Budget democracy not new in Brazil

The UK government is proposing to give people more influence over the way local council budgets in England are spent – an idea that has been around for some time in Brazil.

The best known example of this is in Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande Do Sul, and a city which has one of the highest standards of living in the country.

Porto Alegre is the birthplace of the World Social Forum, set up in 2001 to provide an alternative voice to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

But in terms of giving a greater voice to its own people, the city is also associated with an innovative form of "participatory budgeting" that began in 1989. It is sometimes known as "popular administration".

Essentially the scheme aims to involve thousands of people in making decisions about at least some of the spending by their local authority.

It was developed by the Workers Party of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and other activists, but its strength was such that it has continued even after the party lost power in the city in 2004.

The policy works through public forums in which people can control and guide some of the local budget, specifically money that is set aside for improving quality of life in the area.

There are 16 forums in total, divided by geographical area and there is a parallel process which looks at particular issues or needs.

Each district elects two members to a special budgeting council which helps oversee the process. When both the community and the local government have decided on their priorities, the proposals are sent to local councillors for a final decision, but they normally accept the recommendations.

Local people can also have a say on how and when the proposals are carried out, and the government participates in the whole process providing technical advice if needed and presenting its own requirements.

In the first year of operation, early priorities included sanitation and paving and there was often a vigorous debate.

But the scheme was so well received in its initial years, the discussions were opened up to include issues such as transport, urban and economic development, education and culture.

In the year 2000 alone, the process is said to have involved around 30,000 people. In recent years decisions have been made involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

The priority given to sanitation appears to have achieved results – 98% of the city is now connected to the drinking water system for example. In 1989, only 46% of the population had sewer connections, now it has almost doubled to 85%.

This kind of local democracy has spread to over 100 municipal areas in Brazil, some reports say more, and to many other places in Latin America, but there are also indications that it has not always had the same results as in Porto Alegre.

"The main weakness is that it is very hard to replicate this – it is not just a question of getting the model right," Rebecca Abers, professor of Political Science at the University of Brasilia, told the BBC News website.

"What they are doing in Porto Alegre is discussing the infrastructure that many cities in England probably already have. The main danger is thinking you can copy the model without adapting it to local circumstances."

"The reason the model works in Porto Alegre is that it keys into issues that are important in people's lives."

Agreement 'difficult'

Rualdo Menegat, a professor at the Institute of Geosciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, sees strengths and weaknesses in this kind of decision making.

"What is very good about this is the process of popular participation," he said.

"It established a process that involved all social classes in the city.

"What is not good is that the participative budget made it hard to get a view from the whole city, you sometimes got the perspective of one neighbourhood, and it was difficult to get agreement."

It seems this experiment in democracy has a mixed track record in Brazil, but now in one part of the UK at least, the government believes it is an idea whose time has come.

BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | Lions in NZ | Woodward’s woe

Sir Clive Woodward has failed in his bid to guide the Lions to only their second-ever Test series win in New Zealand after defeat by the All Blacks in Saturday's second Test.

The hosts followed up their comprehensive 21-3 win in a torrential downpour in the first Test with a dazzling 48-18 victory in the second encounter.

There are a number of reasons why New Zealand have wrapped up the series with one game still to go, not the least of them the fact that this New Zealand team appears to on the verge of something special.

For the past few years there has been little doubt about their pace and power out wide, but now they have found a world-class tight five they seem set to reclaim their status as the best team in the world.

But, if New Zealand have been undoubtedly the better side, the Lions have not helped their own cause.

Woodward has been hugely successful as a rugby coach and was responsible for dragging England out of mediocrity and on to World Cup glory in 2003.

He did it by creating a single-minded, professional mentality which served England well but has rebounded on him in the Lions environment in two distinct ways.

Off the field, his determination to create a ruthless professional environment has been at odds with the ethos of the Lions.

The obsessive, controlling mood of the tour management – exemplified by employing Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell as media consultant – led to the Lions being perceived as arrogant and distant.

There is no doubt the Lions have to be fully professional in the modern era but a lighter touch would have made them far more popular tourists.

On the field, his over-reliance on the veteran England players who served him so well in Australia 18 months ago cost the Lions dear in the first Test.

The likes of Neil Back, Will Greenwood, Ben Kay, Jason Robinson, Richard Hill and Jonny Wilkinson are patently not the players they were.

All six were picked for the first Test but only the last two made it into the team for the second match.

The first Test was always going to be crucial as it invariably represents the best chance for a touring party, who go into the series with more match practice under their belts than the hosts.

As it was the Lions turned in a shocking display that put them on the back foot from the off.

The fact that Woodward took 45 players with him also turned out to be a problem.

The coach argued that he needed so many players to compensate for injuries, and the early loss of Lawrence Dallaglio and Simon Taylor backed his argument.

But with so many players on tour it was difficult to give them enough game time and Steve Thompson, the hooker in the second Test, went into the match having only started one of the matches.

It also meant that he had less chance to test out combinations such as the back row and half-back partnerships.

And with less time to fuse the squad's different components together it made it all but impossible for the squad to shift between their conservative gameplan in the first Test and a more attacking one in the second Test.

Bad luck also played its part – most sides would struggle if players of the calibre of Lawrence Dallaglio and captain Brian O'Driscoll managed less than two minutes of game time between them in the series.

The Lions went into the second Test desperate for a win, but ultimately were handed their second-heaviest defeat by the All Blacks, conceding a record number of points.

Few – bar the odd disgruntled Scot – disagreed with Woodward's team for Saturday's game and the XV picked put their bodies on the line from the first whistle to the last.

History may not look kindly on Woodward's Lions stewardship.

But the All Blacks produced a performance of such pace, power and skill on Saturday that few, if any sides in the world, would have been able to live with them in Wellington.

How to help users help themselves

Internet law professor Michael Geist describes how governments can help their citizens make the most of the web.

Time Magazine's choice late last month of "You" (by which it meant all the users generating content on the web) as the person of the year was mocked by critics as a poor choice that by-passed several notable political leaders.

