Food security: The West has it, most other places need it badly; World hunger - Two articles

Two articles, on agriculture and world's hunger count.
Agriculture being what it is in every society - a primary means for the tranquility of the people and the prosperity of the nation - why is it so underprioritized among the world's countries?

Excerpt from second article:

The FAO chief also warned that rising numbers of hungry people could spark
political instability, urging world leaders to remember that food riots erupted
in 30 countries last year. "The issue of world food security is an issue of
peace and national security," he told the paper.

Sources found here and here.

Food security still a problem as hunger rises -FAO

By Thin Lei Win

BANGKOK, March 30 (Reuters) - A fall in grain prices has led to the impression that food security is no longer a concern, but the number of people without enough to eat is still rising in a world facing recession, the United Nations said on Monday.

"The level of prices is still 19 percent above the average of 2006 ... so we're still in a period of high prices," Jacques Diouf, director-general of the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), told reporters at a conference in Bangkok.

In addition, recent FAO studies showed that even though prices had fallen in international markets, retail prices in most developing countries had not.

"Not only is the crisis here, but it's been worsened by the financial and economic crisis," Diouf said.

Stocks for cereals were at a 30-year low, and he described the situation as "very fragile".

"We're afraid that if there are any serious climate factors affecting production, we will be back to where we were in 2007. We've seen serious floods in north America and southern Africa," he said.

The FAO estimates that over one billion people in the world will go hungry this year because of the combined effects of the global economic crisis and high food prices.

The number of chronically hungry people has been rising steadily -- by 75 million in 2007 and an estimated 40 million in 2008. By the end of 2008, 963 million people were undernourished, almost two-thirds of them in the Asia-Pacific region.

Diouf said aid needed to be directed back to agriculture.

"The first and foremost important element is the need to invest in agricultural production (to combat hunger), and this would require $30 billion a year," he said.

That sum, enough to help around 500 million small farmers, would have been considered high in the past, but he put it in the context of the trillions of dollars that Western governments had poured into schemes to stimulate their economies.

Between 2006 and 2008, the FAO says, fertiliser prices rose 170 percent and seeds and animal feed by at least 70 percent, putting them out of the reach of small farmers.

Diouf said aid donors needed to ensure agricultural funding went back to the levels of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when 17 percent of overseas development aid went to agriculture, facilitating a "green revolution" in Asia and Latin America.

By this decade, that share had dived to a mere 3 percent. (Reporting by Thin Lei Win; Editing by Alan Raybould)

World's hungry exceed 1 billion, U.N. tells Financial Times

27 Mar 2009

Written by: Megan Rowling
REUTERS/Rafiqur Rahman

The global economic crisis has contributed to pushing the number of hungry people in the world above 1 billion for the first time, the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper.

The credit crunch is exacerbating the impact of soaring food price inflation in 2007 and 2008, which had already boosted the ranks of the chronically hungry from less than 850 million before the food crisis to 963 million by the end of last year.
FAO director Jacques Diouf told the FT on Thursday that number had increased, and "unfortunately, we are already quoting a number of 1 billion people on average for this year".
An FAO spokesperson was unable to confirm the figure, adding that no new official data had been produced since December.
Diouf told the newspaper the financial crisis is worsening the hunger situation through higher unemployment, falling remittances - which many poor people rely on to buy food - and a drop in credit to support agricultural trade. "We are in a very unstable situation," he is quoted as saying.
The double whammy of the food and economic crises has reversed progress in reducing the proportion of the developing world's population who are undernourished. According to the FT, the figure dropped from 20 percent in the early 1990s to 16 percent from 2003-2005, but has now risen again to almost 18 percent.
In his interview with the newspaper, Diouf proposed replacing the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger by 2015 with a target of "eradicating hunger by 2025".
The FAO chief also warned that rising numbers of hungry people could spark political instability, urging world leaders to remember that food riots erupted in 30 countries last year. "The issue of world food security is an issue of peace and national security," he told the paper.

FOOD SUMMIT?

