NationStates Jolt Archive


Anti-poverty demonstrators descend on Lamonian embassy

Pacitalia
13-12-2008, 10:35
From PNN.pc

http://oxfaminternational.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/peaceful-protesters.jpg
Lamonian security commandoes watch intently as demonstrators march by their
country's embassy in Timiocato Friday afternoon. Oxfam, a major non-profit
organisation (NPO), orchestrated a protest against "inexcusable and far-
reaching poverty" in Lamoni, Atlantian Oceania's most populated country.

Oxfam: Lamoni "worst offender by far" for poverty
Protest in streets surrounding Free Republic's Timiocato embassy compound draws 15,000


Marco Bantafugra, Timiocato

Thousands turned out in front of Lamoni's embassy in the Pacitalian capital, in a protest organised by major international social justice non-profit organisation Oxfam (http://www.oxfam.org), to rally against "abject poverty" and deplorable conditions in Atlantian Oceania's largest country.

Oxfam and other NPOs continue to direct stinging criticism at larger, poorer states, this time focusing their attention on Lamoni. The Free Republic is distinct in that it is AO's largest democracy by population but also distinct because it is, by most estimates, easily the poorest country in the region.

The average Lamonian brings home a mere 57 doura in net income per year, based on 2008 figures, less than one percent of the average Atlantian Oceanian at 7,539 doura. The country does have an emerging middle class and an institutionalised upper class but, together, by numerous foreign estimates, they total only about eight percent of Lamoni's 13 billion people.

Pacitalia's Directorate of Human and Social Development defines its basic poverty line as "the ability to consistently afford a rental payment over a 52-week pro-rated period without the assistance of an external entity", plus "the capacity to provide for oneself, through the procurement of a living wage, food and water to remain of good health" and "the ability to pay for movement between home and/or work and/or school, whether through the use of individual or public methods of transportation".

In terms of cost estimate and based on the cost of living, it pegs the poverty line in Pacitalia at 4,636 doura, or about NS$15,900. In Lamoni, where the cost of living is lower, the DHSD says the poverty line is the equivalent of 1,298 doura — about NS$4,500. Based on that division, Timiocato still estimates 91.6 percent of Lamoni's population lives below the poverty line.

To compare, in the next poorest country in the region, Milchama, around 45 percent of the population — less than half that in Lamoni — lives below the poverty line.

It is that simple fact alone, Oxfam says — 11.5 billion people living in squalor and well below the poverty line, and all in a single country — that makes Lamoni "the worst poverty offender by far" in Atlantian Oceania.

"Lamoni is a failed state," protest leader Giorgio de Vunghe shouted to the crowd of nearly 15,000. "They stand idly by, throwing their weight around the rest of the region to influence other countries... but their people live in abject poverty, with limited access to drinking water and basic supplies, so many of them without even a roof over their head let alone an opportunity to get a basic education."

The rich few flourish and have many opportunities, de Vunghe said, "but they are just that — few. The wide majority have no chance."

Another vocal demonstrator at the podium demanded Nephi "focus less on their football team and their military" and more "on lifting their fellow countrymen out of despicably high levels of poverty".

Lamoni's economy, still pre-industrial and largely based on contingent and agrarian work, continues to scrape the bottom of the barrel in the regional rankings. Oxfam asserts Lamoni needs to do "much, much more" to improve the living conditions and access to basic needs for its people.

Oxfam has accused Lamoni's government of "fudging the figures" in the past to deliberately avoid international scrutiny, especially criticism from the World Assembly, of which the Free Republic is a member. Oxfam asserts that Lamoni lowered its basic standards and established poverty line to lower the number of people in the country "legally in poverty", and that Lamoni's defined standards of what constitutes poverty fall well below those established in the World Assembly's Resolution 21 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14096784&postcount=23).

"You can change the numbers and lower your standards to paint a rosier picture," Oxfam Pacitalia president Giuliana Aporgossa said Friday when asked about the demonstrations in Timiocato. "That doesn't change the fact that people can't even afford to feed themselves or clothe their children. [The Lamonian government] does absolutely nothing to bring in foreign investment, create jobs and build up heavy industry. There is nothing there except potential... and potential doesn't create wealth or lift a country out of a muddy ditch."

Lamonian embassy security commandoes kept a watchful eye on the peaceful demonstrators. There were no reports of property damage or arrests and guards said none of the protestors attempted to enter the embassy compound. The Republican Police Service did not send the riot squad to aid the Lamonian guards, despite early media reports, but several police vehicles did arrive at the protests after about twenty minutes to ensure the demonstration remained lawful.

There has been no statement from Pacitalian government sources on the protests.