The Business of Voluntary Work

By Yasmine Ayari

If it can be shocking to link the words “business” and “voluntary”, it’s still less shocking than the real facts it refers to. I decided to gather these contradictory words together under an oxymoron to reveal the paradox and show the absurdity it implies. In effect, what I mean by “business of voluntary work” is the fact that some so-called organizations (such as Projects Abroad, ProWorld and many others) make volunteers pay a lot more than they should to get the opportunity to intervene abroad.

Projects Abroad is an “international volunteer organization” (but it is a company, not an NGO) which allows people to volunteer for charities around the world, but more particularly in developing countries. The organization makes them pay a certain amount per month in order to cover the food and accommodation fees and for other services such as individual counseling and support during the whole mission, an insurance policy and the transportation from the airport to the project’s place. The price does not include however the transportation fees from the departing country to the arriving country. This can be appealing for people who don’t want to be left to their own devices when they go abroad and find it reassuring to benefit from an individual counseling and support, or who don’t want to organize by themselves their mission, because they don’t have to worry about accommodation and finding an NGO to volunteer.

I myself have already been interested in the volunteering opportunities that Projects Abroad offers, and I’ve even already benefited from this kind of services where you “pay to volunteer”, but through another structure (which is an NGO and where the prices are ten times lower). Indeed, the rates applied by Projects Abroad are really prohibitive, but also very questionable considering the living cost in the countries where they send volunteers. For example, in India, a volunteer must pay from 1500 to 1800 Euros just for one month. To have already been in this country as a volunteer and as an intern, I can testify that it’s way too much for the services provided.

What I find more shocking in these practices is not so much the fact of making profit from people’s gullibility by making them pay huge amounts of money but the fact of generating profits from voluntary work. It also raises the paradox of investing money in these “organizations”, or let’s say companies, rather than in the NGOs which would be more useful for the projects they develop.

Of Mice And Men

The 8th of April or the World Rroma Day
By Adrian Spirchez 

There are nowadays, in Europe, between 12-15 millions Rroma people. They represent the largest ethnic minority of the European Union and the most neglected, by member states and societies, institutions and public opinion, by us. During my internship at Médecins du Monde – Mission Banlieu, I had the chance to meet a lot of Rroma families, of Romanian nationality, that chose to come to France in search of a better life. My job was to accompany the doctors on the field as a translator and a social & sanitary mediator for the Rroma patients that live in the slums located in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis – slums they were built without the permission of the local authorities. The miserable conditions they accept to live in – squalid barracks with no running water and improvised central heating, invaded by parasites and rats made me think, in a rather strange way, of the title and the plot of Steinbeck’s famous short story about the two solitary friends roving together in search of a better life. The 8th of April has been celebrated since 1990 as the International Rroma Day.  

The first World Rroma Congress was held on April 8th, 1971 near London, Great Britain, and funded by the World Council of Churches and the Government of India. The International Romani Union was created during the 2nd Romnai Congress, held in Prague seven years later in 1978.

This year an official announcement encouraged all Rromas to “gather at noon to cast flowers into our nearest river, sea, ocean. Let the spirit of the International Roma Day unite us!” And unity is exactly what is needed during this time of trouble, especially for the members of the European Rroma communities which after the famous Grenoble discourse of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, have been more than once abused by the forces of order – forces as confused as the institutions they are representing, when it comes to tackle the Rroma issue that is the needs and complains of a people who cherishes freedom more than anything. What do Rroma people understand by the virtues of freedom, a topic so much romanticized by artists of all kinds, is another matter, far more tricky which will consequently require far more space than the one allocated here. Let’s just mention that their understanding of freedom translates the need to rather disobey the establish order, either in Romania or in France for example, because culturally and socially they feel, and in many cases they are indeed, discriminated against by the majority. But the irony is that nobody can really say, in Romania or in Europe, if they are excluded because of the way they choose to live their life or if they live the way they do exactly because they are differentiated and thus marginalized. A vicious circle!

The 6th World Water Forum: Time for Solutions

By Morgane Guérot

After a week of conferences, events and discussions, the 6th World Water Forum which took place in Marseilles just ended. Ministerial delegations, experts, NGOs gathered to explain their solutions for water. This forum represents a key step to the resolution of water related problems in the world, from sanitation and access to clean water for all populations, to energy questions, including water resources management in light of climate change and food security[1][2].

