CUBA SAYS GOODBYE TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Recent confirmation that Cuban citizens living in Cuba can finally have their own cell phones and buy computers, microwave ovens, and DVD players with the local currency in local stores has provoked amazement among the less informed and an ironic chuckle among those familiar with the complex multiple realities of this Caribbean island, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a ten languages. In this article, Padura writes that the possibility that the inhabitants of this magical, mythic, and always surprising island will now be allowed access to these goods leads automatically, however, to a formidable obstacle : all of these devices must be paid for in \'\'hard currency\'\'. A one or two-minute cell phone call would cost an entire day\'s wages for a person who works for the all-controlling state, which pays an average daily salary of 400 pesos, or 16 convertible pesos, equivalent to 16 dollars. But the people say that doesn\'t matter: in the end they will have cell phones. The fact that for the first time inhabitants of the island can legally have a telephone that was not \'\'assigned\'\' them by the state, watch on their DVD player something not broadcast by the government, or use a computer to produce or gather information beyond the reach of the state, is far more than a jump forward in time. It is a enormous and important increase in scope of free will in a country suffocated by systems of prohibitions and control.

ECONOMIC CRISIS – CAPITALISM AS USUAL

Every day we hear what sounds like old news about the economic crisis, and as usual the crisis is for the rich and involves the \"economy\" as an impersonal system; there is no mention of the misery that exists at the bottom of that \"system\", writes Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies, is Founder of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. In this article, the author writes that underlying most of the current financial crisis is speculation, another expression of a sick economy that drives wealth upward so that people founder at the bottom but swim in liquidity at the top. When the real economy is sluggish, the wealthy turn to sectors that are growing quickly, flooding them with money and creating bubbles - the housing market today, just as it was the dot-com world a few years ago. People have poured money into housing partly to live, partly to speculate, only to see the bubble burst and lose money and their houses. The banks, in contrast, which have in cases acted criminally, are rewarded with bail-outs. The people, most of whom are honest, are punished for the misdeeds of the banks. This is abominable. Where is the outrage? Where are Obama and Clinton? But the name of the system is capital-ism, not human-ism. Capitalists benefits, not humans. Time to change that system.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: INVESTING IN SUSTENANCE

Without radical changes in the way the world produces its food, the planet will suffer lasting damage, writes Hans R. Herren, Co-Chair, International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) and President of the Millennium Institute. In this article, Herren writes that modern agriculture, as currently practised, is devouring our capital. It is mining the soil, our natural resource base, and it is unsustainable, because it is both fossil energy- and capital-intensive and because it is not based on a full accounting of the externalities. The developing world is headed in the same direction. In addition, new challenges -climate change, a growing population, and demands for better food quality and diversity- will affect agriculture, disproportionally in developing countries. Business as usual is no longer an option. The author argues that raising awareness of the need for science and technology to find better solutions will actually attract funding for the multifunctional agriculture we now realise we need.

PARALLEL LIVES : THE DALAI LAMA AND ANDREI SAKHAROV

The Dalai Lama has returned to centre stage because of the recent and now quelled uprising of the Tibetans against Chinese domination and the brutal response of the government in Beijing. This was a grave error on China\'s part, to say the least, just as it is preparing to host the 2008 Olympic games, writes Mario Soares, ex- president and ex-prime minister of Portugal. In this article , Soares writes that the Dalai Lama responded from Dharamsala, his place of exile, with his customary firmness, accusing China of \'\'cultural genocide\'\', an expression that has succeeded in stirring consciences across the planet. The rhetorical response of the Beijing government was to accuse him of provoking the riots in the hope of creating difficulties for China. The Dalai Lama calmly responded that as a pacifist he does not believe that the problem of Tibet can be solved with force, but rather through dialogue. Watching the Dalai Lama speak these words on television, I was reminded of an experience I had when I visited political dissident Andrei Sakharov, another Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1975), during an official visit I made as President of Portugal to what was still the Soviet Union. After I signalled to him that there were probably hidden microphones in the room where we met, he answered calmly, \'\'It doesn\'t matter, they know everything that I think. We\'re already used to it.\'\' Afterwards we spoke freely about everything we wished. The brutal intimidation and force had no effect on the civic conscience of Sakharov.

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT – LIES

Until a short while ago, the major media were regaling us daily with cheery statistics about the success of international war against poverty, writes Eduardo Galeano, a Uruguyan writer and journalist, and author of The Open Veins of Latin America, Memories of Fire, and Mirrors/An Almost Universal History. In this article, Galeano writes that the World Bank\'s International Comparison Programme has corrected a few of the errors present in earlier reports. Among other things, they inform us that the poorest of the world\'s poor, the so-called \'\'indigent\'\', number 500 million more than had been previously calculated. We also learn that the poor countries are quite a bit poorer than the earlier statistics indicated and that their condition deteriorated while the World Bank was selling them the free-market happy pills. And as if that wasn\'t enough, it turns out that the universal inequality between the rich and the poor was also incorrectly measured, and that planet-wide the abyss between the two is still deeper than that of Brazil, an unjust country if there is one.

