Eveline Herfkens
UN Special Adviser
"Poverty is the war of wars we have to win"

Eveline Hertkens
Guerra não torpedeará combate a pobreza

Eveline Herfkens – UN Special Adviser
"Poverty is the war of wars we have to win"
Eveline Herfkens is determined to prove her worth as the U.N. secretary-general’s executive coordinator for the millennium development goals (MDGs) campaign. For starters, she is taking on the pessimists of the world, who say that a war in Iraq will scupper the promises contained in the MDGs to lift the world’s poor up from misery. Not so, she argues, but concedes that the road ahead is littered with hurdles.

Eveline Hertkens
Guerra não torpedeará combate a pobreza
Eveline Hertkens está determinada a provar seu valor como coordenadora executiva da secretaria geral das Nações Unidas para a campanha pelas metas de desenvolvimento do milênio (MDGs). Para começar, ela está avançando contra os pessimistas do mundo, que dizem que uma guerra no Iraque fará sucumbirem as promessas mantidas pelas MDGs de retirar os pobres do mundo da miséria. Não é bem assim, diz ela. Todavia, Hertkens concorda que o caminho até lá é repleto de obstáculos.

Sebastião Salgado
Images from a Lifetime with the World in Focus
Sebastião Salgado, with his intense images, grabs the viewer's conscience by the shirt. "The man in the countryside is paid a negative price for his work. He subsidises those who buy his products, paying with his dignity, his education, and his health", charges the Brazilian photographer.

Sebastião Salgado: imagens de uma vida
Aos 30 anos de carreira, o fotógrafo Sebastião Salgado segue retratando a miséria humana provocada pelos efeitos nefastos da globalização.

Point - Counterpoint
On War

Michel Ogrizek <========> Ignacio Ramonet

East Asian Pacifists Feel Lonely
East Asia may either be the growth engine of the future, or the first nuclear battle field of the 21st century. It is to avoid the latter that NGOs from the region are seeking support from civil society groups at the WSF.

Challenges of the Doha Agenda
Multilateralism is the only sustainable way to secure our global future. At Doha in November 2001, in a climate of dangerous international uncertainty, World Trade Organisation (WTO) members showed the determination to make multilateralism work.

La globalización deliberada de la deuda
“La elección del presidente Lula debe ser interpretada como una gran victoria del pueblo brasileño sobre las arrogantes pretensiones de invisibles e irresponsables banqueros internacionales”.

Bush and Sharon have Unified All of Us
The Third World Social Forum takes place in a world marked by growing militarisation, a military-economic offensive by the United States, innocuousness and servility on the part of the international organisations, and the looming possibility of a new war, now against Iraq. The consequences of this for all humanity are tragic.

A Ofensiva do Imperio e a Reação dos Povos
Das três edições do FSM, esta talvez seja a mais importante. Se realiza num momento de crescente de militarização, de ofensiva econômico-militar do governo dos Estados Unidos sobre o mundo, de aumento de sua prepotência, da inocuidade e subserviência dos organismos internacionais e da eminência de uma nova guerra, agora contra o Iraque. Tudo isso com conseqüências trágicas para a humanidade.

Martin Khor
Civil Society + Government Can = Global Justice
Martin Khor, the Director of the Malaysia-based Third World Network has been actively engaged in the international civil society movement for more than a decade. He has attended both the World Social Forum (WSF) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in 1999 and 2000. In the latter instance even taking part in one of the panel discussions there. He argues that civil society needs to work closely with governments in the South to make the necessary changes to the world economic system which would favour the weak over the strong. He spoke to TerraViva in Porto Alegre this year.

Religious Fanatics
They are Everywhere
The threat from religious fundamentalists is not merely coming from the Islamic world, it is also emanating from the United States and Israel. The strongest supporters of the Bush administration in the United States are Christian fundamentalists who believe in the biblical prophecy that Jerusalem needs to come completely under Israeli occupation for the second coming of Christ.

Corruption Proves a Horse too Wily to Break
Corruption is proving too canny to tame largely because of loopholes in national laws, activists here say. Government officials bent on lining their own pockets can do so with virtual impunity and a new strategy is urgently needed to tackle the problem, they add.

Reparations for All – That Means Everyone
"Reparations" and justice for the victims of injustices dating back centuries or occurring today are not the exclusive territory of Africans and people of African descent, say black activists.

Lula Chegou bem a tempo
Uma economia mundial titubeante, um movimento forte pela justiça social e ampla aprovação popular permitem que Lula vá a Davos de cabeça erguida

RIGHTING GLOBAL WRONGS
Amnesty’s Big Step Forward
Was it the two Brazilian artists, or Paul Hoffman´s drum banging? Well, from my seat at Gigantinho I could hear the message of Amnesty´s International Executive Committee Chair loud and clear: “Globalise respect for human rights.” The movement's secretary-general Irene Khan was singing the same tune a continent apart at Davos - no doubt to a less receptive audience.

Strong Union Seeks Reliable Partner
The global economy needs enforceable rules and procedures, because left to its own devices the market is not going to produce optimal results for its people, says Guy Ryder, general-secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

N E W S     B R I E F S

Chavez in all His Glory
Computer Systems Bugged
Death Row Blues
Tales from Africa

S N I P P E T S

Guess what - Women postponed again.
Freedom to wear a dress (or not).
Kind and unkind thieves.
The Forum and the "Forum".
A website for the site-less.