BURMA: Despite Loss at Oscars, Film A Testament to Courage
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Mar 11, 2010 (IPS) – It may have not won an Oscar, but its having been a final contender for the prestigious statue at the U.S. Academy Awards on Mar. 7 has taken ‘Burma VJ’ to heights never achieved by previous films depicting the oppression [...]
SOMALIA: U.S. Should Accept Islamist Authority, Report Says
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Charles Fromm and Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON, Mar 11 (IPS) – The United States should accept an ”Islamist authority” in Somalia as part of a ”constructive disengagement” strategy for the war-torn country, according to a new report released here by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on Wednesday. [...]
TANZANIA: Weather Changes Turn Farming into Gamble with Nature
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Denis Gathanju
DAR-ES-SALAAM, Mar 10 (IPS) – Changes in weather patterns have turned agriculture into a gamble with nature for Tanzanian farmers. Prolonged droughts and floods have made the lives of small-scale farmers, who don’t have access to irrigation, extremely difficult.
In Tanzania, where the economy is largely driven [...]
SINGAPORE: As Casino Opens, Watch for Its Social Impact Begins
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Stanislaus Jude Chan
SINGAPORE, Mar 10, 2010 (IPS) – An unfamiliar sight in Singapore – that of vehicles with foreign licence plates filling the car park – meets visitors at the basement of the city-state’s first casino, which opened nearly a month ago.
But surprises are to be [...]
EDUCATION-URUGUAY: Gardens of Knowledge
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Silvana Silveira
MONTEVIDEO, Mar 10 (IPS) – ”Nature is wise, and if we take the time to observe it, we can learn so much” is the underlying philosophy of a number of innovative programmes being carried out in Uruguayan schools that are using gardens as a teaching resource, explained [...]
ENVIRONMENT-UGANDA: Landslides and floods – Experts Warn Worst is Yet to Come
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Mar 9 (IPS) – Fourteen-year-old Isaac Wadyegere of Bundesi village in Bududa district woke up to a rainy and chilly Monday morning and went to school as usual.
But Mar. 1 was not a usual day in Bududa district in eastern Uganda. When he [...]
ENVIRONMENT: Violent Backlash Against Climate Scientists
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Stephen Leahy* – Tierramérica
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Mar 9 (IPS) – Climate change science has come under full-scale attack in a last-ditch effort to delay or prevent action by the U.S. government against global warming, experts warn.
U.S. Senator James Inhofe, Republican from Oklahoma and climate change denier, in late [...]
FINANCE: Self-Policing of Extractive Industries a ”Dismal” Failure
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Charles Fromm
WASHINGTON, Mar 9 (IPS) – An international initiative that seeks to reform how governments profit from their natural resources should not reduce its existing standards of membership solely because candidate countries have been reluctant or incapable of meeting them, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.
Twenty out of the [...]
RIGHTS-CUBA: Hunger Striker Refuses to Go into Exile
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Mar 8 (IPS) – The state news media in Cuba reported Monday on the case of dissident Guillermo Fariñas, who has been on a hunger strike for 13 days and refuses to go into exile in Spain.
An article titled ”Cuba will not accept pressure or [...]
Sarkozy Has Panacea Against Poverty
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IDN
By Ronald Joshua
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
PARIS (IDN) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy has sprung a surprise on the international community by showing an easy way out of poverty that has been eluding practical solutions for decades now. He has discovered an energetic panacea against poverty: the [...]
ENVIRONMENT-MEXICO: Green Areas to the Highest Bidder
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Mar 8 (IPS) – Activists in Mexico complain that the deforestation threatening the environmental health of Mexico has been accentuated by the granting of public areas to private companies.
A recent case involves a plan by the government of the state of Nuevo León to [...]
BRAZIL: Ambitious Development Plan to Cut Inequality
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 8 (IPS) – Brazil will be ”radically less unequal” and less vulnerable to shocks from the outside when it celebrates 200 years of independence from Portugal, if the Strategic Affairs Secretariat’s (SAE) plans for the next 12 years are put into practice, according [...]
EUROPE: Green Finance Wise, or Otherwise
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Mar 8, 2010 (IPS) – A plan to give the European Union’s lending arm a beefed-up mandate for financing the fight against climate change has drawn a sceptical response from campaigners on green and economic justice issues.
As part of a series of reforms being [...]
POLITICS: Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Mar 8, 2010 (IPS) – For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea [...]
Green Energy The Only Non-Exploited Resource In Africa
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IDN
By Babukar Kashka
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
NAIROBI (IDN) – Paradoxically, Africa — the continent most exploited by giant corporations that plunder its natural resources, and the one which contributes the least to global warming — is now urged to further produce green energy and implement more climate-friendly projects.
In fact, a Nairobi-based UN Environment [...]
UN Warns Against Over-Dependence On GMOs
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IDN
By Maria Luisa Vargas
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
MEXICO CITY (IDN) – Some nine billion people are expected to inhabit the planet earth by 2050. This growth forecast is giving rise to the question how the growing number of people will be fed. The biotech industry sees no problem [...]
