THE LAST HOUR OF CARIDAD MERCADER

I recently visited the little-known Pantin cemetery in Paris where in a remote corner lies the grave of one of the most peculiar, mysterious, and dark figures of the 20th century, Caridad del Rio Hernandez, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a ten languages. Caridad experienced her apotheosis on August 20, 1940 in the remote neighborhood of Coyoacan in Mexico City, when one of her sons Ramon Mercader del Rio, assassinated communist leader Leon Trotsky on the orders of the communist leader Joseph Stalin. The 30-year contract for the burial plot expired in 2005 and unless it is renewed soon her and her son-in-law\'s remains will be removed and placed in an urn. The author said \"he could not tell me who paid for the initial contract, but I saw in his eyes he knew the answer, which I already did: the embassy of a country that no longer exists. Like that country, which Caridad del Rio worked for and killed her son for, her tomb is destined to disappear, as there are histories and cadavers that no one wants to be around.\"

TIME FOR TRUE MARKET REFORM

Today, the one-size-fits-all conventional recipe for economic growth, measured by GDP, is being challenged not only on social and environmental grounds but also because it is widely seen as a failure, writes Hazel Henderson, futurist, syndicated columnist, and author of many books including Ethical Markets: Growing The Green Economy(2007). In this article, the author writes that market reform is coming to mean reforming markets and capitalism itself. Would Adam Smith be surprised? Probably not, since he lauded the dynamism of capitalism. Schumpeter later saw the evolution of markets as \'\'creative destruction\'\', as seen today in the new \'\'disruptive\'\' technologies of cleaner, greener energy and resource-use shifts now challenging coal, oil, and nuclear power. The new values and ethical concerns driving the further evolution of capitalism reflect the new imperatives of the 21st century on our small, endangered planet. Guided by our growing human awareness of what we have wrought on this planet and our potential for further development, all our long-term self-interests are now indivisible. Ethics and morality are becoming the new pragmatism.

LATIN AMERICA: SOCIAL COHESION IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT ADDRESSING HUNGER

Inspired by the European experience of bringing together different societies and unequal economies, Latin America is forging its own development model, writes Jose Graziano da Silva, FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean. In this article, the author writes that hunger is the greatest obstacle to social cohesion in Latin America, and as long as it exists there cannot be general well-being. Today Latin America is in an excellent position to drastically reduce its deep economic and social gaps. This is the first occasion in a long time there have been five years of sustained growth in most of the countries of the region, with a three percent annual average growth in per capita income. Though it has the natural, financial, and human resources and the infrastructure and democratic institutions needed to eliminate hunger, it has not shown sufficient political will. Now it must.

ENERGY CHOICE: CHANGE YOUR HABITS OR CHANGE PLANETS

With temperatures and oil prices rising, energy-hungry industrial nations are seeking alternatives to a petroleum economy, and many find themselves turning back to coal, writes Mark Sommer, who hosts the award-winning, internationally-syndicated radio programme, \'\'A World of Possibilities\'\'. In this article, Sommer writes that although coal remains plentiful, strip-mining and mountaintop removal remain standard industry practices, and greenhouse gases released by the burning of coal are a prime contributor to global warming. As advanced industrial nations start instituting cap-and-trade systems and carbon taxes, the rising costs of investing in such a carbon-clogging energy source are becoming apparent even to Wall Street. Renewables are on the way, though many say not soon enough to fill the gap. How much sooner might they come on line if instead of investing in more coal-fired plants we invested today in wind, solar, biomass, methane and wave power? And how much more might we squeeze out of the energy we now use if we applied ourselves to greater efficiency and conservation?

SUCCESSFUL DOHA CONCLUSION WOULD BE BOON FOR AFRICA

Failure to successfully conclude the Doha development round would hurt the multilateral trading system but it would more devastating to developing countries, including those in Africa, writes Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Though agriculture is an important part of the agenda, this Round covers other issues with significant potential gains for Africa. For instance, in industrial products, such as textiles and footwear, improved market access in developed countries would benefit African exports of manufactured goods. The same is true for services, the most dynamic sector in many African countries. Developing the necessary infrastructure and human skills are two of the most important challenges Africa faces in terms of modernising trade. Progress in these two areas is fundamental to building African countries\' capacity to effectively participate in regional and global trade.

