Real World Radio
July 25, 2008
20:34
In an open letter sent to Uruguayan authorities, environmentalist organization REDES – Friends of the Earth Uruguay says the conclusion of the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will worsen the global climate, energy and food crisis, it will fail to solve the problem of agriculture markets, to alleviate poverty, to promote development and it will have negative impacts on the people’s access to basic services.
00:05
July 24, 2008
23:59
Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects different populations around the world in different ways. In South Africa, for example, there are situations caused by global warming, as in the rest of the African continent.
Siziwe Khanyile, member of environmental organization GroundWork, Friends of the Earth South Africa, talked about this.
Here are the words of the activist.
23:53
Bolivia may be a small country, but at the current WTO talks, it is making an impression larger than its size. It has voiced opposition to the non-democratic process at the present week of WTO talks, and has informed WTO Director General, Pascal Lamy, that it did not agree with the negotiation and decision-making process.
At the press briefing on 22 July, Mr. Pablo Solon, the Trade Advisor to the Bolivian President, said his country was not seeking to be part of the exclusive Green Room but was objecting to the exclusive Green Rom process itself.
At the WTO's present meetings, the negotiations are taking place in a Green Room' to which 30-40 members are invited. On Wednesday, an even smaller group of 7 members took over the negotiations as even the Green Room was suspended.
23:45
The former Argentine President, Carlos Saul Menem, is not exactly an example to follow in terms of political transparency. In spite of that, the former president did not hesitate to say that Yacyreta binational megadam is a monument of corruption.
In a totally different position, the social organizations that are taking part in the 4th Meeting of the Latin American Network of People Affected by Dams said last night that hydroelectric mega projects have been corrupt.
They also represent an enegy model that leads to involuntary displacement of millions of people and environmental disasters, the Argentine leader Rulo Bregagnolo, of ecologist group Cuña Piru of Misiones province, said.
23:43
The Chilean government is turning a deaf ear on social organizations that oppose hydroelectric projects promoted by Spanish corporation Endesa and Colbun in Aysen region, to the south of the country.
This was exposed by the activists that are participating in the 4th Latin American Meeting of People Affected by Dams, in Lorica, Colombia.
The plan of building dams on the Baker and Pascua rivers aims to benefit big corporations – mainly mining corporations – that operated in Chile, but it will not benefit Aysen, according to the Citizen Coalition for Aysen Life Reserve.
Ricardo Orellana, of environmental organization CODEF, said that in 2005, when the megaproject was first presented, the company executives confirmed that the energy demands aimed to meet were basically the ones of the miners of the north.
July 23, 2008
22:01
After days of discussion in the Indian Congress, the government obtained the MPs support to move forward with a nuclear cooperation deal with the US.
The agreement has led to a crisis in the country since it was proposed four years ago. It caused a strong reaction mainly among the former communist allies of the government of the United Progress Alliance (UPA), who expressed their firm rejection to the nuclear deal with Washington, for considering it would give too much influence to the US on foreign and nuclear policy in India.
The controversial Congress session ended with a 275-256 vote in favor of the agreement. BBC newspaper reported it was an unusual vote, where the whole Congress was “packed with MPs, many of which were taken from hospital and in wheelchairs”, while others were temporary released from prison while serving time for extorsion or murder”.
July 22, 2008
20:48
In December of this year, Uruguay will submit a seismic study of the country’s marine soil to international corporations that exploit gas and oil, so that they begin hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation activities.
This will be the first chapter of what the government calls the “Uruguay Round 2009”, which actually began during the 19th World Petroleum Congress, held in Madrid this month.
During the meeting, Daniel Martínez, Uruguayan Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining introduced the Uruguay Round 2009, saying that the country needed private investments in this “new stage of attracting global actors to oil exploration”, AFP news agency reported.
July 21, 2008
23:14
The group of rich nations that make up the OECD have reached the same conclusion of environmental movements, social networks, peasant and indigenous movements, and some governments of the periphery, that agrofuel expansion has negative consequences.
In fact, the tendency to progressively replace a percentage of oil with agrofuels - made from soy, colza, sunflower, sorgum, corn, etc – is facing growing opposition. Spanish newspaper ABC reports that experts and independent international institutions as well as the international ecology movement have expressed their opposition to agrofuels.
July 17, 2008
22:44
22:39
Environmental and organic farmers’ groups in Uruguay issued a communiqué on Wednesday saying: “The coexistence of GMO and traditional crops endangers the biodiversity due to the high risks of genetic contamination and it definitely enables the entering of those GM varities in Uruguay to benefit the big foreign corporations, increasing the foreignization of land and making the rural residents to move to the cities”.
