US – OVER OR UNDER THE UN?

However much the Iraqi people need and deserve urgent assistance from the UN, the member organisations cannot permit the US to wage wars of aggression and leave it to the UN to tidy up when the US gets bogged down, writes Fredrik S. Heffermehl, president of the Norwegian Peace and member of the International Peace Bureau. This is an unacceptable precedent. It is now imperative to let the US learn its lesson. Other nations should stand by France, Germany, and Russia in their defense of the UN and not be too quick to offer military assistance and relief. Without concessions and some unambiguous guarantees from the US, a new Iraq resolution in the Security Council must be rejected, Heffermehl writes in this analysis for IPS. US withdrawal is absolutely necessary to stabilise Iraq, but Washington offers no credible promises for a genuine transfer of power to the Iraqis and sets no exit date for US and foreign forces. The US should renew its commitment to the UN and collective decision-making and promise to pursue a fair and equitable world order, based on law, as a condition for a new resolution for the UN take-over in Iraq. This would be a fight against terrorism that could be won.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE UN

The Iraq debacle provides a historic opportunity to implement long-sought and widely-supported reform of the UN to assure its independence and its vital role in this new century, writes Hazel Henderson, author of \'\'Beyond Globalisation\'\' and co-editor of \'\'The UN: Policy and Financing Alternatives\'\' (1995). The breakdown in the Security Council over the US war on Iraq clearly illustrated its obsolete and dysfunctional aspects. The Council needs to finally dispense with the veto. Then the permanent seats can be rearranged to accommodate important new world players, including India, Brazil, Japan, South Africa, and Indonesia. Another long-sought security council reform --more necessary than ever in a world of terrorism and asymmetrical threats-- is a standing UN peace-keeping and humanitarian force. The world recognises again that the UN is indispensable, the only forum that can convene all the world\'s nations. Even the Bush Administration is seeking UN help, namely \'\'burden sharing\'\' of the costs of its ill-considered adventure in Iraq. Only the UN can legitimise reluctant member nations\' involvement in re-building Iraq.

THE DIVIDING LINE

Every major issue of our day derives from four fundamental crises: the threat to peace from the religious war that looms over us; the globalisation of the economy and the need for both ethical and juridical regulation; the growing --and intolerable-- imbalance between the d eveloped world and the world of hunger and poverty; and the process of continuous and often irreversible environmental degradation, writes Mario Soares, president of Portugal from 1986-1996. The solution of the four underlying crises, and all of their progeny, would be within the reach of science and humanity if there were the political will. But at present there isn\'t, Soares writes. There are many signs of a building reaction against the global system that contributed to the current regression of the world, particularly in the area of social justice, human rights, international law, and even the operation of our democracies. It is becoming clear that today\'s reigning economicism, together with the media-inundation of societies, dominates politics and threatens justice. Things cannot go on like this.

THE DANGEROUS RAINBOW

The cross and the sword are raised high as in old times, and with good reason: in the last few months, homophobia has come under serious attack, writes Eduardo Galeano, a Uruguayan writer and journalist \'\'The Open Veins of Latin America\'\' and \'\'Memories of Fire\'\'. Earlier this summer, the US Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that criminalised homosexuality, effectively voiding similar laws in 12 other states. And in New Hampshire, for the first time in the history of Christianity the faithful and the clergy of the Episcopal Church elected a bishop who is openly gay. Galeano writes in this article for IPS that all of these acts of \'\'grave immorality\'\', of liberty and mental health, are not gifts: they are victories, the result of the persistent battle of gays and lesbians against discrimination and violence. Armed with the rainbow banner, a symbol of human diversity, they are overturning one of the most sinister heresies of the past. The walls of intolerance are beginning to fall.

