UNESCO Courier articles from January 2001

UNESCO Courier archives from January 2001

The tar, the fracture and the bond.(Ndioum, Senegal agricultural policy)(Column)
January 1, 2001... The development of irrigated areas along the Senegal river has changed the nature of both the town of Ndioum and its people I returned to Ndioum early one morning when a chill was carried into town by the harmattan, the wind of the Moors...

Bangladesh's arsenic poisoning: who is to blame?(well water toxicity)
January 1, 2001... Thirty years ago, Bangladeshi villages began pumping arsenic-laced water in a development project gone awry. Why wilt it take another 30 years to halt the biggest mass poisoning in history? The story beggars belief. In the 1970s,...

Breaking down the divide.(including diasbled children in schools)
January 1, 2001... Europe is all for giving its "different" children a place in regular schools, but the debate over integration is far from sealed Enrolling a child at the local public school is a painless exercise for most European parents--unless of...

FAMILY FARMING: THE "THIRD WAY" OUT.(agricultural policy, Guinea)(Brief Article)(Column)
January 1, 2001... Some 1.3 billion people may be tilling their fields and tending livestock today, but in the near future, about 500 million of them might well see their way of life disappear. They simply cannot compete in the race towards greater yields spurred...

The last days of the fellahs.(farmers in Cairo, Egypt)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... Iskandar works his farm on the outskirts of Cairo, earning enough to get by but not enough to ensure that his children stay loyal to the land The sail of the felucca gently subsides. Its hull bumps quietly against the old jetty made out...

A knife at the throat of half a billion farmers.(agricultural policy)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... Free trade threatens to drive half the world's farmers off the Land, even though they hold the key to feeding the world and protecting the environment In the 1950s, an African farmer produced ten quintals of grain, says Marcel Mazoyer [1],...

And the meek shall occupy the earth.(agricultural policy Brazil)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... Brazil's landless peasants are fighting for more than just agrarian reform--their goal is to build a new social order based on solidarity and mutual aid A red banner flutters at the entrance to the August 8 camp, a town of black...

Poverty amidst plenty: the Punjabi tale.(agriculture in India)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Green Revolution might have enriched Punjab, but it is sounding a deathknell for small farmers driven to bankruptcy by debts and barren land As the sun sets on the sepia-coloured horizon, Ram Pal sits alone to tell his story. "Let the...

Bangladesh: the seeds of change.(agriculture)
January 1, 2001... A burgeoning movement is proving that organic farming is not only economically viable, but a route to better health and control over seeds and genetic resources There was a time when Mohammad Reazuddin's paddies were being attacked by...

"GMOs: the wrong answer to the wrong problem".(genetically modified organisms)(Interview)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... INTERVIEW BY MICHEL BESSIERES At the head of the influential Peasant Movement of the Philippines, rice farmer Rafael Mariano explains why people from across the region are on the march against pesticides and genetically modified seeds ...

France: mad cows and studious farmers.(production-intensive agriculture and environmental concerns+)
January 1, 2001... Farmers, environmentalists and consumers unite to battle the ravages of industrial farming in Brittany What's in Brittany? Three million inhabitants, 57,000 farms and 22 million livestock animals, including cows fed on animal meal, pigs...

Rage against the exodus: the crisis in China's land reform.
January 1, 2001... Punitive tax rates and falling revenues have combined to drive around 100 million Chinese peasants to the towns even as the spirit of protest sweeps through the countryside The village of Yuandu, 70 kilometres from the provincial capital of...

Biovillages: a blueprint for the future?
January 1, 2001... The father of India's Green Revolution--and early critic of its abuse -- has a new brainchild: villages where the poor have the means to earn their living and preserve the land The 20th century ended with spectacular achievements in every...

Will the College crumble?(Electoral college)
January 1, 2001... The debate is only beginning over how the U.S. elects the world's most powerful leader Before laying the U.S. presidential election saga to rest, let's revisit a favourite bedtime story: The Three Little Pigs, featuring Ralph, Al and...

Chugging along on Europe's literary express.(one hundred writers spend a month without books on a train)
January 1, 2001... What happens when one hundred writers spend a month without books on a train, debating in more than 40 languages and stopping along the way to meet the crowds? For one traveller, the Literature Express Europe 2000 did not live up to its dream...

White fortresses in cyberspace.(racism on the Internet)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... The face of racism changes on the Internet as preppy professionals join the ranks of the "classic" tattooed skinheads. Will they prove even more dangerous? After celebrating the Internet as a digital nirvana in which democracy and free...

Eduardo Galeano: the open veins of McWorld.(interview with Uruguayan author)(Interview)
January 1, 2001... The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano likes nothing better than to unmask hidden truths. In a wide-ranging interview with Danish journalist Niels Boel, he takes his scalpel to globalization, memory, cultural identity, indigenous rights--and...