UNESCO Courier articles from February 1999

UNESCO Courier archives from February 1999

Bihar's lawless ways.(includes related article on region's demographic and geographical profiles)(India's most backward state)
February 1, 1999... Dire poverty and oppression are the grim facts of life for the Dalits ('untouchables') of India's most backward state Travelling in the eastern Indian state of Bihar is never easy: the trains are overcrowded and the buses are ramshackle. In...

Daring, caring and sharing.(water scarcity)
February 1, 1999... This collective resource is becoming rarer because it is being overexploited by a consumerist and pollution-generating humanity. The warning signs are clear: falling water tables, shrinking rivers and lakes, widespread pollution, creeping...

The zero option for waste.(includes related article on 1998 as the hottest year of the 20th century)(Zero Emissions Research Initiative)
February 1, 1999... The world may be producing too much waste. It is also spawning plenty of imaginative ideas about how to handle it The world is groaning under the weight of the rubbish people produce and things are getting worse. Nobody knows exactly how...

Farms in the city.(urban gardens as sources of food for newcomers from the countryside)
February 1, 1999... On terraces, balconies and even in stairwells, city-dwellers are growing more and more food - in the North for pleasure, in the South for survival In both rich and poor countries - especially the latter - people are flocking from rural...

Europe's welfare-to-work business.
February 1, 1999... In Europe, thousands of 'companies for jobs' are trying to teach marginalized young people and the long-term unemployed how to work In the 15 member-states of the European Union, the average unemployment rate is nearly 11 per cent, with...

Spanish youth outside in.
February 1, 1999... Over a thousand Spanish organizations, many based in tough neighbourhoods, are running schemes to bring young outsiders back into society "We can't go to the police, or borrow money from the bank or anything. All I've got is my name. . ."...

A rare and precious resource.(What Price Water?)(includes related article on desalinization)(fresh water)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1999... Fresh water is a scarce commodity. Since it's impossible to increase supply, demand and waste must be reduced. But how? Water is a bond between human beings and nature. It is ever-present in our daily lives and in our imaginations. Since...

Who pays the piper? Who calls the tune?(What Price Water?)(includes related article on Turia River, Valencia, Spain)(privatization of water supply services)(Cover Story)(Interview)
February 1, 1999... By putting a price tag on water, we may be able to save this vital resource from waste. But can privatization schemes ensure that everyone is served? John Briscoe of the World Bank argues for a greater role for the market. But French academic...

Hungary: under new management.(What Price Water?)(includes related article on mineral water)(privatization of the country's municipal water-supply systems)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1999... Hungary is diving into the whirlpool of privatization but the country's new water companies have failed to make a splash It looks the same. Tastes the same. It even smells the same, with that familiar foul whiff of chlorine. But the...

South Africa: water for everyone.(What Price Water?)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1999... A progressive new water management policy designed to provide all South Africans with guaranteed access to water Among the many stories of deprivation told by ordinary South Africans during three months of nation-wide poverty hearings last...

Mexico: the sweet smell of success.(What Price Water?)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1999... In Mexico's Jalisco State, a sugar mill has reduced its water consumption by four-fifths and cut its costs The smell of burning sugar and the lengths of cut cane strewn along the dirt road point the way to the San Francisco Ameca sugar mill...

India: Calcutta plugs its deficit.(What Price Water?)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1999... Short of money to overhaul an antiquated water system, the Indian city may have opened a pandora's box by extending the coverage of its water tax Standing in a long, winding queue, Ratan Das eagerly awaits his turn to get a bucket of water...

A convenient solution.(What Price Water?)('virtual water' as an answer to the Middle East water supply problem)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1999... Wars will be fought for water. The dire prediction persists years after it was voiced by such leading figures as Jordan's King Hussein and Boutros Boutros Ghali of Egypt. Indeed, according to this gloomy scenario, the Middle East and North...

An economic mirage?(What Price Water?)(Middle East)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1999... It's like trying to get water out of a stone. Across the Middle East, government officials refuse to discuss the issue of virtual water publicly. Even academics are reluctant to express their views on the topic. Why such silence? After all,...

Custom-built solutions for international disputes.(What Price Water?)(includes related articles on Nile, Jordan, Mekong and Danube Rivers)(use of customary laws in resolving water sharing problems in international river basins)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1999... Customary law provides a sounder basis than market forces for water sharing in international river basins Is it any wonder that the English word "rival" derives from the Latin "rivalis", meaning people who live on opposite banks of a...

Adoption: for love or money?(includes related article on Educators for Peace and Mutual Understanding, winner of the 1998 UNESCO prize for peace education)
February 1, 1999... Racketeers are trying to make a profit out of couples in rich countries who want to adopt orphan children from the developing world. Twenty-five nations have now agreed to follow a code of conduct governing international adoption They're...

Children's books come of age.(includes related article on Meshack Asare and Anne R. Blakeslee, winners of UNESCO's Prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance for 1998)
February 1, 1999... Children are being told the facts of life by a new wave of authors, but there's still plenty of room for Prince Charming, fairies and witches. For years children's literature was the Cinderella of literature, languishing in the shadow of a...

The press takes to the street.(newspaper selling on the street by homeless persons)
February 1, 1999... There are discordant voices in the new international movement to produce street newspapers in aid of the homeless "It was either that or I was finished," says Chantal. "That" means selling street newspapers. Chantal is 41 and has "a lot to...

Munich's street magazine.(Biss)
February 1, 1999... Germany's leading street monthly has become an established institution Heinz Bonni (above) is a bit of a loudmouth. "I don't suffer fools gladly," he declares, "and I always say what I think." Sometimes he goes even further and uses his...

James Tobin: reining in the markets.(includes related articles on economic liberalism and on foreign exchange transactions tax)(Interview)
February 1, 1999... In an age of globalized markets and deregulation an American Nobel prize-winning economist champions a tax on short-term financial transactions to head off international crises and help poor countries You once said that the study of...