By Sean Penn *

This article is an adapted excerpt of the essay/interview “A Mountain of Snakes,” which will appear in full December 1 at HuffingtonPost.com.

Soon to be Vice President-elect Joe Biden was rallying the troops: “We can no longer be energy dependent on Saudi Arabia or a Venezuelan dictator.” Well, I know what Saudi Arabia is. But having been to Venezuela in 2006, touring slums, mixing with the wealthy opposition and spending days and hours at its president’s side, I wondered, without wondering, to whom Senator Biden was referring. Hugo Chávez Frías is the democratically elected president of Venezuela (and by democratically elected I mean that he has repeatedly stood before the voters in internationally sanctioned elections and won large majorities, in a system that, despite flaws and irregularities, has allowed his opponents to defeat him and win office, both in a countrywide referendum last year and in regional elections in November). And Biden’s words were the kind of rhetoric that had recently led us into a life-losing and monetarily costly war, which, while toppling a shmuck in Iraq, had also toppled the most dynamic principles upon which the United States was founded, enhanced recruitment for Al Qaeda and deconstructed the US military.
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By Busani Bafana

NAIROBI, Nov 28 (IPS) - Forget the view of climate change as impending catastrophe for a moment: if negotiators can recognise sustainable agriculture by African smallholders and forests as mitigating factors in climate change, carbon trading could become an important support for Africa’s food security.
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From The Economist print edition

Bold, unorthodox remedies are needed to jolt the world economy back to life

Nov 27th 2008 . THE prognosis is looking ever more grave. What began 15 months ago with a seizure of the credit markets has become a disease with an alarming list of real economic symptoms. America, Britain, the euro zone and Japan are already in a recession that threatens to be the worst, in some places, for a quarter of a century and possibly since the Depression. American consumers, unable to borrow and fearful for their jobs, are cutting spending; so are firms, short of cash and worried about sales. German business confidence is at a 15-year low. Japan’s exports to both rich countries and emerging ones are falling. Emerging economies are suffering too, as commodity prices fall and capital flees faster than in those countries’ own crises of a decade ago. In some countries—notably the United States—a vicious deflationary spiral of banks withdrawing credit and demand contracting is no longer unimaginable.
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Analysis by Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Nov 27 (IPS) - The decision by President-elect Barack Obama to keep Robert M. Gates on as defence secretary has touched off a debate over whether Obama can pursue his commitment to rapid withdrawal from Iraq even though Gates has defended George W. Bush’s surge policy and opposed Obama’s 16-month timetable for withdrawal.
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By Mirela Xanthaki

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 26 (IPS) - “An AK-47 is not made for a kid. It is not made for a human being, let alone a kid,” said Kon Kelei, a former child soldier from Sudan. Kelei was taken to a camp when he was four or five years old – he is not precisely sure – and trained to fight in battle.

“What we need is to focus and advocate for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation made me who I am today and what I am saying today,” he stressed.
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By Andrew Jack - The Financial Times- London

Richer countries may be better at providing treatment to people with HIV than their poorer counterparts, but they are often less effective at collecting the data necessary to understand and tackle infection, according to a study released on Tuesday.

A report produced by Aids Accountability International highlights that higher income countries such as most European nations and the US are “worse at monitoring and/or reporting on the fundamentals of their epidemics and their responses” than lower income ones.
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Thalif Deen interviews JACQUELINE CABASSO, winner of the Sean MacBride Peace Prize

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 (IPS) - As President-elect Barack Obama marshals his transition team before he takes office on Jan. 20, some of his political supporters are wondering how much of his campaign promises will receive priority during his first hundred days in the White House.
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By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Just as the world seemed poised to combat global warming more aggressively, the economic slump and plunging prices of coal and oil are upending plans to wean businesses and consumers from fossil fuel.

From Italy to China, the threat to jobs, profits and government tax revenues posed by the financial crisis has cast doubt on commitments to cap emissions or phase out polluting factories.
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From The Economist print edition

The increasingly desperate search for the stuff is changing modern management—not always for the better

SELDOM has corporate strategy been turned on its head so quickly. Barely a year ago, cash was a dangerous thing to accumulate: activist investors stalked companies, urging boards to return it to investors, to pay special dividends or to buy back shares. Ever since the 1980s the fashion had been to make companies as lean as possible, outsourcing all but your core competencies, expanding your just-in-time supplier system around the globe, loading up with debt to “leverage” your balance-sheet. Old-style defensive conglomerates, such as Arnold Weinstock’s General Electric Company, were dismantled. Companies that hoarded cash—even ones as good as Toyota and Microsoft—were viewed with suspicion.
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By Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK, Nov 24 (IPS) - During his election campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly said that he cared about the issues facing Native American communities and insisted that they could trust him – pledges that Native leaders are now watching closely as the president-elect appoints a new cabinet and fills other key federal posts.
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Analysis by Julio Godoy

BERLIN, Nov 21 (IPS) - Outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush has been unpopular in Europe, but his policies in fighting the ‘war on terror’ have found many takers.

