The Week wtih IPS 2/27

2015/2/27	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
	Gazan Fishermen Dying to Survive Mel Frykberg The beautiful Mediterranean Sea laps gently onto the white sandy beach near Gaza City’s port. Fishing boats dot the beach as fishermen tend to their boats and fix their nets. However, this scenic and peaceful setting belies a depressing reality. Gaza’s once thriving fishing industry has been ... MORE > >
	Families of ‘Desaparecidos’ Take Search into Their Own Hands Emilio Godoy Carlos Trujillo refuses to give up, after years of tirelessly searching hospitals, morgues, prisons, cemeteries and clandestine graves in Mexico, looking for his four missing brothers. The local shopkeeper has left no stone unturned and no clue unfollowed since his brothers Jesús, Raúl, Luís and ... MORE > >
	Mobile Technology a Lever for Women’s Empowerment A. D. McKenzie Providing women with greater access to mobile technology could increase literacy, advance development and open up much-needed educational and employment opportunities, according to experts at the fourth United Nations’ Mobile Learning Week conference here. “Mobile technology can offer learning ... MORE > >
	Indigenous Storytelling in the Limelight Francesca Dziadek In recent years, the Berlin International Film Festival, known as the Berlinale, has established a European hub for indigenous voices across a number of platforms, including its NATIVe – A Journey into Indigenous Cinema series and Storytelling-Slams in which indigenous storytelling artists share ... MORE > >
	Falling Oil Prices Won't Derail St. Lucia's Push for Clean Energy Kenton X. Chance At Plas Kassav, a roadside outlet in Canaries, a rural community in western St. Lucia, a busload of visitors from other Caribbean countries, along with tourists from North America and Europe, sample the 12 flavours of freshly baked cassava bread on sale. In the back of the shop, employees busily ... MORE > >
	Big Trouble in the Air in India Neeta Lal Like many others of her age, 15-year-old Aastha Sharma, a Class 10 student at a private school in India’s capital, New Delhi, loves being outdoors, going for walks with her friends and enjoying an occasional ice-cream. But the young girl can't indulge in any of these activities. Chronic ... MORE > >
	Syria's "Barrel Bombs" Cause Human Devastation, Says Rights Group Thalif Deen The warring parties in the brutal four-year-old military conflict in Syria, which has claimed the lives of over 200,000 civilians and triggered “the greatest refugee crisis in modern times,” continue to break every single pledge held out to the United Nations. Despite Secretary-General Ban ... MORE > >
	Tackling Corruption at its Root in Papua New Guinea Catherine Wilson Corruption, the single largest obstacle to socioeconomic development worldwide, has had a grave impact on the southwest Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea. While mineral resource wealth drove high gross domestic product (GDP) growth of eight percent in 2012, the country is today ranked 157th ... MORE > >
	Can Nepal’s TRC Finally Bring Closure to its War Survivors? Renu Kshetry The picture of Muktinath Adhikari, principal of Pandini Sanskrit Secondary School in the Lamjung district of west Nepal who was killed during the country’s decade-long civil conflict, became an iconic portrayal of the brutality of the bloody ‘People's War’. The then Communist Party of Nepal ... MORE > >
	Indigenous Food Systems Should Be on the Development Menu Valentina Gasbarri Overcoming hunger and malnutrition in the 21st century no longer means simply increasing the quantity of available food but also the quality. Despite numerous achievements in the world’s food systems, approximately 805 million people suffer from chronic hunger and roughly two billion peoples ... MORE > >
	The Hidden Billions Behind Economic Inequality in Africa Jeffrey Moyo Reports this year of illicit moneys from African countries stashed in a Swiss bank – indicating that corruption lies behind much of the income inequality that affects the continent – have grabbed international news headlines. Secret bank accounts in the HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm unearthed ... MORE > >
	Biogas Eases Women’s Household Burden in Rural Cuba Ivet González On the blue flame of her biogas stove, it takes half as long for rural doctor Arianna Toledo to heat bath water and cook dinner as it did four years ago, when she still used electric power or firewood. The installation of a biodigester, which uses pig manure to produce biogas for use in cooking ... MORE > >
	Threats, Deaths, Impunity - No Hope for Free Press in Pakistan Ashfaq Yusufzai It is no surprise that most Pakistani journalists work under tremendous stress; caught between crime lords in its biggest cities, militant groups across its tribal belt and rival political parties throughout the country, censorship, intimidation and death seem almost to come with the ... MORE > >