By Mario Osava *
SÃO PAULO, May 22, 2012 (Tierramérica) – Those who made the final decision on the design of Brazil’s Belo Monte hydroelectric dam will face legal action in the future for the damages caused. This is the kind of warning one would expect from environmentalists, but in this case it comes from a surprising quarter: staunch supporters of hydropower. Continue reading
By Louise Redvers
JOHANNESBURG, May 21, 2012 ([ http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107856 ]IPS) – The Angolan government is being urged to carry out a thorough and independent investigation into allegations of sexual and physical abuse by its security forces against Congolese migrants. In a 50-page report released on Monday, May 21, entitled “If You Come back We Will Kill You”, New York-based lobby group Human Rights Watch (HRW) documents chilling testimonies of men and women who entered Angola illegally to work. Continue reading
By Carey L. Biron
WASHINGTON, May 21, 2012 (IPS) – With a month to go before the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, nearly two dozen NGOs are calling on President Barack Obama to confirm his attendance at the event, known as Rio+20. Continue reading
By: Ellen Teague
The National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales (NJPN) is calling for stronger action to tackle climate change, illegal logging and access to clean water at next month’s Earth Summit in Brazil. It urges the Rio+20 gathering of world leaders to come up with a programme of transition towards more sustainable development, particularly in the area of food and agriculture. It also calls for the implementation of an international Financial Transactions Tax or ‘Robin Hood’ Tax which could potentially raise millions of dollars for countering climate change and poverty. Continue reading
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
First, “Ruth.” In the biblical story, Ruth was a penniless immigrant from a despised pariah people. Yet she was welcomed onto the fields of Boaz, where she gleaned what the regular harvesters had left behind. Boaz made sure that even this despised foreigner had a decent job at decent pay. He forbade his male employees from harassing her. When she went one night to the barn where the barley crop was being threshed, he spent the night with her — and decided to marry her. Continue reading
