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Economics

Brazil 2015: The Year When Everything Went Wrong

Human Wrongs Watch By Fernando J. Cardim de Carvalho* RIO DE JANEIRO, 30 December 2015 (IPS) – As 2015 approaches its end, Brazilians live a period of extraordinary uncertainty. The recession seems to get worse by the day. Inflation is…

India: online cow dung patties selling like hot cakes

There is an old saying, “I will believe it when cows fly”, well, it’s not quite like that but how about cow dung patties flying off the virtual shelves after online corporate marketing campaigns? My Pressenza colleague in Dhaka, Bangladesh,…

The Precariat: A new term for Economic Violence

We know about the proletariat, aka the manual workers. The term comes from the Roman Empire’s five yearly census of citizens and their property. For those who had none their children, or proles, were their only asset, hence the name…

Culture, Education and Human Solidarity

Human Wrongs Watch By John Scales Avery* 29 December 2015 Cultural and educational activities have a small ecological footprint, and therefore are more sustainable than pollution-producing, fossil-fuel-using jobs in industry. Furthermore, since culture and knowledge are shared among all nations,…

French Firm Attacks Ugandan Tax Using ISDS

Human Wrongs Watch By Edward Ronald Segyawa and Frank Mulder* KAMPALA, 25 December 2015 (IPS) – The heavily criticized legal mechanism, known as ISDS, is an important tool for European companies to pressurize developing countries. This year Uganda joins the…

Australia has defended itself against Big Tobacco this time – but no one is safe with ISDS

By Guy Taylor for Global Justice Now. One of the more infamous examples of corporations suing governments was resolved, at least in the short term, last week. The Australian government has successfully defended itself against an Investor State Dispute Settlement…

Soy Business Invades Brazil’s Amazon Jungle

Human Wrongs Watch By Fabiana Frayssinet* BELTERRA, Brazil, December 2015 (IPS) – In the northern Brazilian state of Pará, the construction of a port terminal for shipping soy out of the Amazon region has displaced thousands of small farmers from…

Bangladeshi Garment Workers Speak

Dear readers, I am thrilled to share with you ILRF’s new 100-page report Our Voices, Our Safety: Bangladeshi Garment Workers Speak Out. For a quick glance at the core issues it addresses, check out my short piece on Huffington Post.…

Of Democracy and Climate – Two Lessons from Paris

Human Wrongs Watch By Roberto Savio* Rome, 17 December 2015 In the space of just a few days, two fundamental lessons have come from Paris for the world about democracy and climate. The media have been dealing with them as…

South Africa’s three (3) Finance Ministers in one week

It was a political drama in South Africa last week when President Jacob Zuma announced out of the blue that Mr. David Van Rooyen is the new Minister of Finance, taking over from Minister Nhlanhla Nene. Such an shock and untimely…

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