War Tourism Skips Reality
The tour guide’s voice echoes around the dark, musty room, three stories underground. Fifty visitors – among them mothers holding infants, youths snapping pictures on mobile phones and grandparents...
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Acquittal in The Hague Sparks Controversy
Stojan Kovacevic spent last weekend going about his usual routine in his tiny dwelling in the village of Grocka, near Belgrade: cleaning the kitchen and bedroom, going to the local green market and...
View ArticleASEAN Stumbles Again On South China Sea
Against the backdrop of growing territorial tensions in the South China Sea, inflamed by a more explicit Sino-American rivalry in the Pacific theatre, the recently-concluded ASEAN Summit in Cambodia...
View ArticleQ&A: Honouring the Silent Courage of Afghan Women
Violence against women is internationally recognised as a threat to democracy, a burden on national economies, and a serious human rights violation. Yet in Afghanistan today, 87 percent of women face...
View ArticleEnd of Assault Opens Opportunities for Gaza
As the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas seems to be holding, many are hoping that one of the agreement’s main points – the easing of restrictions on people and goods coming in and out of the Gaza...
View ArticleOpposition to U.S. Bases Reaches Turning Point
Okinawa, the largest of a group of 60 sub-tropical islands forming Japan’s southernmost prefecture, has an equable climate and preferential treatment for United States servicemen under the Mutual...
View ArticleCoastal Erosion Reaches Alarming Levels in Vietnam
For the last decade, many families in this southwestern Vietnamese province have been uprooted at least once every two years – but this is not due to economic or political upheaval. Rather, extreme...
View ArticleBuilding More Democratic Families in Argentina
A wide-ranging reform of Argentina’s civil code is looking to replace traditional concepts of parental authority and control with one of parental responsibility, while expressly prohibiting corporal...
View ArticleGuyana Seeks to Shield Gold Miners from Mercury Ban
As regional delegates meet to discuss a legally binding ban on the use of mercury this week, Guyanese officials are arguing that an exception should be made for the South American country’s lucrative...
View ArticleBOOKS: “Original Sins” Fuelled U.S.-Iran Enmity
I have never read a book quite like this. “Becoming Enemies” is the latest product of the indispensable National Security Archive, the Washington non-profit that has given new meaning to the Freedom of...
View ArticleOlder, Wiser and Living with HIV/AIDS
When HIV/AIDS first emerged in the 1980s, the stereotypical image of a person living with the disease in the United States was a young or middle-aged white homosexual male. For decades, that stigma has...
View ArticleQ&A: “Latin America Could Eradicate Hunger by 2025”
The hunger suffered by 49 million people in Latin America could be eradicated by 2025, according to Spanish agricultural engineer Ricardo Rapallo. He said it is possible because the region produces...
View ArticlePressure Builds for U.S. Response to Egypt Power Grab
The U.S. government is suggesting that pending aid worth billions of dollars for Egypt may be withheld unless President Mohamed Morsi dials back on recent moves, announced Thursday, that would...
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Development Targets Ride on Vitamins
One hundred and ninety million – that’s more than the populations of Germany, France and Poland combined. It is also the number of children affected by vitamin A deficiency around the world. An...
View ArticleAvoiding the Slippery Slope to War with Iran
Amidst reports that stalled negotiations with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme may soon be jump-started, many here are arguing that a mutually negotiated settlement remains the most...
View ArticleIn Post-Fukushima Japan, Civil Society Turns up Heat on Officials
For the former industrial engineer Yastel Yamada, retirement has not meant he can finally stop working. Instead, the 73-year-old and about 700 other skilled seniors across Japan have volunteered to...
View ArticleCooperatives as Business Models of the Future
When the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC) concluded last week, some of the overwhelming success stories highlighted at a two-day interactive session came both from developing and developed...
View ArticleA Green Needle in the Haystack of Cuban Small Enterprise
Oasis Nelva is a refreshing green space in the midst of the grey asphalt landscape of Old Havana. The ornamental plant shop is also one of only a handful of eco-friendly initiatives among the upsurge...
View ArticleChinese and Brazilian Firms Building the New Angola
“In Luanda there are no matches.” This was the first line of a report written by Nobel Literature laureate Gabriel García Márquez in the Angolan capital in 1977. Soap, milk, salt and aspirin were other...
View ArticleAfrican Negotiators Saving Kyoto from the Grave
African negotiators attending the United Nations climate change talks in Doha, Qatar say they are determined to ensure that developed countries do not let the Kyoto Protocol die as its commitment...
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