A mining disaster in chile trapped 33 in the world watched as a 2 month rescue turned tragedy into a miracle aljazeera revisits the men once celebrated as National Bureau and ask how this ordeal changed their lives chilean miners after the rescue on a jersey. Hello im sam is a than this is counting the cost on aljazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week the wealth of banks Prime Ministers and parish vicars built on the backs of slaves how much does britain oh in reparations millions pulled out of poverty tour in the commodity boom the pandemic could wipe out latin americas hard earned social and economic gains. Plus wild card and its missing billions the german tech darling that wasnt all that was made out to be. The toppling of slave owner will cost and stature amid the black lives matter protests is raised among comfortable questions about britains role in the slave trade questions live whether britain should pay reparations for more than 200 years of free labor the transportation of more than a 1000000 africans as part of the triangle trade helped build the british economy the bank of england lloyds of london and some universities have acknowledged their links to the slave trade so how much should britain pay is a way of compensation when britain ended slavery the government compensated slave traders with a share of 20000000. 00 pounds or 21000000000. 00 in todays money that money did not go to the sly. Moves british traders made 60000000. 00 pounds or about 10000000000. 00 from the sale of almost one and a half 1000000 african slaves the value of all slave related industries amounted to 11 point one percent of britains g. D. P. By 1800. 00 which would be 336000000000. 00 in 2019 well just a reminder while slaves were transported to the americas on the route back to britain they took back to back 0 sugar and cotton was one more number for you from a u. S. Perspective the Roosevelt Institute estimated up to toil for a trillion dollars could serve as the baseline for black reparations in the 21st century. So theres not time pat can lets bring in said hennery bankrolls hes vice chancellor of the university of the west indies and chairman of the county com Reparations Committee so hillary joins us via skype from bridgetown in barbados could have you with us so its an often discussed and debated. Once hell take on this should reparations be paid a let me just say this. I am in fall for this reparations discourse the moment but as a historian i also know this is probably the 7th or 8th iteration of this movement this is this is a request a movement that goes back hundreds of 50 year. Emerges has been repressed by the british and the european government. Has resurface again in this moment in history so this is an ongoing continuous discourse and as you know these caribbean islands were part of the most to explore to part of the british some european powers and we continue to be a cold in those communities must remember that there are still probably needs and carbon europe still has problems in the caribbean so this is not a liberated space this is still a colony space and therefore the conversation is about. Them is about colonization its about the freedom of the people of this of this of this region so yes the people who are enslaved in this region by britain and the european powers back there in the middle of the 19th century their requested compensation for the exploitation and its legal to belittle the month then in the early 20th century demanded it been in the. Middle of the 20th century the request again is back here so this is not something that has erupted suddenly this is an ongoing part of the search for independence or sovereignty indeed we call the report 3 Justice Movement the completion of the independence process that started 5060 years ago so so henry that what form should reparations take today you mentioned the movements in its 8th its aeration so i guess demands have evolved right. Yes effectively the Caribbean Community has said this iteration and this is this is a continuation of the 1960 s. Requests and been some of these islands became independent in jamaica barbados trinidad guyana many of the larger islands became independent and moved end the conversation about National Independent on the table was the request for it Compensation Development plan and you remember this when the british for example and the europeans were were granton independence to some of the colonies. They developed for the issue colonies for the east indies colonies did develop the the colombo plan then met in colombo what was then sure lanka and there were through a Development Plan for the transition of east end in colonies into nations and mid tremendous provisions by way of capital injections trade preferences investments in education all of those arrangements were part of what was known at the colombo plan that transition the east indies and to nation and sovereignty to the west and then if i can jump into how that deafened Development Aid wont want kind of different kind of aid investment that youre talking about should take place that hasnt so far. Well again let me say this when the colombo plan was being worked out for the east indian colonies the west indian colonies made a similar request and and there were rejected there was they were told that there is no obligation to these islands despite their will still slavery exploitation did the colonization and they continue and colonization there was also a view which was expressed very aggressively by the British Government in the ninetys and in 1960 s. We will give you social aid we are prepared to give you social aid to deal with issues on the social agenda but we are not prepared