AFTER OIL: MODERN BIOCIVILISATION

We are at the threshold of the transition out of the oil and, hopefully, the fossil energy age, writes Ignacy Sachs, honourary professor at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, Paris, and visiting fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Sao Paulo. In this article, the author writes that this transition has already begun, prompted by the recent spectacular rise in the cost of oil and the recovery of food prices. To avoid the continued warming of the atmosphere, we must drastically modify our energy use by: altering lifestyles and patterns of consumption; improving energy efficiency; and substituting fossil fuels with renewable energy. We also ought to reopen discussions on a new cycle of rural development to avoid the blind alley of excessive and premature urbanisation. The two objectives could be reconciled by promoting modern biocivilisations, which rest on solar energy harnessed through photosynthesis and explore the multiple uses of biomass - food for humans, fodder for animals, green fertilisers, bioenergies, building materials, fibres, plastics and other products of green chemistry (chemurgy) turned out by biorefineries, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Biofuels are only a component of a larger whole.

THE FOOD CRISIS AND THE WRONG SOLUTIONS

The structural solution to the problem of world food security is an increase in productivity and production in the low-income food-deficit countries. This would require, in addition to official development assistance, innovative new solutions. To this effect, it is necessary to develop partnership or joint-venture agreements between, on the one hand, those countries that have the financial resources and on the other, those that possess land, water and human resources, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In reality, what is happening is a propensity for one of the two parties to take over the role of the other. Land acquisition and long-term farming leases appear to be favoured by foreign investors. Even in certain countries where land is an asset like any other exchange commodity and is used as a refuge against currency devaluation, protests from farm workers and indigenous populations are frequent. In other cases, the appropriation and distribution of land have become a source of latent conflict. If one adds to this the emotional, or sometimes, mystical value of what constitutes one of the bases of national sovereignty, you can easily imagine the risk of a social outcry when such land falls into foreign hands.

RESILIENCE ECOLOGISTS LOOK TO NATURE FOR STRATEGIES TO STAY AFLOAT IN TURBULENT TIMES

Between floods, droughts, epidemics, food shortages and rising prices, the world seems about to spin off its axis. For all the drama of the past half century, historians and natural scientists tell us that the postwar era has actually been something of an anomaly, a period of relative calm in nature and human events in a world that history has shown to be reliably unpredictable. That hiatus may now be ending. Moreover, they say, we are approaching a threshold moment, a change of phase that will throw every long-held habit and assumption into question. War and revolution are just such moments, but never before have we endured simultaneous transformations of politics, culture and nature, writes Mark Sommer, hosts of A World of Possibilities, an award-winning, internationally syndicated radio program ( www.aworldofpossibilities.com). This transformation is driven in large part by nature's blowback against human misbehavior. And it is to nature that a new school of ecologists say we must now turn for clues about how to survive and thrive in the turbulent times to come. They invoke the term “resilience” to describe the capacity to absorb shocks to the system without losing our ability to function. We're used to seeing resilience in nature and healthy human personalities. But can whole societies become resilient in the face of traumatic transition?

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IS ON THE WAY OUT

The 2008 world report on the death penalty from Hands Off Cain confirms that there has been positive movement in the fight to end capital punishment for more than a decade, and highlights the most striking advance yet: the universal moratorium against capital punishment approved by the UN last December, writes Elisabetta Zamparutti, a leader in the Radical Party who prepared the annual report on the Death Penalty in the World for Hands Off Cain. She was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 2008 In this analysis, the author writes that there is one manner in which the resolution could be significantly strengthened: the elimination of the secrecy surrounding the death penalty. Many countries, mostly authoritarian, do not provide official figures on executions, and the general public\'s lack of information is a direct cause of their escalation. Accordingly, a provision should be immediately introduced into the resolution requesting that death-penalty states release to the UN and the general public all information regarding the implementation of capital punishment and executions. On closer examination, it becomes clear that in death penalty countries, the problem goes beyond the specific practice of capital punishment; it is a matter of democracy, the rule of law, the promotion of and respect for political rights and civil liberties.