Earlier this week, the U.N. agency said the heads of Caribbean countries, together with Brazil and Chile, had given their backing to Diouf's proposal for a World Summit on Food Security in November in Rome. The African Union and League of Arab States also support the gathering.
"The Summit should lead to greater coherence in the global governance of world food security," Diouf said in a statement. "It will define how we can improve policies and the structural aspects of the international agricultural system by putting forward lasting political, financial and technical solutions to the problem of food insecurity in the world."
The FAO head has repeatedly called for a new agricultural world order, urging the international community to provide $30 billion annually to improve rural infrastructure and boost agricultural production in developing countries.
"It is only in this way that we will succeed to eradicate hunger and feed a world population that will reach 9 billion in 2050," he said.
Diouf will speak at an Asia-Pacific FAO conference in Bangkok on Monday, focusing on volatile food prices and market uncertainties.
This month, the FAO launched a tool that allows users to track staple food prices on national markets in 55 developing countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Senior economist Liliana Balbi told AlertNet food prices may have dropped on international markets, but the database shows they have fallen much more slowly in poor countries, if at all.

Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Resolution discouraging criticism of religions approved by UN Human Rights body

This is an interesting development which could be used to promote respect for religions.

Excerpt:

The resolution urges states to provide "protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general."

Focus quotations:

O Emigrants!
The tongue I have designed for the mention of Me, defile it not with detraction...

- Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, #66, Persian

A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the hearts of men. It is the bread of the spirit, it clotheth the words with meaning, it is the fountain of the light of wisdom and understanding.

- Bahá'u'lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, 15

UN body OKs call to curb religious criticism

By FRANK JORDANS, 26 March 2009

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.'s top human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations Thursday urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism.

The proposal put forward by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic countries — with the backing of Belarus and Venezuela — had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.

A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven nations, mostly Western, opposed the resolution, and 13 countries abstained.

The resolution urges states to provide "protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general."

"Defamation of religions is the cause that leads to incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence toward their followers," Pakistan's ambassador Zamir Akram said.

"It is important to deal with the cause, rather than with the effects alone," he said.

Muslim nations have argued that religions, in particular Islam, must be shielded from criticism in the media and other areas of public life. They cited cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as an example of unacceptable free speech.

"Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism," the resolution said.

Opponents of the resolution included Canada, all European Union countries, Switzerland, Ukraine and Chile.

"It is individuals who have rights and not religions," Canadian diplomat Terry Cormier said.

India, which normally votes along with the council's majority of developing nations, abstained in protest at the fact that Islam was the only religion specifically named as deserving protection.

India's Ambassador Gopinathan Achamkulangare said the resolution "inappropriately" linked religious criticism to racism.

The council is dominated by Muslim and African countries. Its resolutions are not binding, but are meant to act as recommendations for U.N. member states on issues of human rights.

Earlier, a coalition of more than 100 secular and faith groups had called on governments to oppose the resolution, warning that it could lead to accusations of defamation among different faiths.

The United States did not vote on the resolution because it is not a member of the council. The Bush administration announced it was virtually giving up on the body and would participate in debates only if absolutely necessary because of the Geneva body's anti-Israel statements and its failure to act on abuses in Sudan and elsewhere.

U.S. diplomats resumed their observer role in the council after President Barack Obama took office, though it is unclear whether Washington will stand for one of the 18 council seats up for election in May.

Esther Brimmer, Obama's nominee for the job of Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizational Affairs, told a Senate hearing Tuesday that the council was a "major disappointment, diverted from its mission by states with some of the worst human rights records."

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Read the original here.

Values in Harmony between Faith communities (Scotland)

An enlightening publication with the purpose of promoting GOOD COMMUNITY RELATIONS, as described by 11 RELIGIONS AND BELIEFS. Here is an interesting excerpt from the GLOSSARY at the end of the document, followed by quotes from the different Faith communities that illustrate commonality of values:

RELIGION
The sharing with like-minded people in rites, rituals, teachings, and sacred scriptures as a way of reverencing, worshipping, and following a belief in a supernatural force ("God," "the Ultimate," etc). This is how some people choose to express their own spirituality.