Yet the choice may ultimately be viewed as the tipping point when the remarkable outbreak of internet participation that encompasses millions of bloggers, music remixers, amateur video creators, citizen journalists, wikipedians, and Flickr photographers broke into the mainstream.

The choice may also cause government leaders and policy makers to contemplate how they fit into the world of a participatory internet and user-generated content.

Their initial reaction might well be to remain firmly on the sidelines as the speed of development and enormous creative energy appear to be at odds with painfully slow government policy processes.

While a strong regulatory response is indeed unnecessary and likely harmful, it would be a mistake to completely ignore the issue.

History lessons

In the mid-1990s, the emergence of the internet and e-commerce elicited an engaged approach from many governments, who sought to balance the need for a private sector-led, self-regulatory model with e-commerce and privacy legislation that built consumer and business confidence in the new medium.

A decade later, the role of government will be to support the enormous economic and cultural potential of user-generated content, while avoiding steps that might impede its growth. It can do so by focusing on the three "C's" – connectivity, content, and copyright.

An obvious starting point for connectivity is the role that governments can play to ensure that all citizens have access to the high-speed networks that are the price of admission to the participatory internet.

Broadband strategies are emerging as an important part of a national economic plan, with many governments at the national and local levels acknowledging that the private sector is unlikely to provide universal access on its own.

In response, governments can play a role by establishing incentives for broadband connectivity in remote communities or by launching municipal wireless initiatives that provide widespread connectivity in urban areas.

Last week, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas introduced plans to make his state the first to provide state-wide broadband coverage within three years, commenting that "in my hand there is wireless mobility, complete access and clear connections. In my hand is fairness and equity for all of Vermont. In my hand is both freedom and unity."

Government leaders in other jurisdictions would do well to emulate Douglas' vision.

Copyrights and wrongs

A connectivity agenda must also include network neutrality legislation, which mandates that internet service providers treat all content and applications in an equal manner.

Without such legal protections, there is a real possibility that user-generated content will be consigned to the slow lane of a two-tier internet envisioned by some net providers.

Governments can also play an important role by improving access to the content they control or help fund. There are a surprising number of possibilities, each of which can be implemented at minimal cost and without new legislation:

• the elimination of crown copyright, the archaic rules that grants government control over taxpayer-funded work
• the introduction of open access requirements for publicly-funded research
• the establishment of new incentives in book publishing and television production funding programs to encourage open business models
• the repositioning of public broadcaster content by adopting open licenses that invite the public to remix the content to tell their own stories

  Copyright rules that balance appropriate protection with fair use are the third "C".

  Canada's Supreme Court identified this as an issue in 2002 warning in a prescient decision that "excessive control by holders of copyrights and other forms of intellectual property may unduly limit the ability of the public domain to incorporate and embellish creative innovation in the long-term interests of society as a whole, or create practical obstacles to proper utilization."

  Governments can heed the court's words by adding a robust "fair use" exception to their copyright laws.

  Fair use has already generated support from artist, education, and consumer groups and is on the legislative agenda of a growing number of countries that recognize that it would reduce the legal uncertainty as well as encourage new creativity and innovation.

  Fair use will mean little, however, if content is locked behind the digital walls that have generated a free speech chill in many countries. Countries can avoid a similar fate by rejecting legislation that promotes the use of digital rights management technologies.

  Time Magazine's decision to spotlight the participatory internet leaves little doubt that the issue has moved from edges of cyberspace into the mainstream, forcing policy makers to confront their role in this exciting new world.

  Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law.

Liberia in recovery?

In a HARDtalk interview broadcast on 14th December, Stephen Sackur talks to Thomas Nimely, Liberia's interim foreign minister.

Click here to watch the full interview

Liberia is one of the poorest, most brutalised countries on earth. But after a decade and a half of violence it is at peace.

Stephen Sackur asks Liberia's interim foreign minister about the prospects for continuing peace and whether there is any possibility of turning the country around.

HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 04:30 GMT,1130 GMT, 1530 GMT, 1930 GMT, 0030 GMT

It can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 04:30 and 23:30

‘Roaming vets’ save Kenyan tribe

Kenya's Turkana people – once threatened with extinction as virulent disease swept through their livestock – are now thriving again after a number of "roaming vets" came to their aid, the BBC World Service's Health Matters programme has found.

The Turkana's pastoral way of life – being continually on the move to find fresh grass and water for their animals – meant that for years they were beyond the reach of conventional veterinary care.

The threat of the cattle plague, rinderpest, was never far away.

When the virus was imported from Europe to sub-Saharan Africa a century ago, it swept across the continent killing millions of cattle.

As a result, many starved – and particularly affected were roaming tribes such as the Turkana who are entirely dependent on their livestock as the source of virtually all their food (milk, blood and meat), wealth, property and social standing.

The threat has never gone away.

"Para-vets"

"Livestock keepers are not neglected by the national authorities, but by the nature of the terrain, it's very difficult to access national veterinary services," explains explains Dr Jotham Musiime, director of the African Union's animal health organisation, AU-Ibar.

But now a group of home-grown "roaming vets" – Turkana men and woman trained to give basic animal health care to the livestock of their own communities – has greatly reduced the problems facing the Turkana.

Dr Darlington Akabwai, a Ugandan field vet for the Community Animal Health and Participatory Epidemiology (Cape) Unit of AU-Ibar, and Francis Anor, a Turkana animal health technician, are two of the key men behind the programme.

Dr Akabwai has worked on and off with the Turkana pastoralists for more than 20 years, training selected men and women to become mobile "para-vets" – more formally known as community-based animal health workers (CHWs).

"The drugs used to be very far away from them, but now the availability and quality is certain", Dr Akabwai said.

CHWs get one month's training and then regular, frequent supervision in basic primary animal care.

"The CHWs visit livestock in various areas, do vaccinations, and give drugs to assist livestock who are in problems," explains a Turkana elder.

The CHWs first task was delivery of the rinderpest vaccine.

Knowledge

Dr Akabwai believes that the pastoralists' skill in adapting to modern veterinary techniques stems from their traditional expertise.

The Turkana have their own rich veterinary knowledge system.

"Before we were exposed to modern methods, we treated out livestock with traditional medicines," explained one tribesman.

