Articles by IPS
We found 513 results.
Downsizing Finance: The Mother of All Bubbles
Hazel Henderson – Inter Press Service-IPS,
10 Sep 2013
Hazel Henderson, a futurist and economic iconoclast who is the president of Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil) and creator of the Green Transition Scoreboard, writes that economism must be defrocked as obsolete and a failed ideology.
→ read full articleU.N. Can Help Devalue Nukes as Geopolitical Currency
Thalif Deen – Inter Press Service-IPS,
2 Sep 2013
When the 193-member U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) holds is first-ever high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament in September [2013], there is little or no hope that any of the nuclear powers will make a firm commitment to gradually phase out or abandon their lethal arsenals.
→ read full articleEconomics and Population Policies Go Hand in Hand in Latin America
Fabiana Frayssinet – Inter Press Service-IPS,
22 Jul 2013
Nearly 20 years after the landmark U.N. conference on population and development, the countries of Latin America have an opportunity to make headway with a new agenda on these issues, thanks to the favourable economic context that has made it possible to reduce social inequalities.
→ read full articleChina Leads Battle Against Poverty, Says U.N.
Thalif Deen – Inter Press Service-IPS,
8 Jul 2013
The United Nations has singled out China – the world’s most populous country with over 1.3 billion people – as one of the key success stories in the longstanding battle against poverty.
→ read full articleShift in Latin America’s Approach to Drugs – from Security to Health Issue
Louisa Reynolds – Inter Press Service-IPS,
10 Jun 2013
The drug problem should be tackled not as a security issue but as a public health question, with policies for “prevention, treatment and rehabilitation,” the 34 countries participating in the 43rd General Assembly of the Organisation of American States agreed on Tuesday June 4 [2013] in the colonial Guatemalan city of Antigua.
→ read full articleAnti-LGBT Rampage in Georgia Exposes Frustrations with the West
Molly Corso – Inter Press Service-IPS,
10 Jun 2013
While most Georgians condemn the violent May 17 [2013] attack on an anti-homophobia rally, many do not see the core issue as having anything to do with a lack of tolerance, a right to freedom of assembly or respect for minority rights.
→ read full articleIn Vietnam, Rhino Horns Worth Their Weight in Gold
Marwaan Macan-Markar – Inter Press Service-IPS,
27 May 2013
Gold, once the favourite gift among the communist-ruled country’s expanding class of wealthy citizens, has been dethroned by rhino horns, which currently fetch 65,000 dollars per kilogramme. This is “more than gold, gram for gram.” Though the weight of rhino horns vary, an individual horn can fetch upto 150,000 dollars.
→ read full articleSmall and Large Steps towards Equality for Gays in Cuba
Ivet González – Inter Press Service-IPS,
27 May 2013
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in Cuba has won advances on issues like the change of name of pre-operative transgender persons, while they continue to fight for the right to same-sex civil unions.
→ read full articleThe Free Market Fundamentalists Are Now in Europe
Roberto Savio – Inter Press Service-IPS,
13 May 2013
For a long time it was a given that while Europe was based on defending a more just society, with social values and solidarity, the United States was based on the glory of individualism and competition, and anything public was considered “socialist”. Well, it’s time for an update – the defenders of market fundamentalism are now in Europe. Share traders [are] both more reckless and more manipulative than psychopaths.
→ read full article‘Tell Us about Jail – Just in Case’
Pierre Klochendler – Inter Press Service-IPS,
29 Apr 2013
Hebron, Occupied West Bank, Apr 22 2013 – “Three interrogators questioned me for three hours. I was handcuffed. They beat me, slapped me, kicked me, boxed me, accused me of throwing stones; played a video of a demonstration. I denied I was there. So again, they beat me up,” recounts Zein Abu-Mariya, 17, seated on a sofa next to dad.
→ read full articleHunger Strikes Put Guantanamo Back in the Spotlight
Joe Hitchon – Inter Press Service-IPS,
22 Apr 2013
Public debate here over the military prison at Guantanamo Bay heated up again following Monday’s [15 Apr 2013] surprise publication of a highly charged article by a hunger striking inmate at the prison. “The majority of people who are at Guantanamo right now have been cleared for release, and they have been cleared for up to six years.” — CCR’s Susan Hu
→ read full article“Merchants of Death” Fly under the Radar of U.N. Arms Trade Treaty
George Gao – Inter Press Service-IPS,
1 Apr 2013
They justify in the most compelling ways that what they do is actually good for the world, using phrases like ‘in defence of humanity’ and ‘arming people to keep the peace’. While Bout sits in a jail, the UN is concluding an Arms Trade Treaty that hopes to control a trillion-dollar industry and curtail the use of arms for human rights violations. But “arms brokering” in general was hardly brought up during ATT negotiations.
→ read full articleTourism Lies at the Heart of the BRICS
John Fraser – Inter Press Service-IPS,
4 Mar 2013
As tourism between the emerging nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa starts to increase, South Africa is determined to weld the iron while it is hot.
→ read full articleNew Development Bank To Be Key BRICS Building Block
John Fraser – Inter Press Service-IPS,
4 Mar 2013
Emerging market leaders want their Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa club to be taken seriously, and next month [Mar 2013] they are expected to make a decisive move towards setting up a development bank to give it real substance and credibility.
