Warfare is stopping 28 million children worldwide from receiving an education because of sexual violence and attacks on schools, the UN education fund says. One of the reasons for that is that this has become one of the rape capitals of the world and is having a very profound effect on the education system.”The sexual violence harms victims’ learning potential and creates a climate of fear that keeps girls at home, he said. Continue reading
Daily Archives: March 14, 2011
Belo Monte hydroelectric dam construction work begins
Infrastructure work on access roads to the site of the hydroelectric dam in the Amazon began on Monday
The region along the Xingu river which will be affected by the Belo Monte dam. Photograph: Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images
With most Brazilian eyes firmly fixed on the country’s annual carnival, construction work officially started this week on the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon. In a blog post, the company leading the dam project, Norte Energia, announced that infrastructure work on roads that will provide access to the region started on Monday morning. A photograph showed lorries and a yellow road-roller moving on to the site. Continue reading
If You Must Build A Mega Dam: Lessons for Brazil from China
Last week environmental activists in Brazil – and Hollywood – were celebrating a victorybacked project, key to President’s DilmaRousseff’s infrastructure push to support Brazil’s continued economic growth, has not met environmental requirements and has halted construction and financing of the project in the Amazon rainforest.
Critics of the dam, including Avator director James Cameron and star Sigourney Weaver, say that the Belo Monte dam, by flooding a 200 square miles area of the Xingu River that feeds into the Amazon, will displace locals living in flooded zones and negatively impact the livelihood of indigenous communities downstream who depend on fishing. U.S.-based Amazon Watch says that the forests flooded by the dam will release large amounts of methane, negating any positive implications of building such a vast low carbon emissions energy source. Continue reading
Zim treason charges for viewing Egypt on TV
4 March – Zimbabwe is charging 45 persons with treason for having viewed TV reports about North African and Middle East protests. The Robert Mugabe government on 19 February ordered the arrest of 46 activists attending a meeting organised by the International Socialist Organisation at which footage of the Egypt protests were shown and discussed. These 46 now have been charged with treason. Continue reading
Brazil court reverses Amazon Monte Belo dam suspension
A court in Brazil has approved a controversial hydro-electric project in the Amazon rainforest, overturning an earlier ruling. Last week a judge blocked construction of the Belo Monte dam, saying it did not meet environmental standards. Continue reading
