The year
2017 will go down as a particularly tough one for ordinary citizens,
particularly in the global South. A sharp rise in government
restrictions on fundamental freedoms across regions, as well as in
levels of inequality, played a big part in that negative review.
According
to a recent Oxfam report, 1% of the world’s richest elites now own
82% of the world’s wealth, with a dollar billionaire having been
created every two days in 2017.
But we
are witnessing people actively fighting back against a system that
largely favors the super-rich at the expense of everyone else.
According to the CIVICUS Monitor, an online tool that tracks threats
to civil society in every country, there were at least 42 reports of
activism leading to positive developments for civic space in 2017.
However,
it’s not only activists challenging the status quo. Also, ordinary
citizens are doing so by turning to innovations that promote
alternative economies — such as ‘sharing economy’ platforms and
cryptocurrencies, for example – to enable them to function in
countries where repression is commonplace and only the rich can
transact.
Full
article:
Comments
Post a Comment