CUBA: SOCIALIST REALISM

Forty-six years after it was proclaimed, Cuban socialism seems to have finally revived the idea of the value of money as an economic regulator and social catalyst, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a ten languages. In this article, the author writes that real life and political rhetoric are beginning to draw closer to one another. Realism has dawned on the upper echelons of Cuban decision-making, now led by Raul Castro, and was reflected in the President\'s July 11 speech, which focused on the quality and productivity of manual and intellectual labour. Even the government has recognised periodically over the last two years that the wages the state paid were too low. This is realism, and its manifestation can be reduced to this: the people can\'t live only on what the state pays them. The new Cuban government has issued three basic appeals to the country regarding work, saving, and discipline. This is the holy trinity that could provide the system with stability and durability.

BURMA JUNTA EXPLOITS DISASTER TO ADVANCE ITS INTERESTS

Burma\'s military junta is exploiting cyclone Nargis to advance its interests and annihilate supporters of democracy, writes Zin Linn, a former political detainee in Burma who now lives in exile and is presently the media and information director of the National Coalition Government of Union of Burma. Unconcerned by the deaths of thousands of citizens, the military leaders\' only want to hold on to power. The people are starting to think that the UN and other international organisations will not be able to help them achieve basic freedoms. Some analysts argue that the UN and ASEAN failed to help the people of Burma in time, instead soothing the generals, who never had any respect for human rights or humanitarian principles. The UN cancelled its planned weekly press briefings at the Bangkok-based Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand because of pressure from the junta. The demeaning of human values so common still in Burma will cause substantial social unrest and political volatility for years to come.

COLD WAR I AND II – SOLUTIONS ANYONE?

Cold War I came and went, and then, in the mid-1990s, Cold War II began, building on the ruins of Cold War I and now gathering strength, writes Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies, founder of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. In this analysis, Galtung writes that the Cold War ended because of the non-aligned Helsinki process (1972-75) initiated by Finnish President Kekkonen and because people\'s movements turned against the governments. The Final Act of Helsinki 1975 confirmed borders in Eastern Europe, initiated a mixed economy through investment in the East, and a turn toward human rights in the Soviet Union - all useful. And so the Cold War withered away, devoid of real issues, with no winners and no losers. Solutions today? A Helsinki-style conference. Declare an end - no winner, no loser. The US empire collapses like the Soviet did, and then blossoms. A mixed economy is already there, social if not democratic. Democracy and human rights with self-determination are on the world agenda, in the West too with its numerous Tibets. What we need are non-aligned countries. And massive people\'s movements. Are they coming?

CUBA: HEAT AND SCEPTICISM

Whether they hope for the materialisation of certain wishes or are convinced of certain disappointment, a day looms in the near future for Cuban: July 26, anniversary of the beginning of the armed struggle of Fidel Castro and his followers in 1953, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a ten languages. In this article, Padura writes that it was a year ago that Raul Castro, then interim president, raised hopes for change in a short speech he gave during celebrations of this anniversary. The Cuban economy and society are clearly waiting for -and need- new and deeper changes. Months have passed without the oft- mentioned economic liberalisation that would allow for the creation of small private businesses, the longed-for sale of cars and furniture, the elimination of the burdensome exit visas to leave the country, among other changes that have been spoken of - but which the upper ranks of Cuban decision-making have less and less desire for. What is most worrisome is that this Cuban society that lives on hope continues to show signs (recognised by its leaders) of deterioration and a scepticism that in the opinion of many could block or derail the implementation of changes that could lead it into new directions.

WISDOM OF ANCIENT MAYA FOR MODERN CIVILISATION IN CRISIS

Given the unmistakeable signs that the earth cannot survive the intensified exploitation of her resources, the assault on the dignity of her children, and the exclusion and condemnation to starvation of millions of humans, it is essential that we seek inspiration in other civilisations that offer ecological wisdom, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian writer, liberation theologist, and a comissioner and author of the Earth Charter. In this article for IPS, Boff writes that the Maya believe that the universe is built of and sustained by cosmic energies and that the basic duality between creation and disintegration (we would say between chaos and cosmos) confers dynamism on this universal process. Human well-being derives from our synchronisation with this process and our profound respect for all living beings. Thus human beings feel they are part of Mother Earth and enjoy her beauty and protection. Death is not the enemy but a more profound immersion in the universe. Whereas for us, work is essentially the production of goods and wealth, often disappointing and uncreative, for the Maya, work is helping Mother Earth, who gives us all we need to live, an activity that does not enslave people but allows them to express their abilities and shape their lives. This practical wisdom has great validity for this critical phase of our history. All that helps maintain the equilibrium of the Earth and its vitality should be valued and recognised as a form of regeneration and salvation.

