Move to Ban Violent Video Games in Crime-ridden Venezuela

Venezuela plans law to ban violent videogames

26 Aug 2009
Source: Reuters

CARACAS, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Venezuelan lawmakers are moving to outlaw the sale of violent videogames and toys in an attempt to fight rampant crime in the country.

A bill to ban sales of violent games passed its first hurdle in the National Assembly on Tuesday evening, the legislative chamber said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Dozens of people are murdered every week in the capital Caracas, one of Latin America's most dangerous cities, sometimes for as little as a pair of shoes or a mobile phone.

Opponents of President Hugo Chavez say 100,000 people have been murdered since he assumed office in February 1999. The government says its opponents and Venezuela's private media exaggerate the problem.

Police release crime statistics irregularly and officials frequently say they do not know how many homicides have taken place.

To become law, the bill must pass a second vote in the National Assembly and be signed by Chavez. The National Assembly has not set a date for a second vote.

Some countries ban violent videogames and many restrict their sale to children. Although few studies have shown that such games cause aggressive tendencies, they have often been the subject of controversy. (Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Writing by Robert Campbell; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26262990.htm

Big-city squatters organize themselves: Abandon panhandling for self-sustaining work

 

PARAGUAY: Indigenous Squatter Communities Organise Self-Help By Natalia Ruiz Díaz Cerro Poty soup kitchen. Credit:Natalia Ruiz Díaz/IPS ASUNCIÓN, Aug 2 (IPS) - Indigenous families living in a squatter settlement on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital are organising themselves, and now have a community soup kitchen and are producing and selling handicrafts. They don't want to return to panhandling on the streets of Asunción, so far from their home villages. In the last few decades, the number of poor indigenous people on the streets of Greater Asunción has increased, as the exodus of native families from rural areas has grown. "Anteve rosêva'ekue la cállepe, semaforope rojerure moneda mitâkuéra ha mba'e. Ko'âga tres meses la ndorojuvei la cállepe" ("We used to go out on the street and ask for money, with our children, at the stoplights. But we haven't gone out to beg on the streets in three months"), Petrona Ruiz, one of the women running the Cerro Poty soup kitchen, told IPS in Guaraní, an official language in Paraguay along with Spanish. The settlement of Cerro Poty, where the families live in makeshift dwellings, is located at the foot of Lambaré hill on the outskirts of Asunción, near both the Paraguay river and the city dump. The neighbourhood was created in the late 1990s by Guaraní families from the eastern province of Canendiyú. Today it is home to 28 native families from central, southern and southeastern Paraguay. The expansion of large-scale soy farming is one of the causes of the growing migration to Greater Asunción, which has a population of around 1.7 million. "We went to see what was happening in Canendiyú and found that indigenous and campesino (peasant) families are abandoning their land, suffocated by the encroachment of soy crops and the use of toxic agrochemicals," Claudio Rolón, with the National Secretariat on Children and Adolescents (SNNA) unit for attention to indigenous children and adolescents, told IPS. Canendiyú is one of the country's leading soy-producing provinces, along with Alto Paraná and Caaguazú in the east and Itapúa in the south. Soy production has climbed 191 percent since the 1995-1996 harvest. And while output rose 49 percent at a national level between 2003 and 2006, it grew 80 percent in Canendiyú. Soy cultivation began to expand in this land-locked South American country in the mid-1960s and boomed in the late 1990s with the introduction of genetically modified soy. Paraguay is now the world's fifth-largest soy producer. In 2007, soy accounted for 38 percent of the country's total agricultural output, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. After centre-left President Fernando Lugo took office in August 2008, the SNNA launched a programme to provide assistance to indigenous squatter settlements in Greater Asunción, with the aim of keeping children and teenagers off the streets. Cerro Poty, with a population of 135 people, 68 percent of whom are under 17, is one of the settlements targeted by the programme. Of the 92 children and adolescents in the community, 81 were out with their mothers panhandling or scavenging for recyclable waste products on the street. The first step taken by the programme was to organise a soup kitchen, which also provides free milk to all children under five. In addition, cultural, social organising and income-generating activities got underway. "We organised ourselves in committees of women, craftspeople, school support and community members, to help each other out," community leader Silverio Gómez explained to IPS. Mothers work in the soup kitchen and help take care of the community garden along with a group of children and young people. Others are involved in producing woodcarvings and other handicrafts, to generate income for the community. "We are receiving training and are paid for the work we do," said Gómez. Cerro Poty is now one of a network of cultural centres that supports the work of craftspeople, promoted by the Secretariat of Culture. Tools and equipment were obtained with assistance from the Organisation of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture. "The aim is to support the work of craftspeople, building on the woodcarving talent and skills of the Guaraní," said SNNA communications director Adriana Closs. They carve animals in balsa wood, and craftswomen are also learning to make jewelry and receiving training in fabric-making. The products are showcased and sold in the shops set up for that purpose by the programme. "The community is recovering its craft-making skills, and now we are taking the next step: helping them sell their products," said Closs. A web site was created to show and sell their products at both the national and international levels, while providing information about the community. The experience at Cerro Poty is being replicated in other squatter settlements around the capital, which range from a few months to over a decade old and are home to a total of 3,500 people. According to the census office's 2008 survey of indigenous households, there are 108,300 members of 20 different indigenous groups in Paraguay, representing two percent of the population. Besides tiny white, black and Asian minorities, the rest of the population of Paraguay is of mixed Spanish and Guaraní descent. And although 90 percent of the population speaks both Guaraní and Spanish, indigenous people suffer inequality on every front: health, education, employment and access to basic services like running water and electricity. Six out of 10 indigenous people in Paraguay live in poverty. Rolón said the work in the squatter communities takes into consideration the traditional organisational structures of each particular ethnic group. First, a dialogue is established between the SNNA and the community, "recognising the identity of each community and its leaders and people." In Cerro Poty, lunch at the soup kitchen is ready, far from the city's stoplights and streets. (END/2009)