SOUTH AMERICA: BANKING ON THE NEIGHBOURS

Resentment against the international financial institutions is growing across the world, laying a foundation for an alternative economic vision in South America. The challenge is for it to be a true alternative, writes Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the California based Oakland Institute. This has laid the foundation for an alternative economic vision for the region with President Chávez's idea of creating an alternative fund - Banco del Sur or the Bank of the South - to free the region from the IFIs coming to fruition. With Argentina, Bolivia, and Ecuador already on board, Brazil too joined the Bank in April - significantly increasing the available resources. The goal of this Latin American controlled multilateral lender is to fund social and economic development in the region without the political conditions that come with the IMF loans. The intention of this alternative institution is to adhere to local needs than to dictates of the Western nations and Latin America appears to have taken a turn in an overwhelmingly positive economic direction. However, while breaking free from the international financial institutions is essential for formulating national policies that would address the needs of the overall population, much deeper structural changes are required some questions remain to ensure the fulfillment of aspirations behind this institution.

G8 SUMMIT: AWAY WITH GLOBAL ECONOMIC APARTHEID

It was in Germany in 1884 that Africa was carved up randomly and its communities destroyed by the dominant world powers; is it to redress this that the G8 summit in Germany is focused on poverty relief and climate change? asks Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of CIVICUS, chair of Global Call for Action Against Poverty (GCAP). In this article, Naidoo writes of the need to involve those whose situation we aim to improve in formulating the shape and direction of assistance offered to them. This is not just a moral call but a matter of basic human rights. Aid is not a panacea; increasing aid should come with increased efforts to make aid work. We need both more and better aid, fairer trade conditions, and renewed efforts to lift the debt burden, so that the promises made truly improve the lives of the poorest. It is the G8\'s duty to ensure that this happens. 123 years after the Berlin Conference and 61 years after the Marshall Plan, Germany has an opportunity to change its legacy. It could be remembered not only as the place where Africa\'s woes began but also as the place where impoverished nations got the chance they needed to recover, once and for all. Just as Germany benefited from the Marshall plan, surely a global Marshall, or perhaps Merkel, plan now makes sense. It would ensure that future generations live in a world with political, social, economic, gender, and environmental justice.

THE IMF AND WORLD BANK : CRISIS TIME

After many years of a sustained campaign against the UN, the so-called Bretton Woods twins --the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank-- now find themselves in political and economic crisis, writes Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of IPS news agency and founder of the International Committee of the World Social Forum. In this article, Savio writes that the World Bank finds itself in a financial crisis from which it would not be able to rescue itself even without the corruption charges against Wolfowitz: it would need to come up with at least USD 16 billion in operating capital. The situation of the IMF is even worse. Its income has dropped from USD 3.19 billion in 2005 to USD 1.300 billion in 2006, and is projected to drop by half in 2007 as fewer and fewer countries request its loans, which come with onerous conditions. With the UN essentially relegated to development policy and the Bretton Woods institutions faced with radical rethinking, we must ask whether the dramatic issues such as climate change will be enough to create a new sense of awareness that a lawless market is incapable of solving the problems of international governance for all citizens, rich and poor.

