Globalisation

Protection for Salvadoran Migrants En Route to U.S.

By Edgardo Ayala
A law to protect Salvadoran migrants, who are frequently victims of attacks and abuses on their way to the United States, is nearing entry into force after having been approved over a year ago. All that remains is for a body made up of civil society organisations to be created to implement it.

Women of the World Unite for Rights

By Jennifer Hattam
The world’s recent financial and political upheavals have not been kind to women. In Libya’s Tripoli, female suicide rates increased tenfold during the revolution, while dismal job prospects have young Greek women abandoning their career aspirations, participants in a global forum on women’s rights said over the weekend.
Full recovery of the global economy will take at least four or five years, says former head of UNCTAD Rubens Ricupero. Credit: UNCTAD

Q&A: “Social Unrest Can Be a Creative Force”

By Gustavo Capdevila and - -
Social unrest and demands for change are not a negative thing during times of crisis like today, says Rubens Ricupero, a prominent Brazilian diplomat and intellectual.

Dwindling Resources Trigger Global Land Rush

By Stephen Leahy
A global scramble for land and mineral resources fuelled by billions of investment dollars is threatening the last remaining wilderness and critical ecosystems, destroying communities and contaminating huge volumes of fresh water, warned environmental groups in London Wednesday.

‘When’ to Attack Iran, Not ‘If’

By Pierre Klochendler and - -
"The quiet before the storm" is how Israeli pundits describe the countdown – not to Israel going solo on Iran’s nuclear and military installations, but to the meeting between due Monday next week between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

MALAYSIA: Privatisation of Healthcare Turns Election Issue

By Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (IPS) - A plan by the Malaysian government to privatise its public healthcare system and get consumers to pay for it through salary cuts is rapidly turning into a major election issue.

EUROPE-DEVELOPMENT: The “Indignados” Still Have Wind in Their Sails

By Cléo Fatoorehchi
Months of protest across the European Union, sparked by ‘indignant’ youth demanding an end to the brand of free market capitalism that has blighted the continent with an unemployment epidemic, finally bore fruit on Jan. 30 when Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, proposed an ambitious jobs scheme.

The Logic and Limits of Nonviolent Conflict

By Karina Boeckmann
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the uprisings in Egypt that unseated an authoritarian regime and rekindled the spark of nonviolent resistance around the world.

Military Looms over July Polls

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Thailand’s powerful army chief, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, appears determined to carve out a dominant role for the military in the coming weeks, as political parties seek to woo an estimated 45 million voters ahead of the general election on Jul. 3.

TRADE-CENTRAL AMERICA: Global Wave Drowns Small Businesses

By Danilo Valladares
"If we could export our products, it would open up a lot of possibilities for us, but we don't have any direct support from the government, or training or credit facilities," said Efraín Patzán, a small-scale furniture maker in the central Guatemalan town of San Juan Sacatepéquez.

DEVELOPMENT: IBSA’s South-South Funding With No Strings Attached

By IPS Correspondents
Development donors typically impose strict conditions on recipient countries. Now a different South-South approach to funding is taking shape through the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Fund for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation.

ECONOMY-LATIN AMERICA: ‘Multilatinas’ in a Globalised World

By Marcela Valente
Economic growth in Latin America is driving the expansion of corporations from this region throughout the world – even in countries of the industrialised North that formerly seemed out-of-reach.
Obama and Rousseff meeting at the White House, when she was a minister in the Lula administration. Credit: The White House

BRAZIL-US: Obama Promises “Equal Partnership”

By Fabiana Frayssinet
The United States says its relations with Latin America must be "an equal partnership" - a new vision or, at least, a new discourse that will have a chance to take more concrete shape during U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Brazil this weekend.
Rural worker in Argentina harvesting the crop. Credit: Courtesy of Estudios y Proyectos Asociación Civil

ARGENTINA: Rural Slavery at Time of Record Earnings

By Marcela Valente
Crowded into precarious mud-floored dorms or sheet-metal trailers or forced to live in tents of plastic sheeting, with neither piped water nor electricity, after working 14-hour days: these are the harsh conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of rural workers in Argentina despite bumper crops and record earnings for agribusiness.

ECONOMY: Size Is Key Factor in Emerging Powers

By Mario Osava
Two decades ago, Japan was the main threat to U.S. global economic dominance, but this challenge waned before the advent of the 21st century. Now China and India are the new champions of growth, with the clear implication that population size is a decisive factor in their rise to power.
Market in Espinal where the túmin community currency is used. Credit: Courtesy of Intercultural University of Veracruz

LATIN AMERICA: Community Currencies Offer Refuge from Economic Forces

By Emilio Godoy
Túmin, which means "money" in the Totonaca indigenous language, is a community currency now circulating among 80 vendors selling their products at an alternative market in the town of Espinal, in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz.
Immigrant football teams playing at the Primeiro de Dezembro Stadium, in Sintra, Portugal. Credit: Katalin Muharay/IPS

MIGRATION-PORTUGAL: On the Football Pitch, Everyone Is Equal

By Mario de Queiroz
Football functions on so many levels. It can be big business, moving astronomical quantities of cash, with obscene salaries for owners, coaches and star players. And it can be a widely played sport, found in every park, street or vacant lot. And it can be the common ground for multicultural coexistence.

MEXICO: Civil Society Divided Ahead of Climate Summit

By Emilio Godoy
With less than six months before Mexico hosts the next global climate change summit, Mexican environmental organisations hosting the parallel civil society forum are divided on how to carry it out -- which some fear could ultimately weaken their role at the negotiating table.

POLITICS: Japan-U.S. Pact Crucial to Balance of Power in East Asia

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
A clumsy and failed attempt by Japan’s nine-month-old coalition government to change the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, a post World War II landmark in bilateral relations after the Japanese defeat and often referred to as the lynchpin in Asian regional defence, has shaken domestic politics and fueled East Asian anxiety.

Thai, Argentine Textile Workers Unite Against Slave Labour

By Marcela Valente
Textile cooperatives founded by former slave labourers from Argentina and Thailand will jointly launch a new brand of clothing in June to raise awareness about exploitation and promote decent jobs in the garment industry.

WORLD-ECONOMY: New Directions or Just New Directors?

By Terna Gyuse
The business and political leadership of the world's strongest emerging economies meet this week in Brazil. Are these gatherings of the champions of a new and fairer global economy, or of new pretenders to the old throne?
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