UNITED STATES: LEGITIMISING TORTURE

In a frightening turn, torture has made its way back into the public debate, with the governments that supposedly advocate democracy and freedom coming to its defence, writes Kumi Naidoo, former Secretary General of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. In this article, the author writes that President Bush recently all but acknowledged the use of torture against suspected terrorists and essentially condoned its practice by US officials when he vetoed a bill outlawing torture. This decision comes in the wake of recent testimony by CIA director Michael Hayden that the agency has used waterboarding techniques on detainees. For the US to publicly admit and condone torture undermines the efficacy of the Convention Against Torture, which the US ratified in 1984, and undermines the positive work of many American activists and progressive politicians who have advocated for political freedom and good treatment of detainees. The message this approach sends is clear: If you can justify it, torture is okay (look, even the Americans do it!).

LATIN AMERICA: REBIRTH OF THE AGRARIAN AGENDA

Repositioning the role of agrarian reform in regional development by examining the contribution it can make to social reconciliation, the economy, and the environment is one of the challenges facing FAO\'s 30th Regional Conference, which will bring together the 33 member nations in Brasil from April 14 to 18, writes Jose Graziano da Silva, Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). What distinguishes the current situation from previous cycles is that the imbalances of the past have been exacerbated by new social demands. In a way, these raise the agrarian issue to a new level of historical relevance and political legitimacy. And that changes everything. The steady growth of productive capacity in the 20th century -and the corresponding contamination and blight of the environment -has brought back together by a tortuous route that which was never really separated: human and natural history, the urban and the rural. Situated at the cusp of an historic and accelerated process of change in economic paradigms and cultural values, agrarian reform acquires a new and transformative sense in the eyes of society. In the 21st century, development can only be called development if it combines the old economic rationalism with social harmony and environmental balance.

EU-ACP TRADE TALKS FAIL TO ADDRESS DEVELOPMENT

Trade deal negotiations between the EU and African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries ended in a mess, writes Glenys Kinnock, Labour Party Member of the European Parliament. In this article, Kinnock writes that from the outset the European Commission negotiators approached the talks as if they were conventional free-trade area negotiations rather than tools for development. Now is the time for the EU to put development priorities back at the heart of the issue. There has to be a more participatory approach, more transparency, respect, and understanding for ACP regional and national interests. We urgently need a further opening of EU markets to ACP products, particularly agricultural products, which are the main exports for ACP countries. We must also ensure that the EC doesn\'t pressure ACP countries to liberalise services, investment, and government procurement, or to strengthen intellectual property rights or the inclusion of competition rules within EPAs. These EU-ACP trade agreements are absolutely critical to the future of the poorest countries in the world. We must ensure they are a genuine force for development.

WORLD ECONOMY SEES BOOM IN CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

The world economy has seen an extraordinary expansion in the last five years, and the creative industries are in the forefront as a result of the globalisation and connectivity that have been reshaping the overall pattern of cultural production, consumption, and trade and transforming lifestyles worldwide, writes Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In this article, the author writes that though developed countries still dominate this market, many developing-country products are already benefiting from the boom of their creative industries. Their exports of creative goods have increased astronomically, from USD 55.9 billion in 1996 to USD 136.2 billion in 2005, or about 140 percent. This rise is attributable primarily to China, which became the world\'s leading exporter of creative goods in 2005. A challenge to be faced, both domestic and systemic, is that most developing countries are not yet able to harness their creative capacities for development. In Africa, for instance, although there is an abundance of creative talents, the creative potential remains underutilised. The continent\'s share in global trade remains less than 1 percent of world exports, despite recent sharp increases. As is the case for other developing regions, this is a reflection of both domestic policy weaknesses and global systemic biases.

WINDS OF CHANGE BLOW IN CUBA

Two significant events have occurred since the formation of Cuba\'s new government on February 24 and suggest a shift in the country\'s politics, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a ten languages. His most recent work, La nieblina de ayer, won the Hammett Prize for the best crime novel written in Spanish for 2005. In this article, Padura writes that the first high-level representative of a foreign state received by the new Cuban president was the secretary of state of the Vatican. After this, for the first time since the visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba in 1998, state television broadcast a mass in Havana\'s Cathedral Square which was attended by thousands who applauded the demands made in public by a Catholic church that is exerting pressure patiently but insistently on the all-controlling Cuban state. Almost immediately afterwards, at the UN headquarters the Cuban foreign minister fulfilled the promise of the government to sign two extremely important treaties: the International Covenant on Economic, Social,and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. What is most important in Cuba today is that there is movement, and what moves changes, and what changes generates hope.