The communiqué followed a government’s announcement of the end of a moratorium on the authorization of new GM crops and their policy of coexistence between GM and conventional crops.
22:35
It has become evident that, unlike what the European Union has claimed, Association Agreements and Free Trade Agreements promoted by the European bloc with Latin America are not any different from those promoted by the Bush administration.
According to Spanish Secretary of State before the EU, Diego López Garrido, the EU should affirm its expansive foreign policy by taking advantage of the void left by the election atmosphere in the US.
The claim is relevant since Spain will have the EU’s Pro Tempore Presidency when France ends its current term in office, in 2010.
Lopez Garrido said that one of the main challenges for the EU is to handle the Irish vote against the Treaty of Lisbon, though he was positive because “there will be ways to satisfy the Irish”.
July 16, 2008
22:23
22:18
Representatives of different organizations of the Americas and Europe have expressed their support to the requests that will be submitted to the governments of Chile and Peru, expressing their solidarity with the craft fishermen that are in conflict in both countries.
The letter that will be sent to the Chilean government, addressed to President Michelle Bachelet and the Undersecretary for Fisheries, Jorge Chocair, expresses the rejection and concern suffered by craft fishermen as a result of the repression in Chile's 5th region, as well as the imprisonment of leaders Cristian Miranda and Cosme Caracciolo.
22:14
In what can be described as “the mother of all battles”, the Venezuelans have carried out – together with farmers and the government- a plan to solve the food production deficit.
Venezuelan newspaper El Universal reports that the Battle Plan for Food Sovereignty, implemented by the Venezuelan government through the Ministry of Popular Power for Agriculture and Lands (MPPAT), enabled a 38% increase in rice harvest in the current winter season 2007-2008.
The advance in the number of hectares planted with rice this year across the country is of 145,000 more than in 2007, when the crop was harvested in 107,000 heactares.
July 15, 2008
23:38
Uruguay Ends Moratorium on GMO
What months ago was a threat in Uruguay, came true this week. The Council of Ministers decided to put an end on the moratorium to authorizing new GM crops, that had been imposed 18 months ago.
The Minister of Cattle, Agriculture and Fisheries, Ernesto Agazzi, announced the news in a press conference held after the Council. He said there would be a policy of “regulated coexistence in the use of GMO”, Uruguayan newspaper La Diaria reports.
The decision was made without a broad and deep discussion on the issue demanded by the environmental movement, which before the announcement of the “coexistence” were already saying that meant a tacit approval of GMO.
23:28
What months ago was a threat in Uruguay, came true this week. The Council of Ministers decided to put an end on the moratorium to authorizing new GM crops, that had been imposed 18 months ago.
The Minister of Cattle, Agriculture and Fisheries, Ernesto Agazzi, announced the news in a press conference held after the Council. He said there would be a policy of “regulated coexistence in the use of GMO”, Uruguayan newspaper La Diaria reports.
The decision was made without a broad and deep discussion on the issue demanded by the environmental movement, which before the announcement of the “coexistence” were already saying that meant a tacit approval of GMO.
23:26
Thousands of Guatemalans are expressing their rejection to the mining expansion in the country through popular consultations that social organizations are promoting in different parts of the country.
With the consultation carried out on Sunday in Huhuetenango department, there are already 16 municipalities of the norhtern region, near the Mexican border, to carry out consultations.
According to preliminary information dealt with by Ceiba-Friends of the Earth Guatemala, one of the promoters of popular democracy, so far 243 communities have been consulted. The records of 123 of them are already available, and from that it can be inferred that 25,000 people voted against the installation of mining corporations in their territories.
23:24
The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, expressed his criticism to the European Union, in its efforts to reach an association agreement with the Latin American and Caribbean countries. He proposed the European authorities to join the construction of a New Regional and National Financial Architecture that challenges the current global economic system.
In a letter to the Speakers of Parliament, to the European Commissioners, the members of the European Parliament and the Heads of State and Government of the 27 member countries, Correa says that “the conditionality as principle of international cooperation relations is nothing but the reflection of a situation of power, that worsens the assymetries between our countries, and does not answer to friendly and respectful relations, rules and standard of the United Nations Charter, nor to our national and regional rules”.
July 10, 2008
21:52
When the European Commission (EC) began to froze its negotiations of an association agreement with the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) -made up by Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador- in July, the Latin American bloc was showing the first signs of an eventual collapse following Colombia and Peru's will and Belgium's pressure to sign the agreement.
These countries expressed their intention to go on with the negotiations in Brussels, even if they risked losing Bolivia as a member of the bloc, and one of its founders.
In fact, the Bolivian position in terms of intellectual property rights and biodiversity has stopped the association drive of Colombia and Peru with the US.