Greece is often the first stopping-off point for illegal immigrants heading to Europe from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
In a bid to crack down on those involved, the Greek government this week destroyed a camp for Afghan migrants in the western port of Patras. Barnaby Phillips reports from Greece.
People & Power investigates how mining operations displace tribes from the East Indian state of Orissa and reports on how after a lonely struggle, the world finally took notice of the plight of the Khondh, one of the most remote tribes on the subcontinent.
The pristine Niyamgiri hills in Orissa, India, are the ancestral home of thousands of tribal people.
The Kondh tribe lead a self-sufficient life nurturing the forest-covered region and relying on it for their food, drink and medicines. They also worship the mountain as their god.
Vedanta Resources plc, a British mining company, is about to start building an open-pit mine for bauxite (a raw form of aluminum) in the area. Official reports have suggested the mine will lead to massive deforestation, threaten key water sources and destroy local ecosystems, home to endangered animals such as the tiger, leopard and elephant.
ActionAid believes that companies can be a force for good in developing countries, but too often they put profits before people and the environment. We are asking that this project be stopped before irreversible damage is done. More from Action Aid:
An elder of a threatened tribal community, Kumuti Majhi (55) of the Khondh, will join ActionAid and other campaigners today outside the AGM of British mining company, Vedanta Resources.
Kumuti Majhi is in the UK to protest at Vedanta’s plans to open a massive open-cast bauxite mine that will destroy a large part of Niyamgiri Mountain in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, the Kondh’s ancestral homeland. The bauxite will be processed into aluminum by a Vedanta subsidiary, Sterlite.
The 8,000-strong Kondh tribe, are strongly opposed to the mine, fearing it will destroy their way of life forever. The Kondh regard Niyamgiri Mountain and its surrounding forest as sacred and home to their god, Niyam Raja.
Kumuti Majhi explained that the Kondh are totally dependent on the mountain for their crops, water and livelihoods. He said: “From the beginning we have opposed mining. Niyamgiri is a god for us. It is also the source of our food, our water, our survival.
“Last year I was here and requested Vedanta directors not to mine our area. This year I am here to request all the shareholders to save our livelihood and save our god.”
Whist Vedanta has brought tribal people to the AGM, Kumuti Majhi said that although they were entitled to their opinion, they were in the minority.
ActionAid, which is supporting Kumuti Majhi’s action asking shareholders to oppose the mining, pointed out that the destruction of an equivalent sacred site would not be tolerated in the UK.
Dr Julian Oram, ActionAid’s head of Trade and Corporates said:
“Vedanta shareholders today have a chance to help stop the destruction of the Kondh people’s ancestral home.
“Just as British investors would be horrified to see St Paul’s demolished to make way for mining, we believe they should be equally troubled by Vedanta’s plans to blast the Kondh’s sacred mountain.”
General Stanley McChrystal, the new US commander in Afghanistan, has told his troops that their success will be measured in terms of Afghan lives saved, as opposed to Taliban fighters killed.
As the country prepares for next month’s elections, Al Jazeera’s Clayton Swisher spent two weeks embedded with the US army’s Charlie Company 1-32 in Kunar province.
Nearly 2% of American children have one or both parents serve time in prison at some point during their childhood. An extraordinary project called the Storybook Project is helping bringing imprisoned parents and their children together, through the magic of storytelling.
Women’s Storybook Project of Texas is a volunteer program that started in Austin, Texas in 2003 and targets the children of women who are imprisoned at Gatesville prisons. Statistics show that one out of every five children of incarcerated parents also ends up in prison. This project strives to change this statistic by developing strong relationships between mothers and their children.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped up the pressure on Iran on Wednesday, reminding that country’s leaders that they have only a limited amount of time to accept the United States offer to begin face-to-face talks.
Iran has so far refused to discuss or scale back its nuclear capabilities. Many experts believe Iran is several years away from being able to build a bomb, but a German news magazine quotes intelligence sources as saying there is evidence Iran could have a nuclear bomb within six months.
Reginald Dale, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the U.S. position and the likelihood that Iran will respond to Clinton’s call.
Inside Story discusses reports claiming that Dick Cheney, the former US vice president, withheld details of a secret CIA plan from Congress for 8 years. What did the plan entail? Inside Story looks at the allegations – and whether Cheney broke the law.
I have largely covered this story over at MyDD. While I understand that there were significant operational and legal hurdles in setting up the program, I fail to understand why the Vice President would seek to conceal the program.
Once considered the green lungs of Asia, Borneo now provides a lucrative home for palm oil growers and timber corporations.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of environmental destruction in Borneo is faster than in the Amazon.
In the second of a three-part series, Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley investigates the role of politics in the growth of palm oil plantations and timber concessions.
From Mongabay an interview with Hardi Baktiantoro, Director of the Center for Orangutan Protection (COP), who has mounted a guerrilla-style campaign against companies that are destroying orangutan habitat in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. To learn more about COP and make a tax-deductible donation for their work, please visit the Orangutan Outreach website: Orangutan Outreach. Orang means “man” and Utan means “of the forest” in Bahasa Malay.
Mongabay: Why did you start COP?
Hardi Baktiantoro: I was working at BOS rescue center in Central Kalimantan. In 2006 we rescued 265 orangutans, which could represent 1500 orangutans killed in the field.
It’s like an endless rescue. It’s useless. If we want to help the orangutan we have to deal with the root of the problem — destruction of their habitat.
I decided to quit BOS and start against the companies directly. In March 2007 me and several of my friends founded the Center for Orangutan Protection.
Mongabay: And what is your objective?
