REVITALISING THE UNITED NATIONS THROUGH THE POWER OF YOUTH

The fundamental avenue for resolving the many challenges of today\'s world is maximising the potential of the UN, the framework of solidarity that was born out of the tragic experience of two world wars, writes Daisaku Ikeda, a Japanese Buddhist philosopher and peace-builder and president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) grassroots Buddhist movement. In this article, Ikeda writes that to function in the 21st century the UN must be supported by three pillars that transcend national borders: a shared sense of purpose, a shared sense of responsibility, and shared action. The author writes that it is the creative engagement and innovativeness of young people around the world that holds the key to breaking existing molds and affirming these principles. Steps should be taken to enhance the status of youth within the structures of the UN. The world\'s youth increasingly have a sense of global identity. They are united by a common concern for the fate of our planet, and are connected and networked through new communications technologies.

“AND WE ALL THOUGHT THAT BANKS HAD MONEY!”

The latest moves by governments and central banks around the world to inject massive new money into their banks leaves average citizens outraged and mystified. Weren\'t banks the places that guarded our deposits and then lent them out to borrowers to help build our communities and grow our businesses? We were told to trust banks. Now we learn that banks don\'t trust each other, writes Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets: Growing The Green Economy (2007) and co-creator with the Calvert Group of the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators. In this analysis, Henderson writes that the global casino of finance has long required international regulatory agreements and oversight. We learn at last that such agreements will be sought at a new Bretton Woods-type global summit. Today, once again, taxpayers in the US, Europe, and Asia are being forced to re-capitalise their banks. This is now revealed as the reverse of what economists have led us to believe. Instead, we see that banks have always received money from taxpayers via governments\' central banks in order to lend it back to taxpayers at interest.

Caution and Enthusiasm for Fish Farming

Industrial production of fish and shellfish is growing more than eight percent a year worldwide. But not all countries with extensive coastlines can take advantage of this boom, which is not without its ecological risks.

When the Electricity Is in Your Feet

"To change the world doesn't mean you can't have fun," says the entrepreneur who sells dance floors that generate electricity from the movement of the dancers' feet.

Health Care Must Not Replicate Social Inequalities

The renewed focus of primary health care emphasizes reducing health inequalities in a world of growing social disparities, writes Mirta Roses, director of the Pan-American Health Organization in this column for Tierramérica.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Government Accused of Siding with Polluter

The 55 organizations that make up the Greater Alliance for Omoa, on the Honduran Atlantic coast, accused the Manuel Zelaya government of favoring the Gas del Caribe company, which has been charged with pollution violations.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Surprise Award for Bicycle Program

The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) has recognized the Mexican capital's municipal government for its promotion of bicycle use, but cyclists and activists argue that it is not deserved.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: More Indigenous Mayors

Six Indians were elected to mayoral posts in Brazil this month, doubling the number of indigenous electoral victories from 2004.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Córdoba Residents Protest Dump

Residents of Bouwer, in the central Argentine province of Córdoba, are protesting a large garbage dump that city officials intend to maintain in the city until 2016.

OBAMA MOVES TOWARDS THE PRESIDENCY

Barack Obama seems to have reached the threshold of the White House, writes Joaquin Roy, \'\'Jean Monnet\'\' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami. In this article, Roy writes that McCain and Palin\'s appeal to traditional values, which has attracted a significant number of voters, was directed at a country that no longer exists and has lost one war and is performing disastrously in two others. As for Obama, the explosion of the economic crisis has played to his favour. To borrow a phrase: it\'s not ideology. It\'s the economy, stupid - once again. The latest polls show that McCain can count on 143 electoral votes from the traditionally Republican states, plus about 15 more, making a total of only 158. Obama will enter the November 4 election assured of 211 electoral votes, and has a good chance of winning 66 more in states leaning toward the Democrats, which would give him a total of 277. This would represent a sound defeat for the Republicans. And it would not be surprising if Obama swept the popular vote as well. Given this landscape, Obama has little to do other than wait calmly for the vote. As long as he doesn\'t wink at Palin and his wife Michelle stays out of the limelight, the race is over. Obama has only to prepare his acceptance speech.