COLUMN RELATED TO THE INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT DAY, JUNE 5: 15 YEARS AFTER THE RIO EARTH SUMMIT, PRACTICAL ACTION IS NEEDED

Fifteen years after the Rio Earth Summit later, the consequences of the changes made by humans to Earth\'s natural systems have never been clearer, write Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Climate Change. In this article, the authors write that climate change is now recognized as an issue of extreme global importance. This year\'s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) served to remove lingering doubts about the human role in global warming. As a result, in the last few months there has been a sea change in international public and political awareness and resolve to take action. Equally important but still less prominent in the public eye and on the political agenda is the continuing loss of biodiversity, which is a significant threat to human well-being. In terms of the intergovernmental climate change process, this year is critical for moving parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change towards the next phase of multilateral climate change abatement. A strong framework needs to be in place by 2010 to ensure that there is no gap between the end of the Kyoto Protocol\'s first commitment period in 2012 and the entry into force of a future regime. A comprehensive agenda on the future needs to be agreed at the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Bali in December this year. A new global alliance for life on Earth is urgently needed. We can no longer afford to miss any opportunity to turn the objectives of the Rio Earth Summit of fifteen years ago into practical action that will safeguard the planet\'s life support systems. We owe this to ourselves, to our children, to future generations, and to life on Earth.

COLUMN RELATED TO THE INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT DAY, JUNE 5: BIODIVERSITY: OUR REAL CAPITAL, OUR REAL INSURANCE

Fifteen years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on Climate Change were signed. While they have evolved totally independently, they are intimately connected, writes Vandana Shiva, author and international campaigner for women and the environment. In this article, Shiva writes that while reducing climate impact, biodiversity also increases climate adaptation. Decentralised biodiverse systems are more resilient to climate change than centralized monoculture systems. Biodiversity provides an important adaptation strategy for climate chaos, and yet it is not even included in the discussion on climate change, which is focussed on pseudo-solutions such as industrial biofuels and carbon trading. We need to put biodiversity at the centre of climate solutions. Biodiversity conservation protects the diverse species that maintain the web of life on the planet. Biodiversity conservation removes poverty. And biodiversity conservation reduces the risks of climate change. These ecological and economic reasons should propel us to commit ourselves to the protection of biodiversity everywhere.

GREEN LIGHT FOR A UNIVERSAL MORATORIUM ON THE DEATH PENALTY

During the last European Union Council on General Affairs on May 14-15, the Italian government and the German Presidency of the EU received a mandate to present a proposal for a universal moratorium on the death penalty in the UN General Assembly, 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. In this article, Zamparutti writes that the conditions for approval of the proposal in the Assembly have existed for some time but until now the EU has blocked such a move. Thanks to the non-violent campaign of Hands Off Cain and the Radical Party, the preparation of a text of the moratorium resolution now has the green light and the search by the Italian government and the Presidency of the EU for co-sponsors has begun. The latter step is crucial to avoid leaving an initiative of such importance only in the hands of the EU.

THE POLITICS OF FEAR

A wall is being built in Baghdad, a fence/wall already exists in Israel and the Occupied Territories, another one is coming up in the border between Mexico and the USA, another one is in place between Ceuta and Morocco and between Melilla and Morocco and a barrier on water is being built by Frontex patrol boats. The walls and barriers of the world in 2006 are reminiscent of the divisions that existed at the time of the Cold War. Like in the Cold War times, the agenda is being driven by fear instigated, encouraged and sustained by unprincipled leaders. For this reason, fear is at the centre of the Amnesty International Report 2007, writes Irene Khan, Secretary General of A.I. Fear can be a positive imperative for change, as in the case of the environment, where alarm about global warming is forcing politicians belatedly into action. But fear can also be dangerous and divisive when it breeds intolerance, threatens diversity and justifies the erosion of human rights. Today far too many leaders are trampling freedom and trumpeting an ever-widening range of fears: fear of being swamped by migrants; fear of “the other” and of losing one's identity; fear of being blown up by terrorists; fear of “rogue states” with weapons of mass destruction. Fear thrives on myopic and cowardly leadership. There are indeed many real causes of fear but the approach being taken by many world leaders is short-sighted, promulgating policies and strategies that erode the rule of law and human rights, increase inequalities, feed racism and xenophobia, divide and damage communities, and sow the seeds for violence and more conflict.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FOURTH ESTATE

