The wave of democracy-building that swept the world in the previous two decades has stalled, with some countries slipping into authoritarian rule and political conflict, according to a UN report released yesterday.
In the UN Development Program's Human Development Report 2002: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World, said the world is more democratic -- in terms of the 140 countries that hold multiparty elections -- than any time in history, but only 82 of countries out of a total of nearly 200 examined are considered full democracies.
It called the level of global inequality "grotesque," with the income of the world's richest 5 percent 114 times higher than of the poorest 5 percent.
"The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US cast new light on these divisions, returning strategic military alliances to the center of national policy-making and inspiring heated debates on the danger of compromising human rights for national security," the report said.
"Around the world, there is a growing sense that democracy has not delivered development such as more jobs, schools, health care for ordinary people," added Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, the report's chief author.
Fukuda-Parr said politicians have used the pain of transition to justify authoritarianism at the expense of human rights.
Of the 81 countries that embraced democracy in the last two decades of the 20th century, only 47 are considered full democracies today, the report said.
"Many others do not seem to be in transition or have lapsed back into authoritarianism or conflict, as in Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone," it said. "Myanmar and Pakistan have returned to military form of government. Failed states, like Afghanistan and Somalia, have become breeding grounds for extremism and violent conflict."
The trend appeared strongest in the sub-Saharan region, with national armies intervening in political affairs in varying degrees in one in four countries since 1989.
Deepening democracy is vital in the battle against social injustice, the report said. It added recent research showed established democracies are less prone to civil war than non-democratic regimes.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat