The Week With IPS 1/27/2017

2017/1/27	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
Ecuador Revives Campaign for UN Tax Body Thalif Deen The Republic of Ecuador, currently chair of the largest single coalition of developing countries at the United Nations, is reviving a longstanding campaign for the creation of an inter-governmental UN tax body and the elimination of tax havens and illicit financial flows. Practicing what it ... MORE > >
	Measures Are Proposed to Address Violence in Mapuche Land in Chile Orlando Milesi The lands where the Mapuche indigenous people live in southern Chile are caught up in a spiral of violence, which a presidential commission is setting out to stop with 50 proposals, such as the constitutional recognition of indigenous people and their representation in parliament, in a first shift ... MORE > >
	“Serious Retreats” In Indigenous Rights Protection, Says UN Rapporteur Tharanga Yakupitiyage As the 10-year anniversary for the Declaration on Indigenous Rights approaches, UN indigenous rights activists came together to assess the many challenges that still remain on the ground. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007, is the first of its kind to ... MORE > >
	Who Will Rule Trump Foreign Policy? Jim Lobe The most frightening commentary I’ve read in the run-up to the inauguration—and there have been many—appeared in a column identifying the four people whose foreign policy ideas were likely to be most influential with the then-president-elect. It was written by The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin and ... MORE > >
	Can Africa Slay Its Financial Hydra? Busani Bafana Thanks to growing investor interest, increasing respect for democratic reforms, and its vast food production potential, the Africa Rising narrative is only getting better. But Africa’s development success story will only be complete when the continent plugs the hemorrhaging of its financial ... MORE > >
	Trade War Threat Grows Jomo Kwame Sundaram New American President Donald Trump has long insisted that the United States has been suffering from poor trade deals made by his predecessors. Renegotiating or withdrawing from these deals will be top priority for his administration which views trade policy as key to US economic revival under ... MORE > >
	Drought Could Cost Sri Lanka Billions Amantha Perera The warnings are stark, the instructions, for a change, clear. Sri Lanka is heading into one of its worst droughts in recent history, and according some estimates the worst in 30 years. The reservoirs are running on empty, at 30 percent or less capacity. Only 12 percent of the island’s power ... MORE > >
	Trump and the Crisis of Democracy Roberto Savio George W. Bush, the Republican bridge between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump as U.S. president, declared that the United States was the only democracy in the world. The election of Trump now makes this traditional American rhetoric impossible. Trump received 3 million votes less than his opponent ... MORE > >
	Philippines Joins Space Race Diana G Mendoza The Philippines, a tiny developing country, has joined the colossal world of space technology, building its second microsatellite that it plans to launch late this year or in early 2018 -- not to study other planets, but to monitor weather patterns and climate change to protect the country’s ... MORE > >
	Guess How Much Water Your Daily Food Consumes IPS News Desk The facts are clear. So are the consequences. And the facts are that it takes between one and three tonnes of water to grow one kilogramme of cereal; that a kilogramme of beef takes up to 15 tonnes of water to produce; and that it is estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000 litres of water are needed ... MORE > >
	Zambia’s Armyworm Outbreak: Is Climate Change to Blame? Friday Phiri Surrender Hamufuba of Mwanamambo village in Pemba district recalls how he battled Armyworms in 2012. Fast-forward to 2016 and it is a similar story -- another pest infestation on an even larger scale. “I am not sure why, but there could be more to the increased frequency of these pest attacks, ... MORE > >