→ read full article24 Nails Dug Into Body, Luckily
Amantha Perera – Inter Press Service-IPS,
4 Mar 2013
Ariyawathie, 52, from Sri Lanka, left to work as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia in early 2011. She worked only five months and returned home with oozing wounds after burning iron rods were inserted into her skin by her employers. She has reason to feel lucky. On Jan 10 [2013] Rizana Nafeek, a 25-year-old maid jailed in Saudi Arabia for the accidental death of an infant was beheaded without notification to the family or Sri Lankan authorities.
→ read full article‘We Grow, They Bulldoze, We Re-Plant’
Eva Bartlett – Inter Press Service-IPS,
18 Feb 2013
“The Israeli army destroyed my house and my five dunums of land (a dunum is 1,000 square metres), as well as 20 other homes,” he says. With signs reading ‘Boycott Israeli Agricultural Products’ and ‘Support Palestinian Farmers’, Mandil and others protesting Israeli oppression of Palestinian farmers joined together Saturday [9 Feb 2013] to plant olive trees on Israeli-razed farmland and to implore international supporters to join the boycott of Israeli agricultural produce.
→ read full articleU.N.’s Water Agenda at Risk of Being Hijacked by Big Business
Thalif Deen – Inter Press Service-IPS,
18 Feb 2013
Amidst growing new threats of potential conflicts over fast-dwindling water resources in the world’s arid regions, the United Nations will commemorate 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation (IYWC). But Maude Barlow, a former senior advisor on water to the president of the U.N. General Assembly in 2008-2009, warns the U.N.’s water agenda is in danger of being hijacked by big business and water conglomerates.
→ read full articleWaves of Resistance Never End at Nuclear Plant
K.S. Hari Krishnan – Inter Press Service-IPS,
11 Feb 2013
India, Feb 5 2013 – An indefinite struggle continues against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the southern Indian state Tamil Nadu despite a government crackdown on protests. Idinthakarai, in Tamil Nadu, has become the hub of a mass agitation which started on Aug. 16 in 2011. Hundreds of men, women and children from a group of 12 villages are leading a campaign to stall operation of the nuclear plant. The public agitation intensified after the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
→ read full articleThis Is What a Humane Economy Looks Like
Inés Benítez – TerrraViva Europe-IPS,
11 Feb 2013
The severe crisis crippling Spain is also sparking some creative responses, such the Okonomía project, a teaching initiative that helps individuals and communities to understand the workings of the economy and make more informed decisions to manage their finances.
→ read full article“Pregnant, Chained to a Wall and Starved”, One of 136 Terror War Stories
George Gao – Inter Press Service-IPS,
11 Feb 2013
Shedding new light on a chapter of the U.S. “war on terror” that has largely remained shrouded in secrecy, the Open Society Justice Initiative released a report Tuesday [5 Feb 2013] detailing the cases of 136 individuals who were extraordinarily rendered or secretly detained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Entitled “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition”, the report confirms the undisclosed prisons known as “black sites”.
→ read full articleNASA Finds Long-Term Climate Warming Trend
Dr. Tony Phillips, NASA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jan 2013
NASA scientists say 2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the nine warmest years in the 132-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.
→ read full articleSolar-Powered Water Pumps Struggle to See the Light
Manipadma Jena – Inter Press Service-IPS,
21 Jan 2013
When twenty-nine-year-old Kartik Wahi graduated from the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, Illinois in 2010, he wasted no time in returning to India to self-finance a start-up company to market solar-powered irrigation pumps. Working on a shoestring budget together with two partners, the young entrepreneur was convinced that the benefits of this renewable energy initiative would make a huge difference in some of India’s largest agricultural regions.
→ read full articleVillagers Wail Against Nuclear Power
K. S. Harikrishnan – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Jan 2013
Talking to IPS, anti-nuclear activist K. Sahadevan said, “Radioactivity-related health hazards are a major concern for the people residing near the plant,” referring to a survey of houses very near to the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station, which revealed a high prevalence of cancer and tumors. Dr. Binayak Sen, human rights activist and member of the Planning Commission’s Steering Committee on Health, said that the Kudankulam plant posed serious health consequences, not only for those residing in the immediate vicinity, but for inhabitants of the entire region.
→ read full article(Português) Portugal: O Êxodo dos Diplomados
Mario Queiroz – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Jan 2013
Desde a década de 1960, quando as saídas em massa de portugueses eram uma constante, este país não sofria uma emigração de tal magnitude como a atual, com a agravante de que pela primeira vez inclui profissionais altamente qualificados.
→ read full articleBRICS Tracking Where the Money Flows
John Fraser – Inter Press Service-IPS,
24 Dec 2012
The five leading developing nations grouped in the BRICS alliance – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are planning to intensify efforts to collect accurate trade data, so they can get a better picture of trade flows. The exercise will help with economic planning, and will give improved insight into the economic links between the five members of the club.
→ read full articleDoha Climate Summit Ends With No New CO2 Cuts or Funding
Stephen Leahy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
17 Dec 2012
The United Nations climate talks in Doha went a full extra 24 hours and ended without increased cuts in fossil fuel emissions and without financial commitments between 2013 and 2015. “This is an incredibly weak deal,” said Samantha Smith representing the Climate Action Network, a coalition of more than 700 civil society organisations.
