its founding assembly last June 15-16, 2008 in Hong Kong, SAR. The IMA was conceptualized due to the perceived need of creating a formation in the world that can represent people living and working in countries other than their home ones and create a common platform for them.’

While the Big Three oil firms in the Philippines claim losses due to under-recoveries, their mother companies abroad continue to report record billions in profits, according to independent-think tank IBON Foundation.

Royal Dutch Shell, the mother company of Pilipinas Shell, posted a net income of $27.6 billion in 2007, making it the second most profitable company in the world next to oil giant Exxon Mobil. During the same year, Pilipinas Shell recorded profits of P4.12 billion.

On the other hand, Chevron, mother unit of Chevron Philippines (formerly Caltex), reported net incomes of $18.7 billion in 2007, 9% higher than in 2006 and enough to rank it the eighth most profitable company in the world. Its local unit in the country reported P2.75 billion in profits in 2007.

Petron, which is co-owned by government and by Saudi Aramco, recorded profits of P5.94 billion in 2007. Its net income has been progressively increasing in the last three years, posting P5.76 billion in 2006 and P3.42 billion in 2005. Aramco, unlike Shell and Chevron, is an unlisted company that is not obliged to report its financials, but its profits in 2007 are likely about $15 billion.

Domestic profits do not even genuinely reflect the oil monopolies’ overall profits because the transnational oil firms’ local subsidiaries are merely booking their profits abroad through the deceitful practice of transfer pricing to deflect criticisms of their massive windfall profits.

At any rate, the Big Three oil firms are clearly still making billions of pesos in profits, and thus any claim of so-called under-recoveries does not mean that they are taking any losses.

The monopoly oil transnational firms abroad normally already inflate the price of their oil to get their super-profits. This overpricing has even been extremely bloated since last year by increasing speculation in world oil markets. “Transfer pricing”, however, refers to oil firms’ practice of further padding the price of oil they sell to their subsidiaries to shift recording of profits from subsidiaries to mother corporations. The net result of this transfer pricing is that the seemingly lower profits of the subsidiaries, because of higher costs of oil imports, are actually off-set by higher profits of the mother companies.

Oil transnational firms are able to engage in transfer pricing because of their vast control of the different stages of oil production and distribution. In the Philippines, around 90% of oil in the market passes through the Big Three. They use lower reported domestic profits to disguise the massive global profits they are making and to deflate public anger against them.

Those mega-profits earned by exploiting unchecked monopoly control and covered up through unscrupulous practices, even as ordinary Filipinos reel from the harsh impact of escalating fuel prices, highlight the urgent need for government regulation and control over the local oil sector to help ensure transparency in pricing.

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.

More than 80 representatives of 67 civil society organizations (CSO) representing national, regional and international platforms came together for a 2-day “Exploratory Meeting on CSO Effectiveness” last June 29-30, 2008 in Paris, France with the objective of establishing a process that is defined, led and managed by CSOs, on their own principles of development effectiveness.

The initiative sought to set in motion processes and mechanisms by which civil society organizations both in the North and South develop, agree on and promote common principles regarding the effectiveness of CSOs as development actors and to engage in political discussions on relevance and feasibility of peer/compliance mechanisms.

The Paris meeting is the outcome of earlier multi-stakeholder consultations that called for a strengthening of the role and voice of CSOs based on an understanding of the various relationships of CSOs to their constituencies, to donors and governments, and to each other on a North-South basis.

The meeting led to the formation of a Global Facilitation Group (GFG) from different national, regional and international platforms that will map out a work plan that will culminate in the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Beijing in 2010. Some of the organizations in the GFG are ACFID, AFRODAD, ALOP, Arab NGO Network on Development, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), CIVICUS, CONCORD, and IBON, among others. The GFG is set to meet on August 30th in Accra, Ghana where around 400 representatives from CSOs are expected to participate in the HLF3 and the CSO Parallel Forum.

Research group IBON Foundation welcomes the initiative of the Supreme Court to improve the poor’s access to justice through its nationwide summit. However, it said that the country’s economic policies have the most far-reaching harmful impact that should be addressed beyond judicial review.

I dedicate this talk to the memory of Ka Bel - Crispin Beltran - a friend and comrade who passed away in the Philippines last month. His humanity, hunger and commitment to social justice, and lifelong, principled and militant opposition to imperialism are already sorely missed by so many who had the privilege to know him.

