Afghan Women Call for Democracy and Social Justice

By the end of 2014, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission will be concluded. Even after ten years of the establishment of the Karzai government and the fall of the Taliban, Afghan women continue to be among the worst off in the world. By Nele Rissmann Afghanistan 2012. A young Afghan girl, Zahra is 15 years old. Grown up in the valley of Panjshir -a province about 100 km northeast of Kabul- she was born in a little village to a traditional Pashto speaking Afghan family. Zahra has fond memories of her childhood: she spent her days playing in the fields and swam together with other kids in a pond. At the age of 13 Zahra’s father forced her to marry a 30-year-old man. However, she refused, and as a consequence, Zahra’s life changed dramatically. Her father and brothers...

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The Vuon Case

A Vietnamese farmer caught up in the conflicting forces of environmentalism and political arbitrariness Text and Photography by Lydia Ciesluk A controversial case of self-justice brought the orderly city of Hai Phong located at Vietnam's north-east coast into the headlines in January 2012. Dozens of policemen tried to evict the farmer Doan Van Vuon and his family, whose land had been marked for an airport project. The clan attacked them with homemade land mines and improvised shotguns. Six of the officers executing orders of the Tien Lang district people committee were wounded. Vuon was accused of having destroyed mangroves on his land by building fish ponds. Mangrove trees protect coastlines from erosion and secure the nutritional basis...

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The discussion about Euro 2012 is sweeping the globe: boycott or not to boycott?

By Anna Guzhiy Hougaard The much-debated 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, had suddenly found itself in the center of international attention. While some EU leaders are reserving their position, the members of the European Commission and Council have said they will boycott football matches in Ukraine in protest of human rights violations and corruption in Ukraine. Heads of Britain, France, Germany and Belgium call for a boycott of Euro 2012, but not all European countries have supported the idea of political boycott. Ukraine, which is co-hosting the tournament with Poland, has suffered a deluge of bad publicity in the build up to the tournament, which puts Poland in a difficult dilemma. Poland is against a boycott and calls for a dialogue. Poland’s...

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Brazil’s Environmental Expedition to Africa: A Green Paradox

By Sara de Melo Rocha Image by http://www.strata-africa.com Passport: check! Visa valid for 90 days: check! Invitation to the People’s Summit in Rio+20: check! Mozambican environmental activist and journalist Jeremias Vunjanhe had all of this as he travelled from Maputo to Johannesburg and, finally, to São Paulo, Brazil.  From São Paulo, Vunjanhe expected to take another flight to Rio de Janeiro, to participate in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Instead, he was intercepted by the Brazilian Federal Police and sent back to Mozambique “without explanation”. Last June, Brazil hosted Rio+20. Rio de Janeiro received over 100 heads of state and government representatives, changing the routine of the...

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Chunchi, the town of suicidal kids

The scourge of emigration for those who are left behind By Sara de Melo Rocha    In the remote region of Chimborazo, a central-Andean province of Ecuador, the town of Chunchi has one of the world’s highest suicide rates among kids and teenagers; Chunchi is known as the ‘village of the suicidal children’. In five years, 63 young people ended their lives. Many others tried it unsuccessfully.  The common denominator: all of them grew up without their parents, who emigrated to the United States or Spain. Chunchi, has no more than twelve thousand inhabitants, a decreasing number due to the migration flow to the U.S. or to Spain. Known as “Ecuador’s Andean chair”, Chunchi provides a watercolor landscape due to the red...

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Would the legalization of drugs end the violence in Mexico?

By Virginia Kirst  With over 60,000 dead in Mexico since the beginning of Felipe Calderón´s presidency, the time has come to declare that the war on drugs has failed. This article assesses the debate about the legalization of narcotics in the Americas and alternative approaches to the problem shortly before a new president will take office in Mexico.   Saúl Reyes is a victim of the narcoviolencia – the violence linked to the drug trade – in Mexico. He lost six members of his family: Four siblings, a nephew and his sister-in-law. Reyes is one of the very few Mexicans that have been granted political asylum in the U.S.A. Now he is trying to make sure that nobody in the United States forgets the war that is ravaging in his country: The war on drugs. A lost war against drugs Reyes...

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Germany suffering cardiac arrest: The issue of organ donations

Germany is infamously known to be Europe’s forerunner. That may well be true for trying to manage the Euro-crisis, technological quality products, and a well-doing economy in times of general trouble. But when it comes to the sensitive topic of organ donations, the picture is actually reversed: Germany is struggling with a lack of donations and therefore the World Health Organisation’s criteria of self-sufficiency since years. A current law reform tries to challenge this. But there is more controversy behind the debate than just the question how to approach the people with this sensitive topic. By Frederic van Triel  Around 12.000 seriously ill Germans are on waiting lists for life-saving organ donations, at the moment....

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