"They work, but the modern drugs are more effective."

And as well as knowledge, the Turkana's culture of mobility is a great advantage – CHWs are have visiting rounds few conventional vets would contemplate.

Ultimately, the benefit of this is felt throughout Kenya.

Elimination of deadly viruses affecting livestock has improved the country's export status.

With these kinds of activities going on elsewhere in Africa, Africa's rinderpest problem is finally beginning to be brought under control.

Welsh Labour Party

Welsh Labour Party

The history of the Labour party is interwoven with much of the history of Wales in the 20th Century. The party was the vehicle for the social aspirations of a large proportion of the Welsh people for much of the century, and Welsh constituencies have provided the British party, and Britain as a whole, with some of their most able and innovative leaders.

In return, it has been Labour governments which have delivered some of the most substantial changes in Wales's status within the UK, most notably in creating the Welsh Office in 1964 and in finally delivering devolution in 1997, after the abortive attempt to do so in the dying weeks of James Callaghan's government in 1979.

As Wales's biggest party in Westminster terms for generations, Labour's hold on the Welsh Parliamentary seats has rarely been stronger. At the 1997 General Election it won 34 of the 40 seats. In local government terms, it is also by far Wales's biggest party, controlling 15 of the 20 unitary authorities.

The Labour Party

Labour's manifesto for Wales

Analysis of feasibility of election success
Labour is aiming to repeat its Westminster and local government success in the National Assembly elections, and is hoping for an overall majority when the votes are counted.

There is every likelihood that it will do so. A few, but only a few, of its seats could be considered genuinely vulnerable to challenges from other parties on the first-past-the-post vote, particularly Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, where Plaid Cymru are challenging, and Monmouth, Cardiff North and Clwyd West, which are among the Tories' top targets.

A greater worry for Labour is how it will perform on the second vote, where there are indications that the other three parties, particularly Plaid Cymru, have the chance of picking up a larger number of seats than they have been hitherto able to do under the first-past-the-post system.

In the case of those regional list seats, second vote, Labour's likely success in most constituencies in the first vote is likely to handicap their chances of getting seats from the list.

However, it would take a particularly strong showing from the other parties, and some unexpected losses in the first ballot, for Labour to be unable to form an overall majority in the Assembly.

Education
Labour says this is their number one priority, and that it has already been cutting class sizes, modernising schools and abolishing the nursery voucher scheme.

It has pledged to invest an extra £844 million to improve education and training at all levels in Wales over the next three years. It plans to extend nursery education to every three-year-old whose parents want it and to expand the network of out-of-school clubs.

It has set aims for children's achievements which it hopes to hit by 2002. These include increasing the proportion of GCSE passes, and cutting the number of pupils leaving school with no qualifications to below 9%.

Labour also wants to cut absenteeism from school to below 8%. Specific measures include: cutting class sizes for five, six and seven-year-olds to 30 or under by 2002; investing in a national grid for learning in Wales linking every school to the information superhighway, giving every pupil their own email address and Internet access; providing greater support for newly qualified teachers by developing the partnership between schools, higher education institutions and the teacher training agency in Wales; providing extra trained classroom assistants; investing millions in the repair and modernisation of schools, and expanding summer literacy and numeracy schemes during the school holidays to all parts of Wales.

It also plans to establish a General Teaching Council for Wales to raise standards in the profession. In Further and Higher Education, Labour says it will ensure 36,000 extra students go on to further and higher education, and that the Assembly will pilot education maintenance allowances for low-income families.

For Post-16 education, Labour says it will break down the existing barriers between academic and vocational courses, and education and training. Cuts in bureaucracy and competition would save £12m a year to be reinvested in post-16 education.

Health
Labour has pledged to invest an extra £1bn in the NHS in Wales over the next three years to improve standards of patient care. It says it will end divisive competition and replace it with partnership, combining community health and acute services to create a single "seamless" health service for each area.

Labour says it has already cut hospital waiting lists, and will cut them further, abolishing waiting lists for some operations. It says that by the end of the Assembly_s first term, no one will wait more than six months for outpatient treatment, or more than 18 months for inpatient treatment.

It says it will set explicit service standards for health authorities, local health groups and NHS trusts, and will implement clear sanctions to ensure them. It says the Assembly will appoint a health supremo to break down the barriers between the NHS and local authority social services to eliminate _bed blocking_, to reduce inequalities in health standards and inequalities in access to health services.

It says Labour will radically modernise the NHS in a nation where life expectancy Wales has been among the worst in Europe.

Other measure include: getting more health professionals into areas where there have been shortages, expanding the community dental service; publishing more clinical-performance indicators; developing the role and resourcing of community health councils in Wales; introducing NHS Direct, a 24-hour nurse-led helpline, to cover all parts of Wales.

Labour says it will introduce new Healthy Living Centres in the most deprived communities; a Wales Centre for Health to advise the Assembly on public health issues.

Health improvement goals include: cutting by at least 30% the number of breast cancer deaths of women aged 50-74 by 2002; cutting by at least 50% the incidence of cervical cancer by 2002; cutting by at least 50% the number of deaths from coronary heart disease of people under 65 by 2002.

Economy
Labour says it has developed a distinctive Welsh economic agenda, and that it is the only party that can transform Wales into a world-class economy to generate prosperity for everyone in Wales.

It points to the granting of to maximise European Objective 1 status as evidence of how it can deliver for Wales in a way the Tories never could, and says it will maximise the usage of the £1.3 billion EU aid to change Wales for good.

Labour too has recognised the need to move away from an excessive reliance on inward investment, saying that while it is still important, the Assembly_s priority must be to improve support for existing Welsh companies.

It promises to establish a _know-how centre_ for Wales, to give easy access for Welsh businesses to technical and research excellence in Welsh colleges and universities.

It also proposes establishing a Small Business Development Bank to provide seed capital and a business forum for Assembly members, business and trade union representatives.

It plans to increase the number of modern apprenticeships from 9000 in 1999/2000 to 14,000 in 2001/2002. In tourism, it promises a new strategy, improved partnership and co-ordination, and the promoting of a dynamic and attractive image for Wales.

