Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 30 (IPS) - The Brazilian government has a total of 45 different programmes targeting young people, according to the National Secretariat of Youth. Nevertheless, young people face high unemployment and are sucked into a spiral of violence in which they are both victims and actors.
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Nanotechnology: ¿the «Little Brother»?

Leonardo Boff
Theologian
Earthcharter Commission

In an extremely accelerated fashion, not just a new technological wave, but a true technological tsunami, has taken place in recent years. It is nanotechnology, that produces elements and things not present in nature, starting with the smallest, such as atoms and cells, rearranged into desired configurations. A nanometer is one-thousand-millionth of a meter. Wikipedia in Portuguese of the Internet informs us that «to capture what this means, imagine a beach, 1000 kilometer long, and a 1 mm grain of sand. That grain of sand bears the same relation to the beach as nanometer does to a meter.» Thus it is a technology of the micro, so revolutionary that it will render obsolete most technologies, especially those applied to agriculture, the pharmaceutical industry, information technology, microelectronics and computers.
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Kimia Sanati

TEHRAN, Mar 29 (IPS) - Whether or not the 15 British Royal Marines in Iranian custody actually trespassed into the country’s territorial waters, the incident has provided Tehran with an opportunity to build up an image of a peaceful, non-aggressive nation set upon by Western predators.
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Tamara Lytle | Washington Bureau
Orlando Sentinel

WASHINGTON – Congress reopened the heated debate Thursday over Puerto Rico’s political status, beginning hearings that could lead to action in the House this year.

People on various sides of the dispute over whether the island should be a separate nation, a state or a new type of commonwealth started by agreeing on a few key points.
One is that mainlanders of Puerto Rican descent should be allowed to vote if the three options reach a referendum. In Orlando, that would include qualified voters among the 200,000 Puerto Ricans in the metropolitan area.
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Scott Stedjan and Laura Weis | March 2007
Editor: Miriam Pemberton, IPS
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

On March 6, 2007, the U.S. Department of State released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006. This annual report to Congress details the human rights practices of foreign governments, from restrictions on free press in Iran, to extrajudicial killings in Pakistan, to spiraling violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. The Country Reports do not, however, “purport to assess any human rights implications of actions by the United States Government or its representatives.” If they did, the reports would expose the grave consequences of U.S. policies in a world where the use and sale of inaccurate and unreliable weapons tends to trump humanitarian concerns.
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Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Mar 27 (IPS) - As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wound down her latest and most intense round of Middle Eastern “shuttle diplomacy” Monday, a star-studded international cast of former top-ranking diplomats and government leaders said they were “convinced there exists now a major opportunity to reach a comprehensive Arab-Israeli settlement.”
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Aaron Glantz

SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 26 (IPS) - Peace activists reacted with cautious optimism to a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives Friday giving President George W. Bush an additional 100 billion dollars to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the first time in four years, the appropriation contains a requirement that combat operations in Iraq cease by September 2008.
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Made in USA

by Perry Anderson
The Nation

Of all postwar institutions in the public eye, the United Nations has probably yielded the poorest literature. With the exception of two lucid studies of its foundation, Robert Hilderbrand’s Dumbarton Oaks (1990) and Stephen Schlesinger’s Act of Creation (2003), each the work of a serious diplomatic historian, little or nothing of analytic interest exists about the organization, which has proved a kind of intellectual sinkhole, down which swirl the drearily self-serving memoirs of its onetime functionaries and mind-numbing pieties from assorted well-wishers in the universities. There is a reason for the peculiar deadness of this output. The UN is a political entity without any independent will. If we set aside its specialized agencies, most of which perform useful practical services of one sort or another, the core of the institution–that is, the General Assembly and Security Council–is a legitimating, not a policy-making, apparatus. Decisions reached by the organization are in essence embellishments of the relationships of power operative at any given time. Virtually by definition, where legitimation alone is at stake, the quotient of euphemism and mystification on all sides will be very high. So, predictably enough, it has been with the United Nations.
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Eduardo Tamayo G.