//CORRECTED REPETITION//THE MEANING OF CANCUN

The failure of the WTO Fifth Ministerial in Cancun is a severe blow not just for the WTO but also for regional agreements such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas, writes Anuradha Mittal, Co-Director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First. In this analysis for IPS, Mittal writes that the lack of attention to the legitimate concerns of the developing countries, the hunger of the US and the EU to capture world markets, and the mounting evidence that the free trade agreements have failed the poorest and the most vulnerable in our society, have alienated both the poor countries and civil society. Cancun offers an important lesson: strong arm tactics, which might have worked in the past for the US and the EU, will not work any more. There is clear agreement on one principle: No agreement is better than a bad agreement.

A PEACEFUL SOLUTION FOR VENEZUELA

As early as August 19, 2003,Venezuela plans to hold a recall referendum on its embattled president, Hugo Chavez, who was elected in 1999 on a platform of redistributing the country\'s oil wealth for the benefit of the poor, writes Christena Mann, an international schools educator currently enrolled in the Conflict esolution Masters program at Landegg International University in Switzerland. The situation in Venezuela is complicated by the fact each side in the conflict appears to believe that the other side will lose the referendum, which introduces an element of danger. In some countries, similar situations have escalated into civil war and even foreign intervention. In this article, the author asks whether a third voice could emerge from a combination of moderate voices from either side, introduce a process of cooperation, and shift the focus to the urgent challenges facing every person in the country. If so, then perhaps the immediate and pressing challenges of the country can be overcome, just as many situations of heightened tension and conflict have been resolved peacefully around the world by focusing on the common interests of all parties. Or will each side claim to speak for the real majority and insist on getting its way, continuing to propagate stereotypes aimed at boosting their own and damaging the other side\'s reputations, bringing misery for all?

A NEW TEST FOR GUATEMALA AT THE POLLS

Once again Guatemala has become a test case for building a democracy, writes Rigoberta Menchu, who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1992. Guatemala\'s high court recently declared legal the candidacy for president Efrain Rios Montt, who came to power in a coup in 1982. The decision, influenced by the ruling party, violates the basic juridical principles of any nation and the Guatemalan constitution. Elections are set for 9 November with a run-off on 28 December. In this article for IPS, the author writes that Montt should be behind bars for the crimes against humanity committed when he was in power. The most serious element in this new chapter of Guatemala\'s permanent crisis is the extension and strengthening of clandestine structures of power which have hijacked the state and placed it in the service of its own criminal activities. There is a very real threat that the ruling party will attempt to keep itself in power through fraud and intimidation. Strict vigilance is the only way to guarantee free elections.

AGRICULTURE AND THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC

The silent tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is ravaging many rural areas of developing countries and jeopardising the human right to food of millions of people, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Hunger and poverty, aggravated by HIV/AIDS, create a vicious cycle. Where farmers and their families fall sick, they cultivate less land and shift to less labour-intensive and less nutritious crops; agricultural productivity decreases, and food insecurity and malnutrition rise. In this article for IPS, the author writes that while agriculture offers no cure for the HIV/AIDS infected, it can contribute to prevent and mitigate the crisis. Labour-saving technologies such as lighter ploughs and tools that can be used by older children, women, and the elderly and improved seed varieties that require less labour for weeding need to be developed.

HOW EU AND US FARM SUBSIDIES HURT THEIR OWN FARMERS

The most forceful moral and political justification for agricultural subsidies in the EU and US is that they save small farmers, yet the facts clearly demonstrate they are not doing so, writes Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Ricupero writes that over the past 15 years, as subsidies have expanded relentlessly small farmers in these areas have become poorer and poorer in relation to the rest of the population. Kevin Watkins, Head of Research of Oxfam, writes: \'\'Far from benefiting small farmers, agricultural support goes overwhelmingly to large-scale, capital-intensive agriculture, and for a good reason: support is closely correlated with production levels, or -- in the case of direct payments -- to land ownership. \'\' We should all praise the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and his colleagues in moving away from production and price-linked subsidies. But it is unclear from preliminary reports whether the reforms announced recently will substantially change the current concentration of 80 percent of payments in the hands of 20 percent of the bigger farmers, or to what extent the new system will prove less trade-distorting.