HARNESSING RELIGIONS ADVANCE WELL-BEING OF CHILDREN

Though all the world\'s major religions consider childhood sacred and needing special protection, they do not use their power and influence adequately to advance the well-being of children, writes Kul C. Gautam, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. . The Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) was established to do precisely this. Founded by a visionary Japanese Buddhist leader, GNRC\'s mission is to harness the deepest moral and spiritual beliefs and teachings of all the worlds religions for the well-being of children and for the defense of their rights. In May 2008, GNRC is organising a major world forum in Hiroshima, Japan, that will deal with the three current major ethical imperatives: ending violence against children, ensuring that no child lives in poverty, and empowering children to protect our planet. A partnership among the world\'s religions, governments, and civil society and international organisations is probably the most powerful key to creating a child-friendly world order that has eluded us so far.

WORLD TRADE IS INSURANCE AGAINST FINANCIAL TURBULENCES

With clouds darkening over the world economy, the Doha Round of the WTO is the one global initiative that may boost the confidence of world businesses, workers, and consumers and send a powerful signal that more than 150 countries have the confidence to resist protectionism, to create a more just and balanced trading system, and to lay sustainable foundations for growth and development in the 21st Century, writes Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In this article, Lamy acknowledges that the economic growth resulting from the expansion of world trade has not been equitably distributed within our societies, which have seen a rise in inequality and disruptions in their economic and social fabrics. If we are to succeed in building on the achievements of the global trading system through more trade opening, it is essential that countries adopt necessary domestic reforms and sequence them properly. This means adequate social safety nets and widespread availability of education and training

RELIGION EMERGES AS CENTRAL ISSUE IN LEAD-UP TO SPANISH ELECTIONS

In Spain, religion has emerged as an important political issue to a greater extent than was expected, writes Carlos Garcia de Andoin, federal coordinator of the Christian Socialists (PSOE). In this article, the author writes that this is not only because the current legislature, which was seated in March 2004, was shaken by the jihadi bombings of the Madrid subway, but also because it found itself targeted by the active opposition of the most conservative sectors of the Catholic church. The origin of the tensions was not a policy of barring religion from public life but rather the changes in culture and values that are sweeping Spanish society. When the economy is in reasonably good shape, the manifestation of the political differences between the right and the left shifts to the arena of cultural values. Thus the government of the PSOE has represented the change in values while the Catholic Church has made itself the defender of traditional values.

CHINA: THE OLYMPIC PRISONERS

The Olympic Games have their anthem, their rings, their heroes and their sponsors. And now, with the Beijing 2008 games, they have their prisoners, writes Robert Menard, Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders International. In this article, the author writes that the Chinese government is not just building fine stadiums, it is also arresting those who dare to condemn the countless human rights violations taking place in China. Just before New Year\'s Eve, leading human rights activist Hu Jia, recently nominated for the European Parliament\'s Sakharov prize, was arrested at his Beijing home. The policemen also threatened his young wife, Zeng Jinyan, a well-known blogger who was named by Time magazine as one of the world\'s 100 heroes in 2007. One would expect an outcry in response to such a level of repression. All those looking forward to the 2008 Beijing games should speak out. But the International Olympic Committee is saying nothing and rejecting all appeals for help. The Olympic sponsors are not saying anything either. And foreign diplomats rarely speak out because they are too scared of upsetting Beijing.

HILLARY AND BARACK COULD CHANGE THE WHOLE GAME TOGETHER

Rather than risk an ugly fight over their essentially similar positions, Clinton and Obama can make history by publicly stating again that they will support whichever one is the nominee, writes Hazel Henderson, futurist and author of Ethical Markets: Growing The Green Economy and other books. In this article, Henderson writes that the result would be electrifying and would baffle the pundits and the media now feasting on the conflict by exacerbating their trivial differences. Supporters of both candidates would approve of this win-win approach to really bringing the country together. The harm would only be to the pocketbooks of political contributors hoping for future favours, pollsters incomes, pundits and consultants fees and all those betting on the continued in-fighting. The good news is that such a win-win strategy might do much to change the game of United States politics which most citizens deplore.

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FOR LATIN AMERICA

Almost the entire western world is at the mercy of agroindustrial capitalism, a system of depredation that does not respect nature, produces food with high levels of toxins that makes its consumers sick, and is a cause of climate change and global warming, writes Joao Pedro Stedile, a member of the Landless Farmers Movement (MST) and of Via Campesina Brazil. In this article, Stedile writes that the government of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, in association with Via Campesina International, is pushing for various agreements that would end this dependence and create a path towards food sovereignty. The first step was reorganising the teaching of agronomy to focus on new approaches to the production of healthful foods, with agro-ecological techniques that do not use agro-toxins. In the spirit of Latin America integration that is the inspiration of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), Latin America is building the scientific foundations needed to find a way to achieve food sovereignty for our peoples.