"The right to water and sanitation ensures everyone the right to access safe drinking water in sufficient and acceptable quantities, physically accessible and affordable as well as sanitation", stated Corinne Schuster-Wallace[3] during the session organised by WHO on the subject. Unfortunately, this statement is pure utopia at the moment. Since 1990, 1.8 billion people have had access to improved sanitation facilities but 2.5 billion people still lack sanitation. 1.1 billion human beings, or 15% of the world’s population practice open defecation. More than 900 million people lack access to drinking water from improved sources[4].

During the forum, lots of solutions were discussed. If there are different approaches, there is only one objective: the resolution of water related problems.

According to Piers Cross, from the Water and Sanitation for All organisation, one solution is the cooperation between education and the health sector. For some people, the answer to resolve water problems will come from women. "In Africa, the water issue belongs to women: they go to get water and bring it back in a bucket" says Courtès Ketcha, mayor of Bangangté, Cameroon. Experts and high-level female political officials supported this idea by providing concrete answers based on real-world contexts. Education appeared to be the main

---

[1] http://www.worldwaterforum6.org

[2] It was a preparatory step for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development Rio +20, which will be held from 20th to 22nd June 2012.

[3] Programme Officer for Water Nexus Health

[4] Source: Unicef, http://volunteers.unicefusa.org/assets/pdf/unicef-usf-intro-notes.pdf

Sex-Selective Abortions Lead China and India to Gender Imbalance

By Kseniya Kotlyarova

During the past few decades the number of newborn boys has largely overcome the number of newborn girls in many Asian countries. This fact is largely due to the practice of sex-selective abortion. Scientists estimate the normal male to female sex ratio at birth to be 105 to 100, however, it can vary up to 104 and 106, which is still considered to be normal.  Higher imbalance in the birth range is considered to be unnatural.

According to U.N. statistics, China counts 120 boys born for every 100 girls. Many Chinese towns are over the 150 mark. This means that in the next 20 years the gender balance will exceed by 10 to 20 percent. A similar trend can be traced in India, where 108 boys are born for every 100 girls. Other statistical sources state that nowadays India has 112 boys born for every 100 girls. Comparing these numbers to those of other Asian countries, we discover that in Vietnam the ratio is of 110 to 100. In South Korea the sex ratio at birth is regaining its balance, but the number of newborn boys still exceeds the number of girls. This situation is equally common for some parts of western Asia and Caucasian countries, where the gender imbalance is related to religious and cultural factors. Taking into account the fact that China and India are the most densely populated countries in the world, we arrive at the conclusion that their gender imbalances tilt the whole world gender ratio to an unnatural level – 107. Since the late 1970s, 163 million female babies have been aborted on a sex-selection basis.

The reason for this biologically impossible ratio cannot solely be blamed on the preference for boys in more traditional Asian societies. It is also due to the misuse of ultrasound technology for fetal sex recognition and the sex-selective abortions that follow that stand behind the gender disproportion. Introduction of sonogram technology made the birth-sex ratio reach the mark of 130:100 in some parts of China in 1992. In Northern India the gender disparity grew up to 125:100. Originally, the decision in favor of sex-selective abortions was predominantly made by those at the top of the socio-economic ladder who were able to afford early access to ultrasound technology. Later on, this behaviour became common in other social strata in developing countries. China’s birth control policy is often blamed as a key factor motivating women to have abortions in order to increase opportunities for having boys. But the reality is that the One-Child Policy is not the main reason for the gender imbalance. For example, India, a country without such a policy, faces the problem of sex-selective abortions at the same scale. In both countries people continue trying to ensure that their second or third baby is a boy if their first or second is a girl.

Evidently, the high gender disparity leads to social concerns in the long term. If we take a deeper look into the problem, we will see that choosing boys over girls and the consequent overabundance of men causes a whole range of social problems. Experts believe that the excess of men having difficulties getting married leads to an increase of violence and crime. Single men may become psychologically vulnerable. Generally, they accumulate in the lower social classes where the crime rate is already rather high. Chinese provinces with particularly high indices of gender disparities prove to demonstrate a high crime level. An imbalanced sex ratio is equally a predictor of violence and crime in India.

