LET THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT DO ITS WORK

Representatives of African States will meet in Addis Ababa (June 8-9) to "exchange views" on the International Criminal Court (ICC). Prompted by the war crimes indictment of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, the meeting will provide a platform for the Court's dissenters in Africa, and aim to sew discord among ICC supporters.

NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT MORE URGENT THAN EVER

One of the most urgent problems of today's world is the danger of nuclear weapons. The unexpected nuclear test by North Korea on May 25 and the test-firing of a series of short-range missiles is the latest, frightening reminder.

BURMA: DEMOCRACY LEADER TRIAL A RUSE TO KEEP HER OUT OF POLITICS

The 15-member UN Security Council issued a press release on 22 May expressing concern "about the political impact of recent developments relating to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi". The council members reiterate "the importance of the release of all political prisoners" as well as the need for Burma's military leaders "to create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue" with Daw Suu Kyi and other opposition and minority groups in order "to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation".

ARE CUBANS GOING EXTINCT ?

R. was born and raised in Havana and as part of the cultural formation he received there he is an ardent fan of the Industriales, the city's baseball team, and he prefers mangos to apples. R. left Cuba when he was about 30, settled in Spain, married M., a young Spanish woman, and had a son, P., with her. The son is a native of Madrid, and because of this he roots for Real Madrid, and he devours apples. P. will never be a fan of the Industriales, nor will he feel what R. feels listening to Benny More or Celia Cruz sing, because P. is not Cuban.

PANDEMIC THREATS SPUR DEVELOPMENT OF GLOBAL HEALTH COMMONS

The specter of a swine flu pandemic has driven home the urgent need for more rapid and effective responses to a wide range of public health threats. But in order to respond more effectively, we need to create a more open system for the exchange of vital health information and research across sectors, disciplines, geographic, economic and cultural boundaries. In a world of increasingly global emergencies, we need all hands on deck, including the patients and publics most affected.

THE UBIQUITOUS PHANTOM OF INSECURITY

Not long ago the people on this planet lived without the anguish of insecurity. This is because they assumed that insecurity was the natural state of things, for everyone, rich and poor, powerful and weak, for the colonised and the imperialist occupiers. Life seemed comparatively more normal, and people were more fatalistic and resigned. The world was, you might say, predominantly conservative. Only a minority of bold visionaries, idealists, and renegades took the risk of seeking change, frequently at a high cost to themselves (repression, imprisonment, execution, exile).

PASHTUNISTAN: A NEW MEMBER OF THE UNITED NATIONS?

An outside-the-box approach is needed for the worsening problems of Afghanistan and Pakistan. US official policy in its war in Afghanistan is to combat Al Qaeda and make sure there are no further attacks on the USA from their safe havens. Yet, on his recent visit to the US, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that there are no Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan. General David Petraeus, US Central Command Commander, also stated that no Al Qaeda members are in Afghanistan.

BEYOND THE CRISIS

Though the world economic outlook continues to look grim, it is worth asking what the world will be like when we exit this crisis. We have to identify the forces that are affecting the course of events so that we can change the existing order and avoid these problems in the future.

WHY FREE TRADE IS THE BEST ROUTE TO FEEDING THE WORLD HUNGRY

While the world could probably agree on basic objectives for our agricultural systems -adequate, nutritious, and affordable food, decent pay for farmers, and culturally and environmentally-sensitive production - we still disagree on what global integration could bring to this process.

NEPAL: DEMOCRACY TO DEMAGOGUERY

The shaky amateur video shows the leader of Nepal's Maoist party boasting how he tricked the United Nations into thinking his army was 35,000 strong when it had only 7,000 guerrillas. He goes on to admit how he has lied to everyone about his commitment to democracy and the peace process, and that his real goal is total control of the army and the state.