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47934

 

Using rooftops to green, freshen urban environments

MEXICO: Green Therapy on the Rooftops
By Verónica Díaz Favela*

Employees and patients alike enjoy the green roof at the Belisario Domínguez Hospital. Credit:Verónica Díaz Favela/IPS

MEXICO CITY, Aug 1 (IPS/IFEJ) - In the last two years a Mexico City hospital, kindergarten and municipal government office building have experimented with plant-covered rooftops. Today, workers and visitors are enjoying the benefits.

Eight months ago, the first "nature roof" was created at the Belisario Domínguez Hospital in the working-class neighbourhood of Iztapalapa, Mexico City's most densely populated district, home to 1.8 million people.

The green roof of this three-storey hospital is divided in two: the larger part is over a portion of the first storey, the smaller is over the third.

"Having direct or visual contact with a green area helps a great deal in the patients' recovery. In Japan, nearly every hospital has a 'nature' terrace," Tania Müller, head of the project, said in an interview.

According to the hospital's director, Osvaldo González La Riviere, "the workers enjoy the space. Initially, the smokers used it, but we have been able to regulate that. Some patients found out about the rooftop garden and now they ask to go for a stroll there, with the help of family members."

Installation of such a roof requires waterproof treatment that prevents roots from taking hold in the building material, as well as a polyethylene layer to prevent runoff. A geotextile product is added to prevent fine particulates from the underlayer from reaching the roof itself.

And finally, the underlayer is put in place, a mix of volcanic stone material, lighter than soil, and organic material to feed the plants, which are then planted on top. The plants need no watering.

One section of the hospital's green roof is alongside the gynaecology/obstetric ward. For women who have just given birth, "it is more pleasing to look out the window at a natural setting than to see a vending cart or a truck spitting out fumes," said Evangelina Sandoval, the deputy medical director.

Also, "working with patients and constantly facing illness and death produces stress. Now, instead of leaving by their usual route, many workers use the emergency exits in order to pass through the rooftop garden," she said. The hospital employs about 1,000 people.