According to economists, the gender imbalance will also influence China and India’s economic growth. The preference for boys may have an impact on families’ consumption patterns and bolster some industries such as the property market in China. Families with sons tend to have a higher savings rate than families with daughters. Families with sons need to save up to secure brides for their sons, and so they feel it necessary to buy a house, in spite of the high housing prices.

Today the Indian and Chinese governments are undertaking measures aimed at reducing the gender imbalance. The banning of fetal sex determination is one of these steps. Still, recovery of the natural gender balance requires a great deal of time. The traditional preference for boys is still rather strong in Asian countries, and the most efficient way to overcome it is by strengthening education to reduce the deeply rooted cultural preference for boys.

A positive shift can already be seen in South Korea, a country with a strong patriarchal tradition. This represents a promising sign for other Asian countries. And still, although attitudes toward sex-selective abortions have been recently evolving, the high gender disparity created in the 1990s is believed to have caused around a two-decades long gender imbalance in China and India. According to expert analysis, people in these countries will have to wait for several decades to regain a natural gender ratio.

Severe weather: Tornadoes cripple the Southern and Midwestern United States

By Lucile Hoarau

As we have all seen in the news, states throughout Southern and Midwestern United States have been affected by deadly tornadoes over the last few days. State emergency management officials in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee have reported tornadoes in several areas. The massive outbreak began on March 2nd and extended into the next day, affecting about 17 million people from Indiana to Georgia. Thirty-nine were killed: twenty in Kentucky, fourteen in Indiana, three in Ohio and one each in Alabama and Georgia.

The center of West Liberty, Kentucky, was transformed into a ghost town after a tornado struck at 6:45 Friday night and continued overnight on March 2nd. The tornado ripped through buildings and flipped police cars along Main Street.

"There ain't nothing left of this town. It's just a tragedy," resident David Wilson said.

Kentucky’s governor declared it looked like a bomb that hit downtown West Liberty.  The tornado left a trail, 120 mph winds took down buildings, crashed cars, and torn off trees. Five people died in West Liberty, Kentucky. The police said the tornado left a disaster scene so dangerous they had to close off access to downtown.

One of the hardest hit towns is Henryville, Indiana where a baby girl is reported in critical condition after being found alone in a field near her home.  Hospital officials said her entire family, mother, father, brother and sister were all killed in the storm. Most residents lost everything they owned in the storm. “We have worked all our lives to have what we have, and it is all gone in 15 seconds”.

President Barack Obama offered his condolences and federal assistance if needed to the governors of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

Why so many tornadoes?

According to a few weather consultants and meteorologists, large amounts of warm air are responsible for the formation of tornadoes and then a powerful jet-stream splitting, one part of the jet-stream is going to the north, another one is going to the south, and in between that split, there is an incredible amount of air raising in the atmosphere and that can lead to some very large storms. 

How should the U.S. government respond to the severe weather and what can be done after this week’s tornadoes?

The administration, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is closely monitoring the storms and their impacts. FEMA has teams on the ground in hard hit areas like in Henryville, Indiana and is prepared to deploy additional teams and resources, if needed by the states. Teams have to identify the damages and to help the governor of each state and the leaders of each county to determine if additional federal support will be required.

FEMA maintains commodities, including millions of liters of water, millions of meals and hundreds of thousands of blankets located at distribution centers.  FEMA is also able to bring in thousands of mobile homes (trailers) where those without housing can stay while the towns rebuild.  The U.S. government in partnership with state and local officials will pay for the clean-up and rebuilding efforts.

An Incident Management Assistance Team and eleven community relations teams have also been deployed to Indiana to assist with situational awareness following the storms and to support the state as requested.

A national Incident Support Base has been established in Kentucky to stage commodities in strategic locations close to the impacted areas, if needed and requested by the state. More than 98,000 meals and 146,000 liters of water are sent to the Incident Support Base.

Local governments and voluntary agencies, such as the American Red Cross and Salvation Army, are providing shelter to disaster survivors who have been displaced from the storms. They have also set up a way people can donate money to help the families impacted by the storms.

