VIETNAM: Salinisation, Drought Bring Worries to Mekong Delta
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
MEKONG DELTA, Vietnam, Mar 18, 2010 (IPS) – He has worked this land for half of 64 years and is known among his fellow farmers in Kien Giang province here in the Mekong Delta as ‘lao nong’, or the old master of rice.
But [...]
US-CHINA: Trade War Heats Up
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON, Mar 17 (IPS) – Relations between Beijing and Washington have been far from smooth since the beginning of the year.
But a new bill introduced in the U.S. Senate is adding to existing tensions by attacking China’s trade practices and proposing legislation which would push the [...]
POLITICS-RWANDA: Woman Vies for Top Job
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Stanley Kwenda
KIGALI, Mar 17 (IPS) – On average women constitute 18.8 percent of representatives in parliaments across the world according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). This gender imbalance has been subject to much feminist criticism and many campaigns for change have been staged to address the status quo. [...]
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Unexpected Low Custom Revenue Causes Budget Shortfalls
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Mar 17 (IPS) – Plummeting revenues from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) could cause severe financial difficulties in the region, economic experts warn. To make matters worse, the organisation is split over the future of its tariff pool that largely bankrolls the national [...]
LATIN AMERICA: NGOs Demand Transparency, Reforms in IDB
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Mar 17 (IPS) – Dozens of civil society organisations in the Americas are demanding greater transparency and accountability as well as structural reforms in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), ahead of the multilateral lender’s annual meeting of governors that starts Friday in the Mexican resort [...]
RIGHTS: EU Selling Torture Equipment
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Mar 17, 2010 (IPS) – Equipment designed for torturing prisoners is still being exported from European Union (EU) countries despite a four-year-old ban on such trade, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
The human rights group has found that companies active in several [...]
DEVELOPMENT: Spain’s New Drive to Extend its Interests in Africa
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Stanley Kwenda
PRETORIA, Mar 17 (IPS) – Spain is breaking new ground in its relations with Africa through an ambitious programme which has seen it increasing its development funding to the continent more than six-fold from 2004 to reach 1,4 billion euros in 2008.
Spain’s Africa policy was explained [...]
ENVIRONMENT: Blame on Chinese Dams Rise as Mekong River Dries Up
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Mar 17, 2010 (IPS) – As the water level in the Mekong River dips to a record 50-year low, a familiar pattern of fault-finding has risen to the surface. China, the regional giant through which parts of South-east Asia’s largest waterway flows through, is again [...]
ENERGY-LATIN AMERICA: Moving Towards Renewables
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Marcela Valente* – Tierramérica
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 17 (IPS) – Argentina is building its first solar energy park in the northwestern province of San Juan. The project calls for the manufacture of photovoltaic panels to supply the rest of the country and the other member countries of the Southern [...]
EDUCATION-SIERRA LEONE: Government Ignores Demands for Additional Teachers
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Lansana Fofana
FREETOWN, Mar 17 (IPS) – Ismail Conteh has been teaching for the past year-and-a-half at a primary school in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown – without receiving a single cent. He is one of hundreds of teachers recruited by schools to match the ever-growing number of pupils.
Since [...]
COLOMBIA: Vote-Buying and Front Men
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Javier Darío Restrepo*
BOGOTÁ, Mar 16 (IPS) – During Sunday’s legislative elections in Colombia – in which rightwing President Álvaro Uribe’s allies were the big winners – polling stations in one-third of the country’s municipalities were at risk of violence, corruption or fraud, according to the ombudsman’s office and [...]
MIDEAST: Israel-U.S. Tensions Continue to Percolate
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON, Mar 16 (IPS) – Despite assurances by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday that the United States and Israel share a ”close, unshakeable bond”, the week-old crisis between the two allies continued to percolate here Tuesday.
Washington cancelled a planned trip to the region by its [...]
NAMIBIA: ”If You Kiss for Five Minutes You Get It”
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Mar 16 (IPS) – ”At home we have a bar,” says grade seven learner David Bravo* (14). ”When my mother puts on the music I cannot concentrate on (my) schoolwork anymore. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I just sit there and watch [...]
SWAZILAND: Budget Cuts Ahead but More Money for Education and Health
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE , Mar 16 (IPS) – Her swollen feet are a constant reminder to Sanele Matsebula that she needs to take her medication.
The 26-year-old HIV-positive mother of two says the swelling of her feet are side effects from the antiretroviral treatment (ART) she began two years [...]
CLIMATE CHANGE: In Canada, No News is Bad News
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Stephen Leahy
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Mar 16 (IPS) – Canada’s climate researchers are being muzzled, their funding slashed, research stations closed, findings ignored and advice on the critical issue of the century unsought by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, according to a 40-page report by a coalition of 60 non-governmental [...]