Daniel Finke and Thomas Koenig, professors of politics at the University of Mannheim, 500 km south of Berlin, have found numerous similarities between U.S. “homeland security” and European laws since 2001.
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IRIN - humanitarian news and analysis

GENEVA, 20 November 2008 (IRIN) - The UN is asking for a record US$7 billion to help 30 million people in Africa and the Middle East.

“The money is being used to keep people alive,” said John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, at the Consolidated Appeals Process launch in Geneva on 19 November.
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By Michael Chebsi

ADDIS ABABA, Nov 20 (IPS) - She fought alongside men in the Ethiopian liberation struggle. She fought for a free and fair society. But today, Yewubmar Asfaw feels that Ethiopia’s revolution has failed to deliver a fair share of political power to women.

In her book, published this year in Amharic, Asfaw, 52, describes how the liberation groups marginalised women fighters during the struggle and after the fall of the military regime in 1991.
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IRIN - humanitarian news and analysis

NEW YORK, 19 November 2008 (IRIN) - As the global recession bites, analysts are asking if emergencies such as natural disasters will continue to receive funding (on 19 November, a record appeal for US$7 billion was launched for crises) while development aid, which could save many more lives long-term, such as agricultural investment in Africa, is left to languish.
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By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Nov 19 (IPS) - Eight months after Tibet’s capital of Lhasa was rocked by violent anti-Chinese protests positions have hardened, casting gloom on prospects for progress on the Tibetan stalemate.

More than 500 Tibetan exile leaders have gathered in Dharamsala, India, for emergency talks over their future strategy on China.
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IRIN

NAIROBI, 17 November 2008 (IRIN) - An influx of asylum-seekers fleeing violence in Somalia to the refugee camps in Dadaab in north-eastern Kenya is causing overcrowding that could lead to a humanitarian crisis, UN officials have warned.
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By Louise Redvers

LUANDA, Nov 18 (IPS) - She was orphaned by Angola’s liberation struggle against Portugal, but through it she found a new family and a life-long inspiration.

“I was raised on politics, I grew up through the revolution,” says Luzia Inglês Van-Dúnem, one of Angola’s top women politicians.
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Mark Weisbrot

Can South America escape the wrath of the economic and financial storms that have their epicenter in the United States? Since the financial meltdown began in mid-September, the bond markets of most of the region (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela) have been hit, as well as most of their stock markets and a number of currencies. The steep drop in commodity prices in recent months has also reduced export and government revenue to a number of countries (Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Chile) where previously high prices of agricultural crops, minerals, and hydrocarbons has contributed to a growth spurt over the last few years. The old adage that “When America gets a cold, Latin America catches pneumonia” has been widely cited.
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By Jeffrey Fleishman - Los Angeles Times

Conservative Muslims may find it harder to rally opposition to a U.S. led by a multicultural, charismatic president. He could also inspire an Internet-based revolt.

November 16, 2008 .Reporting from Cairo - Despising America has long been a Middle East pastime, but then the country that brought war to Iraq and orange-suited prisoners to Guantanamo Bay elected a Facebook-friendly president who speaks in poems.
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Thalif Deen interviews HEIDEMARIE WIECZOREK-ZEUL, German Development Minister

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 17 (IPS) - A United Nations conference on Financing for Development (FfD) is scheduled to take place in Doha, Qatar, next week against the backdrop of a devastating global economic crisis that has threatened to undermine the basic foundations of Anglo-Saxon capitalism.

The U.S. economy is under siege; the Eurozone has fallen into recession; commercial and investment banks are in a state of collapse; unemployment is on the rise; consumer spending is on the decline; the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals are threatened; and an entire country, Iceland, has virtually gone bankrupt.
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By Adrianne Appel

BOSTON, Nov 14 (IPS) - Nearly five weeks after Congress gave the nod to a 700-billion-dollar bailout fund, and as the economy sinks deep into a recession, no definite plan is in sight for struggling U.S. homeowners.