New Index Measures Women’s Empowerment through Agricultural Practices

By India Meshack

Photo credit adapted from "Ngurumo Village-Takira (Kenya),"courtesy of 
Flickr user CGIAR Climate

In a big move towards the further mainstreaming of the global women’s empowerment movement, the United States government’s Feed the Future Initiative (IFPRI), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and Oxford University’s Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) teamed up to create the recently launched Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, a new index which measures women’s empowerment in developing countries by evaluating their level of involvement in agricultural practices. The index is a response to research establishing a link between a woman’s involvement in agricultural practices and her level of emancipation in other areas of daily life. According to Sara Immenschuh of the IFPRI, who took part in the development of the index, “’Agriculture is the most effective way to drive inclusive economic growth of the poorest communities’, which too often include women and children.” The index assesses five criteria, amongst them: degree of engagement in decision-making about agricultural production, level of access to resources and level of involvement in resource-related decision-making; extent of control over use of income; ability to have a leadership role in the community; and use of time.

In 2011 pilot programs were launched in Bangladesh, Guatemala and Uganda, with results—the extent to which women were deemed empowered—based on how they fared in relation to the five criteria. A woman who scores a 4 out of the 5 is deemed empowered. According to the IFPRI, although they make up 43 percent of the agricultural labor force, women in developing countries own less land, are limited in their ability to hire farm workers and have less access to credit. In Immenschuh’s opinion, “Without addressing those inequities, women will be unable to effectively contribute to reducing global poverty and hunger.” IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Agnes Quisumbing adds, “We want to improve gender parity not by disempowering men but by bringing women up to the level of men.” This index is certainly a step in the right direction towards achieving that goal.

Source: http://gantdaily.com/2012/02/28/measuring-womens-empowerment-in-agriculture/

The Ambivalence Of Internet In Human Trafficking

By Jeremy Frerelopez

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Those activities had been facilitated by the introduction of the internet in our society. By different means, it is used by traffickers to extend their networks. It is a tool, like any technology, that definitely helps human traffickers.

However, on the other hand, even if the internet is increasingly used for crime, it also contributes to help states and human rights organisations to fight against human trafficking by giving them new instruments to respond. Internet is definitely a Double-Edged Sword.  It offers new opportunities to traffickers to extend their influence. However it also provides to the global anti-trafficking community new ways to investigate, to fight, to cooperate and to prosecute trafficking.

It is obvious that traffickers take advantage from globalization. They are clearly benefiting in their criminal activities from advances in new technologies, especially the internet, which makes it more profitable, faster, easier to conduct and organize all kinds of transactions. Internet is certainly the most powerful weapon and useful tool for them. Internet, by contrast to the old school methods, enables criminals to distance themselves more efficiently and easily from the crime they commit. Emails, for instance, can be routed through different countries and different time zones. It is easy to create an email box in a cyber coffee, with false names and change every day. It is also easy to create a web site hosted in another country than the traffickers. Internet is used as well in order to exploit victims, particularly for sexual exploitation. It is used as a commercial tool in order to generate profit by selling pornographic images or services. Traffickers in this particular case are using chat rooms, websites, newsgroups, File Transfer Protocol, Peer to Peer networks (transmissions are not logged or traceable), bulletin boards or web message (spams etc...). For instance, the UNODC revealed that in 2000, Japanese women were trafficked in Hawaii for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Nevertheless, new technologies and, particularly this very one, have influenced the fight against human trafficking lately. The Convention on Cybercrime has been crucial for that issue: it was signed in November 2001 and came into force in July 2004. Its purpose was not just to fight human trafficking, but it was part of it and especially because of its link with the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. It mainly focuses on child pornography as far as human traffic is concerned. It is actually the first international treaty on crime that took effect on the internet. Traffickers can use internet to communicate information to each other very easily and rapidly so that the mainly concerned countries can investigate and arrest traffickers but also help victims. In addition, a European program named “SAFER INTERNET PLUS” has been created in order to prohibit abusive contents. It is the case for well-known and very often used websites such as “Youtube”, “Facebook”, “Myspace” or many others. When entering or trying to upload a video, users are told that any hateful or sexual content will be deleted or reported. This can be very dissuasive. However, we can wonder what the limit between abusive and non-abusive is.