The green area covers 1,000 square metres - one-tenth the total roof area of the hospital. The roof was transformed from a barren concrete wasteland to a lush place that attracts bees, butterflies and birds - a stark contrast to the dense traffic and the concrete structures surrounding it.

Three native species from the Valley of Mexico were planted there. "All are sedums (leaf succulents), of the Crassulaceae family," explained Müller, director of urban, park and bikeway reforestation for Mexico City.

The heat from "a normal rooftop can reach 80 degrees Celsius, contributing to the 'heat-island effect' (the increase in temperature in urban areas with few green spaces and lots of pavement), especially in a city as urbanised as this one," she said.

Thanks to the vegetation, the roof's temperature is maintained at 25 degrees Celsius, creating a microclimate that returns moisture to the environment and retains dust and particulate matter that could otherwise harm people's lungs, Müller added.

Furthermore, it won't be necessary to re-waterproof the roof for 80 years.

That is why the Secretariat (Ministry) of Health gave the Mexico City government the green light to create green roofs for its 28 hospitals.

All of this "is viable, but we need resources," said Müller. With the global economic crisis, "everywhere budgets have had to be adjusted, and that is what we are evaluating."

Planting a rooftop can cost 95 dollars per square metre, whether in Mexico, Europe or the United States.

But the positive results are obvious. Take the Centre for Child Development (CENDI), which provides services for 400 children of the city's subway train workers, and is located in Mexico City's historic central district.

"Fifty percent of the city's chickens are concentrated in the surrounding blocks, which causes heavy soil and air pollution. In addition, there is traffic and a high crime rate," said CENDI director Nadia Tapia.

Even so, this kindergarten has generated many of the cutting-edge programmes that are ultimately implemented nationwide. In keeping with this trend, in mid-2008, the city government inaugurated a green rooftop - 1,190 square metres - on this two-storey building.

Since then, once the children reach the age of two they are introduced to the roof garden. Those ages three to six practice gardening skills in a small plot, where they make compost, and grow tomatoes, potatoes, parsley, chamomile and cactus.

"The children relax, explore and are more calm and cooperative when they reach the teaching area, increasing their capacity to learn," said CENDI paediatric expert Araceli Becerra.

These children, explained the director, come from low-income families. "Seventy-five percent live in very small apartments, and because of crime concerns, they don't have access to parks."

When they visit the rooftop, "they get excited and they want to touch and observe everything," teacher Rosa Muñoz said in an interview for this article.

According to Müller, the green roofs are an "alternative for sustainable urban development, especially in a city like this, where even if we wanted to create a ground-level park, there is no room to do so."

In the cities of Latin America, the average for green areas overall is 3.5 square metres per person. The World Health Organisation recommends nine to 12 square metres per person.

"In Mexico City, we would have nine million more square metres of green space if we put one green square metre on every roof," said Alberto Fabela, who is in charge of the rooftop at the Secretariat of Urban Development and Housing (SEDUVI).

Since April 2008, the SEDUVI six-storey public building has set aside 900 square metres of its roof for green space. The technique employed here is hydroponics - growing plants suspended in water.

So far, it has produced 21,000 ornamental plants, donated to the districts of Coyoacán and Azcapotzalco, where they adorn gardens and median areas along boulevards.

Geraniums, marigolds, kalanchoe, petunias are grown, "all strong and resistant to stress from the streets: cars, noise, smog, people," said Fabela.

The plants are produced with the help of the 800 SEDUVI employees, who have the option of dedicating one hour of their workweek to maintaining, sowing or transplanting the flowers.

"We teach them to remove wilted leaves and to plant seeds. Obviously, it is a kind of therapy. We give them one hour, but the time passes quickly. The most receptive are the young people, 18 to 25, and elderly women," Fabela added.

The Mexico city government hopes that the more than 8,000 square metres of green roofs created so far in public buildings will serve as an example for the private sector.

