International tourism up 5% this year; When work is no more a way out of poverty; The urban battleground

1 International tourism up 5% this year (Straits Times) International tourism grew by 5 per cent in the first eight months of 2013, a better-than-expected growth driven mostly by strong results in Europe and Asia, says the United Nations' World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). International tourist arrivals reached 747 million worldwide between January and August, some 38 million more than in the same period last year, the UNWTO said in a statement.

"While global economic growth is in low gear, international tourism continues to produce above-average results in most world regions, offering vital opportunities for employment and local economies," said UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai at the opening of the European Tourism Forum in Vilnius. "This is particularly important for Europe, where unemployment is a major concern in many destinations and where the tourism sector has been a source of job growth in the last decade."

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/international-tourism-5-year-un-20131018

2 When work is no more a way out of poverty (Patrick Wintour in The Guardian) Work is no longer a clear route out of poverty because of excessive low pay, the falling value of tax credits and lack of workforce skills, Alan Milburn has said, launching a landmark state-of-the-nation report as chair of the UK government's social mobility and child poverty commission. He called for a higher minimum wage set differently in different sectors, and an end to perks for wealthier pensioners such as the winter fuel allowance, pointing out that pensioners had been relatively cocooned from the impact of austerity.

The report also warns that many of today's children face the prospect of having lower living standards than their parents when they grow up. He says the trend of wages stagnating is not a blip but a trajectory that has been with the country for 10 years. The trend is creating growing insecurity among average-income families, not just lower-income families. "Material disadvantage is more pronounced at the bottom of society but is far more widespread than people imagine," he says.

"When combined with rising house prices, university fees and youth unemployment, these factors may have induced a sense of fear among many average-income families' parents that their children will be worse off than they were. "There is precious little sign of a decade-long trend of bottom-half stagnating in terms of earnings coming to an end. We see a danger that social mobility, having risen in the middle of the last century then flatlined in the end, could go into reverse in the first part of this century."

The commission says "two-thirds of Britain's poor children are now in families where an adult works; this compared with less than half in 1997. The principal problem is those working parents simply do not earn enough to escape poverty." The report calls for the Low Pay Commission to be given a wider remit, adding: "The UK has now one of the highest rates of low pay in the developed world. The national minimum wage is now worth £1,000 less in real terms than it was in 2008.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/17/social-mobility-tsar-work-route-poverty

3 The urban battle ground (Rafia Zakaria in Dawn) The al-Shabab gunmen, who took over the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya and held hundreds of people hostage for 80 hours, used advanced weapons and cellular technology to coordinate and carry out their attacks. When it was over, almost 70 people lay dead, their bodies strewn among mannequins and merchandise. According to counter-insurgency strategist David Kilcullen, the mall attack in Kenya, the Mumbai attacks a few years ago and several other urban operations are indicators of a new kind of warfare, one which relies particularly on the urban environment and its peculiarities.

Kilcullen’s thesis, which is also the basis of his new book, Out of the Mountains: The Coming of the Urban Guerilla, includes insights particularly pertinent to Karachi. Over the past several months, Karachi, a coastal megacity of the type Kilcullen describes as the venue for battles of the future, has been plagued by unstoppable violence. An attack on one of Karachi’s many malls could be carried out with little effort and produce mass casualties, the figure topping even that of the Nairobi tragedy.

Current thinking imagines problem mega cities like Karachi, Lagos and Mumbai as environments where physical security is a first-order need, with service provision of goods like water, food and electricity coming after the successful delivery of basic security. Kilcullen’s analysis reveals a different truth: the very delivery of these basic services affects conflict and violence patterns in the city. The infiltration of criminal mafias or extremist groups follows the non-existence of a state structure to provide basic services.

Kilcullen’s thesis is a broad one, a cautionary tale to the world regarding the emergence of a new battlefield: the failed city, a coastal, urban dystopia of crumbling buildings and harsh conditions. It builds on the earlier work of theorists who posited the existence of “failed or feral cities” as landscapes where future conflict would flourish in the absence of good governance and in the wants of tremendous populations.

To save Karachi from becoming the dark, wild city of science fiction, where rabid survivors scrounge for food and armed alien drones patrol the skies, a rescue plan must allow for the procurement of simple things: food, water, and a bit of electricity, without having to fight off, pay off, or scare off the vast and varied evils of a city gone wild.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1049980/the-urban-battleground