The Week With IPS 4/21/2017

2017/4/21	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
	Caricom's Energy-Efficient Building Code Could Be Tough Sell Jewel Fraser Caribbean Community (Caricom) states are in the process of formulating an energy efficiency building code for the region that would help reduce CO2 emissions, but implementation of the code may depend heavily on moral suasion for its success. Fulgence St. Prix, technical officer for standards at ... MORE > >
	Civil Society: “Everyday Things Are Getting Worse” for Children in Yemen Tharanga Yakupitiyage Persistent attacks on health care in Yemen is severely impacting children’s well-being, civil society detailed at the launch of a report. In the report, Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, in collaboration with Save the Children, found a series of systematic attacks on medical ... MORE > >
	Bannon Down, Pentagon Up, Neocons In? Jim Lobe The apparent and surprisingly abrupt demise in Steve Bannon’s influence offers a major potential opening for neoconservatives, many of whom opposed Trump’s election precisely because of his association with Bannon and the “America Firsters,” to return to power after so many years of being relegated ... MORE > >
	Tensions in Cambodia Are Growing Erik Larsson Tensions in Cambodia are growing. The reigning party have been in power for decades, but as the upcoming elections in June come closer, support is gathering for the opposition. The response from the government has been to pass laws that seek to silence protests. The corridor is stacked with ... MORE > >
	FEATURED VIDEO: Investing in a Clean, Green Future Desmond Brown From tourism-dependent nations like Barbados to those rich with natural resources like Guyana, climate change poses one of the biggest challenges for the countries of the Caribbean – and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the region’s premier financial institution, the Caribbean Development Bank ... MORE > >
	“Imagine a World Where the Worst-Case Scenarios Have Been Realized” Desmond Brown The tiny island-nation of Antigua and Barbuda has made an impassioned plea for support from the international community to deal with the devastating impacts of climate change. Urging “further action”, Environment Minister Molwyn Joseph said the Paris Climate Agreement must become the cornerstone ... MORE > >
	Yemen, World’s Largest Humanitarian Crisis Baher Kamal With 18.8 million people –nearly 7 in 10 inhabitants-- in need of humanitarian aid, including 10.3 million requiring immediate assistance, Yemen is now the largest single-nation humanitarian crisis in the world, the United Nations informs while warning that the two-year war is rapidly pushing the ... MORE > >
	“The Ocean Is Not a Dumping Ground” Nasseem Ackbarally An internationally renowned scientist, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim became Mauritius’s sixth president on June 5, 2015 – and one of the few Muslim women heads of state in the world. Her nomination constituted a major event in the island's quest for greater gender parity and women’s empowerment, giving a ... MORE > >
	Multilateralism and the Chinese Dream Nicholas Rosellini “Pursuing protectionism is like locking oneself in a dark room,” Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the assembled leaders at the World Economic Forum earlier this year. “While wind and rain may be kept outside, that dark room will also block light and air.” All signs are that China has been ... MORE > >
	Politicians Hijack Macedonia Frank Mulder The political crisis in Macedonia is deepening. With the president and former coalition preventing the formation of a new government, the state threatens to disintegrate in a climate of corruption and nationalism. The television is turned up loud in a hamburger shop in a suburb of Skopje called ... MORE > >
	FEATURED VIDEO: CDB Partners with the Caribbean in Climate Change Fight IPS World Desk With numerous challenges brought on by climate change, Caribbean countries are facing a dilemma. In Jamaica for example, the agriculture and water sectors are under increasing threat. The region’s premier financial institution, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), has been partnering with ... MORE > >
	Typical Cuban Sweet – a Symbol of the Post-Hurricane Challenge to Agriculture Ivet González Early in the day, when a gentle dew moistens the ground and vegetation in the mountains of eastern Cuba, street vendor Raulises Ramírez sets up his rustic stand next to the La Farola highway and displays his cone-shaped coconut sweets. “These will maybe be the last ones… the cones will ... MORE > >
	Disease Burden Growing as Vector Insects Adapt to Climate Change Zadie Neufville There were surprised gasps when University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor John Agard told journalists at an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting in late November 2016 that mosquitoes were not only living longer, but were “breeding in septic tanks underground”. For many, ... MORE > >
	"We Can't Protest So We Pray": Anguish in Amhara During Ethiopia's State of Emergency James Jeffrey As dawn breaks in Bahir Dar, men prepare boats beside Lake Tana to take to its island monasteries the tourists that are starting to return. Meanwhile, traffic flows across the same bridge spanning the Blue Nile that six months ago was crossed by a huge but peaceful protest march.3 But only a ... MORE > >
	Mind the Treatment Gap Vani S. Kulkarni and Raghav Gaiha Implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act will require a restructuring of health-care services The Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on March 27, 2017, has been hailed as a momentous reform. According to the Bill, every person will have the right to access mental ... MORE > >
	Climate Impact on Caribbean Coral Reefs May Be Mitigated If... Diego Arguedas Ortiz A few dozen metres from the Caribbean beach of Puerto Vargas, where you can barely see the white foam of the waves breaking offshore, is the coral reef that is the central figure of the ocean front of the Cahuita National Park in Costa Rica. Puerto Vargas is known for the shrinking of its once ... MORE > >
	ACP: One Billion People to Speak To Europe with One Voice Baher Kamal Seventy-nine countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, which are home to around one billon people, will speak with one voice as they prepare to negotiate a major partnership agreement with the European Union (500 million inhabitants) in May. The decision, announced by the African, ... MORE > >
	Caribbean Pursues Green Growth Despite Uncertain Times Desmond Brown Barbados and its Caribbean neighbours are continuing to press ahead with their climate change agenda and push the concept of renewable energy despite the new position taken by the United States. This was made clear by the Minister of the Environment and Drainage in Barbados, Dr. Denis Lowe, ... MORE > >
	A Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons Is in the Making Sergio Duarte The nine possessors of nuclear weapons and most of their allies chose to ignore the negotiations on a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination. This unprecedented initiative resulted from a proposal by South Africa, Austria, Brazil, ... MORE > >
	Survivors of Sex Abuse Say UN Neglected Them Tharanga Yakupitiyage Several survivors who were sexually abused by peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) continue to be neglected by the UN, an investigative team has found. Three years after cases of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeeping forces in CAR became public, a Swedish film team ... MORE > >