Climate Crisis Could Open Doors for Change, Says UNCTAD
|
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 8 (IPS) - As the financial crisis continued to threaten world economies last year, the White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel famously declared: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." The U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) subscribes to the Emanuel philosophy that crises always "offer a window of opportunity to embark on a path of more resilient and sustainable economic growth."
The Geneva-based U.N. agency implicitly argues that even in the most economically disastrous circumstances, one has to see the brighter side of things - however gloomy the outlook. In its 'Trade and Environment Review 2009-2010' released Monday, UNCTAD says the global economic and financial crisis and the inter-related climate, food, and water crises have imposed themselves as "defining parametres for policy-making today."
"Understanding the causes and consequences of these crises, and drawing lessons from them should spur dramatic economic and policy changes," it says. These changes have to come primarily in three areas: energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture and renewable energies for rural development.
Read more
Sanctions Are the Talk of the Day
|
Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (IPS) - If there were any doubts about what exactly U.S. President Barack Obama meant when he warned Iran of "growing consequences" during his State of the Union address last month, they seem to be dispelled by recent statements from top administration officials, who are beating the sanctions drum loud and clear.
When U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates spoke of sanctions Monday as the sole remaining option in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions, he was echoing another more outspoken colleague - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track but it will require all of the international community to work together," Gates said during a news conference Monday in Paris with French Defence Minister Herve Morin, regarding the need for tougher sanctions.
Harve was in "complete agreement" with his U.S. counterpart. But should Iran have a last-minute change of heart and concede to Western demands, the U.S. and its allies would be open to "a peaceful way to resolve this issue," the Pentagon chief said. Clinton had told reporters last Friday "We think it is important that we move now toward looking at what pressure, what sanctions can be brought to bear on the Iranians."
Read more
Rural Thailand Simmers with Anti-Government Rage
|
Marwaan Macan-Markar
SRANG KHOM, Thailand, Feb 8 (IPS) - Meal by meal, a political feast is being laid out under the night sky to nourish a wave of anti-government protests rapidly spreading across this rural heartland. The diners come dressed in their signature red shirts. This rice-growing town was the latest to join the bandwagon of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), a protest movement with strong links to the ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The organiser of the inaugural dinner and fundraiser in Srang Khom, in the north-east province of Udon Thani, were not disappointed. By 7 p.m. an open ground by the side of a harvested paddy field and scrub forest was full of local residents who had come to eat and to listen to anti-government tirades delivered from a stage.
"The people wanted to have a Red Shirt event here like other places," says Suthat Budom, one of the organisers of the Saturday night dinner, referring to the uniform red shirts that the pro-Thaksin protest movement is identified with. "They want real democracy." Suthat estimated that over 2,000 locals from five neighbouring subdistricts had filled the 220 tables that were laden with fried rice, fried fish served with sweet and sour sauce, a spicy Thai salad and a Chinese-style soup.
Read more
Q&A: ''There's a Limit to Fish Harvesting''
|
David Cronin interviews ISABELLA LOVIN, Swedish fisheries policy activist
BRUSSELS, Feb 8 (IPS) - The perilous state of the world's fish stocks has received less media attention than the more visible, palpable environmental problems like air pollution. Isabella Lovin is seeking to redress that balance. Her 2007 book 'Tyst hav' (Silent Seas) hit the best-seller list in her native Sweden, garnering her three awards, including the title of 'Journalist of the Year'.
Blending the techniques of investigative journalism with the style of a crime thriller, the book is still awaiting publication in the English language. But it has helped introduce Lovin to an international audience. Elected last year as a Green member of European Parliament, she has a new platform to push for a fundamental rethink of the European Union's (EU) 40-year-old common fisheries policy.
Read more
Analysis by Zoltan Dujisin
BUDAPEST, Feb 8 (IPS) - The 2004 'Orange revolution' saw a pro-Western leadership emerge victorious in a Presidential vote that opposed them to a pro-Russian candidate accused of vote rigging. After six years of political and economic chaos, the once villain Viktor Yanukovich has reclaimed the President's post.
Ever since outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko and current Prime Minister Yuliya Timoshenko successfully led the 2004 popular uprising against allegations of electoral fraud that were internationally-backed, the high democratic expectations created gradually gave way to disappointment with the leaders' inability to work together and to better the country's depressing economic situation.
Following a campaign filled with mutual accusations of vote-rigging plans, the runoff of the presidential vote saw Yanukovich obtain 48.8 percent of the vote, closely followed by Timoshenko with 45.6 percent. The main outcome of the first round on Jan. 17 had been the sound defeat of President Viktor Yushchenko and his anti-Russian line. In spite of popular fatigue with yearly elections, turnout bordered 70 percent. Representatives from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and the European Union have all considered the election free and fair, and have called on all sides to accept its results.
Read more
Costa Rica's Chinchilla to Join Club of Women Presidents
|
Daniel Zueras
SAN JOSE, Feb 8 (IPS) - Laura Chinchilla of the governing National Liberation Party (PLN) will be the first female president of Costa Rica and the ninth in the history of Latin America. Chinchilla, who won a landslide victory in Sunday's elections in this Central American country, thus follows in the footsteps of former President Isabel Peron (1974-1976) and current President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997) in Nicaragua, Mireya Moscoso (1999-2004) in Panama and President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, whose term began in 2006 and ends Mar. 11.
Other women who briefly held the presidency were Lidia Gueiler Tejada, acting president of Bolivia from 1979 to 1980, Ertha Pascal Trouillot, who governed Haiti in 1990-1991, and Rosalia Arteaga, who was interim president of Ecuador for just six days after Abdala Bucaram was ousted in 1997. Because she took 47 percent of the vote in Sunday's elections, Chinchilla avoided a run-off (she needed at least 40 percent to do so).
Although the polls showed she was the front-runner, they gave her a smaller lead. The former vice president will succeed President Oscar Arias of the PLN, which has social democratic roots but has made a shift towards more neoliberal policies in recent years. Chinchilla carried all seven of Costa Rica's provinces, and 80 of the 81 "cantons" into which these are divided.
Read more
|