Things are stirring deep within Latin America. Indigenous communities and organizations from several countries are preparing to attend to the 3rd Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala. It will take place in the Municipality of Tecpán, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, a symbolic town in which the natives managed to drive out the first Spanish invaders, thereby preventing the first establishment of colonial power. The date set is 26 - 30 March 2007. The goals of the summit will be: “To contribute to the recognition and exercise of rights for the indigenous peoples of Abya Yala, as well as acknowledgement of the sister organizations’ demands in the hemisphere. In addition, contribute to re-establish States, at the national and hemispheric level, so that the indigenous peoples can gain real power".
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Jon Elmer and Anthony Fenton*

TORONTO, Mar 23 (IPS) - A soon to be completed Canadian Forces counter-insurgency field manual foreshadows the type of interventions that the military in this country is preparing for the coming decades, according to a draft edition obtained by IPS.
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Eli Clifton

WASHINGTON, Mar 22 (IPS) - The announcement earlier this month that the United States will pursue the design and construction of new nuclear weapons has not been warmly embraced by the rest of the world.
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Juan Tiney

The 3rd Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities will be held in Tecpán, Guatemala, capital of the Kekchikel Kingdom and located 87 kilometres west of the country’s capital. This is the sight of the great IXIMCHÉ, a city that was burned down by Spanish invaders at the order of Pedro de Alvarado, when his request for a tribute of gold from the indigenous people was not fulfilled. In spite of the brutal repression of that time, the plundering of their lands and the repression in the 1980s, the Mayan, Xinca and Garífuna peoples—now expressed as the Mayan Convergence Waq’ib Kiej—and other regional organizational groups, will receive with open arms the delegates of the indigenous peoples and nationalities of the continent, in order to share their history and experiences of resistance and struggle.
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Geoffrey Millard
Editor: Erik Leaver, IPS
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

Why is it that we refer to the day the Iraq war started as an anniversary? I was a soldier deployed to Iraq with the 42nd ID of the New York Army National Guard during the “second anniversary” of the war’s start. Oddly enough it did not at all remind me of the only other anniversary I have a recollection of having partaken in, my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.
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Mithre J. Sandrasagra

NEW YORK, Mar 21 (IPS) - The question of whether opposition or engagement with political Islam is the better way forward for the United States in Asia was the focus of a panel discussion sponsored by the Asia Society here Tuesday.
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Herbert Docena

On the perimeter fence of the Eloy Alfaro air base in Manta, Ecuador hangs a sign, “Warning: Military Base. No Trespassing.” Since 1999, the base has been used as a “forward operating location” by the US military – just one of over 737 US military installations currently scattered in over 100 countries around the world.
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Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 20 (IPS) - The U.S.-led war on terror has triggered a strong backlash against some of the world’s minorities, including ethnic and religious groups, according to a study released here Tuesday.
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Conn Hallinan
IRC Right Web
rightweb.irc-online.org

The full-page ads appearing in newspapers across the country are wrenching: children in the last stages of starvation, terrified refugees, and burned out villages. They are the images that come to mind when most Americans think about the Sudan. The human rights crisis in Darfur is real—somewhere between 100,00 and 200,000 people have died since 2003—and the ads were placed by religiously affiliated organizations including conservative Christian groups, like the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Association of Evangelicals, as well as liberal organizations like Tikkun and Sojourners. But a seasoned cadre of neoconservatives and right-wingers have latched on to the issue, pushing an agenda that favors military over political solutions.
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Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 19 (IPS) - Images of tiny, malnourished African children, some scavenging for leftover food, have continued to grace the cover of brochures, posters and video clips of aid agencies since the devastating famine that claimed more than one million lives in Ethiopia 22 years ago.
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Walden Bello
March 2007
Editor: John Feffer, IRC
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

It was unexpected.

At the Seventh World Social Forum (WSF), held in Nairobi, Kenya, in late January, the most controversial topic was not HIV-AIDS, the U.S. occupation of Iraq, or neoliberalism. The topic that generated the most heat was China’s relations with Africa.
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David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Mar 16 (IPS) - The European Union’s development aid chief has been accused of prioritising central African countries for which he has a personal fixation at the expense of other needy nations.
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Alicia Fraerman

MADRID, Mar 15 (IPS) - The approval of a gender equality law by the Spanish parliament Thursday and the signing of a United Nations convention to fight gender violence has set Spain firmly on the path to gender equality, despite the opposition of conservatives.
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Leonardo Boff
Theologian
Earthcharter Commission

The central theme of the «Fraternity Campaign» of this period of lent in the Roman Catholic Church of Brazil is about the Amazon. Millions of the faithful will reflect, during these four weeks, on the importance of the Amazon to us, and to the future of the Earth.
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Eli Clifton

WASHINGTON, Mar 14 (IPS) - Climate change is of real concern in all parts of the world, but there is disagreement over whether the problem is urgent enough to require immediate, costly measures or whether more modest efforts will be satisfactory, according to an international poll released Wednesday.
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Ghost Prisoners, Shadowy Jails & Secret Trials
By Col. DAN SMITH

There’s a new sheriff in town–and it’s neither the U.S. nor a U.S.-sponsored surrogate “invited” by the U.S. It’s another of those pesky international conventions the administration loves to hate and refuses to join–but still cannot stop from taking effect. Fifteen years in the making, the pact outlaws state terrorism of a type frequently practiced by the United States: “extraordinary rendition.” (more…)

Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Mar 13 (IPS) - An independent review of the International Monetary Fund’s operations in Africa says the lender’s work is confused, vague, lacks transparency and suffers from a large gap between rhetoric and practice.
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Democracy Now!

