Showing posts with label Sweden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sweden. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

The only way to reverse the trend in the European Union

The only way to reverse the trend in the European Union is to recapture the spirit of solidarity that animated the European project from the start

To that end, I recently established an Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE). In doing so, I recognized that the best place to start would be where current policies have created the greatest human suffering: Greece. The people who are suffering are not those who abused the system and caused the crisis. The fate of the many migrant and asylum seekers caught in Greece is particularly heart-rending. But their plight cannot be separated from that of the Greeks themselves. An initiative confined to migrants would merely reinforce the growing xenophobia and extremism in Greece.

We could set up solidarity houses in Greece, which would serve as community centers for the local population and also provide food and shelter to migrants. There are already many soup kitchens and civil-society efforts to help the migrants, but these initiatives cannot cope with the scale of the problem. What I have in mind is to reinforce these efforts.

The EU’s asylum policy has broken down. Refugees must register in the member country where they enter, but the Greek government cannot process the cases. Some 60,000 refugees who sought to register have been put into detention facilities where conditions are inhumane. Migrants who do not register and live on the street are attacked by the hooligans of the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party.

Sweden has made migration and asylum policy a high priority, while Norway is concerned about the fate of migrants in Greece. So both countries would be prime candidates to support solidarity houses. And other better-off countries could join them. OSIFE is ready to provide support for this initiative, and I hope other foundations will be eager to do the same. But this has to be a European project – one that eventually must find its way into the European budget.

Currently, Golden Dawn is making political headway by providing social services to Greeks while attacking migrants. The initiative that I propose would offer a positive alternative, based on solidarity – the solidarity of Europeans with Greeks and of Greeks with migrants. It would provide a practical demonstration of the spirit that ought to infuse the entire EU.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
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Thursday, November 15, 2012

R&D dilemma

When developed world’s agony is developing world’s consolation

The growing trend of internationalisation of R&D has put the world in dilemma. It is the dilemma of fear and hope. The fear is of the developed world and the hope is of the developing world. The reason for the fear is that the developed world is going to lose its competitive edge and that innovation as a major portion of R&D investment is moving mostly to developing countries. The hope for the developing world is that the growing influx of foreign R&D investment will boost innovation and product development in the long run.

As per the 2002 world investment report, although the worldwide R&D expenditure stood at over $677 billion and four-fifth of that amount is concentrated in the top ten developed economies, the same report has revealed the trend of R&D expenditure of 1991 to 2002 where the R&D share fell from 97% to 91%. On the contrary, that of developing countries rose from a mere 2% to 6% during the same period. In 1994, major developed economies or regions accounted for 90% of overseas R&D expenditures. This share decreased to 80% by 2001. Sweden, one of the most innovative European countries, is also losing its innovative edge owing to increasing trend of outsourcing R&D. According to Government statistics, the country was carrying out over 78% of their R&D projects within the country which has dropped to 50% in 2007. On the other hand, developing countries like China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and India are the hottest destinations for transnational corporations because of cheap and dexterous labor flux. However, the fact is that the developed world’s agony is becoming developing world’s consolation.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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