For now, the city plans to ask businesses requesting construction permits to dedicate 10 to 20 percent of their rooftops to green space - in exchange for tax benefits.

*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by Inter Press Service (IPS) and the International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ), for the Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development (www.complusalliance.org). (END/2009)

 

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47929

 

Ongoing human rights abuses at root of Xinjiang violence

Behind the Violence in Xinjiang

by Nicholas Bequelin

July 9, 2009

Published in The New York Times

HONG KONG — The eruption of ethnic violence in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the most deadly recorded in decades, seems to have taken both Beijing and the world by surprise. It should not have.

The violence, coming on the heels of massive protests in Tibet less than 18 months ago, reflects the profound failure of Beijing's policies toward national minorities, whose areas represent almost four-fifths of the country's landmass but whose population makes up only 8 percent of China's 1.3 billion people.

The Uighur people, much like the Tibetans, have a history, culture, religion and language distinct from the rest of China. Their homeland, the ring of oases that formed the backbone of the Silk Road in ancient times, was only incorporated into the Chinese empire in the 18th century.

And the effective colonization of Xinjiang only started after 1950s, when Beijing began to settle People's Liberation Army soldiers who had put down the short-lived independent East Turkestan Republic (1944-1949) on military state farms. The proportion of Han Chinese in the population of Xinjiang leaped from 6 to 40 percent as a result of state-sponsored population transfers from other parts of China.

A second massive assimilation drive was initiated in the 1990s, prompted in part by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Beijing's fear of instability in the region. This time, instead of relying on forcible population transfers, Beijing created economic incentives to attract new Han settlers. In less than a decade, an ambitious program called the "Big Development of the Northwest" brought between one and two million new Chinese migrants to Xinjiang.

Economic development surged, spurred by a combination of massive subsidies, oil exploitation and rapid urbanization. But the Uighurs were not part of the rising tide. Resentment over job discrimination and loss of lands swelled, combined with anger at China's religion policies and the stream of new settlers.

The government's response was purely repressive. Already sharp limits on religious and cultural expression were further tightened. Any expression of dissent became synonymous with advocating "separatism" — a crime under Chinese law that can carry the death penalty.

Any sign of ethnic distinctiveness outside of the sanitized version promoted by the state was denounced as a plot by "separatist forces abroad." After a failed uprising in the city of Yining in February 1997, the authorities launched a massive crackdown that led to tens of thousands of arrests and dozens of executions.

For most Uighurs, Xinjiang increasingly became a police state, where they lived in fear of arrest for the slightest sign of disloyalty toward Beijing.

Even prison officials started to complain to Beijing that prison and labor camps across the region had become jam-packed. Isolated acts of anti-state violence, such as the assassination of Uighur "collaborators," attacks against police stations and the explosion of two bombs in Urumqi buses in February 1998 only reinforced the determination of the state to increase its repression.

After the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S., the Chinese began to justify its campaigns in Xinjiang as a contribution to the global war on terror. China also used its growing international influence to secure cooperation from neighboring states to arrest and deport Uighurs who had fled persecution.

Although there is no dispute that clandestine Uighur groups have from time to time carried out violent attacks — most recently in a series of bombings and attacks on Chinese soldiers just before the Olympic Games — the massive propaganda offensive about the threat of "East Turkestan" terrorism drove Chinese public opinion toward an even more negative perception of the Uighur people, who in turn felt increasingly ostracized and discriminated against.

Beijing's accelerated attempt over the past few years to forcibly refashion Uighur identity has also fueled growing resentment. Following Xinjiang Party Secretary Wang Lequan's declaration in 2002 that the Uighur language was "out of step with the 21st century," the government started to shift the entire education system to Mandarin, replacing Uighur teachers with newly arrived Han Chinese. The authorities also organized public burnings of Uighur books. Control over religion was extended last year to prohibit traditional customs such as religious weddings, burials or pilgrimages to the tombs of local saints.