In conclusion, Internet has positive and negative effects. It increases human trafficking by helping traffickers to coordinate their actions, to seek victims, to exploit them or to ensure their transactions. But, at the same time, it erases boarders between states in the fight against cybercrime, it allows information to be easily and quickly located, it provides new traps, it increases prevention tools and helps people sharing information.

The only solution for the fighters of human trafficking is to cooperate, and to hire competent people, able to think like traffickers.The fight in the field of human trafficking, between traffickers and states and NGOs is definitely affected by the technological power of each actor. The fight against human trafficking would lead to a more secure world only if anti-traffickers develop new forms of technologies, able to stop the escalation of human traffick.

Rainy Season Caused Floods In Bolivia

By Mercedes Aguerre

Bolivia’s rainy season is causing great havoc in many regions of the country. The burst of the Acre River have caused floods and also landslides affecting around 11.458 families and leaving five deaths in La Paz when a minibus fell into a raging river in the south of the city after a bridge collapsed.

The most affected municipality was Cobija, located about 600 km north of La Paz in the Amazon Basin on the border of Brazil and Peru. On this matter, the State authority indicated that a Coordination Plan is going to be executed with the help of the national government, the departmental government and the municipal one in order to reconstruct Cobija. It has also been considered to incorporate of a new drain system.

Man trying to catch dead animals after the floods (Reuters)

Morales Government has declared a state of emergency in five of the nine Bolivians departments allowing local authorities to have access to satisfy the needs of the victims of natural disasters.

So far, the Ministry of Defense delivered 160 tons of humanitarian aid to the affected families, including 115 tents, 500 mattresses, 106 kg of flour, 40 kg of sugar and rice, 87 sacks of noodles, 500 unities of water and 34 boxes of oil to distribute between the nine accommodations established to shelter the victims of the floods. Three water purification stations were also delivered on Friday by a C-130 Hercules Aircraft to counteract the diseases which threaten the health of the affected families as consequences of the consumption of contaminated water.

By the end of this week, Civil Defense carried out a report which quantified the damage caused by La Niña ocean-atmosphere phenomenon from December 2011 to February 2012. So far, 107 municipalities and 912 houses have been affected and nine persons were found dead.

How Planting Mangroves Can Mitigate Disasters Caused By Natural Hazard And Yield Profits In Viet Nam

By Soraya Prudent

"Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyze and reduce the causal factors of disasters. Reducing exposure to hazards, lessening vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improving preparedness for adverse events are all examples of disaster risk reduction" (UNISDR - United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction).

Pacific Asia is one of the region hardest-hit by natural hazards and disasters. With its peculiar

geography, Vietnam is extremely vulnerable to natural hazards. Indeed, its coastline is subjected to typhoons, its mountainous terrain is hit alternately by floods and drought and its wide river deltas are particularly predisposed to flooding.

The impacts of these hazards are unpredictable; they can create extreme environments for unprepared populations and lead them to an extreme state of vulnerability.

In order to prevent such a dire situation, DRR programs are established by NGOs, local organizations and governments. These programs are mainly focused on prevention and preparedness. They consist in training local population to adopt the right behavior, gestures, etc. in front of the hazard. It will help them to know what to do during the crisis

and how to manage it before it happens and after.

However, for several years, these organizations have been trying to combine environmental and economic aspects to the projects they are developing. In Vietnam, the environmental aspect focused on mangroves.

For instance, in 1994, the Vietnamese Red Cross initiated a “Mangrove Forest Project Implementation”. This project, financed by the Danish Red Cross, aimed at helping preventing disasters by restoring natural barriers and ecosystems and at reducing poverty for the inhabitants by creating income generating activities.

Mangrove

Mangrove forests have various benefits for people in tropical and subtropical coastline ecosystems. Indeed, the massive root systems of mangrove forests mitigate the effect of strong surge storms on low-lying coastal communities by decreasing wave and wind velocity. According to the United Nations, “mangroves can absorb 70-90% of the energy of a normal wave.” The forests also can store carbon dioxide and aid in erosion control.

