 Hello and welcome to Daily Debrief brought to you by People's Dispatch, I'm Pragya. For the first time in a century, wages fell worldwide in 2022. An ILO wage report explains how the rich got richer and the poor got poorer during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the big question is whether countries are listening. A cholera outbreak in Lebanon has the country's health system in a crisis, we bring you an update from there. And finally, the FIFA World Cup has thrown up yet another surprise. We catch up today on what to expect next at Qatar where an Arab nation has become a first-time entrant to the quarterfinals. Real incomes, that is, incomes adjusted for inflation fell the most in the wealthiest countries in the first six months of 2022. The International Labour Organization's global wage report says incomes fell 2.2% in the wealthy G20 nations. In the emerging G20 nations, wages grew a little but far less than before the COVID-19 pandemic. The report considers the cost of living crisis, the surge in inflation and just how falling wages could spark social unrest in these countries. Senior business journalist Anindo Chakraborty has been tracking this debate and we caught up with him earlier today. Hi Anindo, thanks for joining us. You've often said that the rich are getting richer in your show. Now the ILO has confirmed that everyone except the most wealthy has been losing money. Isn't that the message we get from the ILO report and could you talk about what else are the warnings from this report? Thank you Pragya. You know you're right that the ILO's report does point to increasing inequality but it blames it on COVID like all these international institutions do as if before that inequality was not increasing and we've seen from the other estimates made by for instance the WID team and they've shown that since the 1980s ever since finance capital has began to rule and trickle down economics has started to rule across the world inequality has increased. Yes, there were arguments made that even though wages were kind of flat, they were still increasing compared to inflation, inflation was low. Now inflation is very high as well and that is a problem because even though money wages have increased real wages which means that if you have $100 today and you can buy X amount of things tomorrow you need $110 because inflation has gone up by 10% but your wages have increased by just $2 so you're about $8 away from where you were earlier. So that is what we mean by real wages. Real wages have declined on an average I think as the world this ILO's report says that about 1.4 to 1.5% and this is the first time since the ILO has been producing this report that real wages have gone down and they're saying that if you take China out then real wages are down more than 2% so there's a significant increase decrease in real wages and if you look at what is happening in African countries what is happening in African countries since 2019-20 to 2022-23 in these 3 years real wages are down nearly 12% and now we know that when that goes down for poorer people who are already on the brink of starvation who are just about living at subsistence level what happens when your income real income is down by 12% until you're now at starvation mode literally in a situation where you can barely survive so that is what has happened and you're pointing that what else is this report talking about I think one of the points that this report is making is that there is a kind of propaganda going on right now that inflation has gone up because wages have gone up governments have spent a lot they've given too much money to people and they're spending too much buying too much too many things and therefore there's a wage increase spiral wages have gone up spiraled up and therefore profits are going down and because profits are going down what are entrepreneurs doing businesses they're doing they're passing on this wage increase to consumers this is absolutely untrue as ILO's report shows which shows that higher productivity productivity has gone up which means profits are increasing but wages are actually decreasing in real term so ILO's report actually clearly shows that whatever is being the propaganda being done which has been done by world bank IMF and all kinds of economists is actually a lie you're right that's an important aspect what is the possibility of change over here there are warnings of social unrest as conditions are worsening for ordinary people does this report say anything about solutions you know because there are policy statements there but you know they're very wishy washy namby pamby kind of policy recommendations the policy recommendations being made is that these the poorest people have to be kind of given some sort of support whether it is in vouchers some sort of subsidies need to continue and they've shown that because nominal wages have gone real wages have gone down for about 20 percent of workers across the world so there is a chance to actually increase money wages rather than decreasing them which is what other international institutions are trying to say that reduce wages cut down so the demand goes down and inflation comes down but ILO is saying don't let that happen continue to maintain minimum wage rules there has to be minimum wages otherwise there will be a problem for the poorest of the poor the poorest of the wage owners and that is the kind of proposition that ILO is making in fact it does say another thing which is the temporarily indirect taxes like GST in India or sales tax in other