→ read full articleThe Greek Resistance
Barnaby Phillips - Al Jazeera,
26 Nov 2012
Tied together by a painful history, Greece and Germany are locked into a new conflict that has reawakened old ghosts. Why has the European vision, designed to heal the wounds of the past, instead brought them back to the surface? And who is to blame – the Greeks themselves, the EU or the old enemy, Germany?
→ read full articleThe Greek Resistance
Barnaby Philips – Al Jazeera,
26 Nov 2012
Al Jazeera correspondent Barnaby Phillips travels to Greece to discover why these two countries, tied by history and culture, are now locked into a conflict. Why has the European vision, designed to heal the wounds of the past, instead brought them back to the surface? And who is to blame – the Greeks themselves, the EU or the old enemy, Germany?
→ read full articleGaza: Bombed, Wounded, and Celebrating
Mel Frykberg – Inter Press Service-IPS,
26 Nov 2012
As news of the Hudna or ceasefire spread, overjoyed Gazans took to the streets to celebrate. Women ululated, children waved flags and young men handed out sweets and punctured the night air with celebratory gunfire. What is undisputed is that Israel not only failed to break Hamas, but left the organisation politically stronger, still in possession of significant arms caches, and with growing regional support.
→ read full articleIndia Poised to Supply Free Drugs to 1.2 Billion People
Zofeen Ebrahim – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Nov 2012
With India moving towards universal health coverage (UHC) in the next two years, it has budgeted nearly 300 billion rupees (55.9 million dollars) to fund the programme. It hopes to be able to provide free drugs to 52 percent of the population by April 2017. The central government will fund 75 percent of the programme, with states doling out the rest. “It’s not just possible in India, it’s possible all over the world,” said Dr. Nirmal Kumar Gurbani.
→ read full articleIsrael Ranked World’s Most Militarised Nation
Jim Lobe – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Nov 2012
Israel tops the list of the world’s most militarised nations, according to the latest Global Militarisation Index released Tuesday [13 Nov 2012]. At number 34, Israel’s main regional rival, Iran, is far behind. In contrast, both sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America are relatively low on the Index. The research is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development.
→ read full articleIndia Puts GM Food Crops under Microscope
Ranjit Devraj – Inter Press Service-IPS,
5 Nov 2012
Environmental activists are cautiously optimistic that a call by a court-appointed technical committee for a ten-year moratorium on open field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops will shelve plans to introduce bio-engineered foods in this largely agricultural country.
→ read full articleCooperatives Cushion the Blows of Hunger
Inter Press Service-IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Oct 2012
Millions of small-scale producers, particularly in the developing world, are responding to the triple crises of climate change, food price fluctuations and market instability by organising themselves into cooperatives to join forces. The Food and Agriculture Organizaton sees cooperatives as a major way to lift small-scale farmers out of poverty and hunger, and help them to access markets to sell their products, buy inputs at better prices and obtain financial services.
→ read full articleThe Brasilia Consensus, a Model for Latin America
Estrella Gutiérrez – Inter Press Service-IPS,
15 Oct 2012
Following the extreme neoliberalism of the Washington Consensus, which gave rise to a lost decade in social terms, Latin America is experimenting more successfully with a home-grown formula: the Brasilia Consensus, which combines the market economy and social inclusion.
→ read full articleCooperatives Hold Their Own in Free Market Jungle
Beatrice Paez – Inter Press Service-IPS,
15 Oct 2012
Cooperatives may face an immense challenge in garnering broader public recognition among consumers, but when it comes to chasing growth, they haven’t held back. They are growing a rate comparable to their corporate competitors, and are outpacing them in the food and agricultural sector, a study released by McKinsey & Company reveals.
→ read full articleGlobal Economy, Meet One Billion Co-op Members
Beatrice Paez – Inter Press Service-IPS,
15 Oct 2012
Quebec City, Canada – The international rally to take the global cooperative movement to the next level is in full swing at the International Summit of Cooperatives here, which kicked off on Monday [8 Oct 2012]. Under the banner “The Amazing Power of Cooperatives”, the summit seeks to demonstrate its contributions in proffering alternative, human-centred solutions for economic development across the world.
→ read full articleIsrael ‘Pillaging’ Palestinian Resources
Jillian Kestler-D'Amours – Inter Press Service-IPS,
10 Sep 2012
By mining natural resources from the occupied Palestinian territories for its own economic purposes, Israel is committing the war crime of pillage in the Dead Sea area, according to a report released Monday [3 Sep 2012] by Palestinian human rights group Al Haq.
→ read full articleDebate on Asbestos Safety Reaches Brazil’s Supreme Court
Fabiana Frayssinet – Inter Press Service-IPS,
10 Sep 2012
Brazil’s Supreme Court is assessing the level of risk posed by asbestos to human health, while industry defends its use under controlled conditions, and associations of people with asbestos-related diseases argue that it should not be used under any circumstances, even with regulations.
→ read full articleSmall Arms Trade Bigger Than Ever, Report Says
Coralie Tripier – Inter Press Service-IPS,
3 Sep 2012
The goal of curbing small arms proliferation appears more elusive than ever, according to a report released this morning [28 Aug 2012] by the independent research project Small Arms Survey. Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), which range from handguns to landmines or hand grenades, cause many deaths and injuries across the world. The United Nations (U.N.) has been trying to reduce SALW trade for years.
