Recent news about the collusion of Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and the Trump election has brought forward one of the more covert and often insufficiently discussed problem of Social Media platforms to the fore. Instead of calling out Facebook alone, I prefer to use Social Media platforms as the problems related to big data enterprise and privacy are as much a Twitter/Whatsapp/Instagram/Snapchat issue as it is for Facebook.
Yet right now Facebook is being attacked from left, right and center by everyone including their own ilk. The question this merits is whether the data problems with the Social Media platforms are only limited to explicitly share data (which Facebook is being blamed for) or is it also about the (more often used) method of implicitly acquiring and utilizing user information? (more…)
Last week’s action by President Donald Trump has ended the United States’ leadership on liberal trade and may trigger a global trade war with major damaging consequences. On 8 March, Trump signed a proclamation to raise tariffs of steel by 25% and aluminium by 10%. It sent shockwaves across the world not only because of the losses to metal exporters, but due to what it could well signify: the start of a global trade war causing economic disruption in many countries, and that may also damage if not destroy the multilateral trade system. (more…)
The new agreement that eleven countries are signing on 8 March in Chile in place of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is like old wine in a new bottle — without the United States but retaining most of its controversial elements. The TPP seemed to have died when President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of it early last year. But the remaining 11 members have rescued it almost intact, giving it a new name, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). (more…)
EL CASO DE LA HEPATITIS C Y EL PROBLEMA GLOBAL DE ACCESO A LOS MEDICAMENTOS
By Ernesto Samper Pizano
“Los Estados partes en el presente Pacto reconocen el derecho de toda persona al disfrute del más alto nivel de salud física y mental”
(Pacto Internacional de Derechos económicos, sociales y culturales).
El 3 de marzo de 1989, en el aeropuerto de El Dorado de Bogotá, fui víctima de un atentado que casi me cuesta la vida. Por fortuna, recibí una atención rápida y eficaz en la clínica a donde fui trasladado. Lamentablemente, allí mismo, en medio de los afanes por salvarme, recibí una transfusión de sangre infectada por lo que entonces no se conocía como el virus de Hepatitis C, cuyo poder mortífero vino a ser descubierto y estudiado con posterioridad a mi atentado, cuando ya había dejado de ser presidente de Colombia. La eficaz persistencia de mi médico personal, el doctor Alonso Gómez Duque, me llevó a someterme entonces al calvario de un tratamiento para curar la enfermedad. Indagué, en primera instancia, qué tanto daño podía haber ocasionado en mi hígado. Los primeros exámenes de fibro-test, que miden a través de la sangre los niveles de fibrosidad hepática realizados en Francia, arrojaron, en un rango de 0 a 6, una cifra baja pero preocupante, entre 3 y 4, que aconsejaba, según el hepatólogo Víctor Hidrobo, un tratamiento inmediato. Tomé la decisión de hacerlo. Durante seis meses (que a mí me parecieron una eternidad) me apliqué una inyección semanal de interferón –una sustancia utilizada originalmente para la cura del cáncer– que acompañaba con seis pastillas diarias de rivarbirina para “fijar” el interferón, lo que convertía el tratamiento en una especie de quimioterapia ligera con muy molestos efectos colaterales. (more…)
Stock market turmoil may expose flaws in global finance
By Martin Khor
Was last week’s global stock market sell-off only a “correction” or does it signify a new period of financial instability, caused by major flaws in the world financial system? (more…)
With floods now causing more damage more frequently around the world, it is time to counter their effects by turning our towns into “Sponge Cities”, a recent trend popularised by China to absorb rainwater through permeable roads and pavements, parks, rooftop gardens and other green spaces. (more…)
This week the Prince Mahidol Awards conference will bring a global spotlight to the threat of emerging infectious diseases. The growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will feature prominently in these discussions. The timing could not be better, but we urgently need to see more action on the part of the UN Interagency Coordination Group on AMR and key intergovernmental agencies gathering in Bangkok. (more…)
Heading off Global Action on Access to Medicines in 2018
By Dr. Jorge Bermudez and Dr. Viroj Tangcharoensathien
At the dawn of 2018, political and health leaders must seize the growing momentum and opportunities to tackle the protracted challenges of access to medicines that undermine efforts to save lives and improve health as committed under the Agenda 2030 SDG by all UN member states. (more…)
There are several key social and environmental issues to watch out for in 2018 as they are close to reaching a tipping point, says this preview of the new year by the South Centre’s Executive Director Martin Khor. (more…)
As global health leaders warn that antibiotic resistance is leading to the end of modern medicine, the World Health Organization (WHO) issues guidelines to prohibit or restrict using antibiotics to feed animals reared for their meat. Urgent coordinated actions are needed to avoid the end of modern medicine. The author Martin Khor is the Executive Director of the South Centre. This article was also published by Inter Press Service (IPS) (more…)
Intellectual Property for the TwentyFirst-Century Economy
By Joseph E. Stiglitz , Dean Baker , Arjun Jayadev
Developing countries are increasingly pushing back against the intellectual property regime foisted on them by the advanced economies over the last 30 years. They are right to do so, because what matters is not only the production of knowledge, but also that it is used in ways that put the health and wellbeing of people ahead of corporate profits. (more…)
