The Week With IPS 3/31/2017

   2017/3/31

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	Journalism in Nicaragua under Siege José Adán Silva During the 161st session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an empty chair across from the OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Edison Lanzas, sums up the Nicaraguan government’s relationship with this issue in the country: absence. At the Mar. 15-22 meeting ... MORE > >
	Autism in Bangladesh: Reducing Discrimination Through Innovation Saima Wazed Hossain Within the last 5 years, thanks to political support and national education, autism awareness in Bangladesh has grown immensely. Due to a lack of funds and resources, providing full comprehensive evidence based services for those in need is not yet possible, but with a continuation of our current ... MORE > >
	How a Devastating Hurricane Led to St. Vincent’s First Sustainability School Kenton X. Chance In the 1980s, an institution for troubled Danish youth and a vocational school for Vincentians was built in Richmond Vale, an agricultural district on the northwestern tip of St. Vincent. It was hoped that spending time at Richmond Vale Academy would help the Danish youth to see the world from a ... MORE > >
	Can the SDGs be financed? Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram Investment in the least developed countries (LDCs) will need to rise by at least 11 per cent annually through 2030, a little more than the 8.9 per cent between 2010 and 2015, in order for them to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The United Nations’ World Economic Situation and ... MORE > >
	France Hosts Major Exhibition on Jamaican Music A. D. McKenzie It’s one of those movie-like spring days in Paris, where blue skies and brilliant sunshine lift spirits after a long, wet, grey winter. Many people are outdoors trying to catch the rays, but Jamaican artist Danny Coxson is not among them. He’s inside a museum in a northeastern neighbourhood of the ... MORE > >
	The Challenge Ahead: Harnessing Gene Editing to Sustainable Agriculture Nteranya Sanginga The role of genetic engineering in agriculture and food has generated enormous interest and controversies, with large-scale embrace by some nations and wholesale bans by others. Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Courtesy of ... MORE > >
	How to Stir up a Refugee Crisis in Five Steps, Trump Style Madeleine Penman The sight of one of the most infamous borders on earth – roughly 1,000 kilometers of porous metal fence dividing lives, hopes and dreams between the USA and Mexico, is undoubtedly overwhelming, but not in the way we expected it to be. While it has been one of the most talked about issues ... MORE > >
	Sri Lanka’s Small Tea Farmers Turn Sustainable Land Managers Stella Paul As the mercury rises higher, Kamakandalagi Leelavathi delves deeper into the lush green mass of the tea bushes. The past few afternoons there have been thunderstorms. So the 55-year-old tea picker in Uda Houpe tea garden of Sri Lanka’s Hatton region is rushing to complete her day’s task before the ... MORE > >
	Syrian Regime Survives on Russian Arms & UN Vetoes Thalif Deen As the devastating civil war in Syria entered its seventh year last week, President Bashar al-Assad has continued to survive--- despite faltering efforts by the United States and the UN Security Council (UNSC) to rein him in, or impose sanctions on his beleaguered regime. Assad, who did his ... MORE > >
	Costa Rican Town Fears That the Sea Will Steal Its Shiny New Face Diego Arguedas Ortiz Two years have gone by since the new government initiative which subsidises community works changed the face with which the coastal town of Cienaguita, on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, looks out to the sea. In place of a battered path between the beach and the first houses, the investment ... MORE > >
	Caribbean Faces Forecast for Prolonged Drought Desmond Brown The Caribbean Drought & Precipitation Monitoring Network (CDPMN) is warning countries in the region that the same abnormal climate conditions they have experienced over the last few years, which resulted in some of the worst drought in two decades, could continue this year. Several Caribbean ... MORE > >
	UN to Investigate Violations Against Rohingya Tharanga Yakupitiyage A top UN human rights group has decided to investigate human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The UN Human Rights Council agreed to send an international fact-finding mission to investigate alleged killings, torture, and rape by security forces against Myanmar’s Rohingya ... MORE > >
	Slaves Baher Kamal For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, one of the darkest chapters in human history. Slavery is, nevertheless, far from being just a chapter of the past—it still there, with estimated 21 million victims of forced labour ... MORE > >
	Trinidad Pushes for Shift to Cleaner Fuel Jewel Fraser The Trinidad and Tobago government has invested about 74 million dollars in the first phase of a 295-million-dollar project to encourage more drivers to use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), described by experts here as a preliminary step in the country’s transition to using more sustainable forms of ... MORE > >
	A Carbon Law to Protect the Climate Stephen Leahy The Carbon Law says human carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions must be reduced by half each decade starting in 2020. By following this “law” humanity can achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by mid-century to protect the global climate for current and future generations. A “carbon law” is a new concept ... MORE > >
	Under Fire, Journalism Explores Self-Preservation A. D. McKenzie With widespread attacks on professional journalists and the rise of a fake-news industry, media experts agree that journalism is increasingly under fire. But how can the press fight back and ensure its survival? Judging by the stubbornly defiant tone at a one-day colloquium held at UNESCO’s ... MORE > >