Earlier this year, the government suddenly announced plans to raze the city of Kashgar, the centuries-old cultural center of the Uighur civilization and one of the only remaining examples of traditional central Asian architecture. In a few weeks, the old city will have almost entirely disappeared, forcing out 50,000 families to newly constructed, soulless modern buildings.

This is the backdrop against which Uighurs reacted to graphic images circulating on the Internet last week of Uighur workers being beaten to death by Chinese coworkers in a Guangdong factory. They took to the streets.

Unless the government addresses the root causes of ethnic tensions and ends its systemic human rights violations, the chances of more violence will remain high.

Nicholas Bequelin is a senior Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

 

Source: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/09/behind-violence-xinjiang

 

 

Mauritania slaves: 500.000 born into continuing slavery

AWARDED FOR EXPOSING THE AFRICAN COUNTRY WHERE ONE IN FIVE ARE SLAVES

SOS Esclaves have been awarded the 2009 Anti-Slavery Award for nearly 15 years of fighting slavery in Mauritania, a country where an estimated 18 per cent of the population, or 600,000 people, are born and continue to live in slavery.

Receiving the award on Wednesday 27 May 2009 at Chatham House in London on behalf of the organisation is SOS Esclaves president, 64-year-old Boubacar Messaoud.

Boubacar Messaoud is himself the son of slaves and was one of the first people to denounce slavery in Mauritania. He has also been imprisoned three times for fighting against slavery in his country.

As recently as 2 April 2009, Boubacar was targeted as an anti-slavery activist and narrowly avoided death after being beaten unconscious by police at a rally in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott.

Boubacar said: "Slavery in Mauritania is a hidden practice but exists everywhere. Just because people are not in chains or publicly beaten by their masters does not mean they are free. The only thing that slaves know in Mauritania is slavery. All they know is their masters."

While slavery in Mauritania has existed for centuries, today virtually all cases involve Hratine (Arabic speaking descendants of black Africans captured into slavery by Arab-Berber 'White Maures' hundreds of years ago) owned by White Maures masters.

Those who are still in slavery are born as slaves, are inherited as property by their masters and receive no payment for their work. Slaves are expected to work every day. Men and children care for their master's animals, which are usually camels, cows, and goats. Female slaves generally work from before sunrise to after sunset, caring for the master's children, fetching water, gathering firewood, pounding millet and other domestic tasks.

Female slaves are frequently beaten and raped by their masters. Their children are also considered the master's property and, along with other slaves, can be rented out or loaned or given as gifts in marriage.

Over the years SOS Esclaves has helped hundreds of former slaves, while its activists have faced harassment, threats and even imprisonment for speaking out about slavery and campaigning for its end.

There have been several attempts to end slavery in the country, including the decree to end slavery in 1981, which made Mauritania the last country in the world to officially abolish the practice.

In 2007 the same year as Mauritania's first free and democratic elections, and after a hard fought campaign by SOS Esclaves, supported by Anti-Slavery International, slavery was finally criminalised by the new government.

However, the military coup of August 2008 has brought a halt to the progress made against slavery and renewed violence against anti-slavery campaigners. On 6 June, the leader of the coup, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is expected to win presidential elections, which are being boycotted by opposition parties.

Romana Cacchioli, Anti-Slavery International's Africa Programme co-ordinator, said: "Despite the hard fought victory to criminalise slavery in 2007 the new law has not resulted in a single conviction. We are concerned that the lack of progress since the coup last August and the targeting of Boubacar Messaoud in April indicate that the new regime is looking to try and sweep the issue of slavery once more under the carpet."

Case study of a former slave in Mauritania

Kheidama Mint Barka, aged 48, said: "I was born a slave. I would look after the family's animals all day long. I would take the sheep to get water in the morning and in the afternoon I would take the camels. I never took a break and I was never allowed to rest.

"I would come back home in the evening completely exhausted. Sometimes I was so tired I would become clumsy and would make silly mistakes and I would be beaten by the mistress's youngest son. Sometimes to punish and frighten me I would be left down the well. My mistress's oldest son would also rape me. I always had to be at his disposal.

