The Week with IPS 6/20

	Nicaragua’s Mayagna People and Their Rainforest Could Vanish José Adán Silva More than 30,000 members of the Mayagna indigenous community are in danger of disappearing, along with the rainforest which is their home in Nicaragua, if the state fails to take immediate action to curb the destruction of the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, the largest forest reserve in Central America ... MORE > >
	ARV Shortages Hit Mozambique's HIV Treatment Programme Amos Zacarias Chronic shortages of antiretrovirals across Mozambique are endangering the health and the lives of tens of thousands of HIV positive people on treatment. Some 454,000 people are on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, or just under one-third of the 1.6 million Mozambicans living with HIV in 2013, ... MORE > >
	Water Cut-off in U.S. City Violates Human Rights, Say Activists Thalif Deen When the United Nations reaches out to resolve a water or sanitation crisis, it is largely across urban slums and remote villages in Asia, Africa or Latin America and the Caribbean. But a severe water crisis in the financially bankrupt city of Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan has prompted ... MORE > >
	Argentina Once More on the Map, Invited by BRICS Fabiana Frayssinet As Argentina starts to mend fences with the international financial markets, the emerging powers that make up the BRICS bloc invited it to their next summit. This could be a step towards this country’s reinsertion in the global map, after its ostracism from the credit markets since the late 2001 ... MORE > >
	Women Herders Bring Change Athar Parvaiz When Sangan Bhai, a humble man in the Kutch region of India’s western state of Gujarat, was offered a position as an executive member of the local camel breeder’s association, he made a decision that surprised his community: instead of accepting the prestigious post he offered his wife’s name ... MORE > >
	Saving Tanzania’s Underground Hip Hop Scene Adam Bemma Inside a dark, cramped, music studio on Arusha’s hillside slum of Kijenge Juu, a thumping hip hop beat rattles the window-less room. A soft-spoken 26-year-old who goes by the name Raf MC steps up to the microphone. He glances down at a piece of paper in his hand. Taking a deep breath, he starts to ... MORE > >
	Picture the World as a Desert Kanya D'Almeida Try to imagine an expanse of barren land, stretching for miles, with no trace of greenery, not a single bough to cast a sliver of shade, or a trickle of water to moisten the parched earth. Now imagine that desert expanding by 12 million hectares a year. Why? Because it’s already ... MORE > >
	South Sudan’s Wildlife Become Casualties Of War and Are Killed to Feed Soldiers and Rebels Charlton Doki While South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar agreed last week to end the country’s devastating six-month conflict by forming a transitional government within the next two months, it may come too late for this country’s wildlife as conservation officials accuse fighters ... MORE > >
	U.S. Supreme Court “Validates” Vulture Fund Activities Carey L. Biron The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reject an appeal by the Argentine government will embolden aggressive “holdout” creditors, anti-poverty groups say, and make it far more difficult to arrive at debt-relief agreements for poor countries. The move, announced Monday, is a definitive setback for ... MORE > >
	Pacific Disability Theatre Group Inspires and Educates Catherine Wilson In the Pacific Island state of Vanuatu, 23 actors with disabilities, from youth to senior citizens, who have battled physical and social barriers all their lives, are now empowering themselves and others through socially engaged theatre. Plays inspired by their personal experiences are impacting ... MORE > >
	Mosul Refugees Victims of "Victory of the Revolution” Jewan Abdi “People with long beards and dressed like Afghans broke into our neighbourhood after they had bombed it. We were lucky to escape from that nightmare,” Aum Ahmad, a46-year-old woman from Mosul – 400 km northwest of Baghdad – told IPS from the recently set up Khazar refugee camp, 25 km east of the ... MORE > >
Despite Crisis, Europe Continues to Protect Its Banksters Julio Godoy More than six years after the global financial crisis broke out, European Union (EU) countries continue to protect banks and investments funds from tougher rules, despite abundant evidence of recurrent criminal or reckless activities in the sector, and new accumulation of enormous financial ... MORE > >