places which everyone pays which is paid equally by the richest to the poorest and they're saying that indirect taxes need to be reduced temporarily so that the the the tax weight on the poorest goes down but it does not really advocate in very loud term that make up for it by taxing the rich more considering that the number of billionaires has increased huge profits have been made by corporates across the world in the covid years which shows that actually all spending by governments has actually gone into line the pockets of the richest people it does not really say that increased taxes it does not openly say that increased government spending targeted welfare just about I would say wishy washy recommendations Pragya and thanks very much for joining us on endo cholera infections and deaths are a worrying new phenomenon in Lebanon which is in a severe economic crisis of late the government reported 220 infections and five deaths in october when the first cases came to light after 1993 but on december 5 the ministry of health reported 52 suspected and confirmed cases and two deaths over just 24 hours the cholera outbreak reportedly began among the refugees living in north lebanon and it is said to be spreading across to other areas rising infection signal poor water and food quality in the camps where the refugees from strife thorn Syria are living and the outbreak is training lebanon's health system severely we spoke to Muhammad al-zaid the health coordinator at amel association international about this issue so so Muhammad a disease which lebanon had thought that it has eradicated is suddenly back can you tell us what are the reasons how severe is the cholera outbreak cholera is not one of the endemic diseases in lebanon the last case we had in lebanon was in 1993 since then we didn't have any new cases this is particularly worrying because most of our physicians medical and health staff have never seen or dealt with a cholera case before it is a health collateral issue but it's not the reason is not helped like we have to deal with what's happening because of other issues the problem here in lebanon is related to the water and sanitation situation so the outbreak that started in Syria and the movement between the two countries because there is active movement between the two countries and the water and sanitation situation in lebanon where many areas do not have sewage systems they still rely on septic tanks and specifically in informal settlements in Syrian refugees informal settlements the electricity issue also exacerbates the existing problem because there is no electricity to pump water and to chlorinate the water most of the cases where the source of contamination was identified was related to contaminated water used to water vegetables okay to irrigate vegetables and how severe is the outbreak for now we had some cluster if you want some local outbreaks in some regions but it's not that severe and for now for the past at least couple of weeks we had a plateau the number of cases is plateauing thanks god we're not having an increase in cases so far which is good like till now we're still managing we're able to control it because it is still localized most of the cases fall within two industrial areas where we can still manage the cases and equip hospitals in order to manage right can you talk about the possible solutions for the problems that cholera is facing uh cholera is creating for the healthcare system in in general okay so until now thankfully the system is still able to deal with the limited number of cases in addition to the fact that we may have some severe cases where the healthcare system is not able to deal with and are not equipped to deal with the ministry of public health supported by WHO is working on training the healthcare staff on case management but this is an ongoing effort and it's only in some regions in the country in other regions where we don't have cases anymore we don't have cases yet there are no hospitals or trained facilities that are able to deal with the cases you remember I was reading a news report which said that the WHO has said that the vaccine should be provided but a single dose instead of a double dose because of a lack of vaccine availability can you just update us as to what's happening there okay so globally the ICG suspended the two dose strategy in October 2020 which is like almost the time where we had our first case in Lebanon the first case was identified on October 6 on October I think 20s or 22nd the ICG suspended the two dose strategy for the OCB and they adopted a single dose strategy due to the global shortage in this vaccine there are until September this year we have 26 countries reporting outbreaks of cholera in any given year usually we have less than 20 eight of these countries eight of these 26 countries are in the eastern Mediterranean region so it is an outbreak in the region and there is a demand on the vaccine and that's why the single dose strategy is being adopted how effective it will be there are some studies that show that single dose decreases the incidence rates among the population and therefore maybe enough to stop the transmission temporarily in order to give more time to deal with the like intermediate and long-term solutions all right uh Muhammad thanks a lot for joining us you're most welcome a historic win for Morocco at the FIFA World Cup which beats Spain on Tuesday becoming the first Arab nation in the quarterfinals the team raised the Palestinian flag after its win but who plays whom next and what does it mean for