U.S. LAGS BEHIND WORLD OPINION IN LINGERING SUPPORT FOR DEATH PENALTY

It's not easy to explain why, virtually alone among advanced industrial democracies, the United States holds on to the practice of capital punishment. The United Nations General Assembly recently passed a worldwide moratorium on capital punishment and most advanced industrial democracies have outlawed the death penalty. Capital punishment is coming to be seen in much of the world as an ultimate abuse of human rights. In continuing to embrace the practice, the United States finds itself aligned with nations whose human rights records it routinely condemns -China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Why it persists in this globally unpopular policy and why the American public continues to support it by two-thirds majorities- is a source of puzzlement., writes Mark Sommer, host of A World of Possibilities, an award-winning, internationally syndicated radio program. Today, 35 states have capital punishment laws on their books but just ten maintain active execution programs. A number of Midwestern and Northeastern states have abolished capital punishment. About 3,350 people languish today on \"death row,\" and keeping them there is an immensely expensive proposition. The great majority are poor and a significant number are mentally disturbed. More than 40 percent are African American (four times their proportion in the general population), and disproportionate numbers are Native American, Latino, and Asian. Most experts on the death penalty decline to speculate as to why the United States hold so firmly to capital punishment. It's not enough to say that it's a tenet of conservatism in an era of conservative ascendancy since recent surveys reveal that even Barack Obama, an unapologetic liberal, finds it necessary to support the death penalty in cases in which “the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage.\"

AFRICA: TREES VS DESERTS

Conserving the Congo forest, and indeed all of our forests in Africa, and accelerating forestation efforts is vital to our survival on a continent where the Sahara Desert is expanding to the North and the Kalahari Desert expands to the Southwest, writes Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Forest, and founder of the Green Belt Movement. In this article, Maathai writes that for this reason the Congo Basin Forest Fund was launched in London on June 17. The Congo Basin Forest is the world\'s second largest forest ecosystem and considered the planet\'s second lung, after the Amazon. It provides food, shelter, and livelihood for over 50 million people. Covering 200 million hectares and including approximately one-fifth of the world\'s remaining closed-canopy tropical forest, it is also a very significant carbon store with a vital role in regulating the regional climate.Today, in the Congo Basin rainforest increased logging, changing patterns of agriculture, population growth, and the oil and mining industries are all leading to ever greater deforestation.

GEORGE W. BUSH DESERVES NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

The next Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to George W. Bush, writes Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of IPS. In this column, Savio writes that in just eight years, US president George Bush has managed to profoundly change his country and the world. I doubt that as president Obama would be able to motivate the formation of an opposition as vast as that of the World Social Forum at Porto Alegre. The clamour of hundreds of thousands of people against imperialism and for a different world was the result of the radicalisation produced in this period. Without it, the creation of a global civil society would have been far slower. The first major contribution of Bush was to demonstrate that unilateralism can no longer work in a world that is increasingly multipolar. He definitively disproved the theory that war can resolve conflict and demonstrated that there can be no consensus to govern without respect for international law. The failure to ratify a single international treaty (starting with Kyoto) has aroused growing irritation and as a consequence the treaty against cluster bombs has been ratified by almost every country on earth.

A HISTORIC CROSSROADS FOR BOLIVIA AND EVO MORALES

The social movement of Bolivia remains integrated with President Morales as its symbol, but the government does not seem able to build a new collective identity and a new social order to accommodate it, writes Jose Enrique Pinelo, an activist in Bolivia\'s social movements since 1970. In this article, Pinelo writes that Morales\' project for change must be reflected in the new Political Constitution of the State. The task of government was to convene a Constituent Assembly, redact the constitution, and submit it to popular vote. However, for more than a year the government has lost its political initiative and the Assembly has ceased its work. Morales was charged with safeguarding the strategic character of this process but because of the advance of the opposition, he used it as a tactical negotiating piece. He has called for a recall referendum on the mandate of the president, vice president, and the department prefects to be held on August 10. Thus far it doesn\'t seem likely that the constitutional process will succeed.

