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We all feel desperate watching the horrible killings, the suffering of the bereaved and the whole population. But what can be done?
Could it be that the U.N., and governments in general, have a tendency to repeat the same mistake, starting at the wrong end? They usually apply this formula: (…)

"If we want to save life and humanity, we are obliged to end the capitalist system." Bolivian President Evo Morales
We hear and read that the economy is rebounding – again – and this during a multi billion dollar presidential campaign. Gee. Threats of more foreign wars are also unrelated to (…)

How strategies to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation could impact on biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples in developing countries
Executive Summary
This publication includes independent monitoring reports on the development of national strategies to Reduce Emissions (…)

A close look at past and present shows the self-immolators and their struggle to be anything but apolitical.
The string of self-immolations inside Tibet – started in 2009 by a Kirti Monastery monk named Tapey and which most recently claimed two monks in Barkham County on 30 March – shows no (…)

The Budget provides proof of the United Progressive Alliance government having forgotten the importance of its own “flagship schemes”.
BUDGET 2012-13 provides conclusive proof that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has lost its way. It has managed the remarkable feat of (…)

The buzz generated online at momentous junctures, such as the uprisings in the Arab world, is certainly more than mere static.
[...] The nature and scope of the agency of the social media in the Arab Spring are, given the continuing flux in the region, a developing story. But the reading in (…)

US ranked fifth in executions with 43 in 2011, Amnesty International reports
Amnesty International has released its annual report on executions and the death penalty and found that executions were up in 2011. The increase, accoring to the report, is largely due to the reaction of Middle (…)

In June this year, the United Nations Conference of Environment and Development (UNCED) popularly known, as the Rio Earth Summit will commemorate 20 years. It was originally held in Brazil in 1992. You may recall that in 2002, South Africa hosted the World Summit on Sustainable Development (…)

Any attempts at playing Good Samaritan in Syria must be tempered by the fact that this is the Levant, where Asia touches the Mediterranean.
Ba’ath Party rule is as despicable a form of Government as is possible to find. Ruthless in their tyranny, Ba’athists employ every possible means of (…)

Two Ecuadoran journalists have been ordered to pay President Rafael Correa US$2 million in moral damages - the latest in a string of incidents that point to a "disturbing" and "deteriorating" free expression situation in Ecuador under President Rafael Correa, says IFEX-ALC, an alliance of 16 (…)

Public demonstrations have been central to South Africa’s democratic life for decades. Yet recent events suggest a narrowing of the substance of the right to assemble, demonstrate and picket, and a de-legitimisation of street politics. In this regard, the City of Cape Town’s near hysterical (…)

John Riddell interviews Felipe Stuart Cournoyer
In a fit of petulant anger, the US government lashed out on January 25 against the outcome of Nicaragua’s recent presidential election. To understand the context of the US threats, I talked to Felipe Stuart Cournoyer, a Nicaraguan citizen and (…)

Malawi is more dependent on environmental assets than most other countries, with over 80 per cent of Malawians involved in farming. The country is also vulnerable to environmental risks, such as floods and droughts and long-term climate change. If the stocks and flows of environmental assets are (…)

Burma edges towards peace.
Hopes of an end to the world’s longest-running insurgency were raised in recent days, as several ethnic rebel groups entered into ceasefire agreements with the Burmese government. The most important of these took place on 12 January, when the Karen National Union (…)

India seems to have arrived at the threshold of polio eradication, but should it lower its guard?
ON January 13, India achieved what had only two years ago seemed impossible in the immediate term. The country, which, given the epidemiological data in the new millennium, had come to be regarded (…)

India fails to extract emission cut commitments from Annex I countries in return for agreeing to the Durban Mandate at the climate talks.
INDIAN negotiators perhaps lost the wood for the trees at the two-week-long 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework (…)

Gender equity is a key element of any genuine program towards sustainable development. Analysis included on the Social Watch Report 2012 and the national contributions to the study prove, once again, the stagnation of the fight against these disparities, with disastrous consequences on the (…)

For the Government of India the first phase of the national solar mission has been a grand success. It not only managed to attract industry to invest in the generation of an energy considered costly, but also dramatically drove down the cost of producing this energy. In its celebration, little (…)

Discussions about Green Economy often ignore the Social, this video considers this issue.
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By Nnimmo Bassey,, Pambazuka Press, £14.95
People in Africa argue that natural resources are a blessing; it is the way these are plundered and used that can turn them into a curse. The continent has plenty of experience of such plunder. Rich in resources, Africa is a net supplier of energy and (…)