The U.S. military is defending its decision to force two freelance journalists working in Afghanistan for the Associated Press to delete photos and video at the scene of a U.S. shooting last week.
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Mark Wilkerson’s Call to America
By SUSAN VAN HAITSMA

My favorite photograph of Mark Wilkerson shows him smiling, looking relaxed. He is standing in a grove of trees whose trunks radiate outward from his image as though they are drawing life from him. One side of his face glows with reflected sunshine. He wears a black “Iraq Veterans Against the War” T-shirt with a small star over his heart. (more…)

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - A coalition of over 140 international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and women’s groups is gratified that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expressing public support for the creation of a new U.N. agency for women.
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Peter Dhondt

BRUSSELS, Mar 9 (IPS) - European heads of state have agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2020.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 2007

By JIM RUTENBERG and LARRY ROHTER SÃO PAULO, Brazil, March — President Bush has portrayed his trip to Latin America this week as a “We Care” tour aimed at dispelling perceptions that he has neglected his southern neighbors.
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Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Mar 6 (IPS) - Chinese leaders are seeking a new formula for expansion of the world’s fastest-growing economy, which addresses the costs of growth such as environmental damage and a widening income gap. They want to switch to a more sustainable mode of development where China consumes and pollutes less.
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By HUGH O’SHAUGHNESSY

One of the fetid messes which Ronald Reagan left on the Caribbean island of Grenada after his invasion of it in 1983 has been smelling increasingly vile over the last few decades. It has just resurfaced in London. (more…)

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Mar 6 (IPS) - A majority of people from around the world hold predominantly negative views of Israel, Iran, and the United States, according to a survey of more than 28,000 respondents in 27 countries.
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The trilateral meeting between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Mahmud Abbas held on February 19 in Jerusalem did not make even one timid step forward toward reviving the peace process. Once again, the United States and Israel have imposed a series of conditions which, in this preliminary stage, are impossible to meet. They refuse to recognize the significance of the inter-Palestinian agreement reached after surmounting innumerable difficulties only a few days ago in Mecca, under the presidency of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Once again, the spark of hope has been extinguished. And from the international community silence. And once again, Europe says nothing. Only Jordan, aware of how complex the situation is, because Jordan sees it from the inside, has begged the United States to reconsider its rejection of the Palestinian President’s proposals.
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Ravi Kanth Devarakonda

GENEVA, Mar 3 (IPS) - Several developing countries have sharply criticised fresh attempts by the European Union and the United States to pry open their industrial markets through a controversial Swiss formula.
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Democracy Now!

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh joins us to talk about his explosive new article in the New Yorker Magazine. Hersh reports that John Negroponte’s decision to resign as National Intelligence Director was made in part because of the Bush administration’s covert actions including the indirect funding of radical Sunni groups - some with ties to al-Qaeda - to counter Shiite groups backed by Iran. Hersh also reports the Pentagon has established a special planning group to plan a bombing attack on Iran and U.S. military and special-operations teams have already crossed the border into Iran in pursuit of Iranian operatives. [includes rush transcript] John Negroponte was sworn in to his new position as Deputy Secretary of State on Tuesday at a ceremony attended by President Bush. Negroponte resigned from his post as National Intelligence Director in early January. His career includes stints as Ambassador to Iraq after the US invasion and ambassador to Honduras, where he was accused of overseeing the arming of Nicaraguan rebels during the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s.
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Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

BAGHDAD, Mar 2 (IPS) - Three young women accused of joining the Iraqi insurgency movement and engaging in “terrorism” have been sentenced to death, provoking protest from rights organisations fearing that this could be the start of more executions of women in post-Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
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Democracy Now!

While experts agree the debate over global warming has long been put to rest, climate scientists face ongoing political interference in their research. Two members of the Union of Concerned Scientists join us to talk about what it will take to move past climate-change denial and bring about meaningful policy change. [includes rush transcript] The issue of global warming has been in the news a lot recently. Just yesterday, an international team of scientists declared the global warming debate over and presented a detailed report to the United Nations to combat global climate change. The panel recommended pouring billions more dollars into research and development of cleaner energy resources and stated that failure to act would produce turbulent 21st century weather extremes as well as spread drought and disease, expand oceans and displace costal populations.
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