A WAR ON POVERTY OR A WAR ON THE POOR?

The latest Human Development Report 2007/2008 of the UNDP on climate change forecasts that in less than 20 years, 2.4 billion human beings will live in shanty towns and poor suburbs that lack water and sanitation and suffer high rates of infant mortality, writes Riccardo Petrella, founder of the International Committee for a World Water Contract, is professor emeritus at the Catholic University of Louvain. In this article for IPS, Petrella writes that the world\'s major political challenge for the next thirty years and beyond is guaranteeing the right to a human life for all: in other words, the complete eradication of poverty from the world, and more precisely, the elimination of those approaches and processes which have led to the mass pauperisation of the world\'s populations. The solution involves a total and radical redefinition of the future of cities in which cities have to be given back to citizens. The author calls shifting the investment and use of local and global resources towards the generation of collective wealth in poor suburbs, namely the production of communal goods: water, health, education, housing, agriculture for local needs, renewable energies, energy saving, etc. This will involve a battle for the global restructuring of the current financial system, whose latest, umpteenth crisis proves such change is absolutely necessary.

IT PAYS OFF TO INVEST IN WOMEN’S HEALTH

(By Thoraya Ahmed Obaid anf Theresa Shaver) Every minute of every day a woman dies in childbirth. Not from a disease that couldn't be cured. Or from complications that couldn't be treated. Almost always she dies because she didn't receive the most basic life-saving care, write Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Theresa Shaver, Director of The White Ribbon Alliance fro Safe Motherhood. While the advances of medical care ­antibiotics, better obstetric procedures and control of infections­ sent maternal death ratios plummeting in the 20th century in rich countries, complications in pregnancy and childbirth remain the leading killer of women in Africa and South Asia. This is despite numerous pledges by world leaders spanning two decades, and a commitment to work together to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 5 to improve maternal health, get universal access to reproductive health and reduce maternal death by 75 per cent by 2015. At current rates of change, this goal will not be met until 2076 at the earliest in Asia... and many years later in Africa. The tragedy of a mother lost, while shattering to every family, is not suffered equally by the rich and poor. Even though 15 per cent of pregnant women worldwide experience life-threatening complications, a woman's lifetime risk of dying from such complications is 1 in 26 in Africa, compared to 1 in 7300 in developed countries.

CHANGING GAMES IN THE GLOBAL CASINO

At last, the world is seeing the difference between money and real wealth, between \"demand\" in markets and the real needs of people without money, writes Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets: Growing The Green Economy, president of the independent Ethical Markets Media, LLC, and co-creator of the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators. In this article Henderson writes that there is growing outrage and demand for reform of the games of traders, speculators, hedge funds, private equity, and even pension funds and charitable foundation and university portfolio managers, which drive up prices of oil and food, and leave the poor unable to afford to eat. The author calls for numerous reforms of the global financial casino, including taxing the 90 percent of speculation in today\'s USD2 trillion of daily currency trading; curbing the USD260 billion in index funds tied to oil and other commodities; reducing the 16-to-1 leverage allowed in oil and commodity trading by raising margin requirements.

BOLIVIA TEETERS BETWEEN DEMOCRATIC LAW AND FRATRICIDAL WAR

Bolivia today is split as much by geography as by psychology. Radical groups on both sides are driving the country towards a solution that solves nothing but rather encourages a general conflagration of passions and hatred that eclipses reason and threatens to destroy the hard-won democratic peace, writes Guillermo Bedregal Gutierrez, an ex-parliamentarian and ex-foreign minister of Bolivia. In this analysis, the author writes that the logic of this polarisation could drag the country into an irrational battle of inflamed factions whose only method is \'\'resolution through disaster\'\'. President Evo Morales, an auto-didact mestizo union leader from Cochabamba who defeated the political establishment with over 50 percent of the popular vote, is inspired by a \'\'revolutionary\'\' radical and iconoclastic idea and reads history through a lens of spite and resentment. On August 10 a recall referendum will be held to revoke or reaffirm the mandate of the current government and the Bolivian congress. This foolish vote will only further divide the country and fan radical passions, which could lead to the secessionist division of Bolivia. The country is passing through a moment -often unremarked- of confrontation and irrationality in which the valour of Democratic Peace is ever more absent.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE SOUTH