A MARKET-BASED STRATEGY TO DEMOCRATISE THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

Billions of us watch in apparent helplessness as global corporate and political elites manipulate the world economy to suit their exclusive interests, writes Mark Sommer, an internationally- syndicated columnist and radio host who directs the Mainstream Media Project, a US-based effort to bring new voices and innovative ideas to the broadcast media. But the rest of us are not helpless, the author writes in this article for IPS. We actually hold in our hands levers of power far more potent and effective than those unrepresentative governments offer their disillusioned electorates. Each decision we make to buy a given product or service ripples through the global economy to support certain policies and institutions and not others. In recent years we have seen boycotts produce the desired shift in the policies of numerous brand-name multinationals. To match the scale and power of the global economy, we must apply this strategy worldwide, wielding our collective purchase power through a deft combination of both boycotts and buycotts to penalise irresponsible corporate and governmental policies and reward those that support a healthy economy and society.

BRAZIL: ONE FOOT IN UTOPIA, ONE IN MATHEMATICS

In Brazil, 115 years after the proclamation of the republic, it is as if the monarchy still existed, writes Cristovam Buarque, minister of education for Brazil, ex-rector of the University of Brasilia, and ex-governor of the Federal District. Brazil has still completed neither its republic nor the abolition of slavery. To this day, members of parliament consider themselves nobles, unemployment has replaced forced labour, slaves have been transformed into the poor, and education is for the few. The election of Lula as president completes the republic and the abolition of slavery, Buarque writes in this article for IPS. What is necessary to the completion of abolition is intense, total, and radical land reform. It is also necessary to create jobs to end slavery and the secular Brazilian tragedy of transforming fed and chained slaves into hungry and unemployed free men. To complete the republic, equal access to education must be guaranteed, which is only possible through a free, quality public school system for everyone.

THE TWO SOULS OF CIVIL SOCIETY

In just a few years civil society has transformed itself from a disparate galaxy of NGOs into a global network that plays an important role in the World Social Forum, writes Roberto Savio, president emeritus of IPS and a member of the International Council of the World Social Forum (WSF). In this article for IPS, Savio writes that the political system has reacted by calling into question the legitimacy of civil society, dismissing it as anti-global, or anti-historical and romanticist. Civil society is made up of two distinct generations. The first, born in the 1970s, identified with the paradigm of development. It was surpassed in force and participation by the second, forged in opposition to globalisation in the late 1990s. It considers the march of neo-liberal globalisation so powerful and dominating that nothing is more important than denouncing and blocking it. Thus we now have Global Civil Society. Its growth will probably continue to intensify, primarily because of the use of new technologies and mutual understanding. The organisers of the WSF expected about 5000 people in Porto Alegre in 2001; 30,000 showed up. In 2003 the number reached about 100,000.

THE LAST DAYS OF THE DEATH PENALTY ?

In recent weeks a singular destiny has pushed the Democratic Republic of the Congo to assume the role of symbol of both the martyrdom of Africa and the continent\'s ability to resolve its conflicts and actively participate in international civil campaigns like the universal moratorium against the death penalty, writes Emma Bonino, member of the Transnational Radical Party and deputy in the European Parliament. In this article for IPS, Bonino writes, I approached the Congolese president Kabila after the radical movement to abolish the death penalty, Hands Off Cain, selected me to lead a mission to save the lives of his father\'s assassins. We asked him not to sign the warrant for their execution and to join the fight within the UN General Assembly to reintroduce a proposal for a universal moratorium against capital punishment. Kabila responded that a moratorium on the death penalty is an issue for the future parliament, adding that he would not call for the execution before it decided. UN followers estimate that this year the resolution could garner 95-100 \'yes\' votes, 21-26 abstentions, and 62-65 votes against. Thus the victory of the abolitionists is within reach. It will be paradoxical if the West, so generous with its ethics lessons to Africa, betrays the hopes of the 28 African nations that despite the horrors they witness daily have allied themselves against \'\'state homicide\'\'.