On pay, Labour says that Wales, "the low-pay capital of the United Kingdom" under the Tories, some 109,000 people will benefit from the minimum wage this year, and that up to 70,000 people in Wales will benefit from the new Working Families Tax Credit in its first full year of operation.

It also promises that through the new Childcare Tax Credit, high-quality, affordable childcare is available to all families, not just a few.

Labour says it will continue the expansion in Wales of Labour_s New Deal welfare-to-work programme for young people, for the long-term unemployed, for people with disabilities and for lone parents, taking 30,000 unemployed young people off benefits and into work and training.

Agriculture
Labour says that agriculture, which provides £1bn to the Welsh economy and supports one in four rural workers, is an important issue and that it recognises farmers have been having a hard time.

It points to a package of more than £21m to help Welsh farmers, following an initial allocation of £12m. It says the Assembly will work with the Labour-created Rural Partnership for Wales, supported by the new Rural Unit in the Welsh Development Agency, to promote the rural economy.

Labour promises to develop well-branded products which can command premium prices at home and abroad, and also pledges greater encouragement for organic food production, pointing out that it has already made the changes necessary for the development of a Welsh Food Strategy, and says the Assembly will take that strategy forward, in partnership with the Welsh food industry.

Transport
Labour says it will seek to implement an integrated transport strategy, requiring councils to produce plans setting out their strategic transport priorities.

It promises more investment in public transport, cycling and walking. On top of the £2.25m rural bus subsidy introduced by Labour for the first time last year, it says it would add £3m this year to subsidise rural and urban bus services to radically improve transport choice and opportunity.

It has pledged a minimum half-fares concessionary scheme for pensioners travelling by bus, and a phased scheme for free bus travel for pensioners within the next three years.

Labour also pledges to improve north/south links, which it says "are essential to the future economic, social and cultural cohesion of Wales," and says it will address the need for improved road links and will work with rail and air operators to improve existing services and introduce new ones.

Environment
The party says a Labour Assembly will act to safeguard and improve Wales_s environment and will put through policies that are economically efficient, socially just and environmentally sound.

It says it will give more prominence to Tir Gofal, the government_s all-Wales agri-environmental scheme, which it says is a groundbreaking initiative, unparalleled in the UK.

It promises a substantial increase in funding of agri-environmental schemes, so 600 new applicants can join Tir Gofal each year. It also promises to support a "Sustainable Parks in Wales" scheme over the next three years for the Welsh National Parks.

Labour says it will ensure that the land use planning system helps to make sure that development is sustainable and is in the best interests of the whole community.

Reform of public bodiest
The Labour government is putting an end to the Tory quango state in Wales.We have drastically reduced the number of NHS trusts, abolished quangos such as Tai Cymru, merged others, such as the Welsh Development Agency, the Development Board for Rural Wales and the Land Authority for Wales, and introduced an open system of public appointments.

A Labour-led Assembly will take this work forward, through a further review of these bodies, governed by the principle that all public appointees should be accountable to elected politicians, whether at a local, regional or all-Wales level, and that the number of quangos is reduced to a minimum.

In particular, we envisage a strong role for the Assembly_s subject committees in monitoring the performance of non-departmental public bodies.

Local government
The Assembly will work with local councils to modernise local government in Wales and to achieve results in areas like education and social services where there is joint responsibility.

Labour will seek, in co-operation with local authority representatives through the Assembly_s Partnership Council, to pilot ideas, initiatives or ways of working that will enable local councils to do more for their communities.

Labour will also set out models for political management of local government, so that local councils can choose more effective structures that better represent the needs of their communities.

It will put before the Assembly a code of conduct, incorporating a new ethical framework which all councillors will be under a duty to observe. This will be drawn up in liaison with the Partnership Council and will ensure the highest standards of probity and honesty in civic office.

Tackling social exclusion is one of the major challenges facing the Assembly. We are already encouraging local government to work with health authorities and trusts, the police, local businesses and community groups to tackle the problems caused by crime, ill health, poverty, drug abuse and family breakdown.

We will use the social exclusion fund within the National Assembly budget to support pilot projects which harness our spending on health, social services, education and crime prevention even more effectively in the fight against social exclusion.

A Labour Assembly will produce an annual report monitoring changes in the key indicators of exclusion in Wales and appraising progress across the Assembly_s area of responsibility.

Europe
The party says a Labour-led Assembly will develop a distinct European role, establishing Wales as one of Europe's most prosperous and dynamic regions. It says the Assembly must work in partnership with local authorities, business, voluntary organisations and the people of Wales to ensure that the European funds which will flow from Objective 1 status and other European programmes are used in the most effective way.

It says that because the Assembly can make subordinate legislation implementing European law, it should have a presence in the United Kingdom_s permanent representation (UKRep) in Brussels and that there should be close and effective contact with secondees from the National Assembly and other Welsh organidsations to the European Union_s institutions.

It says the Assembly should also have an input into the work of the European Council of Ministers; and that the role of the Welsh European Centre in Brussels should be expanded to give the Assembly a voice of its own in Europe.

Labour says European issues will be given full and proper consideration in the Assembly, and that is why it has proposed that the Assembly should have a Standing Committee on European Affairs, chaired by an Assembly Secretary.

Nationalism
Labour says it is pleased that support for the Welsh language has in recent years proceeded on an all-party basis, and says Labour in the Assembly will work with the Welsh Language Board, with local authorities, and with public and private sector organisations to safeguard and promote the language.

The party says its commitment to the language has "destroyed the myth that the Welsh language is the sole preserve of Welsh nationalists, and ensured that the subject which in the past has been a subject of division should no longer be treated as a political football.

"We therefore reject the Tories_ recent attempts to undermine this consensus for short-term party political gain".

Generally, Labour says it will promise strong leadership under Alun Michael, and a strong and experienced Cabinet, who "can be trusted to do a good job, to work hard for Wales and to speak up for Wales."

It says it wants Wales to be a model _participatory democracy_ which engages all its citizens in shaping their own lives by giving them a stake in decisions which affect them. It says Plaid Cymru would divide Wales internally and from the rest of Britain, and would marginalise Wales in Brussels.