→ read full articleU.S. Foreign Weapons Sales Triple, Setting Record
Carey L. Biron – Inter Press Service-IPS,
3 Sep 2012
U.S. weapons sales around the world have massively expanded over the past year, setting several records. Agreements for foreign arms sales in 2011 totalled around 66.3 billion dollars – three times higher than the previous year and constituting an “extraordinary increase”, according to the Congressional Research Service. Over that same period, total weapons sales agreements around the world also spiked, nearly doubling to a total of around 85.3 billion dollars, the highest recorded since 2004.
→ read full articleHydropower Dam to Flood Sacred Amazon Indigenous Site
Fabiola Ortiz – Inter Press Service-IPS,
27 Aug 2012
The Sete Quedas or “seven waterfalls” on the Teles Pires River, which runs through the Amazon rainforest states of Mato Grosso and Pará in central Brazil, are a spiritual oasis venerated by several indigenous groups. But the 20-metre-high rocky falls are to be covered by a reservoir created by a hydroelectric dam that is to flood an area of 95 square km.
→ read full articleThe Global 1%: Exposing the Transnational Ruling Class
Peter Phillips and Kimberly Soeiro – Project Censored,
20 Aug 2012
Abstract: This study asks Who are the the world’s 1 percent power elite? And to what extent do they operate in unison for their own private gains over benefits for the 99 percent? We examine a sample of the 1 percent: the extractor sector, whose companies are on the ground extracting material from the global commons, and using low-cost labor to amass wealth…
→ read full articleIndia: Children Treated as Lab Rats
K. S. Harikrishnan – Inter Press Service-IPS,
20 Aug 2012
Four-year-old Deepak Yadav, a mentally disabled boy, was being treated for stomach problems at a government hospital for children. But when repeated administration of the anti-ulcer drug Rabeprazole started to exacerbate his condition, his parents stopped treatment and sought help from the Clinical Trial Victims Association (CTVA), which discovered that the boy had been a lab rat for an untested drug. Deepak is now almost entirely reliant on his mother for survival. The family is poor, yet “doctors did not take any steps to get us compensation,” his father added.
→ read full articleHow a Gay Rights Maverick Helped Topple Iceland’s Gov’t
Lawrence Del Gigante – TerraViva Europe-IPS,
13 Aug 2012
By the time the political climate in Iceland was ripe for the Cutlery Revolution, Hörður Torfason was already well practiced at stirring things up. “I’ve been doing this all my life,” he told IPS in an interview. In 1975, Torfason stepped forward as the first openly gay man in Iceland, to much public discontent. After escaping an attempt on his life, Torfason moved to Copenhagen where he lived in exile for many years. However, he continued to fight for gay rights from abroad using his art to spread the message.
→ read full articleInvestigation Exposes Cruelty at Foie Gras Farms
Carlota Cortes – Inter Press Service - IPS,
13 Aug 2012
Carter Dillard, director of litigation for the Animal Legal Defence Fund, told IPS, “They are literally willing to torture the animal just to make them taste better and that’s really barbaric. I think 50 years from now people will be horrified that we ever did this.”
→ read full articleBanksters Hijack Microfinance
Julio Godoy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
6 Aug 2012
New evidence suggests that even microcredit was not protected from the greed that characterises modern international finance. Two recent studies show that microfinance was simply another profit making scheme for global private finance corporations, such as the Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, and Standard Chartered, who started pouring money into microcredit initiatives. In his book, ‘Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic’, released Jul. 9 [2012], former investment banker Hugh Sinclair claims that such banks and funds use microcredit, through local operators, to charge usurious interest rates – of up to 200 percent – on even the smallest loans.
→ read full articleU.S., Russia and China Stick to Their Guns
Coralie Tripier – Inter Press Service-IPS,
6 Aug 2012
While 153 states have consistently voted in favour of what could have been a first-of-its-kind regulation on conventional weapons, Washington, Moscow and Beijing declared that they needed “more time”, thus postponing the finalisation of the treaty to next year. With 2,000 persons killed by arms every day, the delay came as a disappointment for many, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
→ read full articleCelebrating the Olympic Ideal with a Big Mac
Isabelle de Grave and Stephanie Parker – Inter Press Service-IPS,
30 Jul 2012
“London won the right to host the 2012 Games with the promise to deliver a legacy of more active, healthier children across the world,” the Green Party’s Jenny Jones, who recently proposed a motion to exclude McDonald’s, Coca-Coca-Cola and others from the Games, told. ”Yet the International Olympic Committee persists in maintaining sponsorship deals with the purveyors of high-calorie junk that contributes to the threat of an obesity epidemic.”
→ read full articleBankers or ‘Banksters’?
Julio Godoy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
30 Jul 2012
European media, political leaders, and the citizenry are bashing bankers again, overtly calling them at best accomplices of numerous illegal activities, at worst downright criminals. The best example of this new wave of anger against bankers is the use of the portmanteau word “bankster” (a combination of banker and gangster), which has become commonplace in media, even in non English-speaking countries.
→ read full articleU.N. Showcases South-South Successes
Lawrence Del Gigante – Inter Press Service-IPS,
16 Jul 2012
Knowledge-sharing has become a cornerstone of successful cooperation among developing countries, in areas ranging from agriculture to health and renewable energies. “There is a feeling that there are some solutions which can be generated by the South for the benefit of the South, and that ought to be shared between Southern countries.”