“We have the potential for a true economic disaster,” said Susan Wachter of the Wharton School of Economics, at a congressional hearing Thursday.
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From The Economist print edition

There may be less to China’s fiscal-stimulus package than meets the eye; but it is still hugely welcome

Nov 13th 2008 ASKED what China will do to rescue the world from financial turmoil, its officials these days have a boilerplate answer: its “greatest contribution” will be to keep its own economy running smoothly. It is tempting to dismiss this trite formulation as a meaningless excuse for inaction. For two reasons, that would be a mistake. First it is broadly speaking true. Continued rapid growth in China can do much to mitigate the rich world’s recession . Second, the announcement this week of a massive fiscal-stimulus package suggests the government does intend to do what it can to keep its own economic engine purring.
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From The Economist print edition - Nov 13th 2008

Government leaders cannot rewrite the rules this weekend. But they can still do some useful things

IT IS tempting to dismiss the upcoming G20 meeting as a piece of political theatre. Presidents and prime ministers from a score of rich and emerging economies will descend on Washington, DC, ostensibly to remake the rules of global finance. Several have talked grandly of a sequel to the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, which created the post-war system of fixed exchange rates and established the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. That is nonsense. The original Bretton Woods lasted three weeks and was preceded by more than two years of technical preparation. Today’s crisis may be the gravest since the Depression, but global finance will not be remade in a five-hour powwow hosted by a lame-duck president after less preparation than many corporate board meetings. Yet for three reasons it is still a meeting worth having.
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By Adrianne Appel

BOSTON, Nov 13 (IPS) - Women’s right activists see an open door to the White House of President-elect Barack Obama, and they plan to walk right in and take a seat.

“This is the time to finish the unfinished revolution,” said Byllye Avery, founder of the Black Women’s Health Imperative.
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By Amna Nawaz & Libby Leist
Producers - NBC News

The next secretary of state will face challenges in Iraq, Russia, Pakistan

WASHINGTON- Nov. 12, 2008- The carpets are shampooed and the computers are set up.

Office space for about two-dozen State Department guests sits ready to receive President-elect Barack Obama’s foreign policy transition team — the first major transition for the agency since the Clinton administration turned the keys over to George W. Bush.
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By Adrianne Appel*

BOSTON, Nov 12 (Tierramérica) - The Antarctic holds the world’s largest amount of fresh water in its icy grip, and it is most certainly warming as a result of greenhouse gases, say new scientific studies.

“We’re able for the first time to directly attribute warming in both the Arctic and the Antarctic to human influences,” said Nathan Gillett of the University of East Anglia, in Britain, who led the study.
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By Craig Whitlock - Washington Post Foreign Service

Some Public Figures Display Open Scorn

BERLIN, Nov. 10 – Europe erupted in cheers to celebrate Barack Obama’s election as president, but the continent is seeing its share of insensitive racial blunders, too.
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By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Nov 11 (IPS) - Internal concerns are beginning to supersede China’s ambition to play the role of responsible international stakeholder and spearhead demands for the establishment of a new global financial order.

While Beijing wants a bigger say in global financial bodies that are to emerge from the current economic crisis, its priorities lie with boosting an increasingly sluggish domestic economy.
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The Independent

November 10, 2008 - Beset by war on two fronts, a rapidly emptying national Treasury and the worst economic crisis in decades, Barack Obama and George Bush are trying to ensure that the transfer of power between them goes as smoothly as possible.
The President-elect and Mr Bush will begin substantive discussions on the handover today when the Obamas visit the White House. While Laura Bush takes Michelle Obama on a tour of the first floor residential areas of her new home, Mr Bush will host his successor for talks in the Oval office.
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By Apostolis Fotiadis

SOKHUMI, Abkhazia, Nov 10 (IPS) - The Russian city of Adler, at the southern edge of the country on the Black sea coast, is the only gateway that has kept Abkhazia connected to the rest of the world during 16 years of isolation since the Abkhazian-Georgian war of 1992.
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ANSA

Italian premier causes stir with ‘compliment’

(ANSA) - Moscow, November 6 - Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday called United States President-elect Barack Obama ‘’tanned'’.

‘’Obama is young, handsome and also tanned, so he has all the qualities to agree with you,'’ Berlusconi told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
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By Julio Godoy

BERLIN, Nov 7 (IPS) - Among the few things whose sales are picking up in these recessionary times are the works of Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. Both, in their own way, argue a central role for the state in managing the economy.

“Thanks to the crisis of neo-liberalism, Karl Marx is en vogue again,” says Joern Schuetrumpf, managing director of the Berlin-based publishing house Karl-Diez Verlag. Schuetrumpf publishes the original German edition of Marx’s collected works, including Das Kapital (The Capital).
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Analysis by Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, Nov (IPS) - While a President Barack Hussein Obama will present a strikingly different face of the United States to the rest of the world, how different his actual foreign policy will be remains unclear.
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By PAUL KRUGMAN (*)

The long-feared capitulation of American consumers has arrived. According to Thursday’s G.D.P. report, real consumer spending fell at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the third quarter; real spending on durable goods (stuff like cars and TVs) fell at an annual rate of 14 percent.
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