UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 2014 (IPS) – When the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reach their deadline in 2015, there will still be a critical setback: millions of people in the developing world without full access to safe drinking water, proper sanitation and electricity in their homes. Conscious of this shortcoming, the 193-member General Assembly hosted a two-day high-level meeting, which concluded Wednesday, to address three thematic issues: water, sanitation and sustainable energy, specifically in the context of the U.N.’s post-2015 development agenda.
Author: WHES
Spending on violence in the United States
Some ten months after a US presidential campaign dominated by economic issues, it was notable that neither candidate nor pundit shed any serious light on the potential economic benefits of a less violent and more peaceful United States.
Half of US farmland being eyed by private equity
WASHINGTON, Feb 19 2014 (IPS) – An estimated 400 million acres of farmland in the United States will likely change hands over the coming two decades as older farmers retire, even as new evidence indicates this land is being strongly pursued by private equity investors.
How much aid is required to end extreme poverty?
You may be looking for a page on the new site of the Canadian International Council (soon to be found at thecic.org), or an archived article that no longer exists.
Minimum-wage hike would reduce poverty, but might cost 500,000 jobs, Congressional Budget Ofice reports
President Obama’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would increase earnings for 16.5 million low-wage Americans but cost the nation about 500,000 jobs, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday.
Crossing borders and changing lives, lured by higher state minimum wages
ONTARIO, Ore. — Carly Lynch dreams of a life one day on the professional rodeo circuit, but for now she commutes 20 miles from Idaho to this small city in eastern Oregon to work as a waitress. There are restaurant jobs closer to home, but she is willing to drive the extra miles for a simple reason: Oregon’s minimum wage is $1.85 higher per hour than Idaho’s.
Obama to propose $1 billion to prepare for climate change in US
FRESNO, Calif. — President Obama said here Friday that he will propose a $1 billion fund in his fiscal 2015 budget to help communities prepare for the effects of climate change and to fund research and technology to protect against its impact.
Hope, and homes, crumbling on many Indian tea plantations
NAHORANI TEA ESTATE, India — For a century and a half, Madhu Munda’s forebears toiled on the same tea plantation that she lives and works on now. Belonging to central Indian tribes brought to what is now the northeastern state of Assam by the British in the mid-19th century, they and millions of other plantation workers survived as little more than indentured servants, even as the British Raj gave way to Indian democracy.
Lawlessness is undoing effort to save Honduran forests
COPÉN, Honduras — Nine men were harvesting mahogany deep in the woods here when Alonso Pineda and his son appeared, carrying shotguns. An arrest warrant hangs over the two for clearing the forest illegally, but on that day they posed as its protectors.
Cuba’s reward for the dutiful: Gated housing
HAVANA — In the splendid neighborhoods of this dilapidated city, old mansions are being upgraded with imported tile. Businessmen go out for sushi and drive home in plush Audis. Now, hoping to keep up, the government is erecting something special for its own: a housing development called Project Granma, featuring hundreds of comfortable apartments in a gated complex set to have its own movie theater and schools.