THE PROBLEMATIC FUTURE OF THE SUCRE

Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia and the seat of the Supreme Court of Justice. It was named in honour of Antonio Jose de Sucre y Alcala (1795-1830), a friend of South American liberator Simon Bolivar and second president of Bolivia, born in what is now Venezuela and buried in Quito. The sucre was the currency of Ecuador until 2000 when it adopted the dollar. SUCRE is also the acronym of the Unified System for Regional Compensation, a common currency that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has proposed for the countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of the Andes (ALBA), an alliance comprised of Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, and now the Caribbean microstates of Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (which use the East Caribbean dollar as their common currency). Ecuador will be an observer (it isn't sure what it will do with the dollar). ALBA is partially a response to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (ALCA), born in 1994 in Miami, and now defunct.

EUROPEAN UNION: IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE SOCIALIST PARTIES

The first good news regarding the economic crisis is arriving from the United States, about certain improvements in the banking sector as well (Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Chase, etc). For now, they are but faint signs. But Barack Obama continues to fight on all fronts, with rigour and courage.

BURMA: WHY BOYCOTT JUST MAKES THINGS WORSE

Cut off contact with Hamas! Don't talk to Israel! Keep away from Burma! Over the past few years there have been calls from many quarters to break off contact with regimes we don't like. Few, however, seem to have a realistic idea of whether breaking off contact works, or what kind of regime it might work on.

CUBA – CHANGE VS EMBARGO

It's important to remember that before an end of the US embargo of Cuba became even remotely conceivable, certain major international developments had to take place: the profound political shift in Latin America, the moving election of the first black president of the United States (a man, moreover, committed to change in its widest sense), and the financial and economic cataclysm that has shaken the capitalist system to its roots. Without these events, the embargo/blockade of Cuba, decreed 47 years ago, may have continued for who knows how long in its perennial form, condemned by many in international fora, denounced by the Cuban government, suffered through by the Cuban people, and kept in place by successive US administrations that believed it could force political change in Havana.

WORLD MUST KEEP UP PRESSURE ON AFGHAN LAW AGAINST WOMEN

When news broke about the new Shi'ite Personal Status Law in Afghanistan, many were appalled by the fact that it legalises rape within marriage. "Marital Rape Legal in Afghanistan", screamed the headlines, and we all reacted with shock and horror. On closer inspection, however, the law is actually much worse than we had all thought.

MEDIA METAMORPHOSIS

Major global depressions, like the current one, always have a domino effect that reaches almost every economic and social activity. The media, however, tend to focus on only a few of its manifestations -those that strike the centres of power- while neglecting the periphery where poverty deepened by the crisis has far more dramatic consequences.

CUBA: BEYOND AND BEHIND THE WORLD CRISIS

We Cubans may be the people least frightened by the ominous talk of the "economic crisis" that is stalking the world and has already devastated so many. A prolonged submersion in the sea of shortages and severe limitations that led down into the hell of widespread poverty during the post-Soviet decade of the 1990s -euphemistically dubbed the "Special Period in Times of Peace"- taught us to weather extended periods of every kind of scarcity -food, electricity, transport, housing, medicine, clothing, and much more- and to come through it alive, albeit all too often battered.

GLOBAL CRISIS: WOMEN WORKERS WILL BE HIT HARDEST

As the global economic crisis continues to unfold, it is having severe effects on international trade. UNCTAD estimates that merchandise exports from developing countries could decline by 15.5% this year. At the regional level, we expect export growth to shrink by 16.8% in Asia, 12.5% in Africa, and 10% in Latin America.

ADDRESSING WORLD CRISIS REQUIRES A G192, NOT THE G20

For those of us focused on eradicating poverty and inequality, the greatest risk about the G20 summit was that the richest countries would use the global financial downturn to cut back on aid commitments and put the interests of their own countries first. This would spell disaster for the millions of people suffering from rising hunger and climate change and living in deep poverty across the developing world.

DEMOCRATISING FINANCE

The financial meltdown generated by Wall Street and the "too big to fail" culture of global money-centre banks and financiers is generating local initiatives and demands to decentralise and democratise finance.

GROWING A GREEN COLLAR ECONOMY

In an economic downturn long on loss and short on solutions, few buzzwords have travelled more rapidly from the margins to the mainstream than the term "green jobs".