The week with IPS 8/8

	Women Warriors Take Environmental Protection into Their Own Hands Amantha Perera Aleta Baun, an Indonesian environmental activist known in her community as Mama Aleta, has a penchant for wearing a colourful scarf on her head, but not for cosmetic reasons. The colours of the cloth, she says, represent the hues of the forests that are the lifeblood of her Mollo people living ... MORE > >
	Israel Bites Hand that Feeds, U.S. Feeds Hand that Bites Thalif Deen There is an age-old axiom in politics, says a cynical Asian diplomat, that you don't bite the hand that feeds you. But that longstanding adage never applied to Israel, which although sustained militarily by the United States, has had no compunction at lashing out at Washington if the U.S. is ... MORE > >
	Tech Entrepreneur Encourages Rwanda’s Young Women to Venture into ICT Aimable Twahirwa Akaliza Keza Gara is only 27, but she’s achieved much for women in Rwanda’s technology sector in just a short space of time. She is the founder and managing director of Shaking Sun, a multimedia business specialising in website development, graphic design and computer animation. She has a ... MORE > >
	Child Malnutrition Doesn’t Take Vacation in Spain Inés Benítez It’s two in the afternoon, and María stirs tomato sauce into a huge pot of pasta. School is out for the summer in Spain, but the lunchroom in this public school in the southern city of Málaga is still open, serving meals to more than 100 children from poor families. 3“The kitchen is always ... MORE > >
	Cuba’s Balsero Crisis Still an Open Wound, 20 Years On Ivet González Tears, silence and evasive responses are the reactions from Cubans when they are asked about the “balseros” or rafters crisis; two decades after an exodus without parallel in Latin America, it remains a taboo subject in this Caribbean island nation. Balseros was the term coined at the time to ... MORE > >
	The Deadly Occupation Attracting Kenya’s Youth Robert Kibet Allan Karanja, 22, is a sand harvester. His job is a complex and arduous one that involves him working in deep pits, equipped only with a shovel, crowbar and no protective gear, as he mines sand. It’s also a deadly occupation. In Rhonda area, situated south of Nakuru town and next to Lake Nakuru ... MORE > >
	Cameroon Wants the World to Wake Up to the Smell of its Coffee Ngala Killian Chimtom Issah Mounde Nsangou combs his 6.5-hectare Kouoptomo coffee plantation in Cameroon’s West Region, pulling up unwanted weeds and clipping off parasitic plants. For the 50-year-old farmer, the health of his coffee plants are of prime importance. “I have to prune the farm to make it neat. This will ... MORE > >
	Will Climate Change Lead to Conflict or Cooperation? Joel Jaeger The headline of every article about the relationship between climate change and conflict should be “It’s complicated,” according to Clionadh Raleigh. Director of the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, Raleigh thinks that researchers and the media have put too simplistic a spin on ... MORE > >
	Nigeria Wakes Up to its AIDS Threat Sam Olukoya Tope Tayo’s marriage broke up 11 years ago after she tested positive for HIV. Her angry and embarrassed husband took away their only child. Three months later, when the one year old boy tested positive, the husband dumped him with Tayo and absconded. “He abandoned us as if we had committed a ... MORE > >
Analysis: Ten Reasons for Saying ‘No’ to the North Over Trade Ravi Kanth Devarakonda and Phil Harris India’s decisive stand last week not to adopt the protocol of amendment of the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) unless credible rules were in place for the development issues of the South was met with "astonishment" and "dismay" by trade diplomats from the North, who described New Delhi’s as ... MORE > >
	Former War Zone Drinking its Troubles Away Amantha Perera Back in the day when the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ran a de-facto state in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, alcohol consumption was closely monitored, and sternly frowned upon. But after government forces destroyed the militant group in 2009, ushering a new era into a ... MORE > >
	Indigenous Leaders in Costa Rica Tell Ban Ki-moon Their Problems Diego Arguedas Ortiz Indigenous people in Costa Rica, hemmed in by violent attacks from farmers and ranchers who invade their land and burn down their homes, have found a new ally: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who met with 36 native leaders during a recent visit to this country. The leaders, ... MORE > >
	In Pakistan, Militants Wear Aid Workers’ Clothing Ashfaq Yusufzai Muhammad Tufail, a 22-year-old resident of Mardan, one of 26 districts that comprise Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, has recently become a volunteer aid worker. Moved by the plight of nearly a million refugees fleeing a military offensive in the North Waziristan Agency of ... MORE > >
	How Farming is Making Côte d’Ivoire’s Prisoners ‘Feel Like Being Human Again’ Marc-Andre Boisvert François Kouamé, prisoner Number 67, proudly shows off a sow and her four piglets. Dressed in his rubber boots, he passes by two new tractors as he happily makes his way to a field where pretty soon cassava and corn plants will start growing. “Look at those sprouts. It is a lot of work!” Being ... MORE > >
	Politics Complicates Education in Lebanon’s Refugee Camps Shelly Kittleson The Shatila Palestinian camp has no library, nor does adjacent Sabra or Ain El-Hilweh in the south. And, after recent statements by Lebanon’s foreign minister, some fear that the thousands of Syrian refugee children within them will soon have even slimmer chances of learning to read and ... MORE > >