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Moldova is the country known in the world as one of the poorest ex-Soviet states, like Armenia and Georgia. It is also one of the most multi-cultural and multi-lingual countries, with a long tradition of mixed marriages and hybrid identities. According to the latest census conducted in 2004, (…)

There’s been an outcry in America about the financial rescue plan unveiled by the Obama administration under the leadership of Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. The Obama administration plans to buy up $2 trillion in toxic financial assets. The plan is being denounced by economists in the (…)

Dee Torres sees history in the making in the West Texas borderlands. The elementary school teacher wants to be part of the history of the borderlands, and wants her grandchildren to remember these times.
Torres, a resident since a child of the border town of Ft. Hancock, is taking photos of (…)

After a decade of political polarisation and international stand-off, the debate on Zimbabwe has finally been opened up to a wider reading public, thanks to Mahmood Mamdani’s ‘Lessons of Zimbabwe’ appearing in the London Review of Books (4 December 2008) and Pambazuka News (3 December 2008). (…)

Although Amazonia is a concentrate of all possible dangers, not only to its inhabitants but also for the planet’s ecological balances, it also represents a territory for life and the future. The game is not over. In this dawning of the twenty-first century, it is poised to become one of those (…)

Diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world cause immense suffering and ill health. Medical innovation has the potential to deliver new medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics to overcome these diseases, yet few treatments have emerged. Current efforts to resolve the crisis are (…)

Civil society actors throughout the world are increasingly involved in public policy making, on the national as well as the international level. Their strategies and impact was the theme of an international seminar held in Paris in 2007, jointly organized by the Institute for Research and Debate (…)

As many Latin American policy analysts have suggested, the election of moderate-left Fernando Lugo and his Alianza Patriotica para el Cambio coalition is yet another manifestation of a South American referendum in favor of a socialist-tinged democracy. Undoubtedly, Lugo’s inauguration marked a (…)

It would be a squint-eyed view to read in Obama’s victory just a historic moment for African-Americans in the United States of America (USA).
It should be granted that Obama’s entry through the front door of the White House rather than the back door, once reserved for black cleaners only, does (…)

This edition of SoE illustrates the immense challenges facing the mining sector in India: how to ensure ecological security together with inclusive development. It assesses the sector’s efficacy in promoting ’growth’ in mineral-rich areas, while scrutinising government initiatives in (…)

Early voting has begun, and problems are already emerging at the polls. In West Virginia, voters using touchscreen machines have claimed their votes were switched from Democrat to Republican. In North Carolina, a group of McCain supporters heckled a group of mostly black supporters of Barack (…)

President Thabo Mbeki formally announced his early resignation in an address televised live in South Africa on Sunday night.
He said he had handed his letter of resignation to the Speaker of the South African Parliament, Baleka Mbete. It would become effective on a date to be determined by the (…)

Fernando Lugo’s triumph in the Paraguayan presidential elections is historic, not only because it is the first time in the world that an ex-bishop has won a presidential election, but also because it marks the end of the Colorado Party’s hegemony, after more than sixty years in power. After his (…)

When I phoned Aung San Suu Kyi’s home in Rangoon yesterday, I imagined the path to her door that looks down on Inya Lake. Through ragged palms, a trip-wire is visible, a reminder that this is the prison of a woman whose party was elected by a landslide in 1990, a democratic act extinguished by (…)

When news arrived of the catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan, my mind turned to Zheng Sun Man, an up-and-coming security executive I met on a recent trip to China. Zheng heads Aebell Electrical Technology, a Guangzhou-based company that makes surveillance cameras and public address systems and (…)

The Bush administration’s claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq formed the key justification for the war to Congress, the American people and the international community. As the former chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, Hans Blix was at the center of the storm. From March (…)

Women make up about half the population in Zimbabwe. But, they’re far from accounting for 50 percent of those on the ballot for this month’s general elections in the Southern African country — sparking concern amongst gender activists.
None of the four presidential candidates in the Mar. 29 (…)

John Pilger argues that an unreported war is being waged by the US to restore power to the privileged classes at the expense of the poor
Beyond the sound and fury of its conquest of Iraq and campaign against Iran, the world’s dominant power is waging a largely unreported war on another (…)

Assaulted on all sides owing to its entanglement in the ZTE-NBN corruption scandal, the administration has confronted its critics with the image of an economy that is purring along, that is doing just fine except for the rise in the price of rice, for which it says it is blameless. Read more

The established democracies are accepting flawed and unfair elections for political expediency, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2008. By allowing autocrats to pose as democrats, without demanding they uphold the civil and political rights that make democracy (…)