Tous les articles et traductions

, by Alterinfos América Latina

Dominican Republic - Political clientelism and poverty

by Edward D. Gonzalez-Acosta

In May 2006, after voting in the congressional elections, my family and I went up to visit some relatives up in the mountains just south of Rio San Juan. There we played dominoes and were preparing a sancocho, when my cousin walked in very proudly telling us that she had just gotten RD$500 for (…)

The economic policy of the Latin American left in government: Venezuela

TNI, November 2007, 52 pages

Venezuela has undergone profound political and social changes since Hugo Chávez assumed the presidency in February 1999. These transformations have been reflected in the fundamental pillars of the government’s economic policy. Chávez’s initially spoke about combating “savage neo-liberalism” and (…)

, by MALHOTRA Namita

The world wide web of desire: Content Regulation on the Internet

Published by: APC Women’s Networking Support Programme

It is obvious that the discourse around content regulation has shifted mostly towards the protection of children from harmful content and child pornography on the internet. Any references to gender-related concerns were dropped, including even problematic conceptions that women and children need (…)

, by Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Africa: A positive guide to dating

The dating scene is often compared to a jungle: rough, tough and a little bewildering. But when you’re HIV-positive and looking for love, the map’s even harder to decipher, the journey fraught with esteem-threatening decisions and nagging uncertainty.
To mark Valentine’s Day, IRIN/PlusNews had (…)

, by ESSF

After Bali: Time for a Different Kind of Climate Politics

By ANGUS Ian

In a narrow and formal sense, last month’s Climate Change conference in Bali achieved its objectives. The Kyoto Protocol is due to expire in 2012: the Bali gathering’s purpose was to adopt a roadmap for negotiating a new treaty — and that was done. A new roadmap, called the Bali Action Plan, was (…)

, by Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Myanmar : Aid in a tight space

Myanmar (formerly Burma), with a population of some 52 million, is one of the poorest countries in Asia, yet international aid had been negligible until recently.
Aid flows are rising, despite the isolation of the regime, a tense political environment and limited humanitarian space, according (…)

, by BELLO Walden

Why Asia’s farmers deserve protection

Focus on the Global South

One of the terrible truths of the 20th century is that it was a blight on small farmers or peasants everywhere. Before looking at the question of whether Asia’s farmers need protection, it is necessary to consider this historical background.
In both wealthy capitalist economies and in (…)

, by BELLO Walden

Americans Want a New Direction, but will Democrats Lead?

Focus on the Global South

The recent US election was a redemptive election. At a time that many throughout the world had written off the American electorate as lifeless putty in the hands of Karl Rove, it woke up to deliver the Republican Party its worse blow in the last quarter of a century. Not only independents and (…)

, by Grain

Fowl play: The poultry industry’s central role in the bird flu crisis

GRAIN, February 2006

Backyard or free-range poultry are not fuelling the current wave of bird flu outbreaks stalking large parts of the world. The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is essentially a problem of industrial poultry practices. Its epicentre is the factory farms of China and Southeast Asia and — while wild birds can carry the disease, at least for short distances — its main vector is the highly self-regulated transnational poultry industry, which sends the products and waste of its farms around the world through a multitude of channels. Yet small poultry farmers and the poultry biodiversity and local food security that they sustain are suffering badly from the fall-out. To make matters worse, governments and international agencies, following mistaken assumptions about how the disease spreads and amplifies, are pursuing measures to force poultry indoors and further industrialise the poultry sector. In practice, this means the end of the small-scale poultry farming that provides food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of families across the world. This paper presents a fresh perspective on the bird flu story that challenges current assumptions and puts the focus back where it should be: on the transnational poultry industry.

, by BELLO Walden

The Global Crisis of Legitimacy of Liberal Democracy

Focus on the Global South, October 2005

In the beginning of the 1990s, Samuel Huntigton argued that the "third wave of democratization" would free the world from dictators, and spread the model of Anglo-American democracy worldwide. However, history took another path. Analyzing the recent democratic trends in countries like the Philippines, Brazil and Argentina, this article warns that "capitalism and democratic deepening are no longer compatible."