World

Many Goals for the Homeless World Cup

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Now in its sixth year, the Homeless World Cup comes to Milan, Italy, in September, bringing together teams of homeless people from at least 56 countries to compete for a unique world championship title. The real prize, however, is winning the game of life — something fans worldwide are lining up to support. Rio de Janeiro and Paris have already agreed to host the 2010 and 2011 games, notes Happy News, while Poland.com boasts that the city of Poznan will host in 2013, beating out Amsterdam and Manchester. Women from eight nations competed for the first-ever Women’s Cup last year — and are taking their game, and their goals for better lives, to Milan in 2009 as well. One such player is Auma Okot of Uganda, who was once in the grip of the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency.

Public Health

Teenage Sex: No Pregnant Pause

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Teen pregnancies are in the spotlight, from Sarah Palin’s unwed daughter Bristol in magazines and on TV with her baby in her arms, to 2007’s Academy Award-winning film “Juno,” and MTV’s new reality show “16 and Pregnant.” Talk about reality: This year in the United States, more than 750,000 teenagers will become pregnant, according to a report in Women’s E-News, while the Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed the teen pregnancy rate increased by three percent in 2006 — the first such U.S. increase in 14 years. The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the developed world — 14 times higher than Japan, and twice that of Australia and Canada, according to the World Health Organization. Globally, WHO notes that more than 14 million teenage girls have babies each year — most in developing countries. Though it does not attribute its statistics, the Christian advocacy Web site Vision.org notes that teen pregnancy rates in Latin America and Africa are double — and in some cases even quadruple — those of the United States.

Democracy & Civics

Tracking: Iran Election Blogs & Realtime Web Feeds

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Updated: 6/22 Newsdesk.org is collecting links to realtime citizen and mainstream news feeds and blogs following the turmoil in Iran. Post updated information sources in the comments section below. Not all citizen-media postings are clearly sourced, and include propaganda as well as first-person witnessing. Use your judgment when interpreting the text, video and images. Twitter hashtag: #IranElection
140-character bulletins and links sent by members of the public.

World

Cuba, Across Political Divide, Shrugs at OAS Vote

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Cuba has no plans to rejoin the Organization of American States, despite the diplomatic body’s vote in June to allow Cuba back into the fold after 47 years. Cuba rejected on Monday the OAS offer to rejoin in a statement published in its state-run newspaper, calling the organization one “with a role and trajectory that Cuba repudiates,” the Miami Herald reported. Instead, the island nation is pushing a plan to establish a new inter-American and Caribbean organization that would exclude the United States, according to a report by Inter Press Service. Plans for the organization will be discussed at a regional summit in Mexico later this year. The first meeting, staged in Brazil in December 2008, was the first time a Latin/Caribbean regional summit was held without the United States, but included Cuba, according to a Tribune Media Services report.

World

High-Speed Rail Makes Tracks Worldwide

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High-speed rail is the latest public transportation buzz in the United States — and it’s also making tracks around the world. Spain, already admired for its high-speed rail system, got lots of international attention in May when it hosted U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood. Agence France-Presse reports that La Hood rode the trains there, as well as in France and Germany, looking for high-speed models to use back home. Spain intends to have a high-speed connection between Barcelona and the French border in place by 2012, according to the ThinkSpain.com website. Russia is also hoping for a rail-travel renaissance.

World

For the Twitterati, Literature Lives Online

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News of the written word’s demise has been greatly exaggerated — though it may not turn up as often on your parents’ printed paper pages. Literature is being tailored to fit the dimensions of technology — making works great (and not-so-great) available on computers, cell phones and mobile devices, using text messages, Twitter, RSS feeds and installments delivered via e-mail. In the United States, new technologies and diverse media are being used to teach literacy. Ohio University students are looking at how video gaming can to teach basic reading and writing skills, reports the Chilliocothe Gazette, while an article in the Poughkeepsie Journal adds graphic novels and comic books to the list of teaching tools. But most of the electronic focus is still on high-end consumers with their array of mobile tools, reports Computerworld Magazine.

Economy

Two Wheels to the World

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Pedal power is getting new respect worldwide, as concerns about climate change and hard economic times make bicycling increasingly popular. In Paris, “bike sharing” gives riders access to thousands of two-wheelers around the city, a service that is also gaining momentum in Mexico, Brazil and Canada. The women’s blog prettytough.com even calls bike sharing “the new public transportation.” Bicycling is also getting a big push from Asian governments. South Korea’s president wants to make his country “a bicycle heaven,” The Korea Times reports, while Time Magazine chimes in with news that Taiwan’s leader hopes to create “a cycling paradise” in his island nation.

Democracy & Civics

Banks Take Aim at Student Loan Plan

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Opposition is emerging to President Barack Obama’s plan to take private banks out of the student loan business. Student indebtedness has grown to an average of nearly $23,000 per individual, and student loans remain a lucrative business for U.S. banks, earning $85 billion annually, according to news reports. The White House plan would cut out the middleman and let students borrow directly from the government, with the hope of making more money available for loans, while saving an estimated $94 billion over the next decade. Citigroup has already begun an e-mail campaign urging its borrowers to write Congress to oppose the plan, notes Talking Points Memo. And executives for Sallie Mae, the biggest provider of student loans, said if the plan is adopted as proposed, an undetermined number of banking jobs could be lost.

Democracy & Civics

Nicaragua Targets Illiteracy

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Nicaragua’s leftist government is linking a new literacy campaign to July’s 30th anniversary of the overthrow the Somoza dynasty. The program is a repeat performance for President Daniel Ortega, who led the country after Sandinista guerrillas toppled the Somoza family dictatorship in 1979. According to Inter Press Service, a left-leaning news source, the National Literacy Campaign in 1980 reduced illiteracy in the country from 52 to just below 13 percent, before succumbing to further civil war and ongoing political conflict. Now, the government hopes to meet UNESCO standards of under five percent illiteracy in the next few months. Nicaraguan government statistics showed more than half a million citizens, out of a population of 5.3 million, were illiterate in 2005.

Democracy & Civics

Brazilian Blacks Assume Majority, Not Equity

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Brazil’s African-descended citizens now stand at 49.6 percent of the population, edging out their European-descended brethren by .2 percent, but lacking proportional access to education and food. Twenty percent of Brazilian blacks are more likely to be illiterate, and have to work as much as 76 hours for their “basic food basket,” compared to a 6 percent illiteracy rate and 54 hours of work for basic food needs for Caucasians, reports Merco Press. In 1888 Brazil became the last country in South America to abolish slavery. President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has proposed new quotas for blacks in universities, in an effort to drive social and economic integration. –Brittany Owens/Newsdesk.org
Source:
“Black population becomes the majority in Brazil”
MercoPress, April 25, 2009