CIVIL SOCIETY UNDER THREAT IN RUSSIA

With Russia\'s presidential elections -- notoriously a time of clampdown on dissent -- looming, it is important to ask whether non-governmental organisations (NGOs) there will be able to freely go about their legitimate activities, whether providing services, election monitoring, or holding the government to account, asks Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, and Tanzilya Salimdjanova, associate at CIVICUS - Civil Society Watch programme. In this analysis, the author writes that while in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, anti-NGO campaigns and policies were quickly implemented with devastating impact after independence, in Russia there is still time and space to advocate for civil society and support NGOs and human rights activists in their efforts to prevent civil society space from vanishing altogether. As Russia is a gravitational force, its moves towards protecting or suffocating civil society will play a huge role in influencing the policies of surrounding countries. Let us hope that they choose the path of openness, cooperation, and providing space for their vital partners in civil society.

EU SUGAR REFORM A BITTER PILL FOR POORER PRODUCERS

For more than three decades, the EU has maintained an extremely costly supply management scheme for its domestic sugar market which insulates domestic producers from international market forces with price supports and tariffs and has resulted in domestic prices triple world market prices and a major production surplus. At the same time, the EU has granted duty free market access for guaranteed quantities to some of its former colonies at guaranteed prices, writes David Kleimann, a German expert on International Law and International Relations. In February 2006, the EU adopted a radical reform programme of its sugar regime which is having severe effects. Some ACP high-cost producers are very likely to cease production because of the price reductions, while others will face a sharp reduction in their export earnings, and only a small group of competitive LDCs will be able to comfortably continue to supply the EU market after the price reductions have been implemented and the preferences terminated. The EU has the moral and legal obligation to provide the small and vulnerable ACP economies with market access for sugar that is worth no less than the previous trade arrangement and that continues to contribute to the realisation of ACP countries economic development and poverty reduction.

BIOFUELS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: A CURE THAT MAKES THE DISEASE WORSE

False solutions to the climate crisis, like biofuels, will actually aggravate the problem while exacerbating inequality, hunger, and poverty, writes Vandana Shiva, author and international campaigner for women and the environment. In this article Shiva writes that biofuels contribute to the very global warming that they are supposed to reduce. And yet these biofuels are treated as a clean development mechanism for reducing emissions in the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol totally avoided the material challenge of stopping activities that lead to higher emissions and the political challenge of regulating the polluters and making them pay in accordance with principles adopted at the Rio Earth Summit. Instead, Kyoto introduced a system of emissions trading which in effect rewards the polluters by assigning them rights to degrade the atmosphere and allowing trading in these rights. Today, the emissions trading market has reached USD 30 billion and is expected to reach USD 1 trillion. Meanwhile carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase, as do profits from polluting industrial activities.

IRAQ IMPASSE AND ECONOMIC SLUMP MARK DEMISE OF AMERICAN DOMINANCE

Less than a decade after neo-conservatives gained ascendancy in the White House and announced a \'new American century\', that unrivalled supremacy has been challenged by a titanic haemorrhaging of American economic dominance, military readiness, and political influence, writes Mark Sommer, host of the award-winning, internationally-syndicated radio programme, \'A World of Possibilities.\'. In this article, Sommer writes that the fact that the \'family jewels\' of American capitalism are being sold off to \'sovereign wealth funds\' controlled by national governments is an ominous development for a nation that until now has seldom had to worry about its solvency or sovereignty. US decline is neither inevitable or irreversible. The emergence of an African American and a woman as viable candidates for president has energised not only American voters but observers from around the world who despite its egregious recent record still yearn for re-inspired American leadership.

CUBA: TO CHANGE OR NOT TO CHANGE

The mystery novel into which Cuban life has been transformed has entered a climactic phase of its development. In the upcoming chapters we may find evidence regarding the question we are asking: Will Cuba change or not? writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a ten languages. In this article, Padura asks, What will change on the island when the top ranks of decision-makers have a clear understanding of the frustrations and complaints expressed by the Cuban people in massive volume in a July public forum? How will Cuban domestic policy change in response to the government\'s recent commitment to respect two UN pacts safeguarding rights whose limitation on the island for a wide range of reasons, circumstances, and historical factors has been outstripped by reality (the right to travel freely is one of the most frequently mentioned). People\'s expectations are now focused on the decision that must be taken in a few weeks by the Cuban parliament regarding the confirmation of Fidel Castro as the head of the Cuban state and government. Would he be in condition to carry out his previous responsibilities? What would or wouldn\'t change with Fidel Castro in charge again, or definitively removed from power (at least officially)?