BRICS Nations Launch New Development Bank

[Purveyor]

A new international development bank and multi-billion emergency lending pool are set to be launched by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The move comes at a summit meeting of BRICS leaders in Brazil.

The "New Development Bank" (NDB) is intended to compete with the World Bank and its private lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), by making it easier and quicker for developing countries to gain access to large-scale financing for infrastructure projects.

The BRICS will also set up a $100 billion (73.5 billion euros) joint US dollar currency reserve pool called the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), in order to provide emergency cash to BRICS countries faced with short-term currency crises or balance-of-payments problems, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has told reporters in Moscow.

Competition for World Bank and IMF

The two new BRICS institutions are intended to provide developing countries with alternatives to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are headquartered politically as well as physically in the US capital.

When the IMF or World Bank lend money, strings are invariably attached, and those strings tend to reflect the values and interests of Washington and its allies, according to analysts at the Institute for Development Studies in Sussex, UK.

more...

http://www.dw.de/brics-nations-launch-new-development-bank/a-17779926

[Purveyor]

1. Russia Trumps West With BRICS Bank

Top of the agenda at the sixth summit of the BRICS developing nations beginning Tuesday is the founding of two multilateral financial institutions designed to erode the dominance of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as arbiters of the global economic system.

For Russia, the creation of a $100 billion BRICS development bank and a reserve currency fund worth another $100 billion is a political coup. Just as the West freezes Russia out of its own economic system as punishment for its politics in Ukraine, Russia is tying itself into the financial superstructure of the next generation of economic heavyweights: India, Brazil, China and South Africa.

The World Bank and the IMF have come under criticism from the rapidly developing BRICS, who together account for 20 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of the world's population. In their view, the two financial institutions are dominated by the rich nations of the G7 and attach stringent conditions to their lending that impinge on the economic sovereignty of its members.

Far from assuaging their complaints, efforts to reform the 70-year-old institutions have stalled. Proposed updates to the IMF that would grant increased influence to developing economies have been languishing in the U.S. Congress since 2010 and were blocked once again in April.

If the framework agreements due to be signed at the BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, are ratified at home, the new bank and the reserve fund could come just in time for the BRICS countries. U.S. tightening of the dollar supply starting last year has caused a wave of crises in developing nations as the cash inflows of the past decade begin to reverse themselves.

more...

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-trumps-west-with-brics-bank/503411.html

[geek tragedy]

2. they can start by building sewage treatment facilities in Rio de Janeiro

so that beachgoers aren't swimming in human feces.

[estevamsp33]

3. They could do that in the United States as well:

After all, as the entire planet already knows, the US has some of the most disgusting beaches in the planet.

http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/07/americas-most-feces-polluted-beaches-mapped/66885/

"More than 80 percent of closings and advisories were issued because bacteria levels in beachwater exceeded public health standards, indicating the potential presence of human or animal waste in the water."

[geek tragedy]

4. 100% of sewage gets treated in US cities. Rio is at 34%.

And it's laughable to compare American beaches that exceed the US standard 15% of the time due to storm runoff with beaches that surpass a FAR more lenient standard (2.5 more pollution involved) 50% of the time. Were the Brazilian standards and protocols aligned with those of the US, Rio's beaches would be permanently closed.

Really scandalous that they're going to ask Olympic athletes to swim in shit in 2016.

[estevamsp33]

5. Who are you trying to fool, kid?

Are you trying to say that the beaches in one of the most polluted countries in the planet are all wonderful?

The entire planet knows that the US has the WORST sewage treatment coverage of all the developed world. In comparison to European nations, the sewage coverage in the US is pathetic, pretty much third-worldish. It's even worse in the Southern US. Even some non-developed countries in Latin America and Asia have far more advanced coverages.

http://www.americanrivers.org/initiative/stormwater-sewage/projects/sewage-problems-and-solutions/

"However, there are still more than 850 billion gallons of raw or untreated sewage that reach our streams, rivers, and lakes every year, and without a better approach to funding, enforcement, and innovation, the situation will continue to get worse."

[geek tragedy]

7. The US is far from the most polluted country in the world.

China and India are far, far, far worse. Try going for a dip in the Yangtze or Ganges river.

So is Russia. So is Brazil's coast.

And, for that matter, so are all the former soviet Republics (USSR had an environmental record that would make Exxon blush).

The US has a lot of pollution to clean up, but it's decades ahead of China and Brazil in basic sewage treatment.

[estevamsp33]

10. The US is the SECOND largest polluter of the planet. That's a fact. Accept it.

It's only behind China. And during decades it was the largest polluter on Earth, until 2007.

Some other facts about your "paradise":

* Approximately 40% of the lakes in America are too polluted for fishing, aquatic life, or swimming.

* Americans make up an estimated 5% of the world’s population. However, the US produces an estimated 30% of the world’s waste and uses 25% of the world’s resources.

* The Mississippi River carries an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico each year, creating a “dead zone” in the Gulf each summer about the size of New Jersey.

* Each year 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are dumped into US water.

https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-pollution

But let's point fingers to Brazil and pretend the US has a bright wonderful record in that matter.

[geek tragedy]

11. so your stance is that Brazil, China, Russia and India have all

the water treatment infrastructure they need, and can afford to spend money on other country's infrastructure since they don't have a pressing need to improve their own?

[estevamsp33]

16. My stance is that some Americans are a bunch of hypocrites who should get a grip.

n/t

[The Magistrate]

22. Your Comments Fall Somewhat Short, Sir

Your claim the United States is the second most polluted country is a distortion. You consulted a ranking of carbon emissions, in which the United States does indeed rank second. But that is simply one facet of pollution, and far from the whole.

