Rigmar Osterkamp, a long-time critic of the Namibian Basic Income Pilot project has recently published a new piece on DandC.edu. In the piece he calls the project a “failure.”
Rigmar Osterkamp, “Poverty reduction Lessons from failure” D+C (DandC.eu), May 5, 2013: https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/disappointing-basic-income-grant-project-namibia
This opinion piece supports a basic income grant in South Africa.
Devenish, GE “The grant has key role,” BusinessDay (South Africa) 08.03.2013
https://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/letters/2013/03/08/letter-the-grant-has-key-role
According to AllAfrica.com, Uhuru Dempers, a supporter of the Basic Income Grant (BIG) pilot project in Otjivero, Namibia said that the BIG Coalition of Namibia is unlikely to be able to continue the project any longer. The coalition maintained a BIG in this small town for nearly two years and had hoped to keep it going until the government took it over or introduced BIG nationwide. The coalition doesn’t have enough donors to do that, but Dempers said that the prospects for BIG are likely to increase after the next election.
For more on this issue, see “Namibia: Big Idea Needs Some Tweaking” by Magreth Nunuhe, 27 February 2013, New Era, at: https://allafrica.com/stories/201302270751.html
Arguing re: Justice
This book, released in 2011, is now available for free download as PDF. The hard copy is still available for €29.90. Philippe Van Parijs is one of the leading philosophers writing about basic income today. Many of the chapters in this book respond to his ideas about basic income. According to the publisher, “This book brings together fifty of today’s finest thinkers. They were asked to let their imaginations run free to advance new ideas on a wide range of social and political issues. They did so as friends, on the occasion of Philippe Van Parijs’s sixtieth birthday. Rather than restricting themselves to comments on his numerous writings, the authors engage with the topics on which he has focused his attention over the years, especially with the various dimensions of justice, its scope, and its demands. They discuss issues ranging from the fair distribution of marriage opportunities to the limits of argumentation in a democracy, the deep roots of inequality, the challenges to basic income and the requirements of linguistic justice. They provide ample food for thought for both academic and general readers.”
According to Noble Laureate, Amartya Sen, “A book of quick and sharp thoughts on a grand theme is a novel way of paying tribute to a leading philosopher. But it has worked beautifully here, both as a stimulating book of ideas on justice, and as a fitting recognition of the intellectual contributions of Philippe Van Parijs, who is one of the most original and most creative thinkers of our time. ”
Gosseries, Axel and Yannick Vanderborght (editors), Arguing about justice: Essays for Philippe Van Parijs. Louvain-la-Neuve: UCL Presses, 2011
For a link to the PDF go to: https://www.academia.edu/2396206/Arguing_about_Justice_Essays_for_Philippe_Van_Parijs_PUL_2011_free_PDF_
For more info about the book, in hardcopy and PDF, go to: https://www.i6doc.com/fr/livre/?GCOI=28001100609230
Considering that the ongoing global crisis has led to massive unemployment, particularly in Europe, and has left many people in despair, groups of citizens from 15 European Union countries have launched an initiative to request the EU to examine the feasibility of an Unconditional Basic Income.
The idea behind an Unconditional Basic Income is to allow for a better distribution of work opportunities, thus supporting decent living conditions for everyone. Such an Unconditional Basic Income must be universal, individual and high enough to be a radical tool for fighting inequalities and poverty.
The Basic Income would also be a way to simplify many welfare benefit rules and procedures, and would not replace the welfare state but would transform it from a weak compensatory one into an emancipatory welfare state.
The broad collaboration of European groups and citizens from 15 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom) that has been preparing this campaign shows that the long-standing idea of a Basic Income is gaining momentum.
After registration of the European Citizens’ Initiative by the EU-Commission early this year, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have also joined the coordinating group of the campaign.
In addition to those of the coordinating group (“European Citizens’ Committee”) we have already obtained signatures from all 27 countries of the EU (see Figure: “Statistic for the first month of online signatures”).
The organizers of the initiative invite everybody to sign their support on the joint website https://basicincome2013.eu
It is also possible to support the campaign by filling in forms. In other words, you do not need to have internet access. We must maximize the number of signatures by 14 January 2014, to be given for evaluation to the national authorities in all 27 Member States.
Our next European coordination meeting will take place on 27 May 2013 (with a public event on the evening before) in Köln. One item to be considered will be the proposal for an International Week of Unconditional Basic Income, to be held from September 16 to 22, 2013.
So we hope we will obtain the required 1 million signatures, while reaching a minimum threshold in at least 7 Member States, which is a necessary condition to reach the first step of the European Citizens’ Initiative. Once that has been achieved, there must be a public hearing in the EU-Parliament, offered by the EU-Commission, and then the EU-Commission will decide what will be done further.
Please sign the European Citizens Initiative and inform other persons by your media (e-mail, Newsletter, Website, facebook, twitter, print media, etc.) asking for support!
