A Posthumous Message from Hurricane Sandy*

Hi, this is Sandy. By the time you read this, I’ll be gone, after dissipating into increasingly weaker remnants of strong winds, heavy rains and snowfall in the Great Lakes region of North America.**

Better Governance to Achieve Food Security

Despite a sudden increase in July this year, prices of cereals on world markets remained fairly stable. But there are no grounds for complacency, as cereals markets remain vulnerable to supply shocks and disruptive policy measures. In this context, the good harvests that are expected in the Southern Hemisphere are important.

Q&A: “Smallholder Agriculture Needs to Be Seen as a Business”

The countries of the developing South should remove the barriers still faced by small-scale farmers, because smallholders play a key role in economic growth, says Carlos Seré, the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD) chief development strategist.

Q&A: Food Production Accounts for 29 Percent of Greenhouse Gases

Food production, including agriculture, represent 29 percent of the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming, say scientists with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

OP-ED: Uruguay – Lessons from a Successful Rice Producer*

Uruguay is in the headlines of agricultural development news this week as it hosts the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2) from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 in the resort city of Punta del Este.

Balkan Wars at 100: Four Roads to Good Neighbourhood

Empires come and go. The Ottoman-Muslim Empire was among the better, and the Iberian-Catholic and European-Protestant among the worst. In the Ottoman empire, religions of the kitab (‘the book’: Judaism, Christianity, Islam) were respected; Turkish was not imposed. Religious-linguistic entities survived in the Balkans as opposed to in Latin-Caribbean America. National independence movements succeeded: Greece in 1829, Serbia and Rumania in 1878, Bulgaria in 1908, Albania in 1912.

Q&A: ‘Baloch Groups to Unite Against Pakistan’

Fighters in the Balochistan province of Pakistan will soon set up a common front to take on the Pakistani military in their fight for Baloch independence, a senior commander of the Balochistan Liberation Front tells IPS in an interview.

Q&A: Companies Study Climate Risks and Opportunities

Investors and corporations have become increasingly concerned over the effects of climate change, which are being felt in vast areas of the planet and have begun to impact on the profitability of their operations.

‘Malala’s Cause Is Our Cause’

Less than two weeks after being left for dead by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai is standing up on her own two feet.

Malala’s Cause Is Our Cause’

Less than two weeks after being left for dead by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai is standing up on her own two feet.

Q&A: “Developing Countries Are Doing Their Part for Biodiversity”

Developing countries are investing enormously in preserving biological diversity, and it is unimaginable that the wealthy nations will not fulfill their obligations to provide funding for these efforts, Brazilian environmental negotiator André Aranha Corrêa do Lago told Tierramérica*.

AFTER TWO LOST DECADES, JAPAN IS SLIPPING

In the 1980s, Japan was the dragon of the world. All cutting edge technology ­ cars, gadgets, cameras, medical equipment and new management systems ­ came from Japan. Then the country started to slow down, and it basically went to sleep.

OP-ED: Pakistani Taliban’s Indoctrinated Child Bombers*

In the late afternoon of Apr. 3, 2011, in the Pakistani city of Dera Ghazi Khan, an annual Sufi Muslim religious festival at the shrine of the 13th century saint Ahmed Sultan was hit by twin suicide bomb attacks which killed over 50 people and left more than 120 wounded.

OP-ED: What We Owe Our Youth

On Wednesday, we kick off a three-day meeting in Mexico City to discuss how to boost the involvement of young people in politics and expand their role in consolidating democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

OP-ED: Distorting US Foreign Policy

Contrary to U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent foreign policy speech at the United Nations, candidates’ pronouncements during election campaigns distort US foreign policy. Some arguments defy voters’ intelligence, and incite nations who should be our allies.

Peace for the Americas

In trying to bring peace to conflict-ridden parts of the world, it is important to distinguish between negative peace - ceasefires and the absence of violence in general - and positive peace - cooperation for mutual and equal benefit, emotional harmony, reconciliation of past traumas, and the capacity to resolve future conflicts peacefully, nonviolently, with empathy and creativity, instead of forcing those with serious grievances to lay down their arms and reintegrate into civilian life.

Q&A: “A Stable, Lasting Peace Treaty for Colombia Will Take Time”

As peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas are about to start in Oslo, the possible participation of rebel leader Simón Trinidad, in prison in the United States, has not yet been decided.

Serious Conflict Brewing Between China and Japan

From time to time, we read about the confrontation between Japan and China over some insignificant islands, called the Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China, which are also claimed by Taiwan. Japan also faces claims by South Korea over the Dodko islets, called Takeshima in Japan.

Q&A: “Cuba Needs to Be Bold and Creative”

Cuba has been steeped in a profound economic crisis over the last 20 years, and no short-term solution to the accumulated problems can be expected, says Cuban professor and researcher Ricardo Torres.

Central America: Building the Peace, Brick by Brick

On September 12 the government of Costa Rica commemorated the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Esquipulas II Accord, which restored peace to Central America after a period of conflict that lasted 30 years. The agreement was signed by all countries of Central America.

The Catastrophic Consequences of an Attack on Iran

The Israeli attack seems imminent. Israeli blogger Richard Silverstein circulates a leaked "shock and awe" strategy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak hard zionism to decapitate, paralyze Iran, and New York University professor Alon Ben-Meir warns against believing that Israel is bluffing.