Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Mitch Moxley BEIJING, Aug 27, 2010 (IPS) – While Hollywood blockbusters and state-funded historical epics continue to dominate China’s box office, a vibrant independent film scene is quietly growing. Lacking distribution channels that lead to wide audiences, these films, which tend to focus on aspects of day-to-day [...]
ENERGY: Is Fracking Even Worse Than Drilling?
August 27, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By William Fisher NEW YORK, Aug 26, 2010 (IPS) – With cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico barely underway, energy companies are already assuming a crouching stance in anticipation of a no-holds-barred attack by environmentalists on what the industry says is the next major breakthrough in natural resource [...]
MEXICO: Environmentalist Peasants Seek Justice
August 27, 2010 By
Global Analyst Online – Global News Blog / IPS By Emilio Godoy MEXICO CITY, Aug 27, 2010 (IPS) – Peasant activists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera hope to find, at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the justice that eluded them in their home country of Mexico, to which they hope to return to rejoin [...]
Groups Praise U.S. Rights Report as Good First Step
August 27, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By William Fisher NEW YORK, Aug 27, 2010 (IPS) – In the first ever U.N.-mandated self-assessment of the United States’ human rights record, the Barack Obama administration has reaffirmed its commitment to closing the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay and to fixing the country’s "broken immigration system". But [...]
HAITI: Scraping by on Mud Cookies
August 27, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Wadner Pierre Credit:Wadner Pierre/IPS PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 27, 2010 (IPS) – At six in the morning in Cite Soleil, the poorest zone of Haiti’s capital city, the sun is already up. It’s the start of another workday for Lurene Jeanti, making cookies from mud, butter and salt. She’s [...]
SOUTH AFRICA: Public Health Strained by Nurses’ Strike
August 27, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Chris Stein JOHANNESBURG, Aug 27, 2010 (IPS) – Striking health workers have continued their work stoppage despite accusations that it endangers patients’ lives. They are part of a nationwide strike by public sector workers that has some observers concerned that rising wage demands could harm South Africa’s [...]
DR-CONGO: Mass Gang Rape Exposes Systematic Sexual Violence
August 25, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Aprille Muscara UNITED NATIONS, Aug 24, 2010 (IPS) – A U.N. human rights investigation mission will be launched in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Wednesday, U.N. officials announced Tuesday, after gruesome reports surfaced in the media of the systematic gang rape of nearly 200 [...]
BEIJING TIGHTENS UP CONTROL OVER MONASTERIES & MOSQUES
August 25, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy B.RAMAN Acting jointly, China’s Ministry of Public Security and the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China have tightened up their control over the Buddhist monasteries in the Tibetan areas of China and over the mosques in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. While the [...]
Guarding Environment with a Paper-and-Pencil Project
August 25, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Taro Ichikawa IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis BANGKOK (IDN) – Asia-Pacific already has the largest number of motorized vehicles in the world and if the present trend continues, the region would in the coming years have more automobiles than Europe and North America combined. In Japan alone, the number of [...]
Environment Group Fumes at UN Report on Nigeria Oil Spills
August 25, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By IDN Environment Desk IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis (IDN) – Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) says that it is "outraged" by reports that a major United Nations investigation into Nigeria oil spills, funded by oil giant Shell, relies more on figures produced by oil companies and Nigerian state statistics [...]