SPIRITUALITY
This is what gives our life meaning and purpose and connects us with the rest of humanity and creation. It involves the recognition and meeting of certain basic needs in all people:
To be loved and give love, to feel valued and wanted, to have self esteem, reassurance, peace, happiness, to be able to deal with guilt and be forgiven....to mention a few.
These are all positive values that contribute towards the greater good of Humanity, and thus enable people to feel a connection with others. By using this definition, we are all Spiritual Beings and appreciation of this fact should help us to understand that we all share common core values in promoting good community relations.

---

The following quotes are taken from the submissions by the eleven different faith and belief communities in this document to illustrate this commonality of values:

"Bahá'í beliefs are expressed in their commitment to initiatives that promote unity and encourage social cohesion, work for which they have been praised by the UN and the United Kingdom government." [Baha'i Faith].

"It is therefore considered wise to act in a selfless way with loving kindness, mindfulness, generosity and compassion towards all beings. This is the essence of Buddhist ethics." [Buddhism].

"All of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind." [Christianity].

"We find real happiness when we think outside of ourselves. That is true joy."
[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints].

"We should all live together; work together and there should be no jealousy."
[Hinduism].

"Humanism is ethical. It affirms the worth, dignity and autonomy of the individual .....and Humanists have a duty of care to all of humanity, including future generations."
[Humanism].

"Behave politely to those who do not know you; forgive those who have oppressed you; give to those who have never given you anything; and make brothers of those who have denied their brotherhood with you."
[Islam].

"The essence of Jainism is concern for the welfare of every being in the whole universe. Each of these souls whatever form it may be in is considered of equal value and should be treated with respect and compassion."
[Jainism].

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour: that is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary."
[Judaism].

"Pagan ethics emphasise taking responsibility for one's actions and trying to live in harmony with others, and with nature. This arises from our belief that everything is interconnected, and that everything affects everything else."
[Paganism].

"A Sikh undertakes social rights, responsibilities and duties; he expels all ego."
[Sikhism].

---

Original (PDF format, lengthy) is found here, excerpts included below:
http://www.acts-scotland.org/cairs/downloads/values_in_harmony.pdf

Values in Harmony

THE PROMOTION OF GOOD COMMUNITY RELATIONS
DESCRIBED BY 11 RELIGIONS AND BELIEFS IN SCOTLAND

"Treat others as you would expect to be treated"
--Values in Harmony


FOREWORD

The promotion of good relations is something which is very close to my heart. Constructive dialogue and debate are tools we need to use to achieve a Scotland built on mutual trust, respect and understanding. Modern Scotland is a diverse multi-faith and belief and multi-cultural society. Everyone, regardless of background, needs to feel fully integrated into a society which we all share. In Scotland, everyone is welcome and no-one should be a stranger.
In celebrating difference we also recognise our shared humanity, a virtue which is clearly illustrated throughout 'Values in Harmony'. It is fascinating to read about the eleven religions and beliefs which are discussed in this document, particularly since most of the contributions come from individuals working at grassroots level within their communities. As such 'Values in Harmony' provides an unique insight into values ordinary individuals draw from their religion or belief.
It can be all too easy for communities to feel isolated from main stream society, particularly during times of economic strife, and I am delighted that the Equality and Human Rights Commission were able to fund the 'Values in Harmony' initiative as one of the many ways to help bring our diverse communities together. I believe that this document will be a valuable tool for the promotion of good relations between different communities in Scotland and commend it to anyone who is involved in developing constructive community dialogue. By working together we can make Scotland a safer and stronger place for all of our people and celebrate and embrace the diversity which makes us all modern Scots.

FERGUS EWING, MSP,
Minister for Community Safety.
Edinburgh, March 2009.