SUU KYI MUST BE RELEASED FOR DEMOCRACY TO BE RESTORED IN BURMA

Current events in Burma are deeply disturbing, writes Jose Ramos-Horta, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and East Timor\'s minister for foreign affairs. Revered monk Sayadaw U Satetara, a high-ranking member of the holy Sangha and strong supporter of imprisoned Burmese opposition leader Suu Kyi, passed away last week from what many suspect were not natural causes. Suu Kyi remains incarcerated and held incommunicado. In this article for IPS, the author writes that leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-- of which Burma is a member -- must keep up the pressure on the Burmese generals. Embarrassed that the international reputation of ASEAN was suffering because of the gross and systematic human rights violations in Burma, the ministers demanded at their recent annual meeting that Suu Kyi be freed immediately. As regional powers, China, Japan, and India, working closely with Indonesia, current chair of ASEAN, must resolve this impasse. Failure to do so will weaken ASEAN and undermine its international influence. In the 1970s, we witnessed regional silence and complicity surrounding the Cambodian tragedy. It will be tragic if the same attitude is adopted with regard to Burma.

SOUTH AFRICA: THE LAND SHALL BELONG TO THOSE WHO WORK IT

It has been 90 years since the government of the newly-formed Union of South Africa passed the infamous Native Land Act, which gave legislative effect to a process of land seizure by white settlers that had been going on since 1652, writes Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa. Adoption of this law has brought untold suffering to generations of black people, the author writes in this article for IPS. Through this and other racist legislation, millions of our people were uprooted from their land, their homes bulldozed, and their dignity destroyed. Recognising the importance of the land question to many of our people, the democratically-elected post-Apartheid government passed the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994, which provided a legal framework to address and resolve land claims through negotiations. Land acquisition and its productive use are critical to the success we must achieve in pushing back the frontiers of poverty. We are on the way towards meeting the demand contained in the Freedom Charter, drafted by the ANC in 1955: that the land shall belong to those who work it.

DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA GRAVELY THREATENED BY AIDS

We are now halfway through the 25-year period set in 1990 for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa, writes K. Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Africa. In this article for IPS, Amoako writes that nothing is more critical than overcoming HIV/AIDS. The epidemic has a clear impact on the first three MDGs: poverty eradication, education, and gender equality. Families afflicted by AIDS are less able to grow food and to withstand shocks such as drought. Girls are being withdrawn from school in order to assist with essential domestic duties, including caring for the sick. The author stresses that women bear the brunt of the AIDS epidemic. They shoulder the burden of caring for people with AIDS and bringing up children orphaned by the disease. They grow most of Africa\'s food. An estimated 58 percent of those infected with HIV in this continent are women. One of the factors driving the AIDS epidemic in Africa is the unequal status of women and their vulnerability to exploitation and sexual abuse. In a vicious twist, it seems that the epidemic itself is intensifying women\'s vulnerability. Overcoming the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on women is crucial if we are to promote gender equality and empower women.

US HEALTH CARE SYSTEM HEADED FOR COLLAPSE

With its economy stalled and its government mired in a global terror war, the US\'s already overburdened health care system-- the industrial world\'s most expensive and least equitable-- appears destined for collapse, writes Mark Sommer, internationally- syndicated columnist and radio host who directs the Mainstream Media Project. In this article for IPS, the author writes that with a ruling party captive to insurance, hospital, and drug industry lobbies, politicians are likely to do nothing to avert this looming catastrophe. Whatever minimal health care system survives the coming shakedown will need to be substantially reinforced by care based less on money and more on mutual aid built on a revived sense of community. How can communities of mutual caring be created in a society of industrial anonymity? Sommer points to the co-housing model pioneered in Northern Europe and now spreading worldwide, providing private and communal spaces and functions that accommodate needs for both privacy and community.