→ read full articleCuba Develops Crops Adapted to Climate Change
Ivet González – Inter Press Service-IPS,
2 Jul 2012
Cabbage, broccoli, carrots, onions and other resistant vegetables are being grown by researchers in Cuba, who for decades have been working to design plants adapted to the tropical conditions in the Caribbean region.
→ read full articleEthical Banks Weather Crisis in Spain
Inés Benítez – Inter Press Service-IPS,
2 Jul 2012
Where do banks invest their depositors’ money? Whose interests do they serve, and what criteria do they apply? Increasing numbers of dissatisfied customers want to know what happens to their money, and are opting for alternative financial services which are growing in spite of the economic crisis choking Spain.
→ read full articleU.S. Rejected 2005 Iranian Offer Ensuring No Nuclear Weapons
Gareth Porter – Inter Press Service-IPS,
11 Jun 2012
France and Germany were prepared in spring 2005 to negotiate on an Iranian proposal to convert all of its enriched uranium to fuel rods, making it impossible to use it for nuclear weapons, but Britain vetoed the deal at the insistence of the United States, according to a new account by a former top Iranian nuclear negotiator.
→ read full articleIkea Products Made From 600-Year-Old Trees
Ida Karlsson – Inter Press Service-IPS,
4 Jun 2012
The home furnishing giant Ikea, founded in Sweden in 1943, is facing heavy criticism for the logging and clear-cutting of old-growth forests in the north of Russian Karelia by its wholly owned subsidiary Swedwood. According to leading environmental organisations, such logging is destroying ancient and unique forests that have a high conservation value. Wood is by far the primary raw material in Ikea’s products. Roughly 60 percent of the products stocked in the multinational’s 300 department stores around the world contain wood in any form.
→ read full articleEU Feels Force of Israeli Demolitions
Daan Bauwens – Inter Press Service-IPS,
21 May 2012
All 27 foreign ministers of the European Union have strongly spoken out against Israeli demolitions in Area C of the West Bank. Since the beginning of 2011 not less than 60 EU-funded projects have been demolished while 110 others are currently at risk. Several analysts claim the Israeli authorities are specifically targeting EU-funded projects.
→ read full articleBrazil Forging Strategic Alliance with Africa
Fabíola Ortiz – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 May 2012
The Brazilian government of Dilma Rousseff is taking firm steps towards stronger relations with Africa, such as the creation of a special fund to finance development projects together with multilateral lenders like the World Bank. Ex-President Lula said, “Africa cannot be looked at like it used to be seen, as a simple supplier of minerals and gas…We have to find African partners. We don’t want hegemony; we want strategic alliances.”
→ read full articleCorporations Win Big in Battle Against Investment Regulation
Isolda Agazzi – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 May 2012
In a world where governments are increasingly subservient to global finance capital, multinationals are gaining ground in the fight against state regulations that aim to protect the environment, public health or social policies.
→ read full articleAction Plan to End Banishing of “Witches” in Burkina Faso
Brahima Ouédraogo – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 May 2012
It’s called “the bearing of the body” in Burkina Faso: when a death is deemed suspicious and a group of men carry the corpse through the community, believing the deceased will guide them towards the person responsible for the death. The accused – almost always women – are then chased out of their homes. According to the Ministry for Social Action and National Solidarity, some 600 women across the country have fallen victim to this practice. Most have found precarious shelter at one of 11 centres around the country, run by various non-governmental organisations.
→ read full articleWorld Bank Supports Harmful Water Corporations, Report Finds
Johanna Treblin – Inter Press Service-IPS,
23 Apr 2012
Water privatisation has been proven not to help the poor, yet a quarter of all World Bank funding goes directly to corporations and the private sector, bypassing both governments and its own standards and transparency requirements in order to do so, says a new report released Monday [16 Apr 2012].
→ read full articleEuropean Airlines Silence Palestine Protest
Jillian Kestler-D’Amours – Inter Press Service-IPS,
23 Apr 2012
As 60 percent of the international activists set to land at Ben Gurion airport Sunday [15 Apr 2012] had their plane tickets cancelled, organisers of the ‘Welcome to Palestine’ fly-in campaign condemned what they say is European complicity in Israel’s illegal restrictions on their right to travel freely.
→ read full articleThe Battle over Development-Led Globalisation
Ravi Kanth Deverakonda – Inter Press Service-IPS,
16 Apr 2012
As UNCTAD attempts to secure a new mandate at its ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, from Apr. 21 to 26 [2012], industrialised countries have voiced their unhappiness with the agency’s policy advice to developing nations. According to trade officials from developing countries, industrialised countries believe that the agency’s advice on finance, environment, food security, intellectual property rights and development clashes with their market-driven liberal agenda.
→ read full articleLiberia’s Government Finding a Way to End FGM
Travis Lupick – Inter Press Service-IPS,
16 Apr 2012
Now 23 and a student at the University of Liberia, Fatu’s circumcision was part of her initiation into the secretive Sande Society, a pseudo-religious association to which most Liberian women – depending on which tribe and part of the country they are from – are members. The Sande and its male counterpart, the Poro, shape many aspects of culture, tradition, and society as a whole in this West African nation.
