Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, May 21 2009 (IPS) – As funds begin trickling in for Zimbabwe s reconstruction efforts, the rebuilding of infrastructure battered by years of neglect is set to gobble a huge chunk.
As Zimbabwe s national unity government approaches 100 days in office, Finance Minister Tendai Biti tasked with wooing donors to pour resources into support for the fragile coalition has said it will take some time for the country to return to 1996 standards, before what was once southern Africa s second largest economy went into a tailspin.
Rundown hospitals with paint peeling off the walls and operating theatres without life saving machines; schools without textbooks or desks; roads littered with potholes; water mains wastefully spilling treated water and…
Emilio Godoy*
TLALPUJAHUA, Mexico, Jul 24 2009 (IPS) – Mariana Rangel is filled with nostalgia as she gazes at the abandoned installations of the Dos Estrellas mine, where she worked as a secretary for six years. Those were years of prosperity; this is all there is left, she tells IPS, pointing to what used to be the local hospital.
Open pit mine in Cerro de Pasco, Peru Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS
The old mining town of Tlalpujahua, a picturesque colonial hill town 160 km from the Mexican capital, is a symbol of the il…
Nergui Manalsuren interviews sanitation expert Duncan Mara
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 17 2009 (IPS) – Despite longstanding promises by world leaders to halve, by 2015, the number of people without basic sanitation, 2.5 billion still lack access to basic sanitation, and 1.2 billion don t have any form of sanitation at all.
Duncan Mara Credit: University of Leeds
I don t think that the MDG (the U.N. s Millennium Development Goals) sanitation target can be achieved, says Duncan Mara, a professor of civil engineering at University of Leeds who has been working on low-cost sanitation in de…
AMSTERDAM, Sep 22 2009 (IPS) – Along with canal and dyke , young people visiting this city will learn some other interesting words in a very short time words such as cannabis , bong , and marijuana . The words are hard to avoid, especially in the tourist area that boasts a museum devoted to hash .
A hash museum in Amsterdam. Credit: Djavan De Clercq/IPS
But mere words are the least of a parent s worry here.
Residents are increasingly concerned that school-age children are being harmed by the long-standing policy of tolerance towards limited use of soft dr…
PARIS, Nov 9 2009 (IPS) – Designer rag dolls, the concept couldn t sound more frivolous. But dolls made by top fashion designers such as Armani and Prada are helping to fund a vaccination programme in war-torn Darfur.
From small beginnings six years ago, the Frimousses de Créateurs (Designers Dolls) project has grown to include about a hundred designers as well as prominent artists such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, who are known for their provocative and controversial artwork.
Entertainers, too, have joined the cast, with French singer France Gall and outspoken actress Isabelle Adjani making dolls out of fabric and decorating them in their own fashion.
Last year, the doll project, coordinated by the United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF), financed polio vaccina…
Suad Hamada
MANAMA, Dec 1 2009 (IPS) – Umbassil* is unlike other engaged women. Instead of planning her wedding she is wondering where she will have her baby. She is not pregnant but she knows that Bahrain s maternity hospitals will not admit her because she is HIV positive.
Somaya Al Jowder: Most of the women contracted the virus through sexual relations mainly with their infected husbands C…
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 13 2010 (IPS) – The major earthquake that struck Haiti Tuesday, causing death and destruction in the capital of Port-au-Prince, may also turn out to be a veritable disaster for the United Nations, which has over 9,000 personnel, including peacekeepers, international staffers and local civilians, scattered throughout the country.
