The week with IPS 9/12

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	Free Economic Zone Plan Slammed as ‘Suicide’ Pact for Taiwan Farmers Dennis Engbarth The Taiwan government’s plan to liberalise tariff-free imports of agricultural produce from China and other countries for processing in free economic pilot zones, which will then be exported as ‘Made in Taiwan’ items, may mean suicide for Taiwanese farmers if approved by the national ... MORE > >
	How Niger’s Traditional Leaders are Promoting Maternal Health Joan Erakit It is a long, 14-hour drive from Niger’s capital city Niamey to the village of Bande. And the ride is a dreary one as the roadside is bare. The occasional, lone goat herder is spotted every few kilometres and the sightings become a cause of both confusion and excitement since there aren’t any ... MORE > >
	OPINION: A New European Foreign Policy in an Age of Anxiety Shada Islam The appointment of Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini as the new European Union foreign policy chief offers the opportunity for an overhaul of EU foreign and security policy. With many EU leaders, ministers and senior officials slow to respond to world events given Europe’s ... MORE > >
	Africa’s Dividing Farmlands A Threat To Food Security Miriam Gathigah When Kiprui Kibet pictures his future as a maize farmer in the fertile Uasin Gishu county in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, all he sees is the ever-decreasing plot of land that he has to farm on. “I used to farm on 40 hectares but now I only have 0.8 hectares. My father had 10 sons and we all ... MORE > >
	Hamas Rocket Launches Don’t Explain Israel’s Gaza Destruction Gareth Porter Israel and its supporters abroad have parried accusations of indiscriminate destruction and mass killing of civilians in Gaza by arguing that they were consequences of strikes aimed at protecting Israeli civilians from rockets that were being launched from very near civilian structures. That ... MORE > >
	NATO Poised to Escalate Tensions over Ukraine John Feffer The NATO summit that took place at the end of last week in Wales was supposed to celebrate the end of a long, draining war in Afghanistan. But with the presidential election still up in the air in Kabul, NATO couldn’t enjoy its “mission accomplished” moment. Instead, the assembled ministers took ... MORE > >
	Mexico’s Cocopah People Refuse to Disappear Daniela Pastrana In their language, Cocopah means “river people”. For over 500 years the members of this Amerindian group have lived along the lower Colorado River and delta in the Mexican states of Baja California and Sonora and the U.S. state of Arizona. They fish and make crafts for a living, have strong ... MORE > >
	War Over but Not Gaza’s Housing Crisis Khaled Alashqar “When the shelling started, I gathered up my family and headed for what I though was a safe place, like a school, but then that became overcrowded and lacked sanitation, so we ended up in the grounds of the hospital.” Islam Abu Sheira from Beit Hanoun, a city on the north-eastern edge of the ... MORE > >
	New Operation Could Hide Major Shift in Europe’s Immigration Control Policy Apostolis Fotiadis ‘Mare Nostrum’ – the largest search and rescue immigration operation ever carried out in the Mediterranean Sea – has become an issue of bitter brinkmanship between human rights groups and anti-immigrant lobbies. At a higher political level, it has produced a tough negotiation between Italy and ... MORE > >