THE ISRAELI PEACE CAMP IN TIMES OF TERROR AND HOPE

These are startling days for Israeli domestic politics. For the first time in history, the leader of the nationalistic right wing is talking in public about \'\'the need to put an end to the occupation\'\', stating \'\'the time has come to divide the land between us and the Palestinians\'\', writes Sarah Ozacky-Lazar, a Middle East historian and co-director of the Jewish-Arab Centre for Peace at Givat Haviva, Israel. In this article for IPS, the author writes that while most Israeli leftists doubt Sharon is serious about peace and interpret his sudden change as merely a tactic to avoid open crisis with the Bush administration, they have to support Sharon\'s moves to prevent the ultra-right from blocking the renewed peace process. The Israeli left and what remains of the peace camp now find themselves in a contradictory situation: their major rival, Sharon, is in the process of implementing their own ideas. They doubt his sincerity but cannot oppose him because he is doing exactly what they have been preaching for ages. They strongly oppose the harsh security measures taken by the Israeli army but cannot protest because the suicide bombings continue. The irony is that if and when any peace agreement is achieved, it will be credited to the right wing that has opposed it for years, while the left wing will be left out of both the history books and political power, despite its long stubborn struggle for mutual recognition and the right of the Palestinians to freedom and statehood.

PEACE BREAKS OUT IN SOUTH ASIA

Suddenly, after years of hostility and mistrust, peace seems to be breaking out all over the South East Asian subcontinent, writes Kunda Dixit, editor and publisher of the Nepali Times newspaper in Kathmandu. In this analysis the author writes that India and Pakistan are, once more, trying to make up, a fragile ceasefire in Sri Lanka has now held for more than a year, and in Nepal the government and Maoist rebels are trying to find a negotiated settlement. The olive branch appears to have come from Indian prime minister Vajpayee\'s effort to go down in history as a man of peace and not someone who oversaw a wasteful nuclear arms race with Pakistan and the rise of Hindu revivalists. When he dramatically announced in parliament last month that he was willing to give peace \'\'a third and last try\'\', the offer was immediately seized upon by the Pakistani side.

ATTENTION EDITORS AND CORRESPONDENTS: WE ARE DISTRIBUTING BELOW A NEW COLUMN BY VANDANA SHIVA ON IRAQ AND THE TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION BECHTEL. THE FIRST COLUMN WAS DISTRIBUTED ON 21.05.03.: WAR AS GLOBALISATION BY OTHER MEANS

Little more than two months from the start of the war against Iraq, the real victor is emerging: Bechtel, with its 680-million- dollar contract for \'\'rebuilding\'\' Iraq, writes Vandana Shiva, author, international campaigner for women and the environment, and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1993. In a period of declining economic growth and a slowing of the globalisation juggernaut, war has become a convenient excuse for enlarging corporate rule, Shiva writes in this article. In essence, Bechtel was given a license to make money in a closed-door process restricted to a handful of politically-connected US companies. The Bechtel contract and the Iraq war which created the opportunity for \'\'reconstruction\'\' profits highlight the lack of democracy, transparency, and accountability in the way economic and political decisions are made by a US administration which has become indistinguishable from US corporations. A regime in which government becomes the instrument of corporate interests is no longer a democracy.

G-8 ECONOMISTS IN RETREAT

The G-8 Summit is no longer just about economics, as seen in the agenda of the recent Evian meeting, yet the economics profession still bestrides national policy, writes Hazel Henderson, author of \'\'Beyond Globalisation\'\', \'\'Building a Win-Win World\'\', and co-developer of the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators. In this analysis for IPS, Henderson writes that economics is politics in disguise. Cost-benefit analysis or a carefully crafted economic impact statement can squelch any government reform or new social or environmental initiative, emphasising the costs of change to existing interests while down-playing the current costs of the status quo on other actors, the environment, or future generations. Economics was always based on patriarchal values, ignoring the work of women in child rearing, caring for the old, community volunteering as \'\'uneconomic\'\'. It did not predict the rise of socially-responsible investing, now at USD 2.3 trillion in the US alone. Nor did \'\'inflation-hawk\'\' economists foresee the new threat of worldwide deflation. Today, the chinks in economists\' armour are becoming more evident. As we witness the debacles in Asia, Russia, and Argentina, economist-ridden governments clearly need no longer defer to these defrocked priests.