Suffering from the consequences of ethnic separatism, Sri Lanka has been embarked in ethnic conflict amongst its Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority for decades.
Following British rule in 1815, Tamils from India were shipped to Sri Lanka by the British for slave labor, while the Tamil middle class were educated to rule the colony. After the country’s independence in 1948, the new elite took control vowing to replace the English language with Sinhalese. Armed with Read the rest of this entry »
The Taliban is a fundamentalist Islamic movement operating in Afghanistan and in the north western provinces of Pakistan. Not only have they been a threat to the security forces operating within the region, but are also responsible for denying basic rights, like the right to an education for females. The Taliban denied female education in Afghanistan during their rule. After being ousted from the country, they moved to Pakistan as an underground movement and have since adopted similar policies, spread their influence and are now resurgent in Afghanistan. Read the rest of this entry »
On January 19th 2009 Stanislav Markov, human rights lawyer and journalist was shot dead in broad daylight in the center of Moscow, just half a mile from the Kremlin. A 25-year-old freelance journalist, Anastasia Barburova was also killed that day, while trying to chase the assassin.
Although the investigation is not completed, the motive of these murders seems to be clear. Read the rest of this entry »
At the beginning of December, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Information and Communication announced that he wanted to create a “healthy environment” for bloggers. Doing this would be a huge step forward in achieving the goal of freedom of press. The government intends to succeed with the help of Google and Yahoo. They should regulate the blogging scene by stopping ‘incorrect information’ from being published. This measure is meant to reduce blogs to their original sense, being a personal diary and not a way to discuss opinions about politics. Read the rest of this entry »
The Democratic Republic of Congo has experienced 2 wars in the last 12 years, resulting in over 5.4 million deaths. The first war, which was in 1996, was a consequence of the Rwandan genocide and the second followed in 1998 as fighting for control over the DRC’s vast resources had heightened. The rising death tolls from past as well as present conflicts are not only a result of violence between ethnic groups, but also, as a result of disease, lack of food, shelter and medicine. The UN has stated that over a quarter million people have also become displaced due to the rebel groups that run rampant throughout the DRC. Read the rest of this entry »
On November 17th 2008, the non-profit organization, One Laptop per Child, launched its second campaign for the project Give One/ Get One, encouraging people to donate laptops to children living in the developing world.
This project, initiated by U.S. academics and professionals from the new information and communication technology industry, first planned to develop laptops for less than 100 US$. Read the rest of this entry »
On November 14th 2008, Norway announced the cancellation of an important part of Liberia’s debt. The Norwegian government agreed to cancel 35 million USD, making up 90% of the Liberia’s total debt to Norway. This gesture from the Norwegian government is directly in line with the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC Initiative). This program, jointly proposed by the IMF and the World Bank in September 1996, was designed to provide exceptional assistance to eligible countries following sound economic policies to help them reduce their external debt burden to sustainable levels. Read the rest of this entry »
The 12th annual edition of Quebec’s International Solidarity conference took place this November and ran from the 12th to 23rd. During this event several specialists on agriculture and food supply were present to discuss the problems and potential solutions that currently surround the global food crisis. The central discussion of this conference dealt with the principle of food sovereignty, which is a concept first developed by the Via Campesina, an international farmers movement, at the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996. A former member of Via Campesina, José Bové, was present at Quebec’s International Solidarity Day to further explain the concept and to give recommendations. Read the rest of this entry »
A brief but powerful video portraying the basic essentials of the relationship between lending institution (The World Bank and/or IMF) and their borrowing countries.
To learn more about Third World debt you can visit these websites:
We have all seen the horrifying images of children with vacant stares and machine guns slung across their necks like violent accessories. These are the child soldiers who live in the poorest and most desperate countries like Sudan, Nepal, Sierra Leone or Sri Lanka. They cannot tell the world about the atrocities that they face every day. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by ramindaniel 
The Taliban is a fundamentalist Islamic movement operating in Afghanistan and in the north western provinces of Pakistan. Not only have they been a threat to the security forces operating within the region, but are also responsible for denying basic rights, like the right to an education for females. The Taliban denied female education in Afghanistan during their rule. After being ousted from the country, they moved to Pakistan as an underground movement and have since adopted similar policies, spread their influence and are now resurgent in Afghanistan. 
Posted by Mathieu 
Posted by Sylwia 