As for the Tories, Labour says they " would wreck the Assembly, just as they nearly wrecked Wales during 18 years of bitter Conservative Government. They too are a divisive force on the Welsh language and on their proposals to privatise schools.

Their arrogance and lack of commitment to the Assembly would damage Wales." The Liberals, Labour says, have no clear message as to what they stand for. Labour says: "Wales is standing on the brink of an exciting new era.

The devolution which Labour has delivered has engendered a new sense of self-confidence amongst the people of Wales. Labour is ready to offer the leadership that will build on that new confident identity and address the challenges we will face as a nation in the 21st century.

We stand for the future not the past; for togetherness not division; for the many not the few."

Thousands compete in Glasgow race

Almost 18,000 runners of all ages and abilities have taken to the streets of Glasgow for Scotland's largest participatory event.

The freshnlo Great Scottish Run was described as an "outstanding success".

The junior 3K race took place on Saturday, while seniors competed in the 10K and half marathon on Sunday.

Elite athletes and fun-runners raced from George Square, over the Kingston Bridge to complete the course at Glasgow Green.

The men's half marathon was won by Kenyan Issal Macharia in a time of 1.02.42. Japanese athletes Toru Okada and Naoto Yoneda were second and third respectively, with Andrew Lemoncello from Fife the first Scot home in 1.06.29.

In the women's race, first place went to Arusei Peninah from Kenya in a time of 1.10.47 followed by Hayley Haining from Kilbarchan, in 1.11.18, also claiming the prize for first placed Scot.

Aya Manome from Japan was third, while the wheelchair race was won by Mark Telford in a time of 58.48.

Derek Casey, the director for Glasgow's bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, said it had been a great weekend for the city.

"Today's 10k and half marathon have been an outstanding success, with Glasgow's streets transformed into a giant running track for the day," he said.

"Over 20,000 people took part, making it one of the biggest and best races ever held in our country.

"The atmosphere was electric from the moment the first runner crossed the start line and it continued as thousands more followed in their tracks throughout the morning."

He said the success of the event highlighted that Glasgow was ready to host the 2014 games.

Bailie Liz Cameron, chair of Culture and Sport Glasgow, said: "It's been an outstanding day, with runners setting their own personal bests and raising tens of thousands of pounds for charity."

The race was started by veteran entertainer Sir Jimmy Savile, with runners including Marc Wynn, who was hoping to raise £10,000 for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill in Glasgow.

He and a group of friends dressed as ostriches in an attempt to set a new world record.

Mr Wynn, whose daughter was treated at the hospital as a baby, said: "We were very impressed by the care she received and very grateful to the staff for all they did.

"I decided that I'd do all I could to raise money for the hospital – and this weekend that means dressing up as an ostrich and running the Great Scottish Run."

All money raised will be donated to the Yorkhill Children's Foundation, which aims to make time spent in the hospital less distressing for children and their families.

IMF and World Bank: Is reform underway?

"How can poor people afford to buy water if they cannot afford to buy food?"

The question was raised by Kenyan member of parliament, Dr Oburu Odinga. During a parliamentary finance committee seminar last summer he questioned why the World Bank should demand that water supply be privatised.

The committee had just been told that aid and assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank was not forthcoming, as they had expected – even though they had obliged with previous demands to clamp down on corruption and economic crime.

It appears there were more demands to be met. Moreover, some of the conditions could not be divulged. The MPs had been told it was classified information, according to the East African Standard.

"We do not go there to negotiate with these people. We go there to sign the conditions they have drawn us," former finance minister Chris Okemo told the MPs.

Crisis

Sixty years ago, the institutions that so frustrated the Kenyan MPs were conceived at an international pow-wow in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

Originally created to provide stability in a global post-war economy where exchange rates were fixed, though adjustable, the IMF and the World Bank were born with outstanding survival instincts that have kept them going after exchange rates were floated in the early 1970s.

Having morphed from technocrats to firefighters, they have often been praised for their ability to prevent or at least deal with economic crisis in the world's poorest countries, then move on to lend money that helps them modernise and instigate reforms.

But the reason why their names so readily slip off the tip of the tongue of lay people is a widely-held belief that they are arrogant, incompetent and ineffective, and that at times they actually make matters worse.

There have been several instances where following the institutions' involvement, output and growth rates have fallen, unemployment has risen and the differences between rich and poor have grown.

Eyeing the money

The Fund and the Bank acknowledge that their projects sometimes fail to achieve the desired results or have unintended negative consequences, but insist that this is often because governments ignore their prescriptions.

Indeed, at times countries might say they will carry out reforms, but soon after they get the money they back away from their promises.

For every case presented by their critics as proof that their methods are mad, the Fund and the Bank are able to come up with a case that shows the opposite, that illustrates that their efforts often bear fruit.

Rightly or wrongly, when lending money to troubled economies, the IMF and the Bank attach conditions.

After all, it is their job to make sure the money injected by their shareholders is not squandered by corrupt or incompetent governments.

Reform

Critics, like the frustrated Kenyan MPs, say the conditions are often intrusive, excessive and inappropriate. And many, even among the world's elite, agree.

So as the IMF and the Bank turn 60, the institutions' shareholders, namely rich nations that pay for their operations, have begun talking about reform.

"So many things have changed in the world economy over the last 60 years and more changes will take place in the near future," said Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, director of international financial relations at Italy's Treasury Department.

"The key question is whether the Bretton Woods institutions have been able to adapt so as to continue to pursue efficiently their primary objectives, which are the stability of the international financial system and the fight against poverty."

A strategic review of institutions' roles began in 2002 as part of the search for a "new international financial architecture". Some changes are already underway.

The UK has proposed that all debts owed by poor countries should be written off, and although the leaders of the G8 rich countries have not agreed, they decided in June to extend a debt relief scheme.

Less intervention

Demands for the IMF and the World Bank to both lend and meddle less are also being heard.

There is serious consideration by shareholders of proposals to give grants instead of loans to very poor countries and to limit conditions to macro-economic targets.