→ read full articleWhen Europe Develops, and Israel Destroys
Charlotte Silver – Inter Press Service-IPS,
9 Apr 2012
The European Commission has released a document that lists projects it funded that were destroyed or damaged by the Israel Defence Forces between May 2001 and October 2011. The list documents 82 such instances, amounting to a monetary loss of 49.2 million euro, 30 million of which came directly from European aid. British Member of the European Parliament, Chris Davies, released the list following his inquiry, “the most detailed response I have ever received from the European Commission.”
→ read full articleFor a Denuclearised Middle East
Daisaku Ikeda – Inter Press Service-IPS,
2 Apr 2012
In recent months, the dispute over the nature and intent of the Iranian nuclear development programme has generated increasing tensions throughout the Middle East region. When I consider all that is at stake here, I am reminded of the words of the British historian Arnold Toynbee, who warned that the perils of the nuclear age constituted a “Gordian knot that has to be untied by patient fingers instead of being cut by the sword.”
→ read full articleWinter of Crisis Killing the Elderly in Portugal
Mario Queiroz – Inter Press Service-IPS,
26 Mar 2012
The General Directorate of Health (DGS) reported that 11,600 people died in February, 1,600 more than in the same month in previous years. Most of the victims were over 75. Public health experts say the record number of deaths is associated with the economic crisis and the draconian cuts in public spending made as a condition for the multi-billion dollar bailout of Portugal in 2011. Free access to public health services, one of the major achievements of the Apr. 25, 1974 “Carnation Revolution” that ushered in democracy after a 48-year dictatorship, is in danger.
→ read full articleBRICS Bank Could Change the Money Game
Kester Kenn Klomegah – Inter Press Service-IPS,
26 Mar 2012
India’s proposal to set up a bank of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will top the agenda at the summit of the group in New Delhi Mar 28 2012. “Basically India, China and perhaps Russia are trying to show off their economic clout; they are trying to demonstrate to the west that they can do without them. Above all they need freedom from western financial influence.”
→ read full articleAsian States Are World’s Largest Arms Buyers
Thalif Deen – Inter Press Service-IPS,
26 Mar 2012
According to the latest figures released Monday [19 Mar 2012] by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the world’s five largest arms importers in 2007-2011 were all Asian states beating out the traditional frontrunners – the rich, oil-blessed Middle Eastern countries.
→ read full articleEvangelist Sued in U.S. for Inciting Anti-Gay Hatred in Uganda
Charundi Panagoda and Jim Lobe – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Mar 2012
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts Wednesday [14 Mar 2012] on behalf of the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) and against Scott Lively, a right-wing evangelist, for inciting a hatred that has led to increased violence against LGBT persons. He is also the author of “The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party”, a 1995 book that claimed Nazism was created and propagated by homosexuals, and a second book, “Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”, a how-to guide for parents to “prevent” their children from becoming homosexual.
→ read full articleBrazil, Emerging South-South Donor
Fabiana Frayssinet – Inter Press Service-IPS,
12 Mar 2012
The Brazilian government is stepping up South-South aid. It now provides assistance to 65 countries, and its financial aid has grown threefold in the last seven years. “Another difference,” Santoro said, “is that Brazil’s foreign aid does not come with strings attached, and generally promotes projects that put a priority on developing human resources, by means of training of public employees, for example. It is the age-old concept of teaching people to fish rather than giving them fish,” he summed up.
→ read full articleU.N. Chastises Mexico’s Support for Agribusiness
Emilio Godoy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
12 Mar 2012
The United Nations criticised Mexico’s food policy, a month and a half after President Felipe Calderón launched to great fanfare an alliance of agribusiness for sustainable development, which was welcomed by giant food corporations. At a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, spoke out against the financial aid that Mexico will give to large producers at the expense of small farmers. He also criticised trials of genetically modified crops in this country.
→ read full articleSomalia’s Rich Maritime Resources Being Plundered, Report Says
Thalif Deen – Inter Press Service-IPS,
27 Feb 2012
With the country’s 3,300-km coastline virtually unprotected, industrial fishing vessels from Europe and Asia have entered the area in large numbers and are plundering Somalia’s rich maritime resources. “Having over-fished their home waters, these sophisticated factory ships are seeking catch in one of the world’s richest remaining fishing zones,” says the report published by the New York-based Global Policy Forum (GPF).
→ read full articleLatin America Seeks to Spread Nuclear-Free Zones
Emilio Godoy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
20 Feb 2012
Latin America and the Caribbean are discussing ways to step up supervision of the use of nuclear materials in the region and contribute to the creation of more nuclear weapons-free zones around the world, on the 45th anniversary of the treaty that banned nuclear arms in the region.
→ read full articleAnti-Drug Vaccines Hold Promise – But Little Profit
Emilio Godoy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
20 Feb 2012
Vaccines against drug addiction appear to be a better strategy than the repressive worldwide “war on drugs”, but first they must overcome resistance from pharmaceutical laboratories and secure financial backing, scientists say.
→ read full article‘Arms Easier to Trade than Bananas’
A.D.McKenzie – Inter Press Service-IPS,
13 Feb 2012
The lack of international regulation in the trade of conventional arms is a “scandal” that must be brought to an end, said a coalition of non-governmental organisations as they heightened their campaign this week for a comprehensive United Nations treaty.
