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Everywhere in the world people care for and try to preserve the things they value.
What is considered valuable is relative to the socio-cultural context, and often things that are of great significance and deeply precious for some individuals and groups are not for others. There are things and (...)

What can a humble loaf of bread tell us about the world?
The answer is: far more than you might imagine. For one thing, that loaf can be “read” as if it were a core sample extracted from the heart of a grim global economy. Looked at another way, it reveals some of the crucial fault lines of (...)

As the U.S. suffers through catastrophic tornadoes, heat waves, and other climate extremes - no doubt just a small taste of what the climate crisis will bring in the future - polluting industries and the politicians that serve them want to convince you that excess carbon dioxide in the (...)

There are important lessons for India in the murderous violence in Norway: lessons it can ignore only at risk to its own survival.
In 2008, Hindutva leader B.L. Sharma ‘Prem’ held a secret meeting with key members of a terrorist group responsible for a nationwide bombing campaign targeting (...)

The European Patent Office awarded Syngenta a patent on melons „with a pleasant taste“, after an opposition filed by another seed company to revoke the patent had been rejected. According to a poll among Swiss consumers a majority of respondents reject such patents as well as the food products (...)

Worries about contagion; Brazil now a U.S. creditor
After three decades spent battling their own debt crises and getting constantly lectured about them by Uncle Sam, many Latin Americans are watching the countdown to a possible default in Washington with a mix of schadenfraude and fear of what (...)

Increasing oil prices, rising energy demands, climate change and Kyoto Protocol commitments are the causes of an emerging worldwide renewable energy boom. These renewables include agrofuels, such as agrodiesel made from rapeseed, palm oil, soybean oil or other types of vegetable oil, as well as (...)

Insights from the ProCana case, Mozambique
The Procana Bioethanol project in Mozambique is a clear example of how agrofuel investments contribute rather than mitigate climate change, and are often accompanied by dispossession and impoverishment caused by landgrabbing.
This paper examines the (...)

International Joint Statement Organized by Taiwan Rural Front (TRF)
Taipei, Taiwan—July 6th, 2011
Taiwan Rural Front (TRF) holds an international press conference today, requesting the authority to stop land grabbing in Taiwan. It also announces its “return” to the Ketagalan Boulevard on July (...)

Since cross-LoC trade began between Muzaffarabad-Uri and Poonch-Rawalakot, traders have found a way of insulating the process from outside influences with a fair amount of success.
“Both sides agreed to convene a meeting of the Working Group on cross-Line of Control (LoC) Confidence Building (...)

The carefully constructed decision to disband the untrained force of young Special Police Officers in Chhattisgarh holds important lessons for the exercise of executive power.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Nandini Sundar and Ors. v. State of Chhattisgarh is no ordinary one and, (...)

Mathematical errors in the classroom or on tests usually don’t carry a whole lot of consequences besides a blot on your grade and maybe a deflated sense of self-esteem.
But what happens when the mathematical error occurs in a major government energy agency? The ramifications could be huge, (...)

Alliance Sud and Nestlé have been engaged in a high-level dialogue on Colombia between 2006 and 2011. Alliance Sud examined the behaviour of the multinational and the accusations being levelled at it by local trade unions. Two years later it evaluated the implementation of its recommendations. (...)

Despite renewed crackdowns on the independent media in Belarus, there are signs that the tide is turning in the battle for free speech in the country. However, victory for the democratic forces will require politicizing Belarus’ young Internet audience, writes Iryna Vidanava.
Since the flawed (...)

Notwithstanding the indifference of most Russians, the Orthodox Church, with active support from the state, has effectively established itself as state religion.
[...]
After the collapse of the atheist Soviet Union, state persecution of religion came to an end in Russia. The new law on (...)

The Tunisian Taoufik Ben Abdallah has lived in Dakar for many years. As the news about the conflict in Tunisia began to spread, he was working on the organization of the World Social Forum, whose next edition was taking place in that Senegalian capital. As member of the International Council of (...)

Can Muslims ever fully be citizens of the West? Can the values of Islam ever be brought into accord with the individual freedoms central to the civic identity of Western nations? Not if you believe what you see on TV. Whether the bearded fanatic, the veiled, oppressed female, or the shadowy (...)

Indigenous societies today face difficult choices: can they develop, modernize, and advance without endangering their sacred traditions and communal identity? Specifically, can their communities benefit from national education while resisting the tendency of state-imposed programs to undermine (...)

Have we failed to slow global warming pollution in part because climate and environmental activists have been too polite and well behaved? Is it time to take to the streets, express some outrage, maybe engage in a little guerilla warfare against Big Oil and Big Coal?
That’s the message you get (...)

Ecuador is the only Andean nation without any large-scale metallic mines (such as gold and copper). This unique state of affairs is about to be tested in the next few weeks when the Correa government signs exploitation agreements with Chinese and Canadian transnational miners looking to exploit (...)