Irene León

The town of Selingué in Mali, Western Africa, hosted the Food Sovereignty Forum - Nyéléni 2007- from 23 - 27 February 2007. Peasant organizations, small scale farmers, fisherpeople, shepherds, indigenous peoples, forest communities, women, consumers, environmentalists and some urban groups participated to strengthen the global movement involved in defending a future without hunger.
(more…)

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Apr 30 (IPS) - Close to one of the busiest crossroads in the Cuban capital, but peaceful nonetheless, the non-governmental Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Centre (CMLK) has been active in Cuban society for two decades, working for a more participative social system.
(more…)

“CITIZENS NEED A VOICE IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS”

Several hundred political leaders, among them 378 MPs from 70
countries, have joined to call for the establishment of a
Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations (UNPA). The joint appeal
states that, in an age of globalization, citizens need to be
vested with a stronger voice in global affairs. The call is the core of
an international campaign which is being launched through a series of
events in more than ten countries.
(more…)

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Apr (IPS) - Solutions to stop global warming outlined in a new United Nations-backed report may ignite heated debates, if not actually compel governments to make choices that would impact their respective economies.
(more…)

By THOMAS WAGNER,
Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_un_report

Sectarian violence continued to claim the lives of a large number of Iraqi civilians in Sunni Arab and Shiite neighborhoods of Iraq’s capital, despite the coalition’s new Baghdad security plan, the U.N. said Wednesday.
(more…)

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Apr 26 (IPS) - Regional business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Latin America admitted that unequal distribution of wealth is a crucial problem, and said they want to contribute to its solution.
(more…)

Leonardo Boff
Theologian
Earthcharter Commission

On December 17, 1961 there was a great fire in the Circo Norteamericano, in Niteroi, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in which about 500 persons died. Such an event, as in Biblical times, triggered the appearance of a prophet, Profeta Gentileza, who, on April 11th, would have celebrated, if he were still alive, 90 years of age. Jose Datrino was his name, a truck driver from the Guadalupe neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Six days after the fire, on Christmas eve, at the 13th hour, as he was unloading a truck, he confessed having heard three times a divine message: he had to leave his three trucks, his home, his land and his family and immediately go to the scene of the fire «to be the consoler of all who had lost their loved ones.» He took one of his trucks, loaded it with two tons of one hundred litre wine and went to Niteroi to fulfill his mission. He distributed the wine in small plastic glasses, with a condition: that everyone ask «for “gentileza,” gentleness» and not «for a favor,» and that they would say, «I am grateful» instead of «muito obrigado» [«thank you very much» in Portuguese»]. Here is the essence of his message: «gentileza- gentleness» and «being grateful.»
(more…)

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 24 (IPS) - Six and a half years after U.S. President George W. Bush launched his “global war on terror", suspicion of U.S. motives remains pervasive throughout the Islamic world, according to a new and highly detailed survey of four countries released here Tuesday.
(more…)

by Bashir Abu-Manneh

Any reader of Israel Studies’s recent issue on the “Americanization of Israel” would be likely to conclude that the most important aspect of U.S.-Israel relations was cultural and religious exchange.1 U.S. commodification of Israeli consumption is a key focus here, as is the impact of U.S. religious trends on Israeli religious practices. Though politics does feature in the issue, its place is largely restricted to the influence of the United States on the Israeli party political system and to the ideological convergence between Christian fundamentalism and the Likud Party. The informing conception of the issue, then, seems to be the endeavor to pinpoint those aspects of Israel that have been “Americanized” in recent years. Contributors are thus preoccupied with determining how specific U.S. forms and norms have migrated to and been translated into Israeli culture and society. (more…)

Ali al-Fadhily*

BAGHDAD, Apr 23 (IPS) - Iraqis blame the U.S. occupation for the failure of two parallel security plans drawn up by U.S. forces and Iraqi troops that failed dramatically with the bombings last week that killed more than 300 people in Baghdad.
(more…)

Interview with Abdullah Abdullah

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Apr 20 (IPS) - Former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah warns that the government of President Hamid Karzai suffers from “shortcomings in strategic vision” that are contributing to a deteriorating security situation in an ethnically diverse country.
(more…)

Soren Ambrose | April 2007
Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco, IPS
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

As International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials engage in their joint semi-annual meetings in Washington, the Fund has a nettlesome new task: convincing its shareholders (most of the world’s governments, represented at the meeting by Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors) that the institution should continue to exist.
(more…)