"Since I have been freed I have been earning a living with small jobs, preparing millet and providing other services for people. At least now I am paid for the work I do."

 

Source: http://www.antislavery.org/english/press_and_news/news_and_press_releases_2009/2009_award_winner.aspx

 

Market forces skewed: We can buy a 99-cent cheeseburger but not even a head of broccoli

 

FILM: Shattering the Myth of "Agrarian America"
By Sherazad Hamit

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm and his grass-fed herd. Credit:Food Inc.

NEW YORK, Jul 8 (IPS) - "How is it that you can buy a 99-cent cheeseburger but not even a head of broccoli?" wonders Michael Pollan, author and co-narrator of the new documentary "Food, Inc.".

Without question, since the rise of the fast food industry in the 1930s, the race to deliver food faster, fatter, bigger and cheaper has changed the food industry dramatically.

"When McDonald's is the largest purchaser of ground beef, potatoes, pork, chicken, tomatoes, lettuce and apples, they change how [this food] is produced," says Eric Schlosser, author of the bestseller "Fast Food Nation" and co-narrator of the film.

This in turn impacts the price of certain foods. Instead of small local farms and a diverse range of products at the supermarket, there are a handful of companies and factories that process animals and crops to resemble foods we love.

It is in this context that director Robert Kenner and narrators Pollan and Schlosser seek to unveil the truth about "Agrarian America", a pastoral fantasy spun by the U.S. food industry.

The explicit point of the film is that the multinational-dominated industry has evolved into a dangerous animal. It is heavily subsidised and protected by the government and yet is barely accountable to any public food safety or regulatory body.

In fact, the industry itself is largely responsible for self-policing food safety and quality standards – a Supreme Court-sanctioned freedom that has allowed it to control farmers, minimise oversight and feed the U.S. appetite while simultaneously incurring significant human and environmental costs - costs hidden from the public by droves of corporate lawyers, the film argues.

In stepwise fashion, Schlosser and Pollan take us to the corn fields of middle America. We are told that in order to understand why foods like cheeseburgers are in fact cheaper than broccoli, we need to look at the impact of corn subsidisation and technology on the industry.

Subsidies make it possible for corn to be sold cheaply to multinationals which use it as feed for animals ill-equipped by evolution to properly digest it. In the case of cattle, the result is a mutated and virulent strain of bacteria - E.coli 0157:H7 - that when shed in manure, spreads from one animal to another.

High-tech industry, Pollan maintains, has compounded these circumstances. No longer is the food industry looking to better the conditions of feeding operations. It is looking for quick fixes.

"When approximately 400 animals are slaughtered each hour, and one meat patty consists of meat from thousands of animals, the odds of contamination increase exponentially," says Pollan.

Kenner's inside footage of putrid chicken farms and ground beef being cleansed in ammonia packs a subversive punch. For those who dismiss the food debate as an issue dwelled on by the nutritionally and socially conscious, Kenner makes clear: anyone who eats three meals, whether you eat meat or not, is at risk.

It is this consistent reality check that causes even the most apathetic viewer to question the safety of our food and the existence of adequate laws.

To that effect, perhaps the most shocking revelation is the narrow scope of authority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one of the main food safety bodies. Described as "toothless", the USDA is given the blunt end of the sword – although perhaps even its critics are too kind.

Through the tireless work of featured food safety advocate Barbara Kowalcyk, we are made to understand the true extent of its impotence owed to the slew of officials ensconced in government regulatory bodies like the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and USDA who are now working to protect their former multinational employers.

While the notion of corporate cover-ups is unsettling, even more so is the responsibility of multinationals for a system of worker-slavery at food-processing factories. Through hidden-camera footage of factory working conditions and exchanges at border crossings, we are privy to part of the real human cost of producing food cheaply, an arrangement allegedly granted tacit approval by corporate higher-ups.

The remainder of that human cost is, of course incurred by consumers. Underscoring that fact is an encounter with a working-class family from Los Angeles struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table – a family for whom the food debate is truly a luxury, a pre-occupation of the wealthy.

