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	The world has become a less peaceful place by Global Peace Index, Thomson Reuters Foundation   18 June 2014   Violent conflict and unrest cost the world $1,350 per person globally, according to the Global Peace Index.   The economic cost of containing and dealing with the consequences of global violence last year was an estimated $9.8 trillion, 11.3 percent of global economic output, up 3.8 percent from 2012, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).   Syria displaced Afghanistan as the world’s least peaceful nation due to its civil war, while Iceland maintained its status as the most peaceful country, the IEP said in its annual Global Peace Index.   The United States dropped in its ranking in the index, because of the Boston marathon bombings, while Russia remained one of the poorest performers, ranking 152nd.   Terrorist activity, the number of conflicts, and an increase in the number of refugees and displaced persons were key contributors to the continuing deterioration in global peacefulness last year, according to the IEP.   It was the seventh successive year in which the world had become a less peaceful place according to the index, which gauges conflict, unrest, safety, security, militarisation and defence spending by assessing 22 indicators from 162 countries.   That pattern reversed a trend towards increasing global peacefulness following the end of World War II.   “Given the deteriorating global situation we cannot be complacent about the institutional bedrocks for peace,” said Steve Killelea, the institute’s executive chairman.   “This is a wakeup call to governments, development agencies, investors and the wider international community that building peace is the prerequisite for economic and social development.”   Europe kept its position as the most peaceful region with 14 of the 20 most peaceful countries. The new rankings also reflected an increase in military spending in China, which was ranked 108th.   South Sudan, where civil war threatens to tear apart the world’s newest nation just three years after its birth, experienced the largest drop and now ranks as the third least peaceful country. Iraq ranked 159th even before the latest sectarian violence.   Major deteriorations also occurred in Egypt, Ukraine and Central African Republic.   Using new statistical modelling techniques, the IEP identified 10 countries it believes to be most threatened by increased levels of unrest and violence in the next two years: Zambia, Haiti, Argentina, Chad, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nepal, Burundi, Georgia, Liberia and Qatar.   The conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan and Central African Republic helped drag down the annual Global Peace Index, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).   Rising numbers of people were killed in militant attacks across the Middle East, South Asia and Africa while murder rates rose in the emerging world"s growing urban centres. More people also became refugees by fleeing fighting.   Crime and conflict rates in more developed regions, particularly Europe, generally fell, said the report.   The deterioration appeared the most significant fall in 60 years, the IEP said.   "There seem to be a range of causes," Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman of the IEP, told Reuters. "You have the repercussions of the "Arab Spring", the rise of terrorism particularly following the invasion of Iraq and the repercussions of the global financial crisis."   The study examines 22 indicators across 162 countries, including military spending, homicide rates and deaths from conflict, civil disobedience and terrorism.   Syria and Afghanistan were rated the least peaceful countries in the world, with South Sudan, Central African Republic, Ukraine and Egypt showing some of the sharpest falls in security levels.   Iceland held its number one position as most peaceful.   While the United States and Western European states are largely cutting defence spending, China, Russia, countries along their borders and most Middle Eastern states are buying more arms as tensions rise.   Killelea said overall, measures of human rights from Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department showed some improvement.   Deaths classed as being due to terrorism, however, continued to rise in the developing world and particularly countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan and others. Visit the related web page
	Rejecting Austerity by Kerry-anne Mendoza New Internationalist United Kingdom   In July 1944, the soon-to-be victorious powers of the Second World War met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Their mission: to lay down the architecture of the post-War global political and economic systems. They stated that their new idea – neoliberalism – would free the world from fascism forever. In reality, they built the foundations for a new fascism, corporate fascism – and modern austerity is merely a vehicle to deliver it.   Austerity is not a short-term disruption to balance the books. It is the controlled demolition of the welfare state – transforming Britain from a social democracy into a corporate state. We are witnessing the end, and not the beginning, of a process set in train at Bretton Woods.   It began as ‘Structural Adjustment’, eviscerating the economies and societies of countries in the so-called ‘developing world’; now, austerity is feasting on the European and North American continents.   Austerity has been presented as necessary, constructive and temporary by governments across the world, Britain included. In reality, ‘Austerity’ is unnecessary, destructive and intended as a permanent break with the traditions of social democracy.   The pillars of social democracy – Law and Justice, Employment Rights, Civil Liberties and Human Rights, and The Welfare State – are being bulldozed, one after the other, under the guise of ‘Austerity’.   In education, successive governments have dissolved the model of state-owned schools, staffed by public-sector employees. Today, our children largely attend privately owned schools, where the majority of services in the schools are delivered by private-sector staff. The results have seen costs soar and quality plummet.   A similar model has been used in Health. The Health System is being gutted by endless and costly reorganizations, rampant commercialization and outsourcing, and unaffordable private finance initiative (PFI) contracts.   The latest major reorganization of the National Health Service (NHS), under the Health and Social Care Act, will suck another £4 billion ($6.1 billion) out of the health service. This comes on the back of the £780 million ($1.2 million) blown by New Labour on 70 reorganizations in just 4 years between 2005 and 2009. Anyone experienced in change management can tell you that this level of change, which does not allow for new systems and processes to bed in or for their benefits to be measured, is simply madness.   The underpinning of any social democracy is a generous welfare state that ensures citizens finding themselves unable to work through involuntary unemployment, sickness, disability or age receive enough to live in dignity. Our pensioners, our disabled people, our working and jobless poor – all have fallen towards a promised safety net only to find it has been replaced by a bed of nails.   Private companies like G4S have been allowed, by successive governments, to quietly buy up large tracts of our formerly public police, security and justice sector.   It is increasingly likely that if someone commits a crime in Britain they will be arrested by a G4S-provided officer, detained in a G4S cell and transported to court by a G4S van driven by G4S officers. The court will be staffed by G4S security officers, they will be sent to a G4S prison, and released into the G4S probation service to live in a G4S-run halfway house. All run at a profit, all unaccountable to the public, all free from scrutiny through Freedom of Information requests.   The government also cut £220 million ($335 million) from Legal Aid provision, which amounts to slashing the £1 billion ($1.5 billion) budget by almost a quarter. The cut was combined with punitive changes to the rules, making it almost impossible for regular citizens to challenge the privatized justice system. Leading Law and Justice bodies warn it will transform the much-lauded British justice system into something no better than a ‘banana republic’.   A raft of restrictions on the right to protest, assemble and express dissent has also hobbled the public’s ability to respond forcefully to such egregious changes.   Meanwhile, the fortunes of the FTSE100 companies is at record highs, Chief Executives are seeing 23-per-cent pay rises, taxes are being reduced for or simply not collected from the wealthiest individuals and corporations, MP expenses rose 25-per cent last year and the Queen received a £5-million ($7.6-million) pay rise from the public purse.   This is not a case of poor people suffering austerity while the wealthiest live large. It is a case of poor people suffering austerity in order that the wealthy live large. It is time to reject outright the politics and the economics of austerity – and instead work together to build a world that works for everyone.   * Kerry-anne Mendoza is the author of Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State published by New Internationalist: http://newint.org/ From England - How a disastrous privatisation duped the political class: http://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/alex-nunns/hinchingbrooke-how-disastrous-privatisation-duped-political-class Visit the related web page
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