A fundamental transformation has taken place in the structure of the world economy. The dominant feature of this transformation is the emergence of the South. Indeed, the global expansion of the past five years has been more broad-based than even before. This has allowed many developing countries to become major players in trade and investment, wrires Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and ex Director-General of the World Trade Organization. Between 1990 and 2006, the real exports of developing countries nearly tripled, while those of developed countries grew by only 75%. Similarly, the share of developing countries in world exports rose from 24% to 37%. During the same period, our data show that the developing countries\' share of all inward foreign direct investment (FDI) doubled, from 18% to 36%; and perhaps more surprising, their share of outward investment tripled, from 5% to 15%. The geographical distribution of skills is also shifting. In 1990, for example, developed countries accounted for 40% of all technical tertiary enrolments globally; 10 years later, that share had dropped to 28%. The unprecedented expansion in South-South economic linkages has been demand-driven. In other words, South-South cooperation has been guided primarily by viable economic factors and not by political considerations, as had been the case in the past. In many cases, demand for South-South business ties increased despite relatively higher tariff barriers imposed by partner countries.

DECLINING DIVERSITY OF CULTURES AND ECOSYSTEMS ARE CLOSELY RELATED

We humans speak some seven thousand languages. The great majority are spoken by a vanishingly small number of people in isolated jungles and mountains while a few are spoken by billions. Languages, and with them cultures, are disappearing at an alarming rate; we may lose half in just the next generation. At the same time, plant and animal species are vanishing at an equally rapid pace. These two trends are closely related, writes Mark Sommer, host of A World of Possibilities, an award-winning, internationally syndicated radio program. Both anthropologists and biologists are finding that the diversity of plant and animal life is central to the richness of a culture ­ and to its long-term survival. Monocultures, be they in culture or agriculture, may be more efficient in good times but they are more vulnerable if and when attacked by disease and pestilence. In diversity lies resilience, the capacity to remain vital and viable even one some components are lost. Just as the smart investor diversifies her portfolio, a wise steward cultivates a diversity of flora, fauna and cultures so that if some are lost others will take their place. But as a species we've been remarkably heedless of this axiom. “Nature no longer trusts us,” says Vyacheslav Shadrin, head of the Yukaghir Elders Council in the Russian Far North. It's a haunting commentary on modernity's betrayal of ancient ways. Like thousands of other isolated peoples, his is under threat of being swallowed by the larger empire that surrounds them.

CABO VERDE LOOKS TOWARDS EUROPE

The European Union, which has constantly expanded towards the East, should now turn its sights to the West and look positively on the desire of the government of Cape Verde to find a way of integrating with the European Union, writes Mario Soares, ex-prime minister and ex-president of Portugal. In this article,Soares writes that the archipelago is turning into a prime tourist destination with modern hotel facilities and an appealing climate even in winter, affable people, and high quality dance and folklore. It is not surprising that European tourists find Cape Verde enchanting. The current president, Pedro Pires, an outstanding anti-colonialist warrior, respected politician, and consummate negotiator, recently stated, \"I want my country to gradually grow closer to the European Union in order to find new ways to guarantee development and security.\"

HUMAN RIGHTS: BROKEN PROMISES

In the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, world leaders must apologize for six decades of human rights failure, and re-commit to concrete action, writes Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International. In 1948 in a move of extraordinary leadership, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Today, it amounts to no more than paper promises for countless millions of people around the world. Amnesty International\'s Report 2008 paints a grim picture of the state of the world's human rights in 150 countries. Civilians are treated as “fair game” by governments and armed groups in entrenched conflicts. Violence against women is pervasive in every region of the world. The absolute ban against torture and ill-treatment is being eroded. Political dissent is suppressed in many countries, and journalists and activists attacked and silenced. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers are left unprotected. Despite unprecedented global prosperity, millions of people are being left behind. Big business is largely oblivious of its impact on human rights. Add to this dismal picture the human rights flashpoints around the world - in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza and Myanmar. The burning imperative for action is clear – but where is the leadership and political will? 2007 was characterised by the impotence of Western governments and the ambivalence or reluctance of emerging powers to tackle human rights problems