IDEALS

GENEVA, (Feb. 26, 2010) IPS/GIN – The death penalty remains an
apparently fixed feature in many societies because it enjoys the
approval or consent of a large majority of the population, or is
based on supposed ancestral values or traditions.

The Fourth World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held in Geneva
Feb. 24-26, devoted often heated sessions to countering such
beliefs, regarded as a hindrance to the eradication of capital
punishment.

Political leaders, experts and activists from around the globe
meeting at the World Congress said the results of public opinion
polls are often imprecise and unreliable, and that reputable
scientists have said such surveys are “highly susceptible to
manipulation by the elite.” Read the rest of this entry →

BRUSSELS, (Mar. 8, 2010) IPS/GIN – A team of so-called wise persons
has recommended that the European Investment Bank (EIB) distribute
loans worth 2 billion euros (2.7 billion dollars) to projects
focusing on climate change between 2011 and 2013.

The recipients of these loans would include schemes aimed at
helping poor countries adapt to droughts and other extreme weather
conditions.

The team, led by Michel Camdessus, a former managing director of
the International Monetary Fund, believes that releasing these
loans would have “an exemplary value” as it would give the EIB’s
work a greater prominence in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Read the rest of this entry →

TEGUCIGALPA, (Feb. 26, 2010) IPS/GIN – Less than a month into his
term, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is facing street protests,
complaints of human rights violations, and criticism of the truth
commission he set up to investigate the Jun. 28 coup that overthrew
President Manuel Zelaya.

Thousands of Zelaya supporters took to the streets Thursday to
demand reforms of the constitution and an end to attacks on backers
of the ousted president, denounce corruption and rights abuses
since the coup, and protest the high cost of living and soaring
poverty levels.

Several teachers unions demanding payment of back wages also took
part in the protests organized by the National Front of Resistance
Against the Coup, now known as the Popular Resistance Front. Read the rest of this entry →

JERUSALEM, (Mar. 8, 2010) IPS/GIN – Was it Yasser Arafat’s biggest
political error? A decade ago, the deadline for the creation of an
independent Palestinian state alongside Israel as envisaged in the
1993 Oslo peace accords thrust itself into the fruitless
Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.

The then Palestinian president threatened to break the impasse by
declaring his state unilaterally.

Arafat repeatedly went to the brink. Israel also went to the brink,
warning that if the Palestinian leader declared independence
without agreement, that would end any prospect of a final peace
deal.

Each time Arafat waved the independence gambit, the international
community, spearheaded by the U.S., took the Israeli line. Each
time, at the last gasp, Arafat would be dissuaded. Read the rest of this entry →

NIAMEY, (Feb. 26, 2010) IPS/GIN – As its promised transition to
democratic rule begins, the military junta that overthrew Nigerien
president Mamadou Tandja on Feb. 18 has named a former information
minister, Mahamadou Danda, as the new prime minister while
retaining legislative and executive powers for itself.

Danda, 59, seen as unaffiliated to any political party, was
appointed on Feb. 23 by the Supreme Council for the Restoration of
Democracy (known by its French acronym, CSRD).

In a declaration broadcast nationally the previous day, CSRD head
Djibo Salou was announced as head of state and the government. The
junta will, for the moment, have the final word in governing the
country. Read the rest of this entry →

IDNA, Occupied West Bank, (Feb. 27, 2010) IPS/GIN – Israel’s
illegal occupation and continued expropriation of Palestinian land
in the West Bank has left 2.5 million Palestinians living there
with effectively less than 40 percent of the territory.

Muhammad Al Bedan, 55, a vegetable farmer with 14 children,
struggles to support his family on just over 600 US dollars a
month.

“We can only afford to eat chicken twice a month and red meat is
out of the question. I can’t afford to buy my children new
clothing. They rely on hand-me-downs. Three of my children have had
to leave school without completing their education so that they can
help to support the family,” Al Bedan told IPS. Read the rest of this entry →

SAN JOSE, (Mar. 8, 2010) IPS/GIN – The Costa Rican government has
declared retirement communities, aimed at attracting U.S.
pensioners, to be “of national interest.” Plans to create
“retirement clusters” providing complete health services for older
adults are seen as a profitable prospect for this Central American
country.

Old people as a business: this is the bottom line of the government
and private sector’s new project.

Noting the rapid development of the “health cities” in Mexico and
Panama, Costa Rican officials and entrepreneurs are poised to tap
into the perceived gold mine among middle and upper-middle class
senior citizens of industrialised countries. Read the rest of this entry →

CHIANG MAI, Thailand, (Feb. 27, 2010) IPS/GIN – Even as they were
prepared for the worst, supporters of ousted former Thai prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra conducted an eleventh-hour ritual in
his home province this week, hoping for a miracle in Friday’s court
verdict on the fate of his seized assets.

The ceremony outside a small hotel got underway just as the sun
approached noon above this Thai northern city ringed by hills. The
mix of prayers and pleas on Thursday, Feb. 25, had an offering to
the spirits that included nine steamed pigs’ heads, 19 steamed
chickens, 19 boiled ducks and 500 eggs.

“We prayed to get the support of the spirits in a country where
there is injustice and double standards,” said Petcharawat
Wattanapongsirikul, the owner of the 58-room hotel that has become
the headquarters in this region for the red shirt-wearing members
of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), an
anti-government protest movement whose political patron is Thaksin. Read the rest of this entry →

CAPE TOWN, (Mar. 8, 2010) IPS/GIN – While South African
parliamentarians attended a swanky pre-International Women’s Day
celebration at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre, a group
of destitute women in decaying Kewtown, just seven miles away,
worried about looming homelessness.

The women were notified by the municipality that their homes will
be bulldozed to make way for an extended parking lot for Cape
Town’s Athlone Training Stadium, while others were asked to vacate
their flats for renovations. But residents fear their flats,
situated in a prime location for the Soccer World Cup in June, will
be rented out to soccer fans. Read the rest of this entry →

BRUSSELS, (Feb. 27, 2010) IPS/GIN – Legal advice stating that
European vessels have no justification to fish off Western Sahara
- a territory occupied by Morocco – has provoked a row between the
main political institutions in Brussels.

Under the terms of a 2005 fishing agreement between the European
Union (EU) and Morocco, boats may operate in Western Sahara,
provided their activity benefits the indigenous Sahrawi people. But
a new paper written by lawyers advising the European Parliament has
found that there is no evidence of Sahrawis being aided due to the
accord’s implementation, which began in 2007.

The paper advocates that efforts should be made to find an
“amicable settlement” under which the Sahrawis can actually derive
benefits from the agreement. But if no such settlement is
forthcoming, it urges that European boats should be forbidden from
entering a 200 nautical mile zone off Western Sahara. Read the rest of this entry →