The Week with IPS 4/2

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	No Rest for the Elderly in India Neeta Lal As more and more people in India enter the ‘senior citizen’ category, ugly cracks are beginning to appear in a social structure that claims to value the institution of family but in reality expresses disdain for the bonds of blood. Recent research by HelpAge India, a leading charity dedicated to ... MORE > >
	Curbing Tobacco Use – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back Diana Mendoza The numbers are in, and there’s not much to celebrate: every year, about six million people die as a result of tobacco use, including 600,000 who succumb to the effects of second-hand smoke. Whether consumed by smoking or through other means, tobacco is a deadly business, and while usage ... MORE > >
	Opinion: World Leaders Lack Ambition to Tackle Climate Crisis Dipti Bhatnagar and Susann Scherbarth World governments expect to agree to a new global treaty to combat climate change in Paris in December. As the catastrophic impacts of climate change become more evident, so too escalates the urgency to act. Mar. 31 should have marked a major milestone on the road to Paris, yet only a handful of ... MORE > >
	Lesbians Receiving Unequal Treatment from Cuban Health Services Ivet González In addition to other forms of discrimination, lesbian and bisexual women in Cuba face unequal treatment from public health services. Their specific sexual and reproductive health needs are ignored, and they are invisible in prevention and treatment campaigns for women. Many lesbian and bisexual ... MORE > >
	Nicaragua's Future Canal a Threat to the Environment José Adán Silva The new interoceanic canal being built in Nicaragua has brought good and bad news for the scientific community: new species and archeological sites have been found and knowledge of the local ecosystems has grown, but the project poses a huge threat to the environment. Preliminary reports by ... MORE > >
	There’s No Such Thing as Equality in India’s Labour Force Neeta Lal It calls itself the ‘world’s largest democracy’ but the 380 million working-aged women in India might disagree with that assessment. Recent research shows that only 125 million women of a working age are currently employed, with the number of women in the workforce declining steadily since ... MORE > >
	Why So Many Palestinian Civilians Were Killed During Gaza War Mel Frykberg The U.N. investigation into Israel’s devastating military campaign against Gaza, from July to August 2014, has been delayed until June and in the interim Israel and the Palestinians are waging a media war to win the moral narrative as to why so many Palestinian civilians were killed during the ... MORE > >
	Impunity Fuels Abuse in Immigrant Detention Centres in Spain Inés Benítez “They mistreat you, they don’t respect you. I’ve seen beatings, suffering, and you can’t defend yourself. When you’re locked in there it’s as if you were in another world,” Salif Sy, a Senegalese man who in 2011 spent eight days in an immigrant detention centre (CIE) in Madrid, told IPS. Behind ... MORE > >
	Israel Using Live Ammunition for Palestinian Crowd Control Mel Frykberg A Palestinian youth lost his fight for life this week after lying critically injured in Ramallah Hospital for days after Israeli soldiers used live ammunition as a method of crowd control against stone-throwing Palestinians near a Palestinian refugee camp. “Ali Safi had critical injuries to his ... MORE > >
	Afghanistan’s Economic Recovery: A New Horizon for South-South Partnerships? Kanya D'Almeida First the centre of the silk route, then the epicenter of bloody conflicts, Afghanistan’s history can be charted through many diverse chapters, the most recent of which opened with the election of President Ashraf Ghani in September 2014. Having inherited a country pockmarked with the scars of ... MORE > >