Pope steps up call for poor country debt cancellation

VATICAN CITY, Holy See - Pope Francis renewed a call on Tuesday for the cancellation of debt owed by poor countries in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it was time for restorative justice.

The pope is preparing for an audience with the public on Wednesday, his first since the pandemic hit Italy nearly six months ago.

"I repeat my call for the cancellation of the debt of the most vulnerable countries, in recognition of the severe impact of the medical, social and economic crises they face as a result of COVID-19," the Roman Catholic Church's highest official said.

"We also need to ensure that the recovery packages being developed and deployed at global, regional and national levels must be regeneration packages.

"It is a time for restorative justice."

In April, the Argentinian-born pontiff called for debt to be reduced or cancelled in a message from an empty Saint Peter's Basilica.

On Tuesday he said: "Policy, legislation and investment must be focused on the common good and guarantee that global social and environmental goals are met."

The World Bank warned last month that coronavirus may have driven as many as 100 million people into extreme poverty.

The situation made it "imperative" that creditors reduce the amount of debt held by poor countries, the Washington-based institution's president David Malpass warned.

Advanced economies in the Group of 20 have already committed to suspending debt payments from the poorest nations until the end of the year.

There is growing support for extending that moratorium into next year amid a pandemic that has already killed more than 840,000 people and registered 25.2 million cases globally.

Agence France-Presse

Global hunger could double due to COVID-19 blow: UN

GENEVA - The number of people facing acute food insecurity could nearly double this year to 265 million due to the economic fallout of COVID-19, the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday.

The impact of lost tourism revenues, falling remittances and travel and other restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic are expected to leave some 130 million people acutely hungry this year, adding to around 135 million already in that category.

"COVID-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions who are already hanging by a thread," said Arif Husain, chief economist and director of research, assessment and monitoring at the WFP.

-reuters-

Richest 62 people own same as half world's population - Oxfam

LONDON - The wealthiest 62 people now own as much as half the world's population, some 3.5 billion people, as the super-rich have grown richer and the poor poorer, an international charity said on Monday.

The wealth of the richest 62 people has risen by 44 percent since 2010, while the wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion fell 41 percent, Oxfam said in a report released ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Almost half the super-rich individuals are from the United States, 17 from Europe, and the rest from countries including China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

"World leaders' concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action - the world has become a much more unequal place and the trend is accelerating," Oxfam International's executive director, Winnie Byanima, said in a statement accompanying the report.

"We cannot continue to allow hundreds of millions of people to go hungry while resources that could be used to help them are sucked up by those at the top," Byanima added.

About $7.6 trillion of individuals' wealth sits in offshore tax havens, and if tax were paid on the income that this wealth generates, an extra $190 billion would be available to governments every year, Gabriel Zucman, assistant professor at University of California, Berkeley, has estimated.

As much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is held offshore, costing about $14 billion in lost tax revenues every year, Oxfam said, referring to Zucman's work.

This is enough money to pay for healthcare that could save 4 million children's lives a year, and employ enough teachers to get every African child into school, Oxfam said in its report.

"Multinational companies and wealthy elites are playing by different rules to everyone else, refusing to pay the taxes that society needs to function. The fact that 188 of 201 leading companies have a presence in at least one tax haven shows it is time to act," Byanima said.

Ensuring governments collect the taxes they are owed by companies and rich individuals will be vital if world leaders are to meet their goal to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals set in September, Oxfam said.

EXTREME POVERTY FALLING

The number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by 650 million since 1981, even though the global population grew by 2 billion in that time, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Much of this change has been because of the rise of China, which alone accounted for half a billion people moving out of extreme poverty.

Most of the world's poorest no longer live in the poorest countries, but in middle-income countries like India, the OECD said in a recent report.

The inequalities are partly to do with differences in income, especially between urban and rural areas, but also differences in access to healthcare, education and jobs, the OECD said.

"The figures suggest that the biggest causes of poverty are ... political, economic and social marginalization of particular groups in countries that are otherwise doing quite well," development economist Owen Barder is quoted as saying in the OECD report.