INTRODUCTION
This Project was funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission One Year Grants
Scheme, and managed by the Scottish Inter Faith Council. It was carried out between April
2008 and March 2009.

AIM

The main aim of the Project was described in terms of an OUTCOME to be achieved:
To produce a resource of teachings, writings, and attitudes from the 10 major Religion and Belief communities in Scotland that will demonstrate their commonality in promoting "Good Relations" with each other; and to use this as a tool to raise awareness in women and young people of how their Religion or Belief can lead to increased community cohesion, integration, and harmony.
In practice it proved quite challenging to produce the document, and thus the second part of the Project's outcome is still being carried out, with the two of five awareness-raising focus groups now held.

A secondary aim of the Project was to inform the debate that currently surrounds the future of multiculturalism and its failure to promote integration and cohesion in our nation. Whilst not purporting to be the magical answer to this complex problem, it is hoped that it will go some way to reassure communities and government that there is much that is positive in people from any faith or belief community sharing together. In this way, emphasis can be placed on what actually binds communities together rather than on the differences that divide them. The unifying theme is that there is a commonality of core ethical and moral values shared by all of humankind, irrespective of any particular faith or belief. All of these values could be summed up by the principle known as the "Golden Rule":
"Do not do to others as you would not have them do to you."
Or, in the positive:
"Treat others as you would expect to be treated."
....

METHODOLOGY

The unique significance of this document is the fact that with one exception, all the submissions were produced at the grassroots level by representatives from the different faith and belief communities. The religion of Jainism was also included, although membership is very small in Scotland. Thus a working group of eleven lay representatives from each of the Baha'i Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hinduism, Humanism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Paganism, and Sikhism were engaged to produce scriptures, readings, attitudes, and principles from their own tradition that demonstrated values to support the concept of the Golden Rule. These representatives came from communities in Eskdalemuir, Fife, Galashiels, Glasgow, Barrhead, and Alloa.

Values were chosen from: Love, Compassion, Respect, Justice, Mercy, Forgiveness, Humility, Respect for Community, Respect for Nature / Ecology, Concern for Other People, and any Codes of Ethical Conduct. Two joint evening working meetings were held, to confirm agreement with the direction of the Project, and, in particular, to ensure that there were no potentially "offending" quotes.


The MISSION STATEMENT of the Equality and Human Rights Commission is:
"To reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, promote and protect human rights, and
strengthen good relations,"

And thus its VALUES are:
"Equality, Human Rights, and Good Relations."

With respect to promoting "good community relations" the urgent need to do this is described in the following chapter, where the current context is examined. The theme is developed that good community relations can only be attained through a mutual understanding of the common ethical and moral values of the diverse faith and belief communities that make up our society in Scotland today.


"By working together we can celebrate and embrace the
diversity which makes us all modern Scots."

-- Values in Harmony

Ethiopia tribe: Flexibility key to survival In swiftly changing world

An article from BBC news highlighting a recurring theme across cultures in the modern world: the need for the empowerment of peoples to deal with the continual transformation of society.

Excerpt:

And anyway, Marco Bassi doubts the communities will be able to adapt to irrigated farming which would mean a wholesale transformation of their centuries-old nomadic cultures.

"The issue is how to empower these communities to face this change in a way that they can manage. How do you empower, enable these people to deal with this change?"

The dam that divides Ethiopians

• Divisive dam
• Video map
• 'Water wars'
• Lake at risk
• Slideshow
• Background

By Peter Greste BBC News, Ethiopia

Most people in Ethiopia's lower Omo River Valley continue to exist much as they have done for hundreds of years with virtually no concession to the 21st Century, with one disturbing exception: automatic weapons.

Almost every male carries a Kalashnikov or an M-16 assault rifle, and what might in the past have been a fairly innocuous dispute over grazing or water-rights between different groups, now frequently escalates into bloody warfare.

I don't think the government likes the Omo tribes. They are going to destroy us Bargaeri Mursi priest

Some fear the potential for dispute could be about to increase, because a huge dam - the second biggest in sub-Saharan Africa - is being built upstream.

