International

Eastern Africa is experiencing what is described as the “most severe food crisis in the world today”, at least 10 million people affected in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. The alert comes from UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which adds that Somalia is one of the hardest-hit countries in the region, with deaths reported in some areas.

The five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States – met in Paris on June 30 and July 1, 2011 to deal with an issue that carries with it the survival of the planet: nuclear disarmament. The conference was a follow up to the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York in May 2010.

Apparently every body is keen to save the planet Earth. But hardly a few ever think of changing lifestyle which is too heavily based on an over-consumption of energy and so many other things.

Japanese children have been shown to be contaminated with radioactive caesium just weeks after the government raised the acceptable level of contamination in schools which provoked angry responses from parents. At the same time it is revealed that the UK government attempted to minimise the importance of the accident in order to prevent a backlash against nuclear energy.

Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s movement for democracy in Burma is hanging in the balance this week, with the regime threatening a brutal response to her call to free political prisoners. Activists have appealed to the world for help, saying international pressure is crucial to tipping the balance. Avaaz calls people to sign a petition

This day each year the citizenry of Hong Kong take to the streets and demonstrate in solidarity against a wide variety of ills and social injustices – July 1, 2011, was no exception. Hongkongers staged their biggest show of discontent with the government in seven years, taking to the streets in the largest numbers since 2004.

Napoleon is said to have remarked: “Bayonets are wonderful! One can do anything with them except sit on them!”. Today’s bayonets are nuclear weapons; and we are actually sitting on them.
Mr. Dhanapala is President, Pugwash Conferences on Science & World Affairs. He served as UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs and as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the USA in 1990s.

“High food prices are here to stay, and their impact on the poor in developing countries who spend a high proportion of their income on food can be devastating”
Their number exceeds one billion and up to 98% of them live in developing countries.

We go on with the publication of Ivo Ghignoli’s Chronicles from the garrison of Maddalena, where NO TAV militants are peacefully protesting against the construction of the Turin-Lyon high-speed railway line; the line will pierce a mountain and disrupt the entire hydro-geological structure of Val di Susa, near Turin.

The right to food is a human right, and unless governments follow up on their pledges, it will remain a utopia. Broad-based social movements and human rights defenders the world over should therefore continue to demand change, says Olivier De Schutter, an independent United Nations watchdog.