Member of the European Parliament for Bulgaria
2007 - 2009
(first direct EP elections in Bulgaria);
LEED to OECD partner (Nanotech)
Tunisia’s integrity challenge*
More than seven years after the revolution that toppled President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia is still beset with numerous tensions. These bubbled to the surface in January 2018 with protests against unpopular tax measures and corruption. As in 2001, Tunisia’s young people embody the revolt and fight against corruption that has become endemic in the country. Their angry slogans express the disappointed hopes of a nation that rose up against a dictator and his abusive regime.
People power: Collective intelligence in the new era of international co-operation*
We live in stark times: times when the values of openness, collaboration and global integration are being questioned; times when the notion of citizenship and engagement are being reframed; times when information sharing, meaning and truth take on a new dimension, in a digital, direct and fast paced 21st century. As an Organisation emerging from the rubble of the Second World War, we know only too well that peace cannot be taken for granted. On a daily basis, we live and breathe how dialogue and co-operation can help strengthen a peaceful world and improve people’s lives.
Today, we are communicating in an environment where public opinion is divided based on very different experiences of life. If we want to get through to people, we need to speak a language that resonates with their experiences…
The 10th anniversary of the global financial crisis provides us all with the opportunity to pause and reflect on the distance between classical economic thinking, and the models it was based on, and the reality of people’s everyday lives — lives that are still feeling the effects of the Global Financial Crisis a decade later.
Please follow the article here: https://www.oecd-forum.org/users/40211-anthony-gooch/posts/40876-people-power-collective-intelligence-in-the-new-era-of-international-co-operation.
The changing landscape requires us to broaden the spectrum of our engagement, acknowledging, once and for all, that, in a multifaceted and multistakeholder world, policy making is no longer the sole remit of governments. A plethora of influential voices are rising to the fore, whether organised civil society or spontaneous citizen movements, joining forces to spark creativity, inject disruption and instill sustained change. Such voices are not only helping in designing and implementing global solutions: they play a key role in adapting them locally so they have real impact on people’s lives.
*OECD, Anthony Gooch
Going up?*
“All human beings are born equal. But on the following day, they no longer are,” said French author Jean Renard in 1907. This is because sticky floors and ceilings–or rags to rags and riches to riches–define the bottom and top income distributions. Today, it takes four to five generations, on average, for children from the poorest 10% of the population to reach median income levels. Meanwhile, about 50% of children of wealthy parents will themselves remain rich in countries like Germany and the US.
Worse, every four years, a fifth of the middle class’ poorest fall down to the bottom of the income distribution while its upper half enjoys much greater security, as shown in A Broken Social Elevator? How to Promote Social Mobility.
What’s more, in countries like Brazil and South Africa where income inequality is high, there is a state of “permanent inequality”, with an underlying feeling that social mobility is but a broken promise. Indeed, low upward mobility increases people’s sense that their voices do not matter and that the system is neither fair nor meritocratic.
Still, mobility is not all about money. It can range from jobs to education and health, and it changes when viewed through each of these lenses. These distortions create unique situations within each country: in places like Japan and Korea, educational mobility is higher than income mobility, but it’s the other way around in Norway and Spain. In the US, job mobility is higher than earnings mobility, while in Finland it’s the reverse, with lower educational mobility on top.
Yet there is nothing inevitable about socio-economic status being passed down between generations. Equal access to quality education is one way to enhance social mobility: countries that spend more on public education tend to achieve higher educational mobility. The same goes for health. Moreover, progressive taxation on wealth, inheritance and combatting tax avoidance leads to less sticky ceilings, while money transfers or benefits to low-income families and improving the school-to-work transition unsticks the floors. And as the report shows, policies that address the likes of residential segregation and sudden unemployment, or aim to improve the work-home balance can enhance social mobility across the board.
*The OECD Observer
53 developing nations promised to increase spending
Positive news: “The emerging story from a major education summit in Senegal is about developing countries investing even more in education. Donors such as the UK, US, France and Canada pledged $2.3 billion to help the Global Partnership for Education’s work over the next three years. On the same stage in Dakar, 53 developing nations promised to increase spending on their own school systems by a total of $110 billion. And Senegal became the first African country to become a donor to other developing nations.” (theirworld.org, February’18)
Africa’s Development Dynamics 2018*
What are the major economic and social trends in Africa? What is Africa’s role in globalisation? This new annual report presents an Africa open to the world and towards the future.
*OECD iLibrary
10,000 children killed and maimed, hundreds of schools attacked in rising tide of violence by Billy Briggs*
A UN report has revealed a shocking increase in child casualties, schools targeted and recruitment of child soldiers in conflict-hit countries.
Unspeakable violence against children has been revealed in a new report from the United Nations which says more than 10,000 were killed or maimed last year.
Hundreds of new attacks on schools by armed factions around the world showed a “blatant disregard” by armed groups for both international law and children’s lives.
Disturbing new trends identified included the increasing use of children as suicide bombers and large-scale abductions of children.
The Guardian: When Jewish Americans uphold occupation, it corrodes our souls by Mariyama Scott*
On Monday, I joined over a hundred other young American Jews in Washington DC to protest Trump moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. As we marched, news rolled in of Palestinians killed by Israeli snipers at the Gaza separation fence. A staggering 37 people had been killed as we blocked Pennsylvania Avenue near the Capitol. By the time the protest ended, the death toll had passed 40. And at the end of the day, at least 58 people had been killed. It was the deadliest day in Gaza since the 2014 war on Gaza. Continue reading
You remember Sisyphus from Greek mythology, right?
You remember Sisyphus from Greek mythology, right? The king rolling a stone toward the crest of a hill….
He could never heave the stone over the top, “the weight would turn it back…”
The story tells he was punished for cheating.
In more recent times, this folklore figure stirred the creative imagination of a French author, Albert Camus. His Myth of Sisyphus: Essay on the Absurd tells the story of the absurd hero accomplishing nothing. The tragedy begins the moment he knows his labour is hopeless.
This is his moment of consciousness. Back down the hill to start pushing up the stone for “a hundred times over.”
The essay teaches that futile suffering is a preference. It is the absurd hero’s silent joy. It is the price for his victory. He is the master of the day. If the stone is still rolling, the absurd hero is still busy and active.
Sisyphus of Camus teaches too much self-confidence may raise rocks.
In the tragedy of Syria, who is in the struggle toward the heights? You can finish the story: one, two, three, four, more absurd heroes…
Mariela Baeva
