2015/1/15 Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter   

In the Shadow of Glacial Lakes, Pakistan’s Mountain Communities Look to Climate Adaptation
Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio

Khaliq-ul-Zaman, a farmer from the remote Bindo Gol valley in northern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has long lived under the shadow of disaster. With plenty of fertile land and fresh water, this scenic mountain valley would be an ideal dwelling place – if not for the constant threat ... MORE > >


Boko Haram Insurgents Threaten Cameroon's Educational Goals
Ngala Killian Chimtom

“I’d quit my job before going to work in a place like that.” That is how a primary school teacher responded when IPS asked him why he had not accepted a job in Cameroon’s Far North region. James Ngoran is not the only teacher who has refused to move to the embattled area bordering Nigeria where ... MORE > >


Anemia in Eastern Cuba Reflects Inequality
Ivet González

Cuba has met the United Nations goal of reducing hunger. But anemia caused by malnutrition is still a problem among infants, small children and pregnant women in this Caribbean island nation, which has been in the grip of an economic crisis for over two decades. “Meat is the hardest thing to ... MORE > >


OPINION: Islamic Reformation, the Antidote to Terrorism
Emile Nakhleh

The horrific terrorist attack on the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo has once again raised the question about violence and Islam. Why is it, some ask, that so much terrorism has been committed in the name of Islam, and why do violent jihadists seek justification of their actions in their ... MORE > >


OPINION: For the Good of Humanity – Towards a Culture of Caring
Andrew MacMillan

About a week ago my wife was taken to hospital and diagnosed with pneumonia. She was promptly treated with antibiotics and, wonderfully, is now on the mend. What has struck me about this experience is not so much the high professionalism of the health workers or their up-to-date hospital ... MORE > >


More Than Half of Africa's Arable Land ‘Too Damaged’ for Food Production
Busani Bafana

A report published last month by the Montpellier Panel - an eminent group of agriculture, ecology and trade experts from Africa and Europe - says about 65 percent of Africa's arable land is too damaged to sustain viable food production. The report, "No Ordinary Matter: conserving, restoring and ... MORE > >


Haitians Worry World Bank-Assisted Mining Law Could Result in “Looting”
Carey L. Biron

With Haiti’s Parliament having dissolved on Tuesday, civil society groups are worried that the Haitian president may move to unilaterally put in place a contentious revision to the country’s decades-old mining law. Starting in 2013, that draft was written with technical assistance from the World ... MORE > >


European Citizens Call for Increased Aid to Developing World
Thalif Deen

An overwhelming majority of citizens in the 28-member European Union (EU) - which has been hamstrung by a spreading economic recession, a fall in oil prices and a decline of its common currency, the Euro - has expressed strong support for development cooperation and increased aid to developing ... MORE > >


Women ‘Sewing’ a Bright Future in Northern Pakistan
Ashfaq Yusufzai

At 46, Naseema Nashad is starting her life over, not out of choice but out of necessity. The Afghan woman was just 25 years old when Taliban militants stormed Kabul and her family was forced to flee to neighbouring Pakistan to escape what they knew would be a brutal regime. “My father stayed ... MORE > >


Bhopal Cloud Hovers Over Industrial Safety in India
Neeta Lal

Three decades after 40 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal on Dec. 3, 1984 – killing an estimated 4,000 almost instantly and maiming and blinding hundreds of thousands of others – the world's worst industrial ... MORE > >


Video Games, Poverty and Conflict in Bab Al-Tabbaneh
Oriol Andrés Gallart

“People get used to war. During the last battle, children were still coming to play. Can you imagine, a seven-year-old boy running through the bullets just to play video games,” says Mohammad Darwish, a calm man with a curled beard framing his face. Sitting behind the counter of his cybercafé, ... MORE > >


OPINION: Global Citizenship, A Result of Emerging Global Consciousness
Arsenio Rodriguez

Globalisation is an integral feature of modernity. It already has significantly advanced to transform local experiences into global ones, to unify the disparate villages of the world into a global community, and to integrate national economies into an international economy. At the same time, ... MORE > >


OPINION: No Nation Wants to Be Labeled “Least Developed”
Ahmed Sareer

Since 1971, Maldives is one of only three countries that have graduated from the ranks of the world’s “least developed countries” (LDCs) – the other two being Botswana and Cape Verde. The Maldives graduated on Jan. 1, 2011. The review of LDCs conducted in 1997 concluded that the Maldives was ... MORE > >


Sri Lanka's Minorities Choose "Unknown Angel” Over “Known Devil”
Kanya D'Almeida

When the initial results started trickling in a little after midnight on Jan. 9, it still wasn’t clear exactly which way the country would swing: had Sri Lanka’s 15 million eligible voters thrown in their lot with incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa for a third term? Or would the desire for ... MORE > >


Illiteracy Wears a Woman’s Face in El Salvador
Edgardo Ayala

At the age of 74, Carmen López has proven that it’s never too late to learn. She is one of the 412 people in this small town in central El Salvador who recently learned to read and write. “I was sad that I couldn’t write a letter or a receipt. But now I’m happy because I can,” she told IPS at ... MORE > >


Integrated Farming: The Only Way to Survive a Rising Sea
Manipadma Jena

When the gentle clucking grows louder, 50-year-old Sukomal Mandal calls out to his wife, who is busy grinding ingredients for a fish curry. She gets up to thrust leafy green stalks through the netting of a coop and two-dozen shiny hens rush forward for lunch. In the Sundarbans, where the sea is ... MORE > >


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This page includes independent IPS news coverage supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , to put the issue of inequality higher up the news agenda during the run-up to the 2015 MDG deadline and the process to forge a new development consensus. This page includes independent IPS news coverage financed by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.


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