Moreover, both institutions have been working for several years to become more transparent, more accountable and more participatory. Formerly secret information about their decision making, their financial disclosure rules and their staff codes of conduct is now public.

There is also growing acceptance among shareholders that national governments should be the judges of their social and political priorities, though the institutions continue to push for stronger laws and institutions, that is legal and financial reform, to ensure that borrowing governments are in control of their own countries.

Denial

Of course, there are those who insist that focusing on macro-economics would ignore real – but difficult to measure – problems that are the true reasons why development is held back, such as corruption, political instability or culture clashes between ethnic groups.

Other critics insist that the institutions' obsession with measuring progress in terms of inflation rates or exchange rates is merely a neat way of controlling the aid recipients, indeed a method that actually distorts the way their national economies are run.

Then there are those who say the institutions simply cannot be trusted, not least because they sometimes continue to insist that the economic steps they called for were the right ones – even after things have gone sour.

Beyond such attacks, a more probing one is often made by free market thinkers: To their shareholders, the Fund and the Bank have become political tools which they often use to further their own ends.

And as long as there is confusion about the institutions' true purpose, any changes in their behaviour or structures, however sensible or well-meaning, will continue to be viewed with suspicion.

Reporter’s Log: Le Web conference

Le Web 3, a conference for bloggers and supporters of internet media developments, is taking place in Paris, France.

Robin Hamman, a journalist for BBC English Regions and co-ordinator of the BBC Blogs Network, will be filing regular updates from the conference.

DAY TWO: 1930 PARIS (1830 GMT)

Le Web 3 is drawing to a close with Loic Le Meur apologising to those who were upset by the way today's conference turned out, but went on to say that he'd do it the same way again. He says that now, but he might not when he sees what the blogs have been saying all day.

But rather than seizing on the negativity much in abundance amongst the audience on the floor today, instead I'll end with a quote.

Earlier today, Shimon Peres kicked off the day by mentioning that he'd heard that some teenagers use the internet for "romantic activities". That wasn't, however, what the UK's Hugh McLeod was referring to when he said, in the final presentation of the day, that "the internet is all about love".

McLeod wasn't referring to Peres's presentation, but to the idea that really is at the core of web 2.0 – that it's a place where people can create and share content and ideas. I get the feeling that McLeod, and a lot of us here at Le Web, really do believe that.

DAY TWO: 1800 PARIS (1700 GMT)

David Weinberger from Harvard's Berkman Center started his presentation, "Blogging Our Way to Democracy", by observing that: "Today seems to be a day where politicians say the internet isn't going to come to them, so they better come to the internet."

He wasn't going to insult anyone by saying that, since none of the politicians who visited Le Web earlier today stuck around long enough to gain from Weinberger's insights. Weinberger would probably say that politicians ignore the internet and bloggers at their own peril.

According to Weinberger, the American presidential candidacy of Howard Dean was the first to really understand and embrace the internet and its culture by hiring a blogger to run their website.

He said: "Bloggers are not on message, Matthew was not on message. He wrote as an enthusiastic supporter." That, says Weinberger, built trust within the electorate and for a time Dean, "an obscure governor from Vermont", was able to lead the field of Democratic candidates.

This, in Weinberger's view, was an extremely positive development.

"The broadcast model has nothing to do with democracy. It's killing democracy." And, says Weinberger, the Dean campaign did everything they could think of to break up that top-down pyramid model. The result was that people ended up being more enthusiastic about the campaign than they were about the candidate.

One of the main things, in Weinberger's view, that sets the internet apart from broadcast media, is that most internet pages are not self-contained. Bloggers link out to other content because it's their way of keeping their audiences happy by pointing them to other stuff they might be interested in. "This is how we, WE, built OUR internet – out of links!!!"

David Weinberger compared and contrasted a blog he reads regularly, which is full of links to other blogs, and the front page of the New York Times website, which has many links but all of them inward looking.

Looking up at the large presentation screen behind him, Weinberger exclaimed: "Look at all those links, all that blue – they must be really generous too. They don't want us to go away because they think that, if we do, we won't come back – and they are probably right."

Weinberger says that linking is just one example of the way that internet users are taking greater control of the way that information on the internet is organised.

The organisation of information not only just helps us find that content, but it also helps us to understand it and give it meaning. To illustrate, Weinberger uses the example of a hammer which, he says, can't be understood unless one knows what a nail is.

"We are now, right now, in the process of externalising meaning. In doing so, we are creating meaning and that's a way of sharing the world. We need to find meaning and engage with it – conversation gives us a good model for that."

It's probably worth pointing out that none of the politicians who visited us today stuck around to listen to Weinberger's insights.

David Weinberger's Blog: http://www.hyperorg.com/

DAY TWO: 1600 PARIS (1500 GMT)

Nicolas Sarkozy, the second most powerful French politician and a presidential hopeful, just addressed our conference about the internet.

Most of the people I've spoken to just want the previously advertised conference back. In fact, it's all people are talking about, at least those sitting around me.

Mr Sarkozy railed against racist hate speech on the internet and said that freedom of speech can be taken too far and said, "I'm not afraid of the word 'internet regulation'."

He spoke a lot about his hatred and concern about racist hate speech being posted and disseminated online.

He said there is a need for internet users to "obey rules" saying that there need to be laws to "make sure that racists can't use the internet to disseminate their views… the internet represents and opportunity to help all the people of the world, of shared values".

"Let's make the internet continent something that brings people together, not divides them."

After Mr Sarkozy left, so did about a quarter of the people here. I hadn't noticed just how many mainstream press, security and other Sarkozy hang-arounds had briefly been in attendance.

But a lot of those will be people who came for the previously advertised conference which, after the panel moderator had to ask people who wanted to talk to each other to go out into the other room, seems to have started again.

At least, I think I heard them say something about open source software but I'm not entirely sure as it's difficult to concentrate on the words coming from the stage when the grumbles of disappointed conference delegates grows ever louder and spills out onto the blogs.

DAY TWO:1530 PARIS (1430 GMT)

This conference just keeps getting stranger. As we left the previous session for lunch, I spotted some people busy building a wooden booth with windows at the back of the hall.