Moreover, mangroves capture rich sediments in their roots and also attract a variety of species (shrimp, lobster, oysters) which can be harvested, sold and eaten by local populations.

So, since the start of the project, a “green wall” of nearly 9000 acres of mangrove has been replanted in about 166 local authorities. In Dai Hop local authority (North), the mangrove offers a profit between 4 and 5 billion Dongs (approximately between 146 100 and 183 000 euros). Not to mention that, according to statistics, the « green wall » will absorb at least 16 million tons of CO2, between now and 2015.

In 2010, another partnership was born between the Vietnamese, the Danish and the Japanese Red Crosses, in order to extend the mangrove nursery to ten other districts. At the same time, CARE France also launched a project of Disaster Risk Reduction which includes a mangrove tree nursery.

We can only be pleased about these initiatives which lead to the man-made reestablishment of natural resources. It certainly proves one thing: man can learn from his/her mistakes and it's not too late to action action and try to fix them.

Pumalín: A Wild Kingdom In Patagonia

By Astrid Vachette

Douglas Tompkins, a successful businessman, founded Esprit and The North Face, two clothing lines.  His wife made her fortune thanks to a popular clothing line in Patagonia.  Both having deep roots in the outdoor clothing and equipment, and because they felt guilty by of buying useless things with all their generated profits, they decided to invest their money to protect biodiversity. Thus in the 1990’s they purchased thousands of hectares in Patagonia cutting Chile by half and giving rise to the Pumalín Park.

The 300 000 hectares are home to the selva valdiviana (a deep humid forest), inaccessible mountains, fjords, volcanoes, lakes, rivers and animals which have disappeared everywhere else on earth.  This area makes up one of the richest natural wildlife reserve of the world.  The Pumalín foundation employs 185 people in Chile, mainly botanists, farmers, mechanics and activists, but not only.  Indeed, this huge private natural reserve is a test of reasoned agriculture and “slow living”: the organic attitude. 

However, the ecological philanthropy of the couple has aroused controversy. Pumalín Park is indeed dividing public opinion between those in favour of a radical protection of the environment and those supporting the local economic growth and development.

Pumalín National Park

The Tompkins’ project is to create a life reserve for the planet and not a tank of natural resources that the country could use to encourage its growth. Transportation between the north and south of the park is greatly constrained for the general public to a single ferry route, which is leading local government authorities and the general public to request a road system connecting north and south along with power generating hydroelectric wires. The local population views Tompkins’ reserve and ecological worries as a brake on growth and development.

Many voices have been rising against Tompkins who is seen as taking profit of a poor country, just as Benetton brothers or Ted Turner did in the past years. After all Tompkins used to be a capitalist boasting the three top competing companies for outdoor enthusiasts.

In spite of his promises to turn over his natural reserves to government authorities as soon as it will be sustainable, Tompkins is still seen as a “gringo cabrón” – a bloody foreigner.

This is not the first occurrence of private or commercial efforts to protect Mother Nature.  While the efforts which are more or less moral present major contradictions to essential growth of the local population, the number of protected areas increases, especially in developing countries and above all in Africa.  For instance, in many African countries, local populations are forbidden to hunt, practice cultural rituals or even walk through the lands which are the only place they have lived for thousands of years.

Nowadays, it is easy for developed countries to worry about environmental impact after much of the northern hemisphere improved through the industrial revolution and thereafter urban explosions of those last two centuries. On the contrary is it ethical to stop the developing countries which are in great need of using their own land to reach and sustain economic growth?

If all the developing countries were to utilize as much fossil energies, lands and inconsideration for nature, it would be a disaster, and maybe sooner than we think. However everything is about means and measures, and exploiting the population, their own land and their own resources is above the limits of human consideration, even more when no real substantial efforts are made on the territories of developed countries.

Tom Clancy, a world renowned fiction writer, illustrates in his ever-popular novel Rainbow Six what dangers are generated by putting the environment and animals above human being.

Leonardo da Vinci once said: "The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men”.  It is sad that the current human populations of this planet have to wake up to the harsh reality of how right he was. Let’s just hope that looking at the murder of animals will never make us blind to the murder of men.