Barder is director for Europe at the Center for Global Development.

Although taxes and transfers help reduce income inequality in developed countries, these systems are less robust in many developing countries, according to the OECD.

An exception is Brazil, which makes payments to more than 13.3 million poor families on condition they enrol children in school and take part in health programs.

"That has helped to reduce rates of both child poverty as well as inequality," the OECD report said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why this restaurant allows poor to eat for free

DOHA, Qatar - In a dusty corner of Qatar's booming capital, a sign outside a modest restaurant popular with migrant laborers reads: "If you are hungry and have no money, eat for free!!!"

Sixteen kilometers (10 miles) from the gleaming glass towers of Doha, one of the richest places on the planet, sits the "Industrial Area" of small-scale workshops, factories and low-cost accommodation.

It is only a 40-minute drive south of the centre of the Qatari capital and its luxury shops, upmarket brands and expensive restaurants.

But the "Industrial Area", rarely seen by outsiders, is a different Qatar -- one which provides essential labour and materials for the country's massive and relentless expansion.

It is at the margin of Doha life, both geographically and metaphorically, but home to a restaurant called Zaiqa doing something apparently unique for the oil-rich Gulf state.

About three weeks ago the Indian brothers who own Zaiqa decided to put up a small makeshift sign offering free food to customers who cannot afford to pay.

"When I saw the board I had tears in my eyes," said one of the owners, Shadab Khan, 47, originally from New Delhi, who has lived in Qatar for 13 years.

"Even now when I talk about it, I get a lump in my throat."

He said the idea came from his younger brother, Nishab.

'People need free food'

The 16-seater eaterie stands on the prosaically named Street 23, sandwiched between another restaurant and a steel workshop.

It is a busy area -- opposite is a mosque and then a road where large trucks hurtle past.

Inside, on brightly coloured tablecloths, "authentic Indian cuisine from the heart of Delhi" is served 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A fish curry costs six Qatari riyals ($1.65, 1.50 euros), an egg roast is three riyals and a spinach dish of Palak Paneer is 10 riyals -- for those who choose to pay.

The need for free food in Qatar is particularly acute among labourers and those working in heavy industry.

It is estimated that there are anywhere between 700,000 and one million migrant workers in the tiny Gulf kingdom, out of a total population of 2.3 million.

Rights groups have criticised companies in Qatar for not paying workers on time or, in some cases, not at all.

The Qatari government, under pressure to introduce salary reform in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup, vowed earlier this year to force companies to pay wages through direct bank transfers.

Even those who do get paid will be intent on sending most of their money back home, said one of Zaiqa's diners, Nepalese mechanic Ghufran Ahmed.

"Many labourers earn 800-1,000 riyals ($220-$275/200-250 euros) per month. They have to send money back to home. It's expensive here so there are people who need free food," he said.

Shadab, who is a filmmaker as well as a restaurant owner, said those asking for food are mostly construction workers from countries such as India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Just bread and water

"We realise a lot of people out here do not get paid on time and do not have money, not even money to eat," he said.

"So there were people who would come here and just buy a packet of bread. And they would eat the bread with water.

"So, we realised those people don't have money for anything else. They just buy a packet of bread, which comes to about one riyal. So, we would try to offer them food."

But it is not easy, added Shadab.

"Self-respect", he said, means many refuse to take something for nothing.

As a result, in the three weeks since the free food experiment started, "the number of people coming here to get free food is like two or three people a day at the most".

As if to emphasise Shadab's point, two workers entered the restaurant while AFP was there but left in case their complimentary lunch should become public knowledge.

In another sign of how people fuelling the Qatari boom are struggling to live, it was recently revealed that some Doha market workers were forced to live in their stalls as they cannot afford rents.

For Zaiqa too, there is a black cloud on the horizon.

The restaurant's future is threatened by a dispute over rent with the property owner and may have to close down.

Shadab and his brother have a different plan for their next restaurant.

"We are putting a refrigerator outside, so this refrigerator won't have a lock. It will be facing the road and it will have packets of food with dates on them," he said.

"So anybody who wants to take it, he doesn't have to come inside."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com