AFRICA: We Are the Government
By Jessie Boylan
LAGO DISTRICT, Mozambique - As if they were going to the races, Emma Musako and Monica Mhango showed up in their finest outfits to attend a meeting on the health, social and environmental impacts of uranium mining. They came because they, like the other attendees, no longer want to remain uninformed citizens.
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DEVELOPMENT: "Africans Should Become Their Own Philanthropists"
By Christi van der Westhuizen
CAPE TOWN - Africans "should dare to imagine an African world not defined by the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund but one that comes out of Africa". This is necessary for Africans to grow out of dependence and become the agents of their own development.
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Q&A: Put the New Women's Agency in Africa
By Suzanne Hoeksema interviews NAISOLA LIKIMANI, advocacy officer of FEMNET*
UNITED NATIONS - On Sep. 14, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted a resolution that gave the green light to the creation of a new U.N. agency for women.
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RIGHTS-MEXICO: Military Abuses Brought to Inter-American Commission
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY - A case of rights abuses allegedly committed by the Mexican armed forces is coming up for a hearing at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), where it joins a long list of accusations against the army in this Latin American country.
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VENEZUELA: Homophobia Stalks the Streets - in Uniform
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS - One Friday at around midnight, on Villaflor Street, a favourite spot for gays and lesbians in the Venezuelan capital, Yonatan Matheus and Omar Marques noticed two Caracas police patrol vans carrying about 20 detainees, most of them very young.
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PERU: Cuzco Women Stand Up to Violence
By Milagros Salazar
CUZCO, Peru - For tourists and other visitors, Cuzco has a special fascination as the ancient capital of the Inca empire. But social scientists know it as one of the areas in the world with the highest rates of violence against women.
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GUATEMALA: Controversy Dogs New Highway
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY - Construction is expected to begin soon on a new highway across north-central Guatemala, the largest infrastructure project tackled so far by the government of Álvaro Colom.
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LABOUR: Sorting Garbage - Green and Dignified Work
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - More than 1,500 representatives of waste recyclers from 13 countries, and thousands of other visitors, including the host country Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, met last week in São Paulo, demonstrating that they are no longer pariahs in our throw-away society.
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ARGENTINA: 'Drugs Are Killing the Youngsters We're Feeding'
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES - "You often ask yourself why feed them if some wretch is just going to come along and sell them that rubbish," says Isabel Ruiz, who runs the Las Brujas soup kitchen in Moreno, a poor neighbourhood on the west side of the Argentine capital.
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CHILE: Teen Pregnancy, a Problem That Won’t Go Away
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO - Chile currently stands out for its spectacular progress in a number of health indicators, including maternal and child mortality and chronic malnutrition. But these successes obscure an acute social problem that refuses to yield: the steady rise in the number of teenage mothers.
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