Should the media, which shape public opinion and orient a major part of our actions --political, commercial, social. cultural-- share the same responsibilities as civil society organisations that fight for human rights and discriminated-against minorities around the world? asks Mario Lubetkin, director general the IPS News Agency. In this article the author writes that more and more media feel an identification with a mission that cannot be reduced to transmitting information and feel bound by a sense of social responsibility. We think that the code of conduct voluntarily adopted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which was written by themselves, contains elements that may be appropriate for the oversight and analysis of the media given the nature of their respective missions. The universal values of human rights, independence, freedom from discrimination, transparency, an ethic of self-financing, the practise of critical vision and evaluation, are some of the concepts that might be accepted by and applied to the media themselves. This might establish a common ground between these two major actors in the contemporary world.

MERCOSUR: GIVING SMALL FARMERS A VOICE IN POLICY DIALOGUE

What does MERCOSUR, the world's fourth largest trading block, have to do with the plight of poor rural people small farmers, landless workers, herders, fisherfolk and indigenous peoples? A lot, writes Lennart Båge, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Economic development and advances in technology are creating an ever-richer world for many. But millions of poor people in developing countries are at risk of being left behind and further marginalized. Poor rural people remain poor because they lack the basic assets to overcome poverty, such as access to markets and to the information and political power they need to advocate on their own behalf and take advantage of opportunities. Agriculture is one of the leading economic sectors in most MERCOSUR countries. It provides income and employment for millions of farmers and livestock herders. However, many of the poorest and most vulnerable people are not benefiting from global market opportunities.

THE REVEALING SILENCES OF POPE BENEDICT XVI

Pope Benedict XVI\'s statements during his visit to Brazil were mined with significant silences: only once did he refer to the grassroots ecclesiastical communities, to choices for the poor, and to liberation, and never to liberation theology and social ministry or to the grave problem of global warming, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian writer and theologian. In this article Boff writes that instead the Pope went back in time 50 years with the traditional and ambiguous language of charity and helping the poor. These silences are a way to obscure and deny. Such lazy reason, particularly that of major institutions like the Catholic Church, is myopic and harmful, always returning to the old ways (more catechism, more celibacy, more obedience, more adhesion to Church teachings). If Brazilian and Latin American Catholicism is to rise to the challenges of this age, it needs the courage that the first Christians had to leave behind the terrain of Judeo Christianity and enter the land of pagan Hellenism. It was from this encounter that today\'s Christianity emerged. What we need is a Catholicism with an Indian-black-Latin American face that is not against but in communion with Roman Catholicism.

ZIMBABWE: WHAT THE SMALL ANTS CAN DO TO MOVE THE GRASSHOPPER

Africans have to stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe by holding their governments to the democratic principles which they profess, writes Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of CIVICUS, an international network of civil society organisations In this analysis, Naidoo writes that the myriad of problems the country faces must be addressed on several levels and, most important, these efforts should focus on the citizens of the country. Civil society organisations are integral to this equation. However, government threats against civil society are increasing and there are legal limitations on their work, particularly in organising public meetings. And there has been a frightening rise in both open and clandestine attacks against peaceful civic activists.

PORTUGAL RISING

Two years after the formation of the socialist government headed by Jose Socrates, Portugal is on the verge of overcoming the financial crisis that has beset it for six years -- and as a result, the right-wing opposition --divided and without a leader-- is furiously attacking both the government and the Socialist Party (PS), writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal. In this article, Soares writes that the opposition fears that having successfully completed the unpopular but necessary task of cutting the budget deficit, the Socrates administration would move ahead with its programme of major progressive reforms designed to reduce the social inequalities that shame us and call attention to the social role of the state. Socrates passed reforms to simplify the bureaucracy and imposed profound changes in social security, health care, education, and justice. And he turned around the negative growth trend: in 2003, the last year of the conservative government that preceded Socrates\', the economy shrank by 0.5 percent. Currently it is growing at 1.3 percent.