→ read full articleArgentina: Fair Trade Going Strong amid Global Crisis
Marcela Valente – Inter Press Service-IPS,
6 Feb 2012
With a steady growth in production and exports, fair trade in Argentina is proving that socially and environmentally sustainable practices can be much more than a refuge from external crises.
→ read full articleBrazil: Community Radio Flourishes Online
Fabíola Ortiz – Inter Press Service-IPS,
30 Jan 2012
Community radio stations in Brazil are finding the internet and user-friendly information technologies to be valuable allies for their broadcasts, which focus on citizenship, social equity and human rights.
→ read full articleHow the U.S. Manipulates Key U.N. Appointments
Thalif Deen – Inter Press Service-IPS,
23 Jan 2012
When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announces his new team of senior officials shortly, his appointments will be based not only on merit but also on demands made by the five big powers – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – as well as key donors who sustain U.N. agencies through voluntary contributions.
→ read full articleKenya: Key Lakes Succumb to Human Activities
Peter Kahare – Inter Press Service-IPS,
23 Jan 2012
Several years ago, Lakes Kamnarok and Ol Bollosat in Kenya were vibrant water bodies that supported and shaped the ecosystems around them. But today they are shells of their former selves, due to heavy siltation caused by human activities.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: Catch ’em Young, for Prostitution
Rebecca Murray – Inter Press Service-IPS,
9 Jan 2012
Soma was a teenager in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif when her grandfather arranged her marriage to a husband she had never met. Every night Soma’s father-in-law hosted parties, where for 200 dollars visiting men could eat, drink alcohol and watch Soma and her two sister-in-laws dance. The girls would then be forced to sleep with up to four men in one night. Soma said she was regularly injected for her blood, which was then displayed on bed sheets as ‘proof’ to clients she was a virgin.
→ read full articleHaiti: Open for Business – Part 1
Correspondents – Inter Press Service-IPS,
26 Dec 2011
“Haiti is open for business.” That’s what President Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly said at a recent ceremony as he and former U.S. president Bill Clinton laid a cornerstone for a giant industrial zone being built in northern Haiti. In a new seven-part series, produced after four months of interviews and the review of dozens of studies, the investigative journalism partnership exposed the challenges, risks and arguably erroneous thinking behind the new park and the gamble of betting Haiti’s development on five-dollar a day wages and “the race to the bottom”.
→ read full articleHaiti: Open for Business – Part 2
Correspondents – Inter Press Service-IPS,
26 Dec 2011
Ever since being elected earlier this year, Haitian President Michel Martelly and his team have been betting Haiti’s reconstruction on foreign investors.
→ read full articlePalestinian Flag Flies at UN Agency
A.D.McKenzie – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Dec 2011
Amidst a sudden downpour of rain here, the Palestinian flag was raised at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on Tuesday [13 Dec 2011], marking Palestine’s admission to the specialised agency. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, stood solemnly with members of his delegation and other officials as the flag was hoisted alongside the UNESCO banner, while the Palestinian national anthem played.
→ read full articleIndia: Kashmir Clamours for Normalcy
Athar Parvaiz – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Dec 2011
As armed insurgency in India’s northern Jammu and Kashmir ebbs, the elected state government is keen to hasten a return to normalcy by easing draconian security laws and reopening movie theatres and liquor shops, banned by fundamentalist militant groups.
→ read full articleU.N.’s First Official Report on Gays Notes Widespread Bias
Thalif Deen – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Dec 2011
In its first-ever official report on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, the United Nations confirms there is widespread discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in “all regions” of the world. In many cases, asserts the 25-page report released Thursday [15 Dec 2011], “even the perception of homosexuality or transgender identity puts people at risk”.
→ read full articleNative Peoples under Siege around the Globe
Elizabeth Whitman – Inter Press Service-IPS,
12 Dec 2011
In polished versions of U.S. history, the near-extermination of Native Americans in the United States is an unsightly blemish that continues to be glossed over to this day. Yet the struggles of indigenous peoples are not exclusive to the United States and have grown increasingly complex in modern times.
→ read full articleDraft Climate Deal Dubbed a “Death Sentence for Africa”
Stephen Leahy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
12 Dec 2011
No one is happy late Friday [9 Dec 2011] at the very contentious U.N. climate talks that went into extra time on Saturday. As the lights flicker on a rainy night here, the partial power failure echoes the failure of the multilateral process, according to civil society and some countries. “If countries agree to the text as it stands, they will be passing a death sentence on Africa,” said Nnnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International and a Nigerian activist.
→ read full articleSouth-South Ties Reshape Aid Paradigm
Miriam Gathigah – Inter Press Service-IPS,
5 Dec 2011
When the G-8 countries decided that improving Internet access to developing countries should be a priority, scores of leaders from developing world opposed the move. The prevalence of harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation and women and girls trekking miles in search of water and firewood seemed far removed from Internet technology. Says Esther Suchia, an activist in Kenya, “This commitment to give developing countries aid to improve access to Internet was taken as an insult.”
