Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

BEIJING, Dec 19 2011 (IPS) – In a country which houses 21 of the world’s 100 most polluted cities, outcry over official underplaying of pollution is escalating as residents refuse to take government readings of the problem at face value.
Beijing environmental authorities claim that the capital had already reached its annual ‘blue sky days’ target for 2011, stating that the air quality this year was better than the Olympic year of 2008.

The latest claims have been met with derision online, amid fears among the population that the government is covering up pollution.

On Sunday the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that Beijing has enjoyed 274 days of ‘blue sky’ in 2011.

Beijing has seen an overall decline in the c…

SRINAGAR, India, Feb 14 2012 (IPS) – Drug abuse, known to be widespread among youth in India s northern Kashmir state, is now showing a new trend whereby teenage girls and women are increasingly turning into substance abusers and addicts.

At the police de-addiction centre in Srinagar. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS

That young women and college-going girls are abusing substances, especially toluene, a common thinner, is testified to by officials at the de-addiction centre run by the police control room in Srinagar.

Toluene abuse or glue…

Bari Bates

BRUSSELS, Mar 19 2012 (IPS) – Decades ago, 15 of Europe s wealthiest nations made a promise to allocate .7 percent of their respective gross national products (GNP) to official development assistance. Yet despite a commitment that comprises such a small fraction of a nation s wealth, only a handful of countries are on track to reach this goal by the 2015 deadline.
Among the few leaders who have prioritised this target is Denmark s Prime Minister Helle Thorning- Schmidt, who was recently celebrated by the confederation of European non-governmental organisations known as CONCORD, together with the ONE Campaign, for Denmark s aid commitment to help the world s poorest.

Volunteers and activists donned masks of the Danish Prime Minister s face on Mar. 16, under …

Aline Jenckel interviews SAMUEL KISSI, executive coordinator of Curious Minds, a youth advocacy organisation in Ghana

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 28 2012 (IPS) – With a whopping 40 percent of Ghana s population under the age of 24, the government s ability to foster their development and include them in the country s development are critical to the country s future.

CHIMALTENANGO, Guatemala, Jun 4 2012 (IPS) – Midwives in Guatemala attend to women during pregnancy, the birth and the post-partum period. They give the women warmth and support, because they speak the same language and belong to the same culture, said Silvia Xinico with the Network of Organisations of Indigenous Women for Reproductive Health.

Xinico, a member of the Cakchiquel indigenous community, told IPS that the midwives are treated as part of the family; they give people advice about how to solve their difficulties. They are also called on when there is a health problem in the community.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Jul 19 2012 (IPS) – Pedro Melville, 62, a father of nine from Guyana s northwestern gold and manganese mining district of Matthew’s Ridge, sees the impacts of unchecked prospecting on the local environment every day.

One major problem is contamination of water sources. Melville says some residents who previously depended on river water to drink now dig their own pits or trenches, allow the water to settle, and let the rain replenish it.

The miners don’t care anything about the communities. All they want is what they could get, he told IPS. Hygiene is also a problem, and by that I mean the disposal of human and other waste. That is why we have diseases like malaria and typhoid. The situation is getting out of hand, to tell you the truth.”
Relat…

PARIS, Sep 12 2012 (IPS) – Jean-Pierre Georges Foucault is a former scientist who is used to dealing with fact and evidence. But when a friend became ill and had excruciating pain, he accompanied her to a traditional healer who, with the placing of his hands, managed to effect a reduction in the pain.

“As a scientific person, I don’t necessarily believe in such things, but there are some amazing healing skills that you can’t explain,” he told IPS.

Foucault is currently the honorary chairperson of the National Committee of Public Health and Bioethics of the Grand Orient de France, the largest Masonic organisation in France. This week he has been an observer as experts discuss “traditional medicine and its ethical implications” at the Paris-based United Nations…

Malgorzata Stawecka interviews HAN DEMIN, the superintendent of Beijing Tongren Hospital and recipient of the 2012 South-South Award

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 23 2012 (IPS) – For millions of people in developing countries, having cataracts means permanently impaired vision or even blindness. While treatment can fix the problem, the cost is well beyond most sufferers reach.

Courtesy of Han Demin.

But thanks to a group of Chinese medics, this expensive surgery is now becoming more widely available. Love is borderless this motto guides Dr. Han Demin in his humanitarian efforts to improve the lives of thousands of people around the world.

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A fact-finding team from the International Atomic Energy Agency visits Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in May 2011. Credit: IAEA Imagebank/ CC by 2.0

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 26 2012 (IPS) – For the former industrial engineer Yastel Yamada, retirement does not mean he intends to sit back. Instead, the 73-year-old and about 700 other skilled seniors across Japan are eager to volunteer to tackle the most dangerous part of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant cleanup and spare a younger generation from the effects of extreme radiation.

Yamada and his army of radiation Samaritans are among a growing number of civil society groups across Japan that are taking measu…

Dominica hopes geothermal will take a bite out of its 220-million-dollar a year fuel bill. Credit: Courtesy of Government Information Service (Dominica)

ROSEAU, Jan 22 2013 (IPS) – What a difference a trip makes. Before visiting the French island of Guadeloupe, Alfred Rolle had vocally expressed fears about the possible health effects of a decision to drill geothermal wells in the village of Laduat on the outskirts of Dominica s capital.

Now he is singing a different tune after Dominica s government, which is putting all its proverbial eggs in the geothermal basket, led a delegation over the weekend to the French island to observe the operations of the Bouillant …