Stephanie Nieuwoudt

NAIROBI, Apr 19 (IPS) - Some relief for the pressing housing needs of slum dwellers may be in sight. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) is planning a revolving fund to assist poor people with credit to build houses in slum areas.
(more…)

By Steve Lohr
The New York Times
April 19 2007

In an effort to expand its global reach in computing, Microsoft plans
to offer a stripped-down version of Windows, Office and other software
for $3 to people in developing nations.
(more…)

Eli Clifton

WASHINGTON, Apr 18 (IPS) - The world public rejects the U.S. role as a world leader, but still wants the United States to do its share in multilateral efforts and does not support a U.S. withdrawal from international affairs, says a poll released Wednesday.
(more…)

Dear friend,

The hero of a French novel, every time he was released from a prison to start a new life, would buy a new suite and find himself a new mistress. My suites are old, Seda bought them all in New York at different occasions whenever we happened to be together in that city, and they suit me fine. As to the mistress, I will deal with this vital issue further on. But last Christmas Eve I think I got my freedom. (more…)

Martha Farmelo

When an Argentine activist asked a municipal press officer to justify spending taxpayer money on lavish ads in a local paper warning citizens not to abandon their dogs, the official clenched a copy of the paper in his hand and said: “We purchase this!”
(more…)

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Apr (IPS) - This year the European Union will spend more than 35 percent of its 115 billion euro (156 billion dollars) budget on supporting farmers, even though agriculture accounts for less than 5 percent of the EU workforce.
(more…)

Chris Toensing
Editor: Erik Leaver, IPS
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

President George W. Bush’s vision for the Iraq War was nothing if not expansive. Liberal democracy and popular sovereignty were to supplant tyranny not only in Baghdad, but in nearby capitals as well. And the force of U.S. arms would not be needed to accomplish the latter missions. As Bush asserted to eager applause at the American Enterprise Institute on February 25, 2003, “a new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.” Democracy, the war party believed, would be contagious.
(more…)

Humberto Márquez

ISLA DE MARGARITA, Venezuela, Apr 16 (IPS) - The South American energy summit that got underway Monday marks a point of convergence between the certainty that the region has the energy resources needed for its development and the political will to translate that into socially and economically viable undertakings.
(more…)

David Isenberg
Editor: Erik Leaver, IPS
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

One might think that given all the stresses and strains on the U.S. military caused by fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that the Defense Department would at least be doing its utmost to grasp the geostrategic realities of the day. But the Pentagon’s last Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), released on February 6, 2006 showed that American defense plans continue to fail engagements with reality. While the QDR was big on rhetoric, it was woefully short on action.
(more…)

Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Apr 13 (IPS) - As China’s foreign exchange reserves continue their explosive growth, questions about the ways the country’s financial mandarins manage its pool of wealth are growing both inside and outside China.
(more…)

Jon Basil Utley
Editor: John Feffer
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

Americans opposed to war are a distinct minority. If the Iraq War were going well, most Americans would support it. Yet the Iraq venture has been such a disaster for America that peace groups have a chance to expose the pro-war interests in the nation and advance an alternative foreign policy based on law and international cooperation. Incredible war costs, a growing police state at home, loss of allies, and tremendous anti-Americanism abroad have given most Americans pause about our foreign policies.
(more…)

Ali al-Fadhily*

BASRA, Apr 11 (IPS) - The eruption of demonstrations in the south of Iraq this week could rob the occupation forces of what was considered a critical bastion of support.
(more…)

ALAI

Turning legitimate protest into a crime is one of the preferred strategies of power groups when trying to contain social struggles and diminish responses to their demands. This strategy is most effective when it has the support of mass media, which lend themselves to discrediting protestors and undermining the support of public opinion. In recent years, indigenous struggles in particular have been the target of such tactics, a situation which was harshly denounced during the Continental Meeting of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala, which took place in Bolivia in October 2006:
(more…)

Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Apr (IPS) - The International Monetary Fund, which is undergoing a review of its role in the global economic architecture, should take more aggressive measures to improve its accountability and transparency and to be more responsive to its members, a high-level panel said Tuesday.
(more…)

Nora Barrows-Friedman

DHEISHEH REFUGEE CAMP, Occupied West Bank, Apr 10 (IPS) - Mohammed Mahsiri, a resident of Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, sits in a crowded café, a red kuffiyeh wrapped around his neck and an iconic portrait of Che Guevara emblazoned on his black t-shirt.
(more…)