Here is a better source of comprehensive rankings:

http://www.epi.yale.edu/epi/country-rankings

It will be noted the United States ranks at 33, not particularly good, but in the upper quintile. Brazil, by the way, ranks 77th, below Chile and Mexico, but above Argentine.

Here is an article dealing specifically with water pollution:

http://www.ipsnews.net/2011/08/brazil-efforts-to-improve-water-quality-falling-short/

'Poor and very poor water quality is found in large cities and state capitals like São Paulo, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro, in south and southeastern Brazil, and Salvador, in the northeast, as well as mid-sized cities like Campinas (in the southern state of São Paulo) and Juiz de Fora (in the eastern state of Minas Gerais).

'An assessment of more than 1,700 points monitored shows that numerous river basins are compromised by the large-scale release of “urban household sewage,” the report states.

'In Silva’s opinion, the main cause of groundwater and surface water pollution is the lack of treatment of sewage and industrial waste.

'The National Sanitation Information System reports that only 35 percent of the water from the country’s sewers is treated. “In other words, of all the sewer water, more than 60 percent is discharged as is, with no treatment,” Silva commented to Tierramérica.'

[estevamsp33]

6. "Really scandalous that they're going to ask Olympic athletes to swim in shit in 2016."

Scandalous is spending 1 trillion dollars in a proxy-war to steal other country's oil. That's scandalous.

[geek tragedy]

8. non sequitur. nt

[estevamsp33]

9. "Not convenient"...

...you mean.

Some Americans act like a bunch of cynical drama queens. I just love their selective indigation. They get so offended by sewage in other countries and simply don't care about the fact that their country produces 1/3 of the pollution of the planet. Or the fact that your country is the biggest threat to world peace mankind has ever seen. Your government kills people by the millions to steal oil, and yet... it's sewage in other countries that worries you.

LOL.

[geek tragedy]

12. Oh dear.

your country is the biggest threat to world peace mankind has ever seen.

we've got a live one here.

[estevamsp33]

15. Isn't it?

You invade countries and kill millions to steal oil. Fabricate wars, get involved in a new war at each 3 or four weeks.

Worldwide polls shows that the majority of the citizens of the planet see the US as the biggest threat to world peace.

And you're worried about sewage. Like your country didn't have enough sewage for you to focus on.

[estevamsp33]

13. And your data is wrong.

"100% of sewage gets treated in US cities."

No country has 100% of sewage treatment, much less continental size countries. Couldn't find the data, but obviously you've just invented that number out of nowhere. Last time I checked at least 1/4 of the American territory was not covered by sewage systems, they relied in septic tanks. Similar to what happens in Brazil.

"Rio is at 34%."

Wrong. 70,12% of Rio's sewage gets treated. You've just invented that number out of nowhere too.

http://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/nas-cem-maiores-cidades-do-pais-6372-do-esgoto-nao-foi-tratado-5804912

[geek tragedy]

17. sorry, don't speak Portuguese

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/rio-official-water-pollution-targets-wont-be-met

In Brazil's 2009 Olympic bid, officials promised that the city's waterways would be cleaned up, "setting a new standard of water quality preservation for the next generations."

But an AP analysis last year of a decade's worth of government data on Guanabara and other waterways showed that sewage pollution indicators consistently spiked far above acceptable limits, even under Brazilian laws that are far more lenient on pollution than the United States or Europe.

Authorities pledged to cut by 80 percent the flow of pollution into Guanabara Bay by the 2016 Games through the expansion of the sewage network and the construction of River Treatment Units, or RTUs, built at the mouths of rivers flowing into the bay. The facilities would filter out much of the sewage and trash.

But little progress has been made on either front, and with just over two years to go until the Olympics, nearly 70 percent of the sewage in the metropolitan area of 12 million inhabitants continues to flow untreated, along with thousands of tons of garbage daily, into area rivers, the bay and even Rio's famed beaches like Copacabana and Ipanema.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/world/americas/memo-to-olympic-sailors-in-rio-dont-touch-the-water.html?_r=0

Vast amounts of raw sewage leak into the waters. Officials set a goal of treating as much as 80 percent of it by the 2016 Olympics, but less than 40 percent is currently treated.
State environmental officials have acknowledged they would fall short of that goal, The Associated Press reported over the weekend, citing a letter sent to federal authorities requesting more funding to battle pollution.

“Welcome to the dump that is Rio,” Germany’s sailing team said in one typically blunt assessment of the site for the Olympic regatta.
Brazilians training here agree.
“It can get really disgusting, with dog carcasses in some places and the water turning brown from sewage contamination,” said Thomas Low-Beer, 24, a Brazilian Olympic hopeful who sails in the bay. He shuddered when recalling how his dinghy crashed into what he believed was a partly submerged sofa, capsizing him into the murky Guanabara.

Not ready for prime time.

[estevamsp33]

19. Of course you don't. You just speak "merikan".

The New York Times? LOL. No, thank you. I do trust more in the data presented by Brazilian sources about Brazilian problems. It has been a while since The New York Times has problems with its crumbling credibility.

[yurbud]

14. they have dirty beaches, so it's okay for Western banks scam them and keep them in poverty?

[geek tragedy]

18. those countries all have desperate need for their own infrastructure.

why are they not spending it at home?

[estevamsp33]

20. Your OWN country is in desperate need for its OWN infrastructure.

Last edited Tue Jul 15, 2014, 04:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Didn't you see the links I posted saying that your sewage infrastructure in shambles?

Why don't you go preach to Obama about that instead of making arrogant remarks about countries that you can't even locate in a map?

[geek tragedy]

23. Russia is going to need some cash to pay reparations

to the families of MH17. Maybe they can get a loan from this bank.

[proverbialwisdom]

21. Missed this. What a week. (nt)