Date: 2025-10-05 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021689
MIGRATION
FAILED STATES ... SOCIETIES
A mother's perilous journey from Venezuela to Brazil
FAILED STATES ... SOCIETIES
A mother's perilous journey from Venezuela to Brazil
WATCH VIDEO
Burgess COMMENTARY
I worked as a consultant to the United Nations for some of my working career including working with UNHCR and UNDP on a range of refugee situations.
In the early 1980s there was concern about refugee flows and two major international conferences took place ... ICARA I and ICARA II ... International Conference on Aid to Refugees in Africa As a result the UN was able to give the refugee and IDP problem some visibility and expand the international funding to support mitigation activities.
It is very disturbing that the refugee and IDP problem is bigger today than it was thrity years ago. In broad terms it is disappointing that the post colonial era has been little better for most of the population of the planet than what went before.
There are three main threads:
- The political leadership in many countries round the world has been inept and currupt and done everything for personal power and wealth and nothing for the people;
- There have been slow and nearly imperceptible changes in the climate that has put huge stress on local agriculture and food production ... so growing malnutrition and need for migration;
- In advanced developed countries there has been a growing preoccupation with financial performance and commitment to the problems of the world has declined substantially. While development investment assistance has declined, there has been an increase in the militarization of international relations with poor results.
Peter Burgess