The Week with IPS 6/19

2015/6/19	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
	Farmers Find their Voice Through Radio in the Badlands of India Stella Paul Eighty-year-old Chenabai Kushwaha sits on a charpoy under a neem tree in the village of Chitawar, located in the Tikamgarh district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, staring intently at a dictaphone. “Please sing a song for us,” urges the woman holding the voice recorder. Kushwaha ... MORE > >
	From Residents to Rangers: Local Communities Take Lead on Mangrove Conservation in Sri Lanka Amantha Perera Weekends and public holidays are deadly for one of Sri Lanka’s most delicate ecosystems – that is when the island’s 8,815 hectares of mangroves come under threat. 3With public officials, forest rangers and NGO workers on holiday, no one is around to enforce conservation laws designed to protect ... MORE > >
	Domestics in Mexico Face Abuse and Scant Protection Emilio Godoy Her last two jobs left a bitter taste in the mouth of Yoloxochitl Solís, a 48-year-old single mother from Mexico. She sums up the experience in two words: abuse and discrimination. “My employer would throw the food and medicine back in my face,” Solís told IPS. “She started to be rude to me, ... MORE > >
	Israel’s Deadly Game of Divide and Conquer Backfiring Mel Frykberg Israel’s deadly game of divide and conquer against its enemies could be coming home to roost with a vengeance, especially as the Islamic State (ISIS) grows in strength in neighbouring countries and moves closer to Israel’s borders. Desperate to maintain the calm in Gaza, Israel has been ... MORE > >
	Opinion: GM Cotton a False Promise for Africa Haidee Swanby Genetically modified (GM) cotton has been produced globally for almost two decades, yet to date only three African countries have grown GM cotton on a commercial basis – South Africa, Burkina Faso and Sudan. African governments have been sceptical of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for ... MORE > >
	Kidney Disease Treatment Not For All in Uganda Wambi Michael Vincent Mugyenyi, a 65-year-old retired pilot from the Ugandan Air Force, has lost count of how many dialysis treatment slots he has had to attend in the eight years he has been fighting chronic kidney disease. He spends eight hours a week on a dialysis machine in Mulago National Referral ... MORE > >
	Rights Groups Call for Durable Solution for Europe’s Migrants A. D. McKenzie Human rights groups are calling for a sustainable solution to the migrant crisis in Europe, especially following the dismantling of refugee camps in Paris and Calais, France, over the past two weeks. In one of the latest incidents, tense confrontations occurred in the French capital when ... MORE > >
	Sex Workers in Nicaragua Break the Silence and Gain Rights José Adán Silva After living in the shadows, thousands of Nicaraguan sex workers have broken their silence, won support from state institutions and gained new respect for their rights. María Elena Dávila, national coordinator of the Nicaraguan Sex Workers Network (TraSex), explained to IPS that after 15 years ... MORE > >
	U.N. Urged to Put Global Citizenship at Centre of Post-2015 Development Agenda Thalif Deen When Denmark hosted the World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) in March 1995, one of the conclusions of that international gathering in Copenhagen was to create a new social contract with “people at the centre of development.” But notwithstanding the shortcomings in its implementation over ... MORE > >
	Peru a Shining Example for South America’s Climate Action Plans Chris Wright This week, Peru became the first South American nation to publicly announce its Climate Action Plan, or INDC. In doing so, it may have set the scene for a new wave of highly transparent and ambitious INDC submissions from the continent. This most recent plan comes after 12 years of collective ... MORE > >