the game we discussed with Siddhanta Neh who's joining us from Qatar okay Siddhan thanks for joining us Siddhanta how did Morocco do this yesterday some would say that you know when a strong team defeats another strong team that's fine but this is a bit of a fluke so what's going on I would I mean forget about me Pragya the Moroccans would argue very strongly against it being any kind of fluke actually we saw the night before Japan going up against Croatia also that that match went to penalties and there was a bit of heartbreak for you know those of us who are neutrals and and were in the stadium because Japan completely fluffed their penalties and you know were out of the tournament after playing their hearts out beating Spain and Germany like we've talked about a couple of times on the show as well and then they had a chance and came very close to going all the way against last time's finalists at the World Cup Croatia unfortunately that didn't happen but the following day Morocco went ahead and did it actually Luis Enrique who's the coach of the Spanish national team was talking in the pre-match press conference and he said that he got his players to take a thousand penalties each or he gave them the homework so he clearly had a plan and he stuck to it but I guess end of the day the players couldn't execute but for the 120 minutes that we did watch them play against each other these two teams it was intense I think the Moroccans gave 100 percent so and and you know these Moroccans are playing at some of the top clubs they play at Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain two of the biggest clubs in the world so it's not that it wasn't a fluke in that sense at all they just played the game of their lives and they've got a couple more to go if they're going to proceed further and become maybe the first African country nation to make it to the semi-finals of a men's football World Cup. Yes Siddhan so the thing is you know there's also seems to be a bit of a nationalistic fervour here at least on the Moroccan side more intensely so 14 of their players are you know what can you say borrowed from European teams they you know what's actually it's an interesting one actually that also brings into into light you know the whole concept of migration particularly from West Asia and from North Africa into Europe because we find that at the one level tens of thousands of migrants die trying to make that passage over into Europe to be able to have a safer perhaps better more economically prosperous life but on the other hand a 130 players at this World Cup are playing for nations other than the nation where they were born so what has been happening in Morocco and we've been talking to Moroccan journalists and some fans as well there has been this historical sense that players who are born outside and this team you're right it has the most number of players were born outside the nation now 14 of them and most of them born in Europe the goalkeeper in fact who made those three incredible saves last night born in Canada and had the chance to play at the World Cup for Canada as well but so historically there has been this notion that those who are born outside of Morocco don't wear the shirt with the same kind of patriotic fervour but now that the team is doing well now that the team is winning a lot of those things especially in conversation with fans you know the idea of nationality as such or birthplace is a bit more fluid and and they are saying you know as long as the team does well and they are the best players in fact the coach of this team who brought in ZH the Chelsea player who plays on the right wing as well as a couple of others he himself is born in France so in the post match press conference last night this conversation of course came up so it's not a question of borrowing from other countries as much as being able to use the strengths of your diaspora and and I mean in India for example the same argument is being made we don't have the concept of dual nationality here so we don't allow players who are of Indian origin to represent us in international sporting events but an argument is made that our team would be far stronger if we did the same and Morocco is is proving exactly that so Siddharth the match is coming up ahead just give us a low down on them yeah very quickly Pragya I guess because we're running out of time France versus England that that will be the game of the quarterfinals I mean of course they're all big games after you know all the colour and the excitement of the of the of the group stages of the tournament now suddenly you get to the business end and it all becomes very serious so so France versus England is the big one and then of course we'll be looking at Morocco they're playing is Portugal a Portugal that is maybe going to be without Cristiano Ronaldo so but scored six goals last night anyway and so the Moroccans will be out to like you said prove a point and they are bringing the maximum amount of colour to the tournament as of now because of the proximity and the closeness of the cultures so we hope that they have a deep run into the tournament and they remain because at least for neutral fans they are the ones who are bringing the atmosphere to the stadium beyond the football right Siddharth and thanks a lot for joining us and that's a wrap for today thank you for watching Daily Debrief we look forward to seeing you again tomorrow you'll find more such stories on our website peoplesdispatch.org and you can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram