ViewsWeek Views from around the world
A new report by Dutch consultancy firm Ecofys claims that European demand for biofuels is not to blame for “land grabbing” in poorer countries. The report — commissioned by an organization that “represents the European renewable ethanol industry” — comes as EU law-makers discuss new biofuel legislation that could curb support to the sector. The report reviews deals accounting for 67 per cent of total …
October, 2013
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20 October
Why Central Asia Abnormally Silent on Syria
The US and Russia have enacted a political compromise to place Syrian chemical weapons under international control and destroy them. However, the political crisis in Syria is not limited by this Washington-Moscow deal. The solution of the “chemical weapons” issue is useless for the resolving of ethno-political and sectarian conflicts that split this Middle Eastern country. It is also not …
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20 October
Climate Shocks Will Hurt Poverty Targets
As climatic shocks worsen, disaster-affected populations will be driven deeper into poverty, exacerbating their vulnerability, in as soon as two decades – unless policymakers start to address the issue now, according to a new study from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). India did a “remarkable job” limiting the number of casualties from Cyclone Phailin, which slammed into the country’s eastern …
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19 October
Few Pakistanis Know About Torwali Language
After years of war between militants and the Pakistani Army, Swat (a picturesque mountainous district in northern parts of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province) is now considered safe to travel to, and is open for domestic tourism. To explore the culture of Swat, I embarked on a short journey this summer, taking a bus from Rawalpindi to Mingora, the main town in …
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19 October
How Reliable is FAO’s Data on Global Hunger?
In 2012 the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) attracted criticism for its methods of calculating the number of hungry people in the world in its annual report, the State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI). The debate continues in 2013, with a calculated total of 842 million, or 12 percent of the world’s population, experiencing chronic hunger over the past …
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19 October
Word ‘Allah’ Has No Copyright
Earlier this week, a Malaysian court gave a bizarre decision: A Catholic newspaper in that country, named the Herald, would not be allowed to use the word “Allah” to refer to God. The court’s logic was that when Christians pray to “Allah,” Muslims get “confused.” Chief judge Mohamed Apandi Ali made an even more revealing statement, noting, “The propagation of …
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18 October
Is China-Iran Clash Inevitable?
Even as the U.S. considers Iran’s nuclear program as its most immediate threat, a consensus has emerged in the U.S. foreign policy establishment that China’s rise poses the biggest long-term strategic challenge to the country. There is little indication that a similar consensus has taken hold among Iranian elites. It will. Indeed, as Iran has been preoccupied with the U.S. …
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18 October
Cyclone-Hit India Searches for Answers in Climate Change
The predictions in a report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, published in September this year, already seem to be coming true, with the rapidly deteriorating environment and climate change (in India), which has resulted in nature’s extremities such as the Phailin cyclone. Phailin attained the ‘category five’ status, affecting over 12 million people. It prompted India’s biggest evacuation …
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18 October
Sri Lanka’s Former War Zone Needs More Investment
Policy changes that encourage and provide incentives to create jobs in Sri Lanka’s northern former war zone are necessary to ease the impact of dwindling aid there, experts say. Since 2010 three successive appeals for reconstruction work under the Joint Plan of Assistance to the Northern Province issued by the UN and Sri Lanka government have been underfunded by US$430 million. In the last …
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17 October
The Creeping Militarization of the Arctic
Russia’s announcement last month that it was considering reopening a major northern naval base and resuming regular naval patrols has revived a debate over the militarization of the Arctic. In early September, a convoy of 10 Russian warships – led by missile cruiser Peter the Great and accompanied by four nuclear-powered icebreakers – completed a voyage across the Arctic Ocean. Starting from Severomorsk near …