to participate and then economic Development Plan for the rest and so aid was actually seen as a very negative and aggressive rejection of the call for Economic Development because the government did not share the view that participated in the economic Development Plan for the west indies still calling names because it was not in their interest to do so d they saw the indian qualities a future potential markets places they could involve and continue an International Trade in the west indies it was goodbye thank you for 300 years of slave labor thank you for another 100 years of coalition we no longer have a strategic interest in the west indies and this said this breaks because right so we will invest in you Economic Transformation undevelopment and the west indies lose then one of the poorest parts of the British Empire in fact right on the plate is a living will your author of a why the sort of Economic Development commitment what do you make of those who say well you know the world has moved on its more than a century ago. Can you hold people to account today for the actions of their forefathers. This is not this is not a remote atoll this is coal a zation in its present form and remember these societies were indeed calling for an economic Development Plan that they were entitled to the british Prime Minister lloyd george in 126 made a statement that the caribbean is the slum of the British Empire its an embarrassment to the British Empire because of this problem when the west indian governments economic Development Plan they were rejected the Prime Minister in that and tobago dr williams made that famous statement in 162 just before his country became independent he said were to see the caribbean as an orange. Dry throne to peel on to the ground and now they are free to slip on the peel it was not a long time ago isnt very much in the present and because the demanded economic compensation that demanded the right to report to be justice but because britain and the european powers were able to you already so bluntly and so brutally these islands were not able to allow their voice to go to the International Community it is only now that most of them are secure in their sovereignty. To raise their voices once again and said this conversation must continue. Millions of people in latin america were lifted out of poverty joining the commodity boom more than a decade ago there are concerns now the pandemic could undo those hard won gains thats it leave economies with unmanageable Debt Forgiveness chennai is being hailed as latin americas most successful free market economy but the pandemic is exposing the countrys inequalities despite a nationwide curfew and lockdowns many chilean say the governments response of the economic fallout has been too little too light how latin america added to the sea and human reports from santiago. That interview date takes us on a tour of live victoria a low Income Neighborhood on the outskirts of santiago was its murals dating back to the 1980 s. Tell the story of its residents political struggle against chiles former military dictatorship a law this is the mineral in honor of the people who were detained and disappeared. Before it was the time when the community got together to create soup kitchens to confront a profound economic crisis. When soldiers rushed into a rescue or killed protesters under an endless state of emergency. The bargain for a world 40 years later for many it feels like deja vu again theres a curfew a state of emergency was soldiers on the streets and Police Fighting protesters. And once again the women of this community are looking for the hungry in soup kitchens. This pandemic has exposed the deep fault lines of chiles Economic System there are millions of people now out of work and much of the socalled middle class has been plunged into poverty which is why tens of thousands of people are now resorting to this same order to have something to eat but theres a difference between now and when admissable that this mother used to serve spaghetti would be made in the 80s we were all either poor or rich the majority were poor of course but then things changed we thought wed become middle class but it wasnt true because were all in debt with credit cards and loans now were all unemployed and we cant pay our debts and bills were poor again under its new liberal economic model chile has become the latin American Country with the highest per capita income but with a catch. On paper g. D. P. Is similar to portugals except only 9 percent of chileans received the average income well in portrait. To 53 percent of the population in portugal the middle class is a middle class well here most average income earners are more like poor portuguese and extremely fragile economically. Chillies conservative government is now offering an economic aid package to the middle class the problem is that millions of people including many of those in line at a soup kitchen no longer qualify even as you know are middle class and. All this is adding fuel to the still unresolved political social and economic explosion that erupted in chile last october and which the pandemic had put on pause at least for a while you see in human aljazeera santiago im delighted now to say. Cando joins us to discuss the challenges facing the region gero is the resident professor at Northwestern University in qatar and latin america analyst good to have you with us so there are one point we were talking about how over 70000000 people were lifted out of poverty in a decade are all of those gains about to be undone by the pandemic im sorry to say yes a lot of it is going to be done but i think it reflects a wider problem that id say its terrible