The government denies that the river's flow will be affected and indeed says the Gilgel Gibe III Dam will reduce flooding.

"It increases the amount of water in the river system. It completely regulates flooding in the Omo, which has been a major problem," said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

But local people - and some academics - simply don't believe it.

'Rumours'

The Mursi people are one of about two dozen groups who depend, either directly or indirectly, on the river and its annual cycle of flood and recession for their survival.

They are famous for the coaster-sized clay disks that the women insert into their ear lobes and lower lips.

In the shade of a fig tree, a group of Mursi elders gathered to discuss "rumours" of the dam.

One of the senior community priests, Bargaeri, said although they were aware of the dam, they had heard nothing official.

"We will suffer because there will be no more floods," he said. "I don't think the government likes the Omo tribes. They are going to destroy us."

The floods lie at the very heart of the dispute over the dam.

The government plainly believes they will continue pretty much as they always have, except that the dam will allow the authorities to manage the timing and the height of the flood in a way that nature never did.

Richard Leakey - the renowned ecologist and most vocal critic of the dam - was blunt in his assessment of its consequences.

"My problem is that the dam is going to affect a huge number of people who have no voice, a huge number of people who will fight over the decreasing resources.

"Innocent people will be killed in conflict over those resources, and I don't believe it is necessary."

If the river goes down, there will be war Nyangatom elder

Mr Leakey's criticisms echo those of a collection of European, American and East African academics who have banded together as the "African Resources Working Group".

The group has released a highly detailed commentary on the electricity company's environmental impact assessment (EIA) that criticises almost every element of both the dam and the study.

In a section dealing with the impact on indigenous communities, the commentary asserts:

"Additional dispossession and disruption of the ethnic groups of the lowermost Omo basin, from the planned irrigation agricultural schemes and industrial projects described in the downstream EIA and planned by the Ethiopian government… will precipitate waves of new conflicts among groups already competing with one another over the shrinking natural resource base available to all of them."

Adaptation

The Nyangatom is amongst the most heavily armed of the communities in the Omo Valley.

Half of the group lives over the border inside South Sudan, where most young men fought with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement during its long civil war with Khartoum. They brought back training, experience and weapons, raising the stakes even further.

Mursi women are famous for their lip-plates

In the village of Kangaten, the Nyangatom's elder spokesman called Kai shook with rage as he condemned the authorities.

"Let them first bring helicopters to kill us all; then the government can build its dam," he said.

Another elder bluntly declared: "If the river goes down, there will be war."

According to anthropologist Marco Bassi, of Oxford University, the tribes have developed sophisticated agricultural techniques that have allowed them to live comfortably and sustainably for centuries.

Each wet season, the riverside communities retreat to higher ground, waiting for the flood that inevitably comes.

Once the waters retreat, the communities move back to plant their crops on the damp and newly replenished soils.

Their cattle feed on the fresh grasses. The higher the flood, the more land is inundated, and the more becomes available to farm.

They will not be able to... deal with this change. They will simply die Marco Bassi, Oxford University Water pipe sparks Ethiopian conflict

Even the highest of floods are necessary to replenish the outlying bush lands that the communities use to feed their livestock during the equally inevitable droughts.

"It looks very primitive from the outside," Mr Bassi said. "But when you investigate it, you discover that they have a very intimate knowledge of the land and its fertility.

"Each family has maybe seven or eight different varieties of sorghum that responds to different conditions. And combined, the community has 20 or 30.

"They know how to plant in a way that guarantees enough food whatever happens through the year."

But the tribal lands have become increasingly squeezed between newly gazetted national parks and large commercial landholders, and growing populations on the other.

The government has promised irrigation schemes as a way of mitigating any negative effects of the dam, but that too is dismissed by the community elders like Mursi priest Biyatongiya.

"It's not true," he said. "I haven't seen anything like irrigation before. They're just lying to us. Maybe they come and tell us these things but it's not true."