Ecuadorian Government Ambivalent About Oil Use

By Anne-Cécile Lautridou

In 2007, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa made a revolutionary proposition to the UNO, known as the Yasuni ITT (Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha) Project. This proposition’s aim was to forego oil extraction and to renounce to the 20 % of oil reserves in the country. In order to reach this goal, Correa asked to other nations to assist in financing the preservation of the environment, which includes the reduction of carbone emissions and the greenhouse effect.

At the national level, this project would help to protect the population living in Yasuni National Park, which is registered by the UNESCO as one of the most bio-divers in the world. Moreover, the money paid by the other countries will benefit the Ecuadorian social security system and contribute to reduction of poverty in the country. At international level, if the project succeeded, it would represent a huge achievement for environmental protection.

José Gualinga, Sarayaku President is blowing Horn
Photo by Andrew Miller/Amazon Watch

Unfortunately, in Ecuador’s Amazonian forests, aboriginal communities do not have the same advantage of receiving governmental protection. The Kichwa community of Sarayaku fight peacefully against oil companies for the settlement of their land for more than 25 years. In 2002, 400 workers and 600 soldiers illegally invaded and began exploiting their land. Some workers were kidnapped by Sarayaku’s women and these women took the weapons of the soldiers. Thanks to the determination of The Sarayaku people, oil companies gave up and went from their land. In 2005, the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights required that Ecuadorian government removed explosives that workers leaved from the Sarayaku’s territory. However in October 2011, a new exploitative proposition emerged from the government. This proposition includes Sarayaku’s territory as well as aboriginal territories in the Amazon forest, which comprises a landmass of between 4 and 5 million hectares. This exploitation would lead to environmental and socio-economical disasters. Sarayaku’s inhabitants know it will be a long way until oil companies and Ecuadorian government renounce to oil prospection. But they have trust in the future, because, they know this fight is fair. As explained by José Gualinga, the president of the community, “we have already won, because what we do is fair”.

We must question the reasoning behind this level of ambivalence from Correa’s government and demand that projects like Yasuni ITT be available for all communities. Sarayku’s people peace resistance is an exemplary fight. Maybe it should be also a way for us to think about our way of living and to question our unrestrained consumption.

"Why was it OK to intervene in Libya then, but not in Syria now?"

By Marion Grouès

Paul Vallely, from The Independant: Why the West pussyfoots around Assad

Talk of the "complexity and nuances" of the Syrian case has led to political paralysis, and will do nothing to help the city of Homs […] The Independent, Sunday February 2012, 26th

This "stupid" question is at the heart of British writer Paul Vallely's refection. Oil is not the only reason behind the different reactions of the international community. Compared to Bachar el Assad, Gaddafi was an easy target, regretted by none.

Syria, however, has more power on the international scene. Chemically armed and holding a consequent army, this small country has powerful allies who have little sticks. Today, due to fear, both China and Russia reaffirm their support for Syria's dictatorial regime and oppose their veto to any UN resolution. They hide a past they are not proud of, Chechnya for Russia, Tibet for China.

Syria is Russia's last ally in the Middle East and their last opening in the Mediterranean. Russia's direct investments in Syria flourish. Soviet power is selling a huge amount of weapons to this small country. For Iran, Syria, which is governed by a Shia, is a key ally in the fight against Israel.

Westerners are paralyzed by the situation. Traditionally allied with the Sunnis (the Gulf to Egypt) they are also afraid that al-Qaeda (a Sunni organization) will take advantage of the situation and come to power. Moreover, Syrian opposition is weak and divided. The Syrian National Council is not very representative of its population's diversity, which is composed of intellectuals, Islamists and activists. Their propositions wobble between negotiation and foreign intervention.

The international community does not want to commit the same mistakes they made in Afghanistan, arming rebels to promote the emergence of the Taliban movement. Furthermore, the United Nations faced the matter on the front lines which appears not to be clear enough. The establishment of a “no fly zone,” as was done in Lybia, is thus very complicated. The repression is pursued by highly experienced, nasty forces that are extremely difficult to fight.

The international community is not ready to intervene but when will they be? For the people of Homs it is already too late. This reaction has occurred the same way several times, in Rwanda and in Srebrenica.

Don't forget that we have the privilege of choosing where we live or die, the people of Homs do not.