Story Archives - Page 621 of 662

Putting Our Mouths Where the Money Is, (3/98)

ELAYNE CLIFT June 2, 2005 ELAYNE CLIFT

In a climate of growing private investment and free trade worldwide, combined with shrinking international foreign assistance budgets, women have more reasons than ever to understand and be concerned about macroeconomic development. So says Ritu Sharma, director of the newly organized Women’s EDGE: The Coalition for Women’s Economic Development and Global Equality. A revitalization of the former Coalition for Women in Development, Women’s EDGE was started in Washington, DC, last March to take on global macroeconomics. As Sharma explains, “We felt that it was important as a women’s community to essentially put our mouths where the money is. And the money is in private investment and trade.” read more

Back to the Margins (3/98)

BARBARA NIMRI AZIZ June 2, 2005 BARBARA NIMRI AZIZ

In the long struggle between Iraq and the US, Iraqi women have been the most harmed of that nation’s beleaguered masses. Like men, of course, they’ve lost opportunities and seen their living standard plummet. But they’ve also been forced into social contracts which they thought ended a century ago.Seven years of sanctions have desiccated more than bombs could. The casualties include not only Iraq’s modern, secular society, with its advanced medical and educational systems, self sufficiency, university research, and child vaccination programs, but also the progressive lives of eight million Iraqi women. Before 1990, Iraq had an exemplary policy of educating women and opening the professions to them. Before the Gulf War, women were found in all sectors of life. But in the years since then, those gains have been reversed. read more

Standoff in Chiapas (3/98)

ROBIN FLINCHUM June 2, 2005 ROBIN FLINCHUM

Esperanza Aguilar Jimenez is a skinny seven-year-old, all legs and arms in a well-worn, carefully patched, poofy-skirt dress. She sits next to me on a dusty rock at the side of the road leading into Morelia, her village in the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas. It’s mid-morning, and Esperanza ought to be in school. But all her teachers are gone. Fearing the imminent advance of the Mexican military, they packed themselves tightly into a little pickup and drove as quickly as they could down the deeply rutted road out of town. I know this because I watched them go. read more

Activists Prepare for the Next Wave of Protests (3/01)

BRIAN TOKAR June 2, 2005 BRIAN TOKAR

The Maori people call it Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud. It’s a place of mystery and wonder, where glacial mountain peaks tower over vast coastal rain forests, with breathtaking coves and bays far too numerous to count and genera of trees and birds that can’t be found anywhere else on earth.

New Zealand’s indigenous population has made its mark on the majority colonial population’s language, cultural norms, and legal institutions to an extent rarely found in the English speaking world. read more

New Weapon Could Trigger Climate Change(03/01)

MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY June 2, 2005 MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY

The important debate on global warming proceeding under UN auspices provides but a partial picture of climate change. In addition to the devastating impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the ozone layer, the world’s climate can now be modified by a new generation of sophisticated "non-lethal weapons." In fact, both the US and Russia have developed capabilities to manipulate the world’s weather.

In the US, the technology is being perfected under the High-frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP) as part of "Star Wars," otherwise known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Recent scientific evidence suggests that HAARP is fully operational and has the ability to potentially trigger floods, droughts, hurricanes, and earthquakes. read more

Man Made Weather: Weapon of the future? (11/00)

NICO STEHR June 2, 2005 NICO STEHR

At the recent Fifth German Climate Conference, a climate expert and I gave a joint paper on man-made climate disasters that were threatening man in historic times. After we had spoken, a participant approached us and told us about research carried out by the US Air Force. The findings were reported back in 1996 but have since been generally ignored. The research paper is available at www.au.af.mil/au/2025/ on the Web.

All past climate catastrophes caused by man pale in comparison to the study’s findings, which are but a taste of things to come in the next quarter century. He who controls the weather, controls the world. read more