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Thursday, October 8, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Latin America Proposes Renewable Energy Quota
On behalf of the region, Brazil will head to the Rio+10 Summit in Johannesburg this August with a concrete and quantifiable proposal for the obligatory use of a minimum 10 percent "clean" energy sources by 2010.ENVIRONMENT-LATAM: Industrialisation Leaves Minefield of Problems
The industrialisation process, widely perceived as synonymous to development, leaves in its wake vast areas contaminated with chemicals, the effects of which may not be triggered until decades later, as is occurring in Brazil.RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Activists Disappointed by Sentences in Massacre
Although courts in Brazil convicted two military police commanders who led fierce repression of a protest in which 19 landless peasants were killed in 1996, neither the social movement to which the victims belonged nor human rights advocates are satisfied with the outcome of the trial.AGRICULTURE-MERCOSUR: Market Access a Matter of Life and Death
The crisis afflicting Mercosur (Southern Common Market) has been aggravated by the Argentine catastrophe, complicating the negotiation of trade agreements precisely when the four-nation bloc needs new markets for its agricultural commodities, which are its most competitive exports.TRADE-BRAZIL: Int’l Protectionism a Blow to Farm Sector
Brazil doubled its grain yields in the last 18 years - without expanding the area cultivated - in a drive to increase production, but it has now run into the wall of protectionism erected by the world's leading markets.ENVIRONMENT: Brazil to Take Renewable Energy Plan to Johannesburg
Brazil will attempt to jumpstart global negotiations on the environment with a proposal for an international agreement to increase renewable sources of energy to 10 percent of global consumption over the next eight years.ENVIRONMENT-LATAM: Sustainability Will Not Be Easy, Say Ministers
Latin America and the Caribbean will demand at the World Summit on Sustainable Development - to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug 26-Sep 4 - that wealthy countries comply with the commitments made, in writing, 10 years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, announced the Brazilian government.BRAZIL: Poll Favourite Seeks to Calm Fears of Debt Default
The presidential candidate of Brazil's leftist Workers' Party (PT), Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said Monday that he would not declare a moratorium on the foreign debt if he was elected in October./ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-MERCOSUR: War of the Triple Alliance, Literary Atonement
Mercosur (Southern Common Market) now has a regionally integrated work of literature, a collective effort about a historic tragedy involving Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the four countries of the decade-old trade bloc.TRADE-BRAZIL: Fishing Industry Exports Growing Fast
Although Brazil is still far from becoming a major exporter of seafood, it could come close to achieving that goal within the next few years if the fishing industry continues to grow as it has in the past three years.DEVELOPMENT-LATAM: An Agenda for Overcoming Disparities – ECLAC
A positive agenda aimed at building a new world order and surmounting the sharp inequalities evident in the current phase of globalisation is at the centre of debate at the 29the biennial sessions of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) this week in the Brazilian capital.LATAM: Development Panorama Gloomy in Globalised World
The developing world is suffering the consequences of global uncertainty, which threatens the benefits that arise from the globalisation process, agreed officials and experts gathered in the Brazilian capital this week for the biennial session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).DRUGS-BRAZIL: Children Used as Cheap Labour for the Drug Trade
The drug trade employs around 12,000 children and adolescents in this Brazilian city, drawn in by the money and the status afforded by their association with powerful gangs. But few of them make it to the age of 21.EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Boosting the Reading Habit
In a bid to foster the reading habit in Brazil, the Education Ministry has begun to distribute millions of books, including novels, short stories, poetry, plays and other works of literature, to fourth and fifth grade public school students.RIGHTS: Brazil Battles Trafficking in Human Beings
Efforts are consolidating in Brazil to fight the trafficking of human beings, an illicit activity that involves more than 700,000 victims - mostly women and children - worldwide each year.RELIGION-BRAZIL: Bishops Question Celibacy Rule
The expanding sexual abuse scandal surrounding the Roman Catholic Church has fuelled an offensive by Brazilian bishops and theologians to eliminate mandatory celibacy for priests./MAY DAY/LABOUR-LATAM: A First of May with Little to Celebrate
With millions of workers in Latin America lacking even the most basic labour benefits, May 1 -- International Labour Day -- appears destined to become a day of nostalgia and rearguard actions to preserve past gains rather than a day of struggle for new conquests.HEALTH-BRAZIL: Dengue Epidemic under Control, But Threat Remains
The dengue epidemic that claimed 56 lives in Rio de Janeiro state so far this year is under control, announced Brazil's Health Minister Barjas Negri, but experts and the population fear a new outbreak.RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Homophobia Kills
The murder of 2,092 homosexuals from 1980 to 2001 makes Brazil the world's most dangerous country for this minority, according to a new book, "Causa Mortis: Homophobia".BRAZIL: Popular Soap Opera Provides Lessons on Drug Abuse
A popular Brazilian soap opera, "The Clone", is reaching virtually the entire population of South America's giant with strong, graphic messages against drug abuse.DISARMAMENT: Chemical Weapon Chief’s Ouster Hurts Multilateralism
Multilateralism, the United Nations, and the disarmament effort in general have suffered a blow as a result of the U.S.-led removal of the director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).« Previous Page — Next Page »
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