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	The richest 300 people on earth have as much wealth as the poorest 3 billion by Alnoor Ladha The Rules   So far 250,000 people have watched our short animation explaining what’s really happening with global inequality. We think more people should - and would like to - see it.   Information on its own can’t change the world but a truth simply told can get a lot of people thinking.   We think the fact that 300 of the richest people have the same amount of wealth as 3 billion of the poorest is one of the greatest failures of modern civilization. This is no accident; those in power write the rules.   We know this concentration of wealth is getting worse and we know why: because the rules of the system are rigged by and for elite interests, rather than for the greatest good of all.   Every year rich countries take over 10 times more money from poor countries than they give in aid. We have to change the rules that create inequality and poverty.   We did it! The National Treasury of Kenya has announced it will remove the 16% tax hike on Unga, milk and flour from the VAT bill.   From community forums to commuter trains, football terraces to facebook pages, and on radio and TV, Kenyans for Tax Justice were joined by thousands of people in Kenya and around the world showing the power of organising. We helped change a bill that would have crippled already struggling households.   Patrick Kamotho, an organiser with Bunge la Mwananchi, part of the Kenyans for Tax Justice campaign, said today “I joined this campaign for tax justice because the Unga tax bill was another way the poor were going to be forced to carry the country on their backs. Already so many households in places like Muthurwa can’t put food on the table. Thousands said no to Unga tax and showed the power of the people!”   This is only the beginning. We must keep a close eye on the government to make sure they don’t retract this commitment, and we must keep working to make sure that Kenya doesn’t become a tax haven. But today is a good day.   Progress towards land reform in India   Real progress has been made on delivery of the 10 point land reform plan. There’s still a long way to go, so perhaps the most important achievement is that the issue is high on the political agenda ahead of the 2014 General Election.   Here’s a message from Rajagopal PV, one of the leaders of the people’s land movement in India. He’s been on the front line of the struggle for land rights for poor and marginalised people for over twenty years. And he’s made a video message for the thousands of people around the world who signed email petitions over the last few weeks, to explain what has happened.   Rajagopal talks about a meeting with Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Rural Development: “Every person who doesn’t have a place to construct a hut or shelter, they will get land.”   Rajagopal answers the essential question of “what next?”: It’s all about the General Election in 2014: "First land, then vote. No land, no vote" Visit the related web page
	Neo-liberalism - reducing the responsibility of the state towards citizens by Mandeep Tiwana CIVICUS   Neo-liberalism’s focus on reducing the responsibility of the state while promoting privatisation to favour those with access to resources and influence is playing havoc with the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people, spurring disenfranchisement and protests across the world.   In Egypt, Turkey and Brazil, people expected democracy and political freedoms to transform their societies, and spread social and economic justice. But the political and economic elite working in tandem neutralised these aspirations, spurring a feeling of disenfranchisement which drove the protests.   Whether it is the removal of subsidies protecting the poor against inflation and price shocks in Egypt or the enormous cost of hosting high profile sporting events in Brazil at the expense of social services or government plans to commercialise a beloved public space in the heart of Istanbul, the headlong embrace of neoliberal economic policies by governments is likely to cause further dissatisfaction and unrest around the world.   Neo-liberalism’s focus on reducing the responsibility of the state towards citizens – while promoting privatisation to favour those with access to resources and influence – is playing havoc with the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people. Despite planted perceptions, the sad reality is that free markets don’t automatically regulate themselves nor do they naturally respect individual or community rights.   Notwithstanding ample evidence of corporate excesses around the globe, governments are going out of their way to ensure an ‘enabling environment’ for big business while making drastic cuts in public spending on social welfare. This is fuelling frustration and alienation among electorates, spurring protests.   Furthermore the exponential expansion in the power of transnational corporations has exacerbated income and wealth disparities which are threatening to tear societies apart. The World Economic Forum’s 2013 annual survey of global risks identifies ‘severe income disparity’ as a key concern likely to manifest itself over the next decade. The International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director has admitted that the top 0.5% of the globe’s population holds 35% of its wealth.   Although civil society groups have cautioned governments and financial institutions about the pitfalls of searing inequality, they continue to spin arguments about the need to privatise services when they should be focusing on how to make the public sector fit for purpose.   Shockingly, during a global economic downturn, political leaders and captains of industry have together managed to subject ordinary people to double jeopardy: having to pay taxes to the state and then having to fork out profit-adjusted higher costs for privatised health, education, public transport, telecommunications, road works, electricity, water supply and so on. These services are indeed governments’ responsibility to provide as part of the social contract between citizens and the state.   In the past, the political and economic elite have erroneously sought to deride the occupy movements, indignados and anti-corruption protestors as fringe elements without clear vision or majority support. But with greater numbers of people taking to the streets to voice their dissatisfaction against corruption, environmental degradation and top down austerity policies, decision makers have a reality check staring them in the face.   But will they right the ship on neo-liberal economic policies when they are privately profiting from it? Perhaps citizen action will help answer that.   * Mandeep Tiwana is a lawyer specialising in human rights and civil society issues and the Head of Policy and Advocacy at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. http://civicus.org/ Visit the related web page
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