Hardi Baktiantoro: The objective is to save the last remaining forests for orangutans. We have to stop all of the destruction. The best way to protect the orangutan is to protect their habitat.
Mongabay: What is your approach?
Hardi Baktiantoro: We tell people the truth from the field using video and photos. I am a former photographer and I think pictures are the best way to tell people. We gather evidence from the field and send it to the media.
Mongabay: So the palm oil companies don’t like you much.
Hardi Baktiantoro: Of course. We don’t make the palm oil companies happy. They track me. I’ve had to hide my family, my phones have been tapped, and last year the COP web site was hacked.
Some of the big international conservation organizations are also not happy with my group because they just want to make things look good — like the government.
Mongabay: So greenwashing by NGOs — working with corporations without really changing things for the better — is a problem?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Yes there is a lot of greenwashing. It makes the company look clean.
Mongabay: After you’ve done a campaign have any companies been fined or changed their behavior?
Hardi Baktiantoro: We have several victories. Several companies stopped their illegal activities and stepped back from the forest, saving thousands of orangutans.
But I don’t think there are any permanent victories. Companies don’t want to lose their money and when the focus is off them they will resume their activities.
It’s a battle all the time with them.
Mongabay: How do you stop deforestation before it happens?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Usually we get information from our field staff, local people, the media, and informants that a company is starting to clear an area. We send our team out to document the evidence — whether it is orangutan habitat or primary forest. We make the documentation and then publish it.
Mongabay: And you use technology like GPS and Google Earth to document it?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Of course. It’s a very technical investigation.
We use Google Earth — the ordinary version — to show before and after. It is very helpful.
Mongabay: What are your thoughts on RSPO? Do you think it will ever work?
Hardi Baktiantoro: I think RSPO is just a shield for organized crime. RSPO has criteria but members still cut down the forest and kill the orangutan. For example in November 2007 during the RSPO meeting the IOI Group was still clearing the forest. So it’s like a big joke for me. It is a PR game. RSPO makes Wilmar and Sinar Mas look good but I rescued several orangutan from the Wilmar plantation in 2006 and 2007.
Earlier this year I visited sites where they are still clearing conservation value forest — forest that is home to orangutans.
Mongabay: Is Wilmar clearing peatlands?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Wilmar was not clearing peatlands at the sites we visited in Central Kalimantan but I can’t speak for other areas. It is a big company.
Mongabay: What about sub-contracting? Do you encounter instances where a big company with a good reputation is outsourcing clearing to smaller corporations which are depicted as “small-holders”?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Yes, this is a big problem. As I told you before, it is like organized crime. If we find something wrong in the field the company can easy say, “No that’s not us — they are a contractor. We have a very strict standard but it is not easy to enforce on the because people on the ground are not educated people.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a major foreign policy address today at the Council of Foreign Relations. I’ll likely have thoughts and analysis later on over at MyDD.
Here is the transcript:
Thank you very much, Richard, and I am delighted to be here in these new headquarters. I have been often to, I guess, the mother ship in New York City, but it’s good to have an outpost of the Council right here down the street from the State Department. We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won’t have as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future.
Richard just gave what could be described as a mini version of my remarks in talking about the issues that confront us. But I look out at this audience filled with not only many friends and colleagues, but people who have served in prior administrations. And so there is never a time when the in-box is not full.
Shortly before I started at the State Department, a former Secretary of State called me with this advice: Don’t try to do too much. And it seemed like a wise admonition, if only it were possible. But the international agenda today is unforgiving: two wars, conflict in the Middle East, ongoing threats of violent extremism and nuclear proliferation, global recession, climate change, hunger and disease, and a widening gap between the rich and the poor. All of these challenges affect America’s security and prosperity, and they all threaten global stability and progress.
But they are not reason to despair about the future. The same forces that compound our problems – economic interdependence, open borders, and the speedy movement of information, capital, goods, services and people – are also part of the solution. And with more states facing common challenges, we have the chance, and a profound responsibility, to exercise American leadership to solve problems in concert with others. That is the heart of America’s mission in the world today.
Now, some see the rise of other nations and our economic troubles here at home as signs that American power has waned. Others simply don’t trust us to lead; they view America as an unaccountable power, too quick to impose its will at the expense of their interests and our principles. But they are wrong.
The question is not whether our nation can or should lead, but how it will lead in the 21st century. Rigid ideologies and old formulas don’t apply. We need a new mindset about how America will use its power to safeguard our nation, expand shared prosperity, and help more people in more places live up to their God-given potential.
President Obama has led us to think outside the usual boundaries. He has launched a new era of engagement based on common interests, shared values, and mutual respect. Going forward, capitalizing on America’s unique strengths, we must advance those interests through partnership, and promote universal values through the power of our example and the empowerment of people. In this way, we can forge the global consensus required to defeat the threats, manage the dangers, and seize the opportunities of the 21st century. America will always be a world leader as long as we remain true to our ideals and embrace strategies that match the times. So we will exercise American leadership to build partnerships and solve problems that no nation can solve on its own, and we will pursue policies to mobilize more partners and deliver results.
As questions about the stability of the dollar are raised, America is attempting regain trust in its financial institutions.
During a visit to Saudi Arabia,U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told some of the country’s business leaders to expect what he called a gradual recovery with more than the usual ups and downs and temporary reversals.
Fadel Gheit, a managing director and senior oil and gas analyst at Oppenheimer and Company, joins Martin Savidge to discuss Geithner’s overtures to the Middle East.
Fears of unrest are growing in Tajikistan over fighters returning from Taliban areas in Afghanistan.
Government officials in Tajikistan say they are cracking down on drug traffickers, but that may just be a cover for a covert operation against returning fighters.
Robin Forestier-Walker reports.