SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 3 2019 (IPS)* – Large transnational corporations (TNCs) are widely believed to be paying little tax. The ease with which they avoid tax and the declining corporate tax rates over the decades have deprived developing countries of much needed revenues besides undermining public faith in the tax system.
Anis Chowdhury
The rise of digital giants, such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple, is an additional concern for all countries. Digitalization makes it hard to establish where ‘production’ takes place. Hence, digital tech TNCs’ revenues typically bear little relation to reported profits and tax bills.
Corporate tax rules favour rich countries
Through the OECD, developed economies have long set corporate tax rules, without much consideration for the effects on developing countries’ revenues.
By OXFAM* — The expansion of large scale mining activities and agribusiness in Latin America has greatly increased territorial disputes and resulted in an alarming rise in violence suffered by individuals who defend water, land, forests and the rights of women, afro-descendants, indigenous and farming communities.
Janeth Pareja Ortiz with Angélica Ortiz, of the Ipuana clan, in the middle of the Aguas Blancas stream, Colombia. They are defenders of human, territorial and environmental rights. Photo: Pablo Tosco / Oxfam
Threats, bullying, judicial harassment, illegal surveillance, forced disappearances, blackmail, sexual assault and murder are common practice.
48h after the Brazilian government issued burning ban almost 4,000 new fires have been recorded.
In August the Amazon was hit by burning so intense and so vast, it could be observed from space. | Photo: Reuters (Photo posted here from teleSUR).
3 September 2019 (teleSUR)* — Around 2,000 new fires have been recorded in the Amazon despite the Brazilian government’s 60-day burning ban issued on Aug. 29.
The Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE) released satellite data showing that two days after the government decided to issue its ban on burning lands, almost 4,000 new fires started, with more than half of them taking place in the Amazon.
“Today we have only one enemy: Brazil’s government, Brazil’s president,” Mudjire Kayapo, an indigenous leader said.
Aerial view of a burned tract of Amazon jungle cleared by loggers near Porto Velho, Brazil, August 29, 2019. | Photo: Reuters (Photo posted here fromteleSUR).
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3 September 2019 (teleSUR)* — Brazil’s Attorney General’s Office urged the Army to begin an “urgent operation” on Monday [2 September 2019] to prevent illegal loggers from invading and attacking the Alto Rio Guama Reserve, which is located in the state of Para and belongs to the Tembe people.
Somalia’s 2019 cereal harvest is the poorest the country has seen since 2011, when famine strained already scarce resources, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), announced on Tuesday [3 September 2019], blaming unreliable weather patterns and “climatic shocks”.
In the wake of a surge in violent strikes by Taliban extremists in Afghanistan over the past week, the country’s top UN envoy has pleaded for an end to the fighting through a negotiated peace settlement, and an end to the “indescribable loss” suffered by victims’ loved ones.
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Photo: Fardin Waezi / UNAMA | The United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, meeting with officials in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
Nigeria is a pressure cooker of internal conflicts and generalized violence that must be addressed urgently, an independent United Nations expert said on Tuesday [3 September 2019], following a fact-finding visit to the country.
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Arne Hoel/World Bank | Children walk through a field in Nigeria. (file)
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“The overall situation that I encountered in Nigeria gives rise to extreme concern”, with issues like poverty and climate change adding to the crisis, said Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard after presenting a preliminary statement at the end of her 12-day mission.
Allegations of torture and ill-treatment leading to the death of ethnic Rakhine men and boys being held in incommunicado detention by Myanmar’s military, has prompted three independent UN rights experts to call for an end to the practice and for “credible, independent” investigations.
OCHA/Htet Htet Oo | A displaced man in his small grocery shop in Thet Kae Pyin camp for displaced people in Sittwe Township of Rakhine State. (File)
“The practice of incommunicado detention must be immediately brought to an end. Detainees’ right to a fair trial, including access to a lawyer, must be upheld,” the UN Special Rapporteurs said on Monday [3 September 2019].
By offering basic literacy and numeracy courses, the Borderless Centre in Beirut is part of a nationwide drive to get refugee children out of work and into school. |عربي
2 September 2019 (UNHCR)* — In a small classroom overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, young Syrian refugees learn mathematics on portable computers – their first steps towards formal education. A few months ago, most of them were trying to make a living on the streets of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
September will be a month of action, packed with moments that will be pivotal in our efforts to take on the climate emergency. There’s something every one of us can do.
