Generational Poverty among Black Lower Classes in Suriname: Unraveled or Begging for More Questions?

Posted on | januari 27, 2012 | No Comments

This is the Third post in a Series on Poverty of Blacks in Suriname and the rest of The Caribbean; This post deals with Gender and Black Leadership, and the notion that progress of Blacks is typically impeded by Colonialism, Imperalist Forces and Capitalism. The case of Suriname offers a more nuanced view, demonstrating the fallacies of both the colonial system and the political system created by Black politicians.

The absence of program to eradicate poverty can be attributed to dogmatic liberal non-interventionist viewpoints harbored by a majority of Dutch politicians dealing with Suriname. Noteworthy is that during that specific era several private citizens and syndicates received money to conduct feasibility studies on mining, forestry and mechanical rice agriculture.
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Category: human rights, Latin America, minorities, Netherlands
Tags: African > Afro > Blacks > Creoolse > disempowerment > Dutch > Indigenous > Marroons > NOTE > NVB > PBS > poverty > Suriname > unemployment > Welfare Plan > women

Liberia: Low-income households to benefit from electricity connections

Posted on | januari 27, 2012 | No Comments

The World Bank, acting as administrator for the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), has approved a grant of US$10 million to connect about 80,000 people to Monrovia’s electricity grid, raising the electricity access rate in Liberia’s capital from 0.6 percent to 8 percent.

This was contained in a press release by the World Bank, GPOBA funding will supplement capital allocations from various donors to install connections, initially targeting 21 priority low-income neighborhoods. The scheme will be implemented by the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), the sole power company in the country.
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Category: energy, Sub-Saharan Africa
Tags: AFREA > electricity > GPOBA > LEC > LESEP > Liberia > Liberia Electricity Corporation > low-income households > Ohene Nyanin > renewable energy > World Bank

Israel steps up its persecution of Palestinian lawmakers

Posted on | januari 27, 2012 | No Comments

Palestinian Legislative Council (Al-Majlis al-Tashrī`iyy al-Filasṭīniyy)

Israel has intensified its persecution of members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Israel forces arrested PLC Speaker Mr. Aziz Dweik at Jaba checkpoint, near Ramallah on 19 January. His arrest came five days after the Geneva based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) discussed the situation of PLC members in Israeli jails. PLC members visited the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians in Geneva to clarify the situation of the Palestinian lawmakers. I reported on the visit for The Electronic Intifada.
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Category: crime, human rights, Middle East
Tags: Abdelwahad Radi > Dweik > ICRC > IPU > Israel > Israeli > Palestinian Legislative Council > PCHR > PLC > Ramallah > Red Cross

Bangladesh unveils cyber watchdog to check crimes

Posted on | januari 27, 2012 | No Comments

Campaign: Free Internet

Bangladesh in the wake of last week use of social media by key conspirators botched Islamic coup, the authority unveiled on Friday a new cyber watchdog.

Bangladesh Computer Security Incident Response Team (BD-CSIPT) began its operation with an objective to secure the country’s information and communication traffic.

The abortive coup by Islamic radicals planned to overthrow the democratically elected pro-secular government led by Shiekh Hasina. The conspirators used social medial like Facebook and blogs to ventilate their Islamic agenda with their disgruntled collaborators in the army and used smart phones to stay connected.
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Category: media, South Asia
Tags: Bangladesh > BD-CSIPT > Computer > cyber > Shiekh Hasina > Telecommunication > watchdog > Zia Ahmed

Need to Rewrite the Mountain Perspective!

Posted on | januari 27, 2012 | No Comments

Expert Speaker

Tagged as fragile, remote and marginal, these three aspects have featured prominently in discussions and deliberations concerning development in the mountains in our part of the world. Retired but active academician N S Jodha, a former senior staff with the Kathmandu-based Integrated Center for International Mountain Development, has been credited for using these three features to define, what in popular parlance is called, ‘the mountain perspective’.

Ever since it was proposed over two decades ago, ‘the mountain perspective’ has been the leitmotif of most research/development on mountain issues in the region. One of the reasons for it (the mountain perspective) not to be contested had to do with the three features being ‘obvious’ in the mountain context. Since replacing these `three words’ by searching from the thesaurus would have not added any spice, the mountain fraternity did not see any reason in dabbling with it.
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