Now that we've come back, and got past the half dozen men in suits with radio earbuds not so discreetly in their ears, we could see that the booth now contains a large audio mixing board and microphones for live translation and there are hundreds of headsets stacked in front of the booth.

And thus the transformation from Les Blogs to Le Web takes on another, some hope temporary, transformation of this conference into Le Politique.

Members of the security detail aren't the only new comers to the conference – there are lots of mainstream media folk lingering at the back, quite a few new TV camera's and lots of attractive women – this is France – carrying around clipboards and chatting busily into their mobiles.

There's also a few people walking up and down the aisles asking, in French, if anyone needs the English translation.

This is all in preparation of a visit from Nicolas Sarkozy in a few minutes time.

He'll be the second French presidential hopeful to address us today, the first being François Bayrou who seemed to grasp the whole blog thing.

But all this previously unplanned political speechmaking is riling some of the conference goers, particular the people from the UK I spoke with at lunch, who, as they point out, parted with good money to be "subjected" to this all day.

It's not just the British who are moaning.

I'm sitting next to Erlend Debast and Bart De Waele from Belgium. Erlend has started an unofficial Le Web blog, written in Dutch, to cover the conference.

He's so disappointed that he didn't feel up to putting it into words and, instead, do what bloggers do and linked to someone else who'd said it, the blog of another Belgian sitting a few seats down our row where it says, in English, "for some reason, this "web" conference has been transformed into a "political rally".

Not only have speakers been pushed back or forgotten, but the whole place is giddy with an awkward feeling of apprehension as we await the may who could, if Le Meur has his way, be the next leader of France.

One can't help but notice that Sarkozy's blog is based on the blogging software provided by the company that Le Meur works for, Six Apart. As previously mentioned in this column, Le Meur has also publicly endorsed Sarkozy on his website.

Why am I writing so much about politicians? Because that, rather than the internet, blogging, web 2.0 and all the themes we came here for, is what this conference now seems to be all about.

DAY TWO: 1200 PARIS (1100 GMT)

Shimon Peres seems to have started something by asking to come address Le Web.

We've been told that later today we'll also be seeing Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of French President Jacques Chirac's centre-right UMP party, his arch-rival Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, and François Bayrou, president of the centrist Union for French Democracy.

What, one could ask, are all these politicians doing at a blog conference turned marketplace for web 2.0 startups?

Well, they probably think the conference is still primarily about blogging or they realise that a conference like this can, in some ways, help circulate their words and ideas much more widely than mere "mainstream media".

Several of the panels today will focus on the changing face of the media industry in the face of competition from websites that give their users tools and opportunities to create and share their own content such as Flickr, YouTube and the various blogging platforms.

Political strategists in the UK are already encouraging their candidates to experiment with these tools to reach and – this is the key – engage with members of the electorate.

France, we've been told more times during this conference than I care to remember, has more bloggers than any other nation in Europe and, with elections set to take place in the Spring, the politicians are taking note of this powerful new force for getting noticed.

There might be another reason. I'm told by Graham Holliday, who is blogging the event for The Guardian and lives in France and so understands the local blogging scene, that Loic Le Meur, the organiser of Le Web, serial entrepreneur and the most popular blogger in France, used his blog to endorse Nicolas Sarkozy because he promises to make France a nation of entrepreneurs.

The other night I overheard someone in the hotel bar say, optimistically, "someone's gonna walk out of that conference a millionaire", referring to the possibility of finding funding for their start-up venture.

Someone could, it seems possible, walk out of this building today in a better position to capture power in the French elections next Spring.

As for Le Meur, he's demonstrated throughout this conference that he is very much at the centre of the various world's that are colliding at Le Web.

DAY TWO: 1100 PARIS (1000 GMT)

There are some words that you just shouldn't be subjected to early in the morning. Amongst those are "first mover advantage", "click stream revenue sharing" and "open your bag please".

Thankfully, I've also already heard the words "blog" and "blogger" more times this morning than I did all of yesterday.

The blog is back in Le Web, formerly Les Blogs, and former Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres is here too.

Peres, as you'd expect, spoke about conflict and his hopes for peace in the Middle East.

He said "I am dissatisfied about the present, and hopeful of the future."

The people developing the internet have a role to play in Peres' hope for the future and he told the conference that we're like midwifes: "In my judgement, the world is not in a mess, it is pregnant with a new age… it's a transition… the stone age is over, not because there are no more stones, but because there is no more age.

"You people of the internet are really trying to give birth to this sort of thing, this new age. You are the midwife of this process…. you liberated us from having to invest a great effort to remember things.

"Why should we remember things? The past is full of troubles and wars. Why should we try to waste our intellect to remember? Now we can just go to Google…"

Peres says that that the internet is the greatest teacher for generations of the future and, when told there are 60 million blogs, he said that he wished there were six billion.

Following his presentation, Peres answered questions, including one from a conference delegate from the World Economic Forum, who asked what "the army of bloggers can bloggers do to relieve the Israeli/Arab conflict".

Peres paused for moment, and turned to the man beside him for, I think, a quick explanation of what a blog is, before responding.

"Look, it's an interesting question. In my judgement, I told my American friends, instead of going to other countries with ideologies, governments, armies, come with your private sector.

"Build branches, schools… we welcome you to come and do it. You can take the risk… [and] it can change every country in the Middle East. You don't have to do it in the name of governments, do it in the name of the future, another world. "

Peres then asked those in the audience looking for guidance to think of the future as "10 commandments with one internet".

He left to lengthy applause and the stage was reclaimed by a panel talking about blogging, "user generated content" and participatory media.

I am, like Peres, hopeful about the future and think day two of Le Web is already proving to be more interesting, and more about real world topics instead of the "venture capital funding opportunities" that were very much in fashion yesterday.

1630 PARIS (1530 GMT)

Loïc Le Meur, the organiser of Le Web, explained earlier today that one of the interesting things about the conference is the way it was marketed.

Instead of sending out e-mails, posting brochures, contacting trade magazines and advertising, the organisers of Le Web used the tools used by their audience and simply blogged it. Word spread fast and, as soon as registration was closed, Le Meur started fielding calls from people who hadn't acted fast enough to register.