The true value of the Accra High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness lies beyond technical discussions between experts about indicators. Participants will be exploring just what aid effectiveness really means in the wake of the 2005 Paris Declaration.

A momentous event is set to take place in August this year in Accra, Ghana for civil society organisations (CSOs) engaging on the issues of CSO effectiveness and aid effectiveness. Following the 2001 OECD initiative for a High Level Forum (HLF) on aid effectiveness and the 2nd HLF that paved the way for the drafting of the Paris Declaration (PD) in 2005, the Third High Level Forum (HLF3) is being convened with the objective of monitoring the implementation of the PD. And for the first time ever, a CSO Parallel Forum on Aid Effectiveness will be organized parallel to the Third High Level Forum (HLF3).

Hokkaido, Japan, July 9, 2008 - As the 3-day G8 Summit comes to a close, no real progress is being made on the climate change agenda as the world’s wealthiest nations push for self-serving interests while sidestepping real commitments in significantly curbing their greenhouse gas emissions.

As the global economic crisis reaches new lows this first half and with worse to follow in the coming months or even years, the Philippine labor force is being battered by one gut-level whammy after another. While the effects of the surge in prices of petroleum products, rice and electricity are indeed being borne by all sectors of society, the country’s 36-million labor force is taking the lion’s share of the beating by virtue of its ever-growing abundance in an ever-shrinking economy.

Local people from the Gandak region in the Terai of southern Nepal and members of the Narayani Nadee Niyantran Sangharsa Samiti (Gandak River Control Struggle Committee) - Nawalparasi have embarked on an indefinite strike that began from the 24th May 2008. Activists have proposed 21 Points of demand regarding the Gandak barrage that they wish the respective Governments of Nepal and India to consider. The venue of the strike is located in the western Gandak canal of India. In an act of sheer bravery, activists have set up a makeshift camp barely 150 metres away from the sluice gates of the Gandak Barrage, refusing to shift until their needs have been adequately addressed. This has resulted in the complete immobilization of the two Indian canals; not a single drop of water has been released by the Indian Government since the commencement of the strike. These canals together provide irrigation facilities to the Indian states of Bihar and Utter Pradesh for thousands of hectares of agricultural lands.

The Gandak Barrage has garnered much controversy since its construction in 1964. Built by the government of India on the border of Nepal and India, it was fatefully given the go ahead after the joint contract of the “Gandaki Irrigation and Power Project Agreement” on 4th December 1959 in Kathmandu. The agreement stipulated that India would construct barrages, irrigation canals and head regulators for the common benefits of water sharing for their people. It also allowed India to purchase and occupy land in Nepali territory for the purposes of the structures. However, the actual division of water has been a rather contentious issue, indeed, questions of inequity and power struggles have continually marred the life of the Gandak Dam.

Instead of the promised, much lauded benefits of increased irrigation, the canals have rained tragedy upon the locals as many a failed dam story can attest. Every year during the monsoon, people in the surrounding catchment become unwilling victims of inundation and increased flooding. On the other hand, when water is most needed during the dry season, India refuses to open the sluice gates to the Eastern Nepal Canal, keeping the keys safely hidden in the state coffers. While abundant rushing waters flow downstream into Bihar and U. P. states, the Nepalese tributaries resemble drought stricken scars on the landscape rather than rivers. Nepal receives barely 3 percent of the total water from this supposed ‘common sharing agreement’. India, however, gets the mother load, harnessing 97 percent of this white gold. Due to an unequal agreement signed without proper insight, lured by the political promises of India and no doubt bullied by a fair amount of state level intimidation, Nepal lost this “common benefit”. But with that, a greater tragedy would befall the rights of her people. Not only had she forfeited all bargaining power and riparian rights, Nepal had paved the way for indefinite Indian hegemony over her national water assets by the simple mark of a signature, condemning her farmers to annual torrents of nature’s fury.

Article 9 of the Gandaki Agreement states that:

“His Majesty’s Government of Nepal (now Government of Nepal) will continue to have the right to withdraw for irrigation of any other purpose from the river or its tributaries in Nepal such supplies of water as may be required by them from time to time and His Majesty’s Government agrees that they shall not exercise this right in such manner as is likely, in the opinion of the parties hereto, prejudicially to affect the water requirements of the Project as set out in the schedule annexed hereto”.

According to this agreement, India is responsible for the complete maintenance and cleaning of the barrage, siphon and canal systems. India has not performed this duty seriously for last two decades. The evidence speaks clearly with the structures in the Nepali side lying in a state of disrepair, whether anyone from the Indian side bothered to check is debatable. Disintegrating cement walls crumble into the body of the canals, a grey trickle answers to the excuse of flowing waters; debris and general rubbish block the siphons while sluice gates and chains weep with rust colored tears. Apparently, the temples of modern India are not worthy of the mighty state’s devotion nor upkeep.

On the 15th June 2008, local people organized a huge mass gathering at the Gandak Barrage at the point of no man’s land where a bridge connects Nepal to India. Various national and international activists, members of NGOs, political leaders and affected locals from both countries were present to express their solidarity and support for the campaigns fight for justice. Chairperson of Water & Energy Users’ Federation-Nepal (WAFED) Mr. Ram Chandra Chataut also addressed the meeting. He stressed that the unequal Gandak Agreement must be immediately repealed and if a new treaty has to be signed between Nepal and India, equality, human rights and benefit sharing between the countries must be the first priorities. He also added that the Gandak Agreement has already lost its validity with the people most affected and is thus obsolete.

In addition to Water & Energy Users’ Federation-Nepal (WAFED), Himalayan & Peninsular Hydro-Ecological Network (HYPHEN), Campaign Service Center-Nawalparasi, Indreni, Ramgram Dalit Utthan Samaj and various other organizations also expressed their solidarity to the ongoing Gandak movement and wishes for their success. Mr. Ram Kewat, Chairperson of Gandak Nadee Niyantran Sangharsa Committee, and Secretary Prem Chandra Gupta, Mr. Baijnath Chaudhari, local leader of Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist and Leninist (UML), Ms. Sita Baudel and Mr. Chinak Kurmi Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) also Member of Constituent Assembly, stressed that the government has to dissolve the Gandak Agreement immediately. They further reiterated that the Gandak Agreement must be re-negotiated on the basis of equality and justice for both countries and their people.

To debate the perpetual irresponsibility and lack of accountability from the Indian Government seems an exhausted, if not moot point. Unfortunately, neither can the Government of Nepal be aroused from its self induced, deep slumber. Local people representing more than 13 Village Development Committees (VDCs) and activists from various water and human rights groups have gathered enmasse to make their demands heard. Three members are on a continual hunger strike under the flimsy bamboo and canvas camp, yet nature cares little for political dramas and monsoonal waters continue to rise regardless. Whether the health or livelihoods of these people will even get a mention seems unlikely.

While various news and radio reporters were present, the major media houses are currently too concerned with outdoing each other with outrageous stories of the ongoing political acrobatics to bother about the looming water crisis, let alone a bunch of activists in the far reaches of the newly formed Republic. We have witnessed the inflated reluctance of past Nepali governments to address national human rights abuses. It is only after relentless pressure from international advocacy networks that has stung the giant bureaucratic machine into action. The issue of river basin management is not merely of national concern, but involves the global community. In a world where diminishing water resources are stacked against an ever increasing human population, the equitable sharing of trans-boundary resources is imperative. Unless there is national and international pressure, governments will continue to ignore the plight of her people. Will Gandak be another case of cowering in the face of Indian hegemony and relegated to the ‘too difficult’ box? Or will those top level officials finally take notice when the people’s anger can no longer be swallowed silently?

WAFED is a member of the Water for the People Network, a broad network of organizations working on water issues in Asia. For more information, please visit www.w4pn.org

The news of the recent decision by the Philippine government to stop diving and retrieval operations at the site of the sunken M/V Princess of the Stars due to its shipment of pesticides destined for use by Del Monte is an unmitigated double tragedy for the people of the Philippines! Only 57 survivors were rescued, while hundreds more were noted as either dead or missing, and the searches by the retrieval crews were to hopefully find those still trapped in the ferry.

(Paper presented at an international forum on the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ held last June 19, 2008 in Hong Kong, SAR)

The growing frustration of the families of the passengers in the MV Princess of the Stars reflects the long-running problems of our domestic shipping industry. The ship went down near Romblon when Typhoon Frank hit the country last weekend.