Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS A. D. McKenzie PARIS, Sep 8 (IPS) – Faced with mounting criticism because of its expulsions of Roma, or Gypsies, the French government is trying to gain allies in what it calls the “battle” against undocumented immigration and people-trafficking networks. Immigration minister Eric Besson gathered officials from several [...]
ROMANIA: Austerity Deals Mortal Blow to Health System
August 27, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Claudia Ciobanu BUCHAREST, Aug 26, 2010 (IPS) – Five newborns died last week in a fire caused by an airconditioning fault at a Bucharest maternity. Insufficient, overworked staff and deficient maintenance — results of inadequate funding of the health system – -were listed among the causes. "I’m [...]
Chernobyl Effects Could Last Centuries
August 20, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Pavol Stracansky KIEV, Aug 20, 2010 (IPS) – Almost 25 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident a series of new scientific studies have suggested the effects of the Chernobyl disaster have been underestimated. Scientists last month published information that, contradicting previous claims, animal populations are declining [...]
BALKANS: Serbia Prepares a New Case Over Kosovo
August 18, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Vesna Peric Zimonjic BELGRADE, Aug 18, 2010 (IPS) – Serbia is preparing to go before the United Nations next month to renew negotiations over the future of Kosovo, its southern breakaway province that has declared independence and been recognised by a number of countries. Serbia is planning [...]
BALKANS: The Turks Return
August 11, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Vesna Peric Zimonjic BELGRADE, Aug 11, 2010 (IPS) – It’s not often that the leading Belgrade daily Politika devotes two of its four foreign pages to the praise of one nation, but it did so for the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month. [...]
Russia’s Agony a "Wake-Up Call" to the World
August 11, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Stephen Leahy VIENNA, Aug 11, 2010 (IPS) – A wind turbine on an acre of northern Iowa farmland could generate 300,000 dollars worth of greenhouse-gas-free electricity a year. Instead, the U.S. government pays out billions of dollars to subsidise grain for ethanol fuel that has little if [...]
Where Asia and Europe May Never Meet
August 11, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Shada Islam* IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint BRUSSELS (IDN) – Building an inclusive society where all citizens have access to jobs, health, education and housing, where democracy prevails and human rights are respected remains the over-arching goal in most parts of the world. As the economic crisis takes its toll, [...]
EUROPE: Citizen Rights Don’t Apply to Roma
August 7, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Claudia Ciobanu BUCHAREST, Aug 7, 2010 (IPS) – All major European countries plan mass expulsions of Roma or demolitions of Roma settlements. Rights groups warn that these measures entail the criminalisation of an entire ethnic group, and break EU law. The French executive announced Jul. 29 that [...]
HUNGARY: Austerity Fatigue sends IMF Home
August 2, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS Analysis by Zoltán Dujisin BUDAPEST, Aug 2, 2010 (IPS) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has slapped IMF in the face, shocking an international community used to news of economic difficulties coming from this small Central European nation. But most Hungarians have welcomed it, at least so far. [...]
Bridge to Nowhere – Road to Disaster
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Julio Godoy IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint BERLIN (IDN) – Practitioners of realpolitik would not claim they are poets, very much in the way that they do dismiss they are utopians. As former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, neither a poet nor utopian, once famously put it: If you have visions, [...]