US FARMWORKERS MOVEMENT BRINGS DOWN THE GOLDEN ARCHES

McDonald\'s set a resounding example by agreeing to abide by the international human rights principles laid out by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), writes Kerry Kennedy, author and human rights activist, and founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for Human Rights. In this article, Kennedy writes that now it is time for Burger King, Subway, Walmart and others in the retail food industry to acknowledge their responsibilities and partner with the farmworkers, the victims of institutionalised human rights abuse. As Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez taught us all in America\'s first farmworkers movements, human rights enforcement cannot be left to governments and law enforcement alone. Human rights are held by all persons equally, universally, and forever. Corporations must realise these rights are indivisible and interdependent. Without these rights, slavery, poverty, and abuse will continue to taint America\'s retail food industry.

CHINDIA: EMERGENCE OF THE FUTURE WORLD POWER ?

Twenty years from now will we say we are in the Asian, and not the American or European, Century? The debate now underway is whether the future world power will be China or India, writes Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of IPS and a member of the World Social Forum International Committee. In this article, Savio writes that the only time Chinese president Hu Jintao has spoken of multipolarity and democracy in international relations was in reference to the common interests of China and India. Might we then be witnessing the beginning of a new geopolitical entity of unprecedented size: \'\'Chindia\'\', with a population of almost 2 billion? Why fight each other, or others, when by allying themselves they make the rest of the world irrelevant? In any case we will face a different sort of hegemony than that of the US, which is based on the affirmation of values and life styles. It does not seem at all possible that China would want to impose its own political model, or cuisine or music or way of dressing, on the rest of the world. We would face a gigantic trade empire, where it is likely Chinese interests would be placed before all others, with a complete lack of interest in international social justice or the fate of the weakest.

COLUMN RELATED TO THE INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT DAY, JUNE 5: WHAT IS ART FOR?

Art has the great and very useful ability to synthesise reality and fix it within permanent codes which have the ability to make us see human behaviour and society, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes is a Cuban writer and journalist whose most recent work won the Hammett Prize for the best detective novel in Spanish for 2005. In this analysis, the author writes that today when there is so much talk of climate change and its catastrophic effects on the planet, it is fair to say that never before have so many people beheld the same vision -- one which, not by chance, happened to be generated from a work of art. The futuristic vision of Ridley Scott in his classic film Blade Runner has become, thanks to human indolence and the lure of money, a sort of nightmare that we see coming increasingly true around us. That which was conceived of 25 years ago as a metaphor has come true in the form of disasters already suffered through, hair-raising omens, and above all, a shared awareness awakened by the clearest image of what the world could be in a few decades if today, right now, (and we are already behind) if we don\'t do everything possible to slow the economic and even quotidian activities that are stoking climate change.

TAKEOVER AT UN: HUMANITARIAN ADVOCACY, A CARDINAL PRIORITY, NOW TAKES ON A LOW-KEY HUE

In the end, Sir John Holmes could not contain his exasperation at last week\'s press conference in Nairobi . \"You don\'t seem to be interested in the humanitarian situation in Somalia,\" he told journalists. The United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator had just flown in from Mogadishu, the first high-level UN official to visit the city in 14 years. But the journalists were treated to an astonishingly bland and low-key presentation of the fraught humanitarian challenges faced by the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have been prevented by the authorities from receiving desperately-needed assistance, writes Salim Lone, a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya, the Guardian (UK), BBC and Al Jazeera Holmes\' presentation did not contain any criticism of the Ethiopian army and the Transitional Federal Government which are the principal perpetrators of atrocities against civilians, some of which have been committed by the insurgents as well. Even more amazing was his decision not to meet with the Ethiopians who run the show in Somalia or even the elders of clans whose civilians have suffered so heavily. One would never have guessed Holmes was arriving from a city that was gripped by unspeakable carnage and had been leveled like Grozny by bombs and heavy artillery raining on densely-populated civilian areas, and that victims of the war were still dying primarily because of restrictions placed on humanitarian access by the authorities. No wonder he was not peppered with questions about the humanitarian crisis.