And anyway, Marco Bassi doubts the communities will be able to adapt to irrigated farming which would mean a wholesale transformation of their centuries-old nomadic cultures.

"The issue is how to empower these communities to face this change in a way that they can manage. How do you empower, enable these people to deal with this change?

"Under the current circumstances, they will not be able to do that… Simply, they will die."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7959814.stm

Brown: Rules that govern global processes should be same as govern everyday life

Insightful remarks from the UK Prime Minister on the needs of the hour in this article from Time magazine, Time.com.

Excerpt:

"What I find really interesting about the public response is that the values that people hold to be important — like working hard and taking responsibility — are the values that not only underlie a good society but are necessary for a good economy as well. People have felt for some time that you've got this vast global process at work, and somehow the rules that govern [it] have got different from the rules you practice in your everyday life. [But] the rules that make for a successful community are also now necessary for the banking system. We have to build our banking system for the future around stronger principles of accountability and transparency and integrity and sound practices."

Q&A

Gordon Brown: 'Sometimes a Crisis Forces Change'

By Catherine Mayer and Simon Robinson Wednesday, Mar. 25, 2009

Prime Minister Brown at 10 Downing Street

Picture by Philip Hollis for Time

For more than a decade, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been urging an overhaul of the world's financial regulation and institutions in response to increasing globalization. The global economic crisis, which has hit Britain hard, has given him a rare chance to get his message across. In the midst of intensive preparations for hosting the G-20 meeting in London, he sat down with TIME at 10 Downing Street to discuss his hopes for the summit. (See pictures of Brown.)

More Related

• Nobel Laureate: How to Get Out of the Financial Crisis

What are your expectations for the G-20 meeting?
We've got a quite unprecedented global crisis, but there is going to be unprecedented global cooperation. In 1933 a world economic conference took place in London. It was designed to deal with the problems of that particular crisis and to stop the drift toward protectionism. The conference was a total failure. [Now] we see so many countries who want to be part of a global set of measures that can help.

We're hearing about stresses and strains between the U.S. and Europe.
The big issue here is that we have a globalization that has brought 4 billion people into the world economy, where 10 or 15 years ago there used to be only about a billion. So you have this enormous change that has taken place in the world economy, but we have a global financial system without an effective form of supervision. We've got huge climate-change and energy problems that can only be addressed at a global level. And we've got problems of poverty that need some international response. On these very big issues, you've got agreement that the world has got to work together so that global financial flows are in some way supervised beyond simply national regulators. Every other crisis has been dealt with by countries taking action to solve their national problems. This crisis can be dealt with only by us acting internationally. Over the next 20 years, if we can solve these problems, you'll see another big spurt of growth in the world economy. I'm very confident about the future. (Read "Europe's Economic-Stimulus Message: Enough Already!")

Is it difficult arranging a meeting like this when the Obama Administration is only just getting up and running?
The conversations we've had about the world economy have shown an Administration totally focused on these problems. America is leading many of the debates about how the global economy should respond.

What about protectionism? We've seen it in the past. We saw it in the 1930s.
When I spoke to the U.S. Congress [on March 4], I said that protectionism in the end protects no one, because if trade falls, then more businesses collapse and more jobs go. You know, I come from the town where Adam Smith was born. Trade is the engine of so much of the growth we've had in the last few years. I believe protectionism is the road to ruin.

There's popular pressure for punishing people responsible for this mess. How important do you think it is to restore accountability?
What I find really interesting about the public response is that the values that people hold to be important — like working hard and taking responsibility — are the values that not only underlie a good society but are necessary for a good economy as well. People have felt for some time that you've got this vast global process at work, and somehow the rules that govern [it] have got different from the rules you practice in your everyday life. [But] the rules that make for a successful community are also now necessary for the banking system. We have to build our banking system for the future around stronger principles of accountability and transparency and integrity and sound practices. Americans are shocked by what they see happening on Wall Street. People in Britain look at what happened with RBS [Royal Bank of Scotland] or HBOS and are angered by what they would call irresponsible risk-taking and excessively irresponsible behavior. But what people want more than anything else is that these banks and institutions work to the principles and values that they believe are important. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis.)