Yesterday he got the most unexpected of those calls, from the office of Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel and joint winner (with Yithak Rabin and Yasser Arafat) of the Nobel Peace prize.

He's in Paris and wanted to know if he could come along and give a presentation. Le Meur, who still sounded a bit shocked when recanting the story, says he initially thought it might be fun to say the conference was full up but decided against it and told Peres's assistant that he was more than welcome to come.

As another conference goer said to me a few minutes ago, Peres isn't exactly a name most people would associate with the internet. So what is Peres going to talk about?

About 5% of the presenters listed on the conference blog come from Israel, long a hotbed of technology and software development.

Perhaps it doesn't really matter if Peres talks about the internet or not.

There is widespread consensus that the most interesting part of the day thus far was the one given by Hans Rosling, a Swedish Professor of International Health who didn't even mention the web during his presentation about the stereotypes people have when discussing income, health, and child-birth rates in different countries to their own.

Maybe Peres, who turned 83 in August, will break down some of our age stereotypes by demonstrating that really does understand the whole internet thing.

1530 PARIS (1430 GMT)

Dave Sifry from Technorati, a blog tracking service, just completed his "state of the blogosphere" address.

No surprises here. As usual, the number of blogs has continued to grow phenomenally over the third quarter of the year and Technorati is now tracking around 60 million blogs worldwide.

Sifry doesn't know when the growth in blogging will slow down and says, "I'd love to able to tell you. It obviously has to slow down at some point.

"I mean, there are only so many human beings on the planet. We've been seeing about 100,000 new blogs being created world wide every day.

"To give you an idea, that's one new blog being created somewhere in the world every single day."

Sifry always gives a spirited presentation and did his best to woo French bloggers by explaining that although he knows there are lots of great French blogs, at the moment his service has a difficult time finding and tracking them.

With Technorati being the blog content search tool of choice for many bloggers, this essentially means that French blog content is not just under-represented in his figures, but also largely invisible outside the French speaking world.

This may very well explain why, for the conference this size, Le Web 3 has thus far appeared to have a fairly small footprint in the English language blogosphere.

1200 PARIS (1100 GMT)

A lot of people are grumbling about here on the floor that there is no web at Le Web which is why, if you were planning on following the conference via its blog buzz, you might find yourself left in the dark.

Like many technology and media conferences, free wi-fi is being provided for attendees. In the past this has never worked very well for me – when too many people try to connect and download content, or because of the nature of this particular conference to upload it, wi-fi routers and networks tend to groan or fall over from the strain.

The same is happening here today, with internet access intermittent, showering us with good bandwidth one moment and the next moment, nothing. It might not sound like a big deal to many readers, but for this audience, not having the ability to post stuff to your blogs is akin to being locked in a room without being told when you're to be let out.

The choice is difficult – sit and watch the conference or head to the back in search of internet access.

1130 PARIS (1030 GMT) MONDAY 11 DECEMBER

With 1,000 people attending from 37 countries, Le Web 3 is almost certainly the biggest conference of its type anywhere in Europe.

Like many of the technologies that are being discussed here, and the markets for them, the two-day conference itself is in transition.

In his opening address, the organiser, Loïc Le Meur from Six Apart, a company which provides a number of consumer blogging platforms including Typepad, admitted that the conference had drifted from its roots as a conference for and about blogging.

Now it's all a bit flash for mere bloggers with corporate sponsors in abundance, a slickly prepared venue with theatre-size screens projecting multi-camera video and presentations, croissants and latte served on metal trays and an exhibition area set aside for more than 50 start-ups, mostly European, to demonstrate – and perhaps sell – their wares.

The big names are here this year too. Not just from the worlds of blogging and technology like Technorati, TechCrunch, Mozilla, and Skype, but also representatives from companies that have already become household names such as Yahoo, Nokia, Google, Orange, Lastminute.com.

Over the next two days, I'll be speaking with bloggers, geeks, the start-ups, venture capitalists and internet heavy-hitters to find out what motivated them to join 1,000 other people in Paris for Le Web 3.

Robin Hamman is also writing about Le Web on his personal blog at http://www.cybersoc.com

Race hailed a ‘runaway success’

About 19,000 runners have taken part in a record-breaking Great Scottish Run on the sun-kissed streets of Glasgow.

Runners of all ages and abilities competed in the half marathon, the 10k and the Junior Great Scottish Run.

The event has raised £30m for charity since it began in 1982 and the city council said this year's event boasted a record-breaking number of runners.

Kenya's Jason Mbote won the men's half marathon, while Hiroko Miyauchi from Japan won the women's event.

Organisers said 35,000 spectators thronged the route, which crossed over the Kingston Bridge.

Runners from Kenya, Russia, South Africa, Australia, Zimbabwe and Japan flew in to compete in the Fresh 'N' Lo event.

Councillor John Lynch, convener of Glasgow City Council's cultural and leisure services, said: "Once again the Great Scottish Run has had another tremendous day and beaten its own record for entries.

"Scotland's largest participatory sporting event continues to go from strength to strength and we hope next year to break the 20,000 barrier for competitors."

Mbote crossed the finish line first with a time of 63 minutes three seconds, followed by Takanobu Otsubo of Japan, who was 24 seconds behind.

Third place was taken by Australian Andrew Letherby.

Race winners

First and second place in the women's half marathon went to Japanese runners Hiroko Miyauchi and Fumi Murata, with times of 73 minutes 13 seconds and 73 minutes 18 seconds respectively.

Russian Irina Permitina came third.

The first Scot to finish the men's race was Glen Stewart, of Airdrie, who came 12th, while club runner Lyn Wilson was the first home-grown athlete to finish the women's half marathon.

The men's 10km was won by Stuart Gibson, of Shettleston, while first place in the women's race went to Collette Fagan, of Glasgow.

The men's wheelchair half marathon was won by Kenny Herriot in 52 minutes 10 seconds while Tanni Grey-Thomson came first in the women's race in 66 minutes 33 seconds.

Conor McNulty won the junior 3km run for the boys in eight minutes 52 seconds, while Natalie Sharp came first for the girls in 10 minutes 29 seconds.