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Issue No. 305/306 (Jan/Feb 2016)
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COVER:
The Paris Agreement: A small step towards averting climate disaster
At
long last, a climate change agreement
While the Paris Agreement offers a glimmer of hope in tackling the
critical problem of global warming, it fails to impose legally binding
obligations on developed countries to limit global temperature rise
and to provide financial assistance necessary for developing countries
to meet the challenges of climate change.
By Gurdial Singh Nijar
The
climate change battle in Paris
This analysis of the Paris climate change conference highlights
some of the main issues which featured at the conference and the key
provisions of the accord that emerged.
By Meena Raman
The
Paris Agreement and the last-minute 'technical corrections'
In the negotiations leading up to the Paris accord, there was no
lack of chicanery by the developed countries in securing an agreement
on their terms.
By Meena Raman and Hilary
Chiew
COP
21 decision on enhanced action prior to 2020
As the commitments under the Paris Agreement are only due to take
effect in 2020, to ensure that there was no let-up in measures in the
interim to limit global warming, a decision was taken at the conference
on 'enhanced action' prior to 2020.
By Indrajit Bose
Greater
emission cuts needed to avert disaster - NGOs
The carbon emission cuts pledged at the Paris conference and embodied
in the climate treaty that emerged are wholly inadequate to meet the
grave threat from global warming facing the planet. This was the consensus
view of civil society groups at the Paris conference. A civil society
report released before the conference also articulated this concern.
By Chee Yoke Heong
ECOLOGY
Ecuador's
quest for food sovereignty and land reform
Indigenous groups and social movements in Ecuador seek to translate
the concept of buen vivir into policy.
By Karla Pena
HEALTH & SAFETY
The
next threat from climate change? Mosquito-borne Zika
As Latin America reels from the outbreak of Zika, and the World
Health Organisation responds to the crisis by declaring a global state
of emergency, global warming will only help to spread the disease further.
By Brian Moench
ECONOMICS
Doha
‘single undertaking’ not dead and is retrievable
There were claims after the December WTO conference in Nairobi that
the Doha Round of negotiations has now been abandoned. The writer takes
issue with this claim.
By Chakravarthi Raghavan
South
suffers humiliating setback at Nairobi
The 10th ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation held
in Nairobi last December proved to be a major setback for the developing
countries.
By D Ravi Kanth
Bleak
prospects for Latin America under Trans-Pacific Partnership
While the Trans-Pacific Partnership may well serve the interests
of some of the world's biggest corporations, it is likely to be a disaster
for the Latin American states that have become members of this free
trade pact.
By Ian
Gustafson
Companies
sue developing states through Western Europe
The investor-state dispute settlement mechanism in regional free
trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the seamy
arbitral process make abuse of such agreements possible.
By Frank Mulder
The
hidden wealth of nations
Among other things, offshore financial centres serve a political
function: they undermine democracy by enabling financial capture of
the political levers of democratic states.
By G Sampath
The
Davos Club: Meet the people who gave us a world in which 62 people own
as much as 3.6 billion
The global elite held its annual World Economic Forum meeting in
the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos this year under the shadow of an Oxfam
International report which reveals a shocking level of growing global
inequality.
By Vijay Prashad
The
heavy price of economic policy failures
As the world economy falters and economic growth slows down, a host
of explanations which locate the problem outside the economic system
are being offered. Such explanations evade the fact of the failure of
the traditional economic policy model and that there are alternatives
to it.
By Jayati Ghosh
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WORLD AFFAIRS
Between
terror and tyranny
Political Islam in the shadow of the Arab uprisings
As politics in the Arab world becomes increasingly polarised between
forces of resurgent authoritarianism and unbending militant extremism,
longstanding conservative movements in the mould of the Muslim Brothers
have increasingly found themselves violently repressed or politically
marginalised.
By Abdullah
Al-Arian
Five
years on: Was democracy the answer for Tunisia?
Tunisia's five-year experience with democracy serves to confirm
that while it can invigorate civil society and freedom of speech and
assembly, it is not a panacea to socio-economic ills and governance
failures.
By Tallha
Abdulrazaq
How
false stories of Iran arming the Houthis were used to justify war
in Yemen
The Saudi-led war in Yemen has been conducted on false pretences.
By
Gareth Porter
The
US is the biggest arms supplier to the developing world, says Congressional
report
A new US Congressional report reveals that the US not only controls
the global arms market but is the largest weapons supplier to developing
nations.
By Ramesh
Jaura
HUMAN RIGHTS
UN
Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine resigns
Makarim Wibisono, the UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine,
has announced his resignation because Israel has frustrated his efforts
to discharge his duty 'every step of the way'. His predecessor comments.
By Richard Falk
WOMEN
Child
marriages will increase without action, warns UNICEF
A recent United Nations report calling for action to combat the
phenomenal increase in child marriage in Africa warns that it is 'the
poorest and most marginalised girls' who are at greatest risk.
By Tharanga
Yakupitiyage
ARTS & CULTURE
A
radical fervour, forged in the forests
As fresh controversy surrounds the death of the great Chilean
poet Pablo Neruda, his biographer recalls the writer's twin passions
- love and Nature.
By Adam
Feinstein
'Rhyming
for my ancestors'
Tz'utu
Kan, a Mayan hip-hop artist, explains how he and his cultural group
are attempting to revitalise his community's ancient cultural forms
with sounds and intercultural borrowings from Native American, Andean
and other sources.
MEDIA
The
vicissitudes of Al Jazeera
The Doha-based Al Jazeera media group recently announced that
it will be closing its US network (Al Jazeera America) in April this
year. The writer reflects on the changing complexion
and role of the media group since its emergence in 1996.
By Barbara
Nimri Aziz
VIEWPOINT
Europe
and the decline of Britishness
As the 'Brexit' (whether Britain should exit from the European
Union) debate rages on, with claims that the country has lost its
sovereignty as a result of the Union, this article argues that
Britain's sovereignty is indeed compromised, but that the elements
which are fretted over are highly selective.
By Jeremy Seabrook
POETRY
To
send away melancholy
Huang Zunxian (1848-1905) was a Chinese official, scholar
and writer active during the late Qing dynasty, the last imperial
dynasty. As a poet, he published more than a hundred poems.
By Huang Zunxian
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