There's understandable skepticism that the developing world may be left out of the new paradigm.
I had a meeting today with a group that is worried that 250,000 more children will die as a result of this crisis and that more children will be forced into poverty. We have to have as part of our G-20 conclusions help for the most vulnerable people. The crisis didn't start in Africa, but we've got to make sure it doesn't hurt the poorest people.

So why do you think you can be successful?
Sometimes it's a crisis that forces change. The world that emerges out of this crisis won't be the same. The banking system will be based on sounder principles. Countries will be more willing to cooperate not just on the environment but on other issues. I believe people looking to the future — and I'm looking to the future all the time — will see that our economies can be built as low-carbon economies, highly skilled economies. There's a huge opportunity over the next 10 or 20 years.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1887600,00.html

Water Access, Sanitation - the Need for Sustainability

From Reuter's weekly Alertnet, March 18.

WATER: A briefing paper by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) says [scores of millions of] dollars have been wasted on rural water projects in Africa, threatening the health and livelihoods of millions of vulnerable people. Tens of thousands of boreholes in rural areas have fallen into disrepair, depriving poor communities of water because donors, governments and nongovernmental organisations have built infrastructure but ignored the need to maintain it, IIED says. The International Committee of the Red Cross is also calling on governments to do more to ensure that people in conflict zones have access to safe water and decent sanitation. Environmenta! lists also see water supplies decreasing and say more than a billion people lack access to clean water, and 2.5 billion are without water for sanitation, with 80 percent of all disease borne by dirty water.

Asylum demands worldwide still on increase due to WARS

Originial article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090324.wunasylum0324/BNStory/International/home

UN reports soaring asylum demands from war-torn countries

ELIANE ENGELER

Associated Press

March 24, 2009 at 6:01 AM EDT

GENEVA — Fighting in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and other countries has led to an increase in people requesting asylum in industrialized nations, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday.

Around 383,000 people applied for asylum in Europe, North America and other industrialized regions last year — 12 per cent more than in 2007, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"The increase can partly be attributed to higher numbers of asylum applications by citizens of Afghanistan, Somalia and other countries experiencing turmoil or conflict," the agency said in a statement.

The United States was the top destination, receiving an estimated 49,000 new asylum demands last year, UNHCR said. The agency did not give figures about how many applications were accepted.

The U.S. was followed by Canada, which received 36,900 requests, France (35,200), Italy (31,200) and Britain (30,500).

Most of the requests, or 40,500, came from Iraqis. But demands from Afghans rose 85 per cent last year to 18,500.

Civil war and the 2001 U.S.-led invasion meant Afghanistan was one of the major sources of refugees until 2002. A spike in fighting, with 31 per cent more security incidents in 2008 compared with the previous year, has led to an increase in new asylum demands, according to UN statistics.

Asylum applications from Zimbabweans were up 82 per cent. The African nation was in deep political crisis last year with President Robert Mugabe unleashing a violent repression of opposition supporters. The former regional breadbasket now faces a hunger crisis, a cholera epidemic and shortages in gasoline, basic goods, power and water.

Asylum demands in 2008 increased by 77 per cent from Somalia, which has been ravaged by war and chaos for nearly two decades. Demands from Nigeria went up 71 per cent as violence between militants and government troops in the country's oil-rich south intensified.

Sri Lankan asylum requests increased 24 per cent last year after the government scrapped a cease-fire with Tamil rebels, renewing the civil war that has plagued the country since 1983.

Those fleeing are searching for a safe haven in more countries than before, probably because of tighter asylum policies in traditional destinations, the agency said.

Iraqi asylum applications to Sweden, for example, decreased 67 per cent as a result of Sweden's more restrictive asylum policy between 2007 and 2008. At the same time, Iraqi asylum demands nearly trebled in neighbouring Norway and increased fourfold in Finland, UNHCR said.