THE POVERTY, FOOD, FUEL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND FINANCIAL CRISES ARE ALL INTERCONNECTED

These days I feel like my four year old niece who used to ask me every few minutes, “What´s happening Sylvia?”. Financial crisis, rescue plans and thousands of billions are being shouted at me by the media. There is strong leadership being shown to save banks, but without apparently much knowledge about cause and effect. The top of
‘the pyramid' needs to be saved with our hard earned tax money, we are told, otherwise we will all perish together in economic recessions, writes Sylvia Borren, Co Chair of the Global Call to action Against Poverty (GCAP) Alliance. Simultaneously, there appears to be little concern, and insufficient committed leadership shown towards the bottom of the pyramid. We need around one percent of all the money that governments are now suddenly spending on saving the banks to tackle poverty. Money that can make the difference between real life and death: an emergency food fund, seeds to plant, clean water, health and education. All poverty in the world can be solved ten or twenty times over with the amounts of money so surprisingly available now.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Action for Sloths

The southeastern district of the capital known as Baruta will place signs in public areas about the movement among trees -- and possible fall -- of brown-throated three-toad sloths (Bradypus variegatus), relatives of the anteater and the armadillo that move at just 200 meters per hour.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Vaccines for Hurricane-Hit Population

Residents older than one year in the town of Holguín, one of the Cuban provinces hardest hit by Hurricane Ike, began receiving immunizations against leptospirosis with a homeopathic vaccine produced in Cuba.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Government Promotes Solar Panels

The government of Chile this week will send a bill to Parliament to reduce taxes on the installation of solar panels on newly constructed homes that are worth up to 4,500 production units (Unidades de Fomento, UF), about 160,000 dollars.

Global Financial Crisis a Bad Sign for Andean Biodiversity

The global financial shake-up could intensify oil and gas exploitation in biodiverse areas of the South American Andes, already a source of environmental and social conflicts.

“Profit Is Enemy Number One of the Environment”

Capitalism is a brutal, Mephistophelian intervention in the natural systems, says Chilean economist and ecologist Marcel Claude in this exclusive Tierramérica interview.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Indians Aim to Generate Their Own Energy

Residents of the indigenous town of Tomalá, in the western Honduran department of Lempira, are seeking resources to build a mini-hydroelectric dam that would generate 10 to 15 megawatts.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Housing Credits Require Certified Lumber

The leading provider of housing finances in Brazil, the government-run Federal Economic Bank, will only finance buildings made from certified legally-cut lumber, beginning in 2009.

LARGE ALLIANCES AMONG EMERGING POWERS

Emerging powers are weaving alliances and reciprocal economic and political links that are modifying the traditional world order between the center and the periphery, developed and under-developed countries, and the planet's North and South. One of the major movements in that sense is the IBSA Forum, formed by three democratic nations India, Brazil and South Africa which will hold its third summit meeting in New Delhi, next October 15th, writes Marcio Pochmann, Brazilian economist and President of the Institute of Applied Economics Research (IPEA). Along with expanding their economies in recent years, the three nations have increased their presence in the global economy. In 1975, the IBSA member countries amounted to 3.7% of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while in 2006 that figure grew to 4.8%. In 1975, India, Brazil and South Africa accounted for 2.1% of world exports, and in 2006 that total grew to 2.9%. IBSA's expansive trend is parallel to that of most of developing countries, which in 1970 amounted jointly to 25% of world exports, while in 2006 that total was more than 41%. Trade among Southern countries has grown in an even larger proportion.

REALITIES OF THE ZIMBABWEAN POWER-SHARING AGREEMENT

Zimbabwe\'s new political pact, though a 180-degree turn from violence and deadlock to cooperation and progress, is unlikely to create sustainable change for the country, writes Kumi Naidoo, Honourary President of CIVICUS. In this article, Naidoo writes that the power-sharing agreement would leave Mugabe as president and make opposition leader Tsvangirai prime minister. The national healing that the agreement alludes to will require a realistic acknowledgement of the fact that it was the Mugabe government\'s past policies and actions that destroyed Zimbabwe\'s economy and threatened to decimate its people. A realistic assessment of that past starts with the recognition of the government\'s use of violence and intimidation. The acceptance of the past is the only viable foundation for instituting an effective system of transitional justice for the people of Zimbabwe. But this kind of realism will be difficult to attain with President Mugabe continuing to hold any amount of power.

WORLD TRADE: A LESSON TO AVOID A NEW GREAT DEPRESSION

Policy-makers in the United States and across the globe are desperately seeking to avoid the missteps that accentuated the financial crisis of the 1930s. One of the important lessons is that protectionism and economic isolationism do not work, writes Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In this article, Lamy writes at this time of economic distress with soaring world food prices, what impoverished consumers desperately need is to see their purchasing power enhanced and not reduced. Shutting borders does exactly the opposite. There is no doubt therefore that the current hurricane that has hit financial markets must not dissuade the international community from pursuing greater economic integration and openness. Despite the setback that the Doha Round of world trade negotiations suffered last July, talks have restarted with the aim of completing a deal on tariff and subsidy reduction by the end of this year. This would be the best contribution the WTO could make to counteract the current world crisis. A comprehensive WTO deal can help soften the impact of high food prices by tackling the current systemic distortions in international agricultural trade that have stifled food production and investment in agriculture for years in many developing countries.