OLYMPICS MEAN TIGHTER SECURITY AT TIBET-INDIA BORDER

With the Beijing Olympics fast approaching, there will likely be a decrease in the flow of refugees entering India from Tibet because of tightened restrictions at the border. Beijing is intent on projecting the image of a united China and has no desire to have Tibetan dissidents leaving the country to tell the world about their countrymen\'s plight in China, writes Dorjee, the director of the Dharamsala\'s Office of the Reception Centres which is in charge of Tibetan refugee arrivals in India. In this article, the author writes that there are a number of reasons Tibetans make this arduous journey to come to Dharamsala. The first is to see and receive the blessings of the Dalai Lama. In addition, they can receive a proper Tibetan education, and monks and nuns are free to practice their faith freely. Tibetans still have to brave the long journey to Dharamsala. They usually plan their escape during wintertime when the borders are not as closely watched because of extreme weather conditions. Some take a bus up to Lhasa, and from there begins the dangerous walk across the Himalayan mountains. The trip lasts anywhere from 15 to 25 days. It takes a while before the refugees are given a permit to stay in Dharamsala because they are also questioned about their backgrounds in order to ascertain that they really are Tibetans and not spies that the Chinese government sent over the border.

THE MISSILE SHIELD AND COLD WAR II

Cold War II started when US President Clinton expanded NATO eastward, up to the border of the old Soviet Union and extended the US-Japan mutual security treaty westward to include Taiwan and South Korea, a clear breach of the Japanese constitution\'s ban on waging war, writes Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies and founder of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. In this article, Galtung writes that the US has 700 bases in 130 countries. The result is the encirclement of the half of humanity, which in response organised the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which has six members (China, Russia, and four Central Asian Muslim republics) and three observers (India, Pakistan and Iran). It looks ominous and ominous it is. Enter a third force: Islam, which was also confronted by the US using 9/11 as rationale. There are no Muslim countries in NATO-AMPO but six in SCO, of which the USA has a problem with Iran. Why? The 1953 CIA-MI6 coup that ousted a legally-elected prime minister and ushered in 25 years of dictatorship. There is a simple way out: apologise for 1953. The cost: the admission that we - USA-UK - can make mistakes. The benefit: an end of Iran-USA problem. Instead, the US made NATO members accept a \"defence\" against \"only\" nuclear-tipped Iranian missiles, to be stationed in the Czech Republic and Poland. Wouldn\'t solving the conflict be better?

MAKING HIGH COMMODITY PRICES HELP THE POOREST NATIONS

Since 2001, the prices of many commodities and other natural resources have soared, providing commodity-dependent developing countries with an opportunity to use the increased revenues to combat poverty and make real economic and social gains, writes Ambassador Ali Mchumo, Managing Director of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC). However, the author writes in this article, for this to happen adequate policy measures need to be implemented and the international community needs to take swift action to address the challenges that commodity-dependent countries face in the intensely protectionist global environment. Also, adequate financing for small stakeholder farmers remains one of the major development obstacles. When rural financing is available, it tends to be provided to large borrowers, excluding the majority of small producers from the formal credit system. The micro-finance revolution should be expanded to reach rural communities where the need is greatest. If the international community is to meet the agreed international development commitments, including those contained in the Millennium Development Goals, it needs to reverse the current trend in Official Development Assistance (ODA) and allocate more resources to agriculture investments and commodity development.

IMF: WHEN NOTHING IS BETTER THAN SOMETHING (BAD)

On Sunday, the International Monetary Fund called for governments to rise together to face the challenges posed by the ongoing financial turmoil. Unfortunately, most developing countries do not feel the IMF belongs to them, which may adversely affect their willingness to accept Fund leadership, writes Jomo Kwame Sundaram, United Nations Assistant-Secretary-General for Economic Development. The 31 March proposal goes for approval to the Board of Governors at the annual Spring meetings this weekend. A reform of voting shares is long overdue, as the changed global economic landscape has accentuated the gross under-representation of developing countries. At the IMF's inception in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944, all countries got basic votes in order to ensure voice and representation even for the smallest economies, while quota votes were allocated roughly in proportion to each country's economic clout. Basic votes made up almost 12 per cent of the total at the outset, rose to 16 per cent at its apex, but have decreased to a meagre 2.2 per cent since, as quota votes have increased in relative weight. Meanwhile, the Fund's membership has more than quadrupled from 44 to 184. If the weight of each country's basic vote had been preserved from the outset, and not been diluted by more than 95 per cent, the total basic votes today would come to about half. Instead, the proposal will treble the basic votes' share of total votes from 2.1 per cent to 5.5 per cent.

ONLY GLOBAL SOLUTIONS CAN TACKLE GLOBAL PROBLEMS

The world, and the West in particular, are passing through a period of transition and profound insecurity which is manifesting itself in every sphere and makes the near future impossible to predict, writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal. In this article, Soares writes that the major problems facing the world are still not receiving a global response, which could come only in the form of a major restructuring of the UN and the Security Council. The G8 club of rich nations lacks legitimacy to serve as a pilot for the world. There is, thus, a major vacuum in the world order. The world order is once again multilateral. The American empire as such is on the way to disappearing. Solutions to the problems that the world faces do not depend only on the West (Europe and the US), as was thought at the beginning of this century, but on others as well: the so-called emerging powers -Russia, China, India, and Brazil- as well as Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, and Turkey. The West must understand that it has to negotiate with these countries and participate in the reform of the UN.

KOSOVO REQUIRES A UNITED EUROPE… AND SO DOES EUROPE

In November 2005, the UN Secretary-General, acting on the basis of the conclusions of the Security Council that the situation in Kosovo is no longer sustainable, asked me to lead the political process to determine Kosovo\'s future status, writes Martti Ahtisaari, ex-President of Finland and UN Secretary-General Special Envoy to Kosovo. In this article, the author writes that almost a year after he initially submitted his proposal, it became clear that the Security Council would not pass a new resolution. Therefore, since everybody, even the Russian Federation, agreed that the status quo in Kosovo was not sustainable, a solution outside of the Security Council needed to be found. The result we all know: many important countries, including the US and the majority of the EU, have recognized or committed themselves to recognize Kosovo\'s independence. Kosovo is primarily a European issue and the EU cannot afford to let Kosovo become just another \'frozen conflict\'. Doing nothing was not an option and my Settlement proposal provides an organized methodology for a UN exit and EU takeover. This requires a strong, consistent, and united European position in the coming months if we want Europe and Balkans to be stable.

NEPAL NEARS VOTE ON SHIFT FROM MONARCHY TO DEMOCRACY

On April 10, Nepalis will vote in elections that will mark the end of their country\'s 240-year-old monarchy and formally bring Maoist guerrillas into mainstream democratic politics, writes Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times newspaper in Kathmandu. In this article, Dixit writes that the elections represent the last stage of the peace process. The people will vote directly for candidates as well as parties so that the assembly will have members of ethnic and other marginalised groups never represented before in proportion to their population. With voting just around the corner, those who have the most to lose seem to be getting frantic. Absolute monarchists have been carrying out terrorist attacks in an attempt to disrupt polls by provoking communal violence, while radical Maoists, afraid they will do badly in the elections, want to intimidate voters to minimise turnout and so call into question the legitimacy of the result.

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.