Michael Shank | April 2007
Editor: John Feffer, IRC
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) has been in Congress since 1986. In April 2006, he wrote a letter to President Bush to remind him that he must seek authorization from Congress before launching any preemptive attacks against Iran. He also introduced Resolution 391 to the same effect as well as a similar amendment to this year’s Defense Authorization Act (which was voted down). One year later, rumors of an upcoming U.S. military assault on Iran still abound, the latest from Russian intelligence that predicts a Good Friday attack. Here Rep. DeFazio talks of the congressional strategy to prevent a war with Iran.
(more…)

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Apr 9 (IPS) - Forget the past, they say, because the language it left in the Balkans is too mixed up with Serbs and Bosniaks. Croat linguists are now producing a language of their own. If you want to send them a fax about this, you’d have to call it a dalekoumnozitelj.

The disintegration of former Yugoslavia more than a decade ago led to the creation of new nations. But it could not erase the fact that Bosniaks, Croats, Montenegrins and Serbs have their language in common.
(more…)

Leonardo Boff

Theologian
Earthcharter Commission

Easter is the central Judeo-Christian holiday. For the Jews, Easter celebrates -and to celebrate is to actualize- the passage from slavery in Egypt to the promised land, the passage of the Red Sea and the passage from anonymous masses to an organized people. Moses, liberator and legislator, is the figure of reference who was born some 1250 years before our era. Moses guided the masses towards freedom and made them the people of God.
(more…)

Analysis by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 5 (IPS) - The drama surrounding the release of 15 British sailors and marines after 12 days in Iranian captivity was designed to convey two key messages that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush would do well to heed, say experts here.

First, the Britons’ original capture by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard near the entry to the disputed Shatt-al-Arab waterway was meant to demonstrate that, despite its conventional military weakness and diplomatic isolation, Iran retains the ability to strike at western interests when it feels sufficiently provoked.
(more…)

By Edmund Blair

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Climate change threatens to destroy the Great Barrier Reef and other natural wonders of the world if nations fail to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, environmental group WWF said on Thursday.

“From turtles to tigers, from the desert of Chihuahua to the great Amazon, all these wonders of nature are at risk from warming temperatures,” Lara Hansen, the head scientist of WWF’s global climate change programme, said in a statement.
(more…)

Soren Ambrose

Once upon a time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seemed immune to criticism, regardless of the damage its neo- liberal policy impositions inflicted around the globe. That immunity was finally torn away by the East Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, when criticism of the IMF’s interventions came from all sides. A famous photograph of long-time IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus standing, cross-armed, over Indonesian President Suharto as he signed the papers for an IMF “bail-out” summed up the neo-colonial “overlord” role that the IMF’s critics had long charged it with.
(more…)

Julio Godoy*

BERLIN, Apr 4 (IPS/IFEJ) - Thousands of plant and animal species are disappearing every month under the impact of global warming, leading environmentalists say.
(more…)

Dahr Jamail

DOHA, Apr (IPS) - The al-Jazeera television network could be emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures on the channel, leading media figures say.
(more…)

Democracy Now!

Acclaimed author and journalist Naomi Klein spoke about the ‘privatization of the state’ at a recent talk in New York City. Klein is a widely read columnist for the Nation magazine and the London Guardian and author of the international bestseller, “No Logo.” Her forthcoming book is titled “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” [includes rush transcript] As we continue to look at the issue of Iraq and the US occupation, we turn to the acclaimed author and journalist, Naomi Klein. Naomi is a widely read columnist for the Nation magazine and the London Guardian. She is the author of the international bestseller “No Logo” and more recently of “Fences and Windows.” She visited Iraq in 2004 and published an article later that year for Harper’s Magazine titled “Baghdad Year Zero” in which she detailed the privatization of Iraq’s state-dominated economy. She has continued to cover the issue and her forthcoming book on disaster capitalism is due to be published in the fall.
(more…)

Dahr Jamail | March 2007
Editor: Erik Leaver, IPS and John Feffer, IRC
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

Iraq is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. Along with names and dates, the Brussels Tribunal has listed the circumstances under which Iraqi media personnel have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This extremely credible report cites 195 as dead. If non-Iraqi media representatives are included, the figure goes beyond 200. Both figures are well in excess of the media fatalities suffered in Vietnam or during World War II.
(more…)

Analysis by Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Apr 2 (IPS) - The photographers clicked madly away when Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland sat down at the same end of the table as Gerry Adams, leader of the Sinn Fein party in a new power sharing agreement.
(more…)