→ read full articleBottled Water Companies Target Minorities, but So Do Soda Firms
Elizabeth Whitman – Inter Press Service-IPS,
28 Nov 2011
Early in November [2011], the watchdog group Corporate Accountability International (CAI) accused the Swiss transnational Nestle of manipulative marketing. “For the past 30 years, bottled water corporations like Nestle, Pepsi and Coke have helped build a 15 billion dollar U.S. bottled water market by casting doubts on public drinking water systems.” Still, a 2008 investigation by the Environmental Working Group found bottled water to be “chemically indistinguishable from tap water”, the summary of the investigation said.
→ read full articleHimalayan Nations Yet to Break the Ice
Sudeshna Sarkar – Inter Press Service-IPS,
28 Nov 2011
The shrinking and retreating of the Himalayan glaciers – which provide life-giving water to over a billion people – became visible after early 1970. Three decades later, the phenomenon accelerated, resulting in the formation of moraine-dammed glacial lakes which are swelling ominously. There are over 20,000 glacial lakes in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas and a GLOF risk assessment report by ICIMOD in 2010 compiled a list of 179 potentially dangerous ones in China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. In addition, experts have identified another 25 in Bhutan.
→ read full articleUnreported Horrors – Male Rape in DR Congo
Moses Seruwagi – Inter Press Service-IPS,
28 Nov 2011
They are men who have lost all pride and self-confidence and who have been left severely traumatised by their experience. At the medical centre in Uganda where they are being treated, they talked candidly about the crimes carried out against them. Male rape has been prevalent as a weapon of war in many conflict zones and also in prison cells. But since these crimes are mostly unreported, also because the focus is on female victims, the extent of the problem is unknown. What is known is that male victims face horrendous problems in recovering.
→ read full articleCan the BRICS Make a Difference At Busan? (Part 1)
Kanya D'Almeida – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Nov 2011
As shock waves from Greece’s economic crisis emanate across the Eurozone and the Occupy protests in the U.S. grow bolder in their critique of the dominant neoliberal system, it seems clear to many observers that the old hegemonic economic order is fading fast.
→ read full articleCan the BRICS Make a Difference at Busan? (Part 2)
Kanya D'Almeida – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Nov 2011
While experts are hopeful that blocs of emerging market economies like BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – will play a major role in the upcoming aid effectiveness conference in Busan, South Korea, others fear that the new players do not yet have the fiscal power to make a serious intervention in fora generally dominated by rich donor states.
→ read full articleLandgrabbing in Ethiopia: Legal Lease or Stolen Soil?
Philipp Hedemann – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Nov 2011
By exporting food produced by child labour in Ethiopia, an Indian farm manager hopes to earn millions within three years. “It’s still total wilderness here, but we will soon start growing sugar cane and palm oil and everything will look tidy,” explains Karmjeet Singh Sekhon as he drives in a Toyota 4×4 through the burning bushland on his farm.
→ read full articleUS-Uganda: Award Honours Courageous Gay Rights Activist
Amanda Wilson – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Nov 2011
Frank Mugisha was just a young teenager in Uganda when he came out as gay. He faced bullying and threats, but he says the stories of lesbian, gay, and transgender friends he later met were much worse – some were kicked out of their homes by their families, subjected to sexual violence to “make them straight”, or arrested.
→ read full articleU.S.: Frustrated with Big Banks, More Turn to Cooperatives
Elizabeth Whitman – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Nov 2011
The number of people flocking to cooperative banks has recently skyrocketed in the U.S., with 650,000 people joining credit unions just since late September. Their rationale: financial cooperatives offer a more secure and socially just alternative to big commercial banks – or a way for the 99 percent to fight the one percent.
→ read full articleBrazilian Winds Fuel Green Job Creation
Alice Marcondes, Tierramérica – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Nov 2011
The term “green jobs”, coined to describe employment that contributes in some way to preserving or restoring the environment, is increasingly entering the vocabulary of companies keen to respond to the social demand for a cleaner economy. Brazil has not been left behind by this trend.
→ read full articleCape Verde Recognised for Political, Economic Leadership
Thalif Deen – Inter Press Service-IPS,
31 Oct 2011
When the former president of Cape Verde, Pedro de Verona Rodrigues Pires, was recently awarded the five-million-dollar African Leadership prize, the ex-Portuguese colony that he headed for nearly 10 years was singled out as one of the key African success stories for “good governance”, including multi-party democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights.
→ read full articlePalestine: UNESCO Becomes a New Battleground
A.D.McKenzie – Inter Press Service-IPS,
31 Oct 2011
Palestine’s bid to become a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has created a tense atmosphere here, as the United States threatens to cut financing if the application is approved.
→ read full articleAnti-G20 Summit Prepares Its Case
Cléo Fatoorehchi – Inter Press Service-IPS,
31 Oct 2011
Cannes will be under tight police security Oct. 31 to Nov. 4, and the People’s Forum has negotiated permission from local authorities to meet in Nice, 20 miles from Cannes. The Forum will gather countless organisations, from Attac to Oxfam France, from Greenpeace France to Action against Hunger. With their slogan “People first, not Finance!” they are determined to generate strong mobilisation against the G20 and its policy of financial supremacy.
→ read full articleHuman Development from a Cuban Perspective
Dalia Acosta – Inter Press Service-IPS,
17 Oct 2011
Excluded from the 2010 Human Development Index, Cuba will issue a report of its own, which will reflect the impact of an economic crisis that has lasted for 20-plus years, and will show social and health indicators typical of the developed world.
→ read full article