The family's two adolescent daughters are living proof a generational endemic – obesity - the biggest predictor of which is income-level. One in three U.S. citizens born after 2000 will have early onset diabetes. That figure jumps to one in two amongst minorities. These are staggering statistics even to those who strongly believe obesity is a crisis of personal responsibility.

We have now come full circle to the cheeseburger and the broccoli, and are reminded that there are more forces at work than one's ability to resist fast food. There is a systemic skew towards cheaper, nutritionally deficient foods in our supermarkets. It is at this point that we are cued to ponder over nutritional alternatives and a plan of action to change the status quo.

We are presented with "organic". In an interesting "us" vs. "them" framework involving Stonyfield dairies and the Walmart super-store chain, respectively, we become proponents of the organic cause. The obvious downsides, namely price and availability, are immediately squared away and we are launched into a discussion on the profitability and sustainability of organic brands.

The conclusion is that organic brands can take down the giants if consumers leverage their purchasing powers.

"It is an easy decision to support organic. If it is clear that the customer wants it, it is easy to get behind it," says Walmart executive Tony Arioso.

After much food for thought, the documentary closes with prescriptions ranging from buying produce in season and eating organic to changing school meals and writing to political representatives.

While good in intention, the list falls short of addressing the main problem of the working class: that of getting a head of broccoli on the dinner plate in an affordable way. In lacking this dimension it falls prey to the prevailing criticism it set out to defeat: that the food debate is open only to the better-off.

What is required is a list that includes more avenues for involvement at different economic levels and a marketing strategy that goes beyond limited release viewers. Overall, "Food, Inc" is as enjoyable as it is informative.

(END/2009)

 

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47581

 

Uganda forest likely gone in 50 yrs

INTERVIEW-Uganda likely to lose all forest cover in 50 yrs

 

09 Jul 2009

Source: Reuters

 

A woman burns tree trunks to get charcoal for sale in Kadocha village in Kotido district, northeastern Uganda. Communities here say they have no alternative sources of energy, forcing them to deplete their forests.
OXFAM/Handout

* Uganda could lose forest cover in 50 years

* Tree planting needed to mitigate global warming

By Frank Nyakairu

NAIROBI, July 9 (Reuters) - Uganda will lose its entire forest cover in the next 50 years if the government does not embark on immediate efforts to halt rapid deforestation, a forestry expert warned on Thursday.

Forests and tree planting can help mitigate the effects of global warming by increasing carbon storage and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, experts say. Tropical deforestation accounts for a fifth of emissions from human activities.

"We have been observing using satellite imagery that over the last 15 years we have lost more that 1.5 million hectares of forest cover," Xavier Mugumya, Uganda's forest management specialist at the National Forest Authority, told Reuters.

"Uganda is likely to have very low if not completely no forest cover within 50 years if nothing is done to reverse this trend," he said in an interview.

The east Africa nation's forest cover has fallen to 3.5 million hectares in 2005, Mugumya said. Trees soak up carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they are burnt or rot.

The G8 agreed on Wednesday to try to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent. A new U.N. climate agreement is due to be signed in Copenhagen in five months.

Rich countries agree they have to lead a climate fight after enjoying two centuries of industrialisation and pollution, but they disagree with developing nations on how much of the burden they should carry under a new treaty.

"If nothing is done to stop the drivers of deforestation then the sustenance the forests contribute to life and the country's biodiversity will be lost completely," said Mugumya, who is also Uganda's international climate change negotiator.

Mugumya said that Uganda's rapid population growth -- one of the highest in the world -- was hurting the nation's efforts to combat deforestation.

Individuals also hold 70 percent of remaining forest land, making it difficult to regulate depleting cover, Mugumya said.

"This will have to call for a concerted effort where individuals, governments and the developed countries will have to work together to reduce emissions and control carbon levels in the atmosphere." (Editing by Jack Kimball and Giles Elgood)

 

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L9521780.htm