The Week with IPS 4/4

	Misgivings Rise Over Afghan Poll Giuliano Battiston “If Abdullah will become president, the will of Afghan people will be respected. Otherwise – especially if Zalmai Rassoul will be indicated as the winner – a new conflict will start and our country will become more insecure.” The remark by Abdullah Abdullah supporter Qazi Sadullah Abu Aman is ... MORE > >
	Zimbabwe's Positive Children, Negative News Busani Bafana Three years ago, Robert Ngwenya* and his father got into a heated argument over medication. Ngwenya, then aged 15, refused to continue swallowing the nausea-provoking pills he had been taking since he was 12 years old, and flushed them down the toilet. During the argument, Ngwenya understood he ... MORE > >
	Supreme Court Further Empowers Wealthy Political Donors Jim Lobe In a decision with major implications for the U.S. political system, a bare majority of the Supreme Wednesday ruled that the government cannot limit total spending by individuals on federal elections. The highly anticipated judgement, rendered by the Court’s five right-wing justices, declared ... MORE > >
	Rural Costa Rican Women Plant Trees to Fight Climate Change Diego Arguedas Ortiz Olga Vargas, a breast cancer survivor, is back in the countryside, working in a forestry programme in the north of Costa Rica aimed at empowering women while at the same time mitigating the effects of climate change. Her recent illness and a community dispute over the land the project previously ... MORE > >
	Afghans Set to Vote on Ethnic Lines Giuliano Battiston Ethnicities will come to the fore in the Afghan elections due Saturday this week, even though it appears that the young are beginning to break away from such loyalties. On Apr. 5, around 12 million voters will have the chance to elect a new president to replace President Hamid Karzai, ... MORE > >
	Russia Expelled From G8, but G20? Not So Fast Thalif Deen When Western powers, led by the United States, decided to throw Russia out of the Group of 8 (G8) industrial nations, it was aimed at punishing and "isolating" President Vladimir Putin for his intervention in Ukraine and "annexation" of Crimea. "What's next? Expel Russia from the United Nations ... MORE > >
	What Nepal Doesn’t Know About Water Mallika Aryal Water is a critical resource in Nepal’s economic development as agriculture, industry, household use and even power generation depends on it. The good news is that the Himalayan nation has plenty of water. The bad news - water abundance is seasonal, related to the monsoon months from June to ... MORE > >
	Q&A: “Bolivia Marked the Start of a Major Indigenous Awakening” Marianela Jarroud He describes himself as someone who was drawn to Marxism as a result of his commiseration with the plight of indigenous people in his country, and he is considered one of the most influential Latin American thinkers of the 21st century. Álvaro García Linera, 51, is seen as the “right hand man” ... MORE > >
	The Lady’s Allure Is Challenged Amantha Perera For over a quarter of a century Uhla Min has lived under the spell of “The Lady”, the popular nickname for Nobel Peace Laureate Aung Sung Suu Kyi. His involvement with Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party dates back to the days when Suu Kyi launched a campaign in the late ... MORE > >
	Organic Farmers Fight the Elements in Brazil Fabiola Ortiz Brazilian farmer Isabel Michi’s day starts before dawn, when she goes out to the organic garden on her small five-hectare farm that she runs with help from her husband and occasionally their children. Starting at 5 AM, the 42-year-old farmer of Japanese descent plows the soil, plants seeds and ... MORE > >
	Fighting Now Brings Disease Mutawalli Abou Nasser For just that moment, the refugees in Yarmouk camp in Damascus made news. After months of facing starvation and death in the shadows of the Syrian civil war came packets of food and aid in January - with cameras in tow. The refugees poured out on the streets in a river of desperation to claim ... MORE > >
	20 Years On - Rwanda Uses Genocide Reconciliation to Boost Economic Growth Aimable Twahirwa It’s almost 20 years now since Sylidio Gashirabake, a Hutu, was a perpetrator in Rwanda’s genocide. It’s also almost 20 years since his neighbour, Augustin Kabogo, a Tutsi, lost his sister and family in the violence. But today, both men work side-by-side in their joint business venture in Kirehe ... MORE > >
	To Spy To Live Khaled Alashqar “If you want to live and receive medical treatment, you have my number, so you can call me and agree to my request. You will then get medical help, and survive.” The request, the patient said, was from an Israeli intelligence officer looking to recruit him in exchange for treatment. The ... MORE > >