The Week with IPS 10/31

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	Crisis Fuelled Resurgence of Horse-Drawn Carriages in Cuba Ivet González Up and down the streets of towns and cities in Cuba go horse-drawn carriages with black leather tops and large back wheels, alongside more simple carts, operating as public transportation. This ancient means of transportation can be seen throughout this country, in urban, suburban and rural ... MORE > >
	Fossil Fuels Won’t Benefit Africa in Absence of Sound Environmental Policies Miriam Gathigah Recent discoveries of sizeable natural gas reserves and barrels of oil in a number of African countries — including Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya — have economists hopeful that the continent can boost and diversify its largely agriculture-based economy. But environmentalists and climate change ... MORE > >
	St. Vincent Takes to Heart Hard Lessons on Climate Change Desmond Brown Glenda Williams has lived in the Pastures community in eastern St. Vincent all her life. She's seen the area flooded by storms on multiple occasions. But the last two times, it was more “severe and frightening” than anything she had witnessed before. “The last time the river came down it ... MORE > >
	Bangladeshi ‘Char Dwellers’ in Search of Higher Ground Naimul Haq Jahanara Begum, a 35-year-old housewife, is surrounded by thatched-roof homes, all of which are partially submerged by floodwater. Heavy rains throughout the monsoon months, beginning in August, left thousands of people in northern Bangladesh homeless or in dire straits as the mighty ... MORE > >
	OPINION: Keeping All Girls in School is One Way to Curb Child Marriage in Tanzania Agnes Odhiambo “You cannot continue with your education. You have to get married because this man has already paid dowry for you,” Matilda H’s father told her. Matilda, from Tanzania, was 14 and had just passed her primary school exams and had been admitted to secondary school. She pleaded with her father to ... MORE > >
	Democracy is “Radical” in Northern Syria Karlos Zurutuza There was never anything particularly remarkable about this northern town of 25,000. However, today it has become the lab for one the most pioneering political experiments ever conducted in the entire Middle East region. Located 700 kilometres northeast of Damascus, Amuda hosts the headquarters ... MORE > >
	The Invisible Reality of Spain’s Homeless Inés Benítez “It’s easy to end up on the street. It’s not because you led a bad life; you lose your job and you can’t afford to pay rent,” says David Cerezo while he waits for lunch to be served by a humanitarian organisation in this city in southern Spain. Cerezo, 39, lives in a filthy wreck of a house in ... MORE > >
	Resolving Key Nuclear Issue Turns on Iran-Russia Deal Gareth Porter U.S. and Iranian negotiators are working on a compromise approach to the issue of Iran’s uranium enrichment capabilities, which the Barack Obama administration has said in the past Iran was refusing to make concessions on. The compromise now being seriously discussed would meet the Obama ... MORE > >
	Bougainville Voices Say ‘No’ to Mining Catherine Wilson The viability of reopening the controversial Panguna copper mine in the remote mountains of Central Bougainville, an autonomous region in the east of Papua New Guinea, has been the focus of discussions led by local political leaders and foreign mining interests over the past four years. But a ... MORE > >
	A Jungle Shrine Awaits its Blessed Moment Amantha Perera Rising out of a thick forest about 17 km from the nearest main road, the Madhu Church is a symbol of spiritual harmony and tranquility. When the wind blows you hear the leaves rustle. Other times a solemn silence hangs in the air. Old-timers say that once, almost an entire generation ago, the grass ... MORE > >
	“Yeil” – The New Energy Buzzword in Argentina Fabiana Frayssinet In Argentina they call it “yeil”, the hispanicised version of “shale”. But while these unconventional gas and oil reserves are seen by many as offering a means to development and a route towards energy self-sufficiency, others believe the term should fall into disuse because the global trend is ... MORE > >
	Zimbabwe’s Rich Fuel Inequality Through Illicit Financial Flows Tonderayi Mukeredzi Zimbabwe has lost 12 billion dollars in illicit financial flows over the last three decades and experts say this illegal practice is perpetuating social inequalities and poverty in this southern African nation. A September report by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZIMVAC) ... MORE > >
Put People Not ‘Empire of Capital’ at Heart of Development Ravi Kanth Devarakonda President Rafael Correa Delgado of Ecuador does not mince words when it comes to development. ”Neoliberal policies based on so-called competitiveness, efficiency and the labour flexibility framework have helped the empire of capital to prosper at the cost of human labour,” he told a crowded ... MORE > >
	OPINION: The Front Line of Climate Change is Here and Now Kaio Tiira Taulu The fate of my country rests in your hands: that was the message which Ian Fry, representing Tuvalu gave at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen five years ago. This is also the message that the Pacific Climate Warriors have come to Australia to bring. We have come here, ... MORE > >
	OPINION: Renewable Energies – a Double-Edged Sword Bradnee Chambers The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has set a target of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2. One way countries can meet their obligations is to switch energy production from the burning of fossil fuels to “renewables”, generally understood to include wind, wave, ... MORE > >