ASIA: OLD-AGE INCOME SECURITY IN JEOPARDY

As if the pressures of living in an ever more competitive world were not enough, the challenges of coping with inadequate income support are bearing down on Asia's growing army of retirees, whose long years of hard work helped the region's economies grow.

THE RISE OF RETRO POPULISM

The twentieth anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall reminded Americans of just how heady it felt when a triumphant America stood astride a collapsing Soviet empire. Two decades later, Americans find themselves bewildered and resentful. Many are now asking, Where did it all go?

A BAD START TO THE NEW CENTURY

Sadly one would have to agree that the first decade of the new century is not a cause for optimism. Not only have we not solved the problems that we had, other even more difficult ones have been added to the list.

THE NEW THREATS TO HUMAN RIGHTS

On December 10 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be 61 years old. It has brought undeniable progress to the world in this period, in particular the introduction of legal instruments to safeguard human rights, which continue to be spread globally.

INVESTING IN CLIMATE PROSPERITY

The world's giant pension and institutional funds (university and foundation endowments) are seeing the light on climate issues. As governments wrangle over how to cap carbon and other pollutants, how much it will cost, and who should pay, private investors in North America, Europe, China, India, Japan, and Brazil have been quietly investing in the solution: shifting to low-carbon, cleaner, renewable energy and smarter, more efficient infrastructure and transportation.

AFRICA REQUIRES DIVERSITY, NOT A GREEN REVOLUTION

It is essential that the renewed interest in and funding for African agriculture and food security exhibited at the recent World Food Summit be acted upon quickly to avoid past failures. A heavy reliance on technology and western farming systems is not appropriate for addressing food security for poor, small-scale, resource-limited farmers.

AFRICA– EUROPEAN UNION: TRADING UP

Faced with the first truly global economic crisis in the era of globalisation, developed countries have been focused on mitigating the effects on our own economies. One could be excused for thinking that in all of this, development goals have been forgotten. They have not, and the European Union for one is as committed as ever to giving the developing world a fair deal – including on trade. This means the best possible market access, the means to make use of it, and the time to adjust to new global realities.

CUBA: OBAMA EXTINGUISHES THE HOPES HE RAISED

A little over a year ago the world was swept by surprise when it learned that Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. We had been witness to a change that many felt was unthinkable: a young black man renowned for his intelligence became president of the most powerful country on earth, one that had been a bastion of racism and that in recent years has become a hotbed of conservatism, an exporter of war, and neo-liberal economic Eden.

NEOLIBERALISM: A SURVIVOR BY DEFAULT

The recent collapse of the global economy, caused by among other things the lack of regulation of financial markets, has further eroded the credibility of neoliberalism. And yet it continues to exercise a strong influence on the majority of economists and economic managers, for whom, despite its obvious shortcomings, it remains the default discourse.

THE CROSS AGAINST THE SWORD

Peace of the heart and mind and peace of society are intrinsically linked. Peace and justice are inseparable as are truth and reconciliation. Peace is for the hungry to be fed, the poor to be sustained, the sick to experience care, the oppressed to be released and the marginalised to have a voice. Peace is protection against violence, and it is experienced when warfare and armed conflicts are translated into development and nation building.

HUMAN EXISTENCE IS AT REAL AND IMMINENT RISK

The current economic and climate change crises are both rooted in the unsustainable nature of the existing economic system. The rapid and unexpected economic meltdown, which began in the United States and quickly spread throughout the world demonstrated dramatically that the phenomenon of globalization and interdependence has a dramatic downside of shared risks and vulnerability.

BRAZIL: SHOWING THE WORLD HOW TO END HUNGER

It is scandalous that in a world of ample food supplies, over one billion people face constant hunger -and the number is still rising. What makes matters worse is that we know how to end hunger, and yet few governments are doing so.

A LAY EUROPE FOR ALL FAITHS

Exponents of the Catholic Church and the Italian government have reacted angrily to the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights requiring the removal of crucifixes from all schools in the country. Since the November 3 decision, both entities are on war footing and are mobilising to have the decision reversed or its enforcement blocked. The court is based in Strasbourg and has representatives from 47 nations, not all from Europe.

AMERICAN WORKERS FACE UNCERTAIN RETIREMENT

For the first postwar generation of American workers, putting in a faithful forty years 'working for The Man' may have sometimes felt like a jail sentence, but it offered a handsome reward. Corporate and state employee pensions bolstered the federal government's Social Security system to provide a secure if not always lavish retirement for a substantial majority of Americans. But recent and long-term trends have eroded that assurance. Their children and grandchildren will likely inherit a far less ample retirement, if indeed they receive any at all.

NO FINANCIAL REFORM IN SIGHT AS BANKS RESUME BUSINESS AS USUAL

The financial landscape has now been blessed with a new American company that lists divorce settlements of millionaires on the stock market. Investors pay the high legal costs of one of the parties and shares in the proceeds if the judgment goes their way. All of this, as the financial crisis has added 100 million more poor to the world.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL, TOO BIG IS UGLY

Trading is arguably the core activity in all market economies. Free trade is the mantra of all economists -left, right and center. Trading is considered indispensible and more trade is always seen as better. The financial crisis caused a closer look at trade and financial traders to see if these conventional beliefs are still valid and whether stock markets have spun out of control.

CUBA: THE INVISIBLE FUTURE

If a person's past is the accumulation of the life experiences that made him who he is, the future embodies the dreams and the expectations of what this person wants to be and what he needs to have a better life, materially and spiritually. This ability to direct one's gaze forward and try to extract from the present the qualities of the future is one of the intrinsic components of the human condition and the source of people's and societies' ability to endure.

20 YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL: THE STORY CONTINUES

Twenty years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the shameful symbols of the Cold War and the dangerous division of the world into opposing blocks and spheres of influence. Today we can revisit the events of those times and take stock of them in a less emotional and more rational way.

CLIMATE CHANGE: ACT NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE

It's clear that climate change poses severe environmental, economic, and social risks. But it also presents a challenge of leadership the likes of which the world has never seen. Can heads of state and governments meet it when they gather in Copenhagen in December to hammer out a new international climate agreement?

FUNDS WITHOUT FUNDS: THE CHILEAN CASE

Riding the recent exuberance of emerging markets, Chilean pension funds have reduced to almost half the immense losses they suffered since the onset of the global economic crisis. But it won't help much.

WHY IS THE PEACE MOVEMENT SO QUIET ABOUT AFGHANISTAN?

While the war in Iraq triggered massive demonstrations across the globe, the ratcheting up of the number of troops in Afghanistan has generated no more than brief debates in parliaments. Obviously the intervention in Afghanistan if far more "legitimate" than the invasion of Iraq, based as if was on false assumptions about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. Nonetheless, it is still significant that the Afghan war, with its high human costs, is accepted as inevitable and that even the world peace movement seems resigned to it.