michio is there no way out of this i mean we like happy endings in life that way. Yeah but not always theyre happy and their life and this is not a movie reality and one of the problems that we face in latin america is that many of the governments that manage to lift a lot of people are poor because of their history with the policy never the less they dont make structural changes to the economy so they lock in american economies are still heavily dependent on commodities on primary products and once the Global Crisis has taken off its just reveal what an underlining problem which is the latin American Economy straight to modernize and to adapt to a more globalized world in addition to restructuring weve got the issue of that though and there is some day that rescheduling going on right is not going to be enough to avoid the economys thing compounded and dragged down even further. Well the last 10 american deaths its been the biggest torment problem and and we all remember the 1900 mexican crisis that led to the region to the socalled last decade of the 1990 s. And we are truly in the face of repeating that situation i mean deaths in legitimate countries if anything has got bigger a little bit more diversified so its less of a risk to traditional banks that was you know if you remember the 1000 maybe the late 1901 of the big problems for the International Financial system was that a lot of the eggs had to be put in one single by now its a more diversified portfolio can make itself its continues to be a big problem in the dead for example when a certain amount country has skyrocketed from Something Like 34000000000. 00 in 1908 to over 217000000000 dollars dollars. So it is a big problem that the whole of life in america and of course what the region faces and turn of its main problems you know i think culture this apology lets not make and can meet before economic. Analysis to call estimate that theres going to be like a poll of 6 percent in agriculture and some 6 percent also minerals oil which affects believe venezuela colombia but also places like quit or mixed sicko is going to be down 40 percent and thats a huge huge impact but even within the region itself the what the region trains trade among each countries like energy thats going to be right down around 20 percent so were facing the perfect storm in the region so overall what is what kind of Economic Contraction is latin america looking at 7 percent i think is what the im talking about worse. Yeah well depending where you look but the the for example the listing made that contraction could be between. 79 percent but. We dont know you know a lot of the economy has to do with expectations and i learned that governments nowadays in latin america are not government control of of expansionist monetary expansionist policy like didnt invest in one of the contrary more prone to adopt austerity policies and that means that the expectation that those expectations go down that consumption will go down and then will probably face rather than 7 to 9 percent of of downturn so that segues nice thing to my next point particularly about a stereotype matches do you think brazil will go ahead with those hysterically measures that the president has been from acing. Well he politically is going to be really difficult but he has to do it you know its just dont want no money in the public finances and thats not only the case of brazil i mean we see our government like they didnt you know the form of this who came to power promise eating the end of the mike least ill Study Program and has only have to be put in the program instead and so its not. You know its not a choice in many cases not now im not im not. A believer of that the state of the programs had actually work in many cases and maybe most cases are hard to make matters worse but at present theres no money so the government has this simple decision between. Doing a study or basically printing more money and injecting it to the economy but at the end of the it whos going to pay for that and those will be back up an inflation during. That brazil by the memory of the hyperinflation in brazil doing the. Initial stages of democracy. And thats something that those millions do not want to go you know its a little bit like germany their baby and. Inflation phobic and they have that strong collective memory against inflation so i i i do think that. Most or not all will implement some sort of. Program but i dont think its going to be us harshest people expect him because he will have to negotiate even within his own party about the political implications of trying to keep in and thats one of the problems that of trying to prevent the Structural Adjustment Program now they seem like in america all right thing great getting your thoughts thanks so much title thank you. Now its being dubbed the enron of germany wild card was the countrys fantastic darling but its collapse and the rest of its chief executive after billions of dollars went missing his race among comfortable questions about corporate regulation the regulator got it so badly wrong it fall the criminal complaint against the journalist from the Financial Times who broke the story aljazeera as dominic cain has more from berlin until recently this mans company wired card was worth tens of billions of dollars and apparently a lucrative Investment Option now the firm is insolvent and marcus plan and several of his former colleagues are in custody on suspicion of manipulating accounts. Of her own is suspect and further accomplices agreed from 2015 where to inflict wildcards Balance Sheet and sales volume through faking come and they were reported through business with socalled 3rd Party Acquirers wire cards core business was online Payment Processing over the course of several years it expanded its business around the world but it was its activities in asia which raised suspicion journalists like dan mccrum of the Financial Times discovered that billions of dollars in cash the Company Claims to have just could not be found but business didnt really seem to exist and then we started looking at these accounts what the company could sell it and these various business deals which it in singapore and other places in asia and really what we found just didnt add up so we started publishing pieces which raised questions about these things and that led more people to get in touch and us to raise more questions about the companys accounts. So persistent was mccrum squash chinning that he believes why a card set up private surveillance of him and his colleagues because he believes they fear the damage mccrum his articles were causing to their brand people have made a lot of money investing in work hard and that breeds a sense that you are right youve made the correct decision to invest and work hard was very successful at demonizing its critics it waged a substantial campaign to undermine the reputation of the Financial Times and for a long time it really. It wasnt successful but it it it succeeded in putting doubt in peoples minds and so so i think that is a large part of this as well it was why very effectively demonized its critics and. Was able to get out of answering legitimate questions about its business. When why a card filed for insolvency a few weeks ago its share price plummeted and many of its shareholders found themselves facing serious losses vod gang she is a burn in based lawyer representing thousands of them its starts with a with a grandmother who has invested some of her Pension Fund Money in a card or maybe just 2000 euros and then has lost everything and go it goes up to huge private persons and also Institutional Investors who may hold to digital 1000000000 euro or figures or even hundreds of millions of euros its a very wide range of people who burned their hands in this case the man accused of masterminding the alleged fraud denies any wrongdoing is candy at least it cant be ruled out the wild cards become big grieved party in the case of floridas considerable proportions. On a wider scale the scandal has highlighted the role of the regulators in germany. Is highly critical i think they have failed told really its not. Easy to hold them responsible though because the german or maker has introduced a legal privilege into our written laws in germany paragraph 4 section 4 of the law regulating barfi says that they shall not. Be held accountable under a state liability terms so you have to overcome this obstacle and then there is the behavior of successive governments going back much of the past decade with current finance minister shirts in particular facing tough questions over what he knew about the scandal and when. Back at the end of june mr schwartz was clear of a wide scale reform of the Financial Sector is needed. Scum dari. Scandal like the one why a card must be a wake up call that we need more oversight and control of the finance markets than we have today we owe that to shareholders and ploys of these firms and in particular germany as a Financial Center and all of us are citizens. The official response here at the finance ministry is a 3 point action plan firstly to strengthen the financial regulator baffin to give it the sovereign power to intervene in Public Companies secondly to the orders regulator and fast through allow it to impose sanctions on Rule Breakers and finally to oblige all companies to change their orders every 10 years. But right now there remain many Unanswered Questions about what really happened with wild card and why it took so long for the or for it is to notice dominic came out zira berlin. And thats our show for this week remember you can get in touch with us via twitter use the hash tag see when you do or drop us an email counting the cost of aljazeera dot net is our address theres more for you online at aljazeera dot com slash season c thatll take you straight to our page which has individual reports links and entire episodes for you to catch up on. But for this edition of counting the cost time sam is a than from the whole team here thanks for joining us the news an aljazeera is next. August on aljazeera at the us republican and Democratic National Convention Stella gets officially nominate their partys president ial candidates for the 2020 elections in india witness policy young conservationist tackling the deadly human elephant conflict with an unlikely strategy coexistence 10 years after the chilean mining disaster we revisit the victims of a story that captivated the world one a one east enters the violent arena of the mixed martial arts in russia and the family u. S. S. R. And the u. N. Special tribunal delivers its verdict on the assassination of former lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri August on aljazeera rewind returns with a new series. And plain updates on the best about using these documentaries is one valuable knowledge. Rewind continues with holy land grant bible compelling the onion and onion the sweetest parties the heart. Of the city were holding on by their fingernails to. Hong kong police order the arrest of 6 prodemocracy activists and living in exile well get reaction from one of them is not real sure hes in the united states. Landlady. Out there im just on the attack and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up top u. S. Health officials acknowledge its taking too long to get 1000 test results
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