Democracy & Civics

New Reparations Call for Philippine "Comfort Women"

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The Philippine legislature is considering a new resolution to ask for apologies from Japan, as well as financial reparations, for “comfort women” held captive by occupying Japanese forces during World War II. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the resolution was unanimously passed by a legislative committee, but was met with dismay by the Department of Foreign Affairs, which stated that financial reparations were already dealt with in two previous treaties, in 1951 and 1996. However, an official said the government had no opposition to private claims of “sexual slavery” sought against Japan. Proponents of the measure also stated that the terms of Japan’s surrender required it to maintain “continuing compliance with modern human rights law.” Source:
“House panel OKs resolution on comfort women”
Daily Inquirer (Philippines), March 11, 2008

Environment

From Bike Lanes to "Wildlife Highways"

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The town of Cambourne in the United Kingdom is notable not just for its abundance of bike lanes and pedestrians, but also for the wetlands, woodlands and lakes, which have attracted an unusual variety of wildlife. According to The Independent, Cambourne was developed in the 1990s on what used to be farmland, and built “wildlife highways” to link ponds, forests and other habitats before the local office park or housing developments were approved. By linking habitat fragmented by development, isolated plant and animal species are more able to move around, mingle and propagate. As a result, Cambourne is rich with biological diversity, including numerous bird species, deer, badgers, newts, dragonflies and voles. Although the town is not chock-full of solar houses or wind turbines, it has been lauded by wildlife campaigners for its protection of habitat.

Featured

Pesticide Politics and the Light Brown Apple Moth

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[UPDATED 3/15/08]
The nine-county San Francisco Bay Area is now on a federal quarantine list — to which Mexico has added Los Angeles and Napa counties — as state agricultural officials ponder a massive pesticide campaign to combat the light brown apple moth. There are billions of dollars at stake, especially if the moth spreads into California’s agricultural heartland in the Central Valley. Yet some scientists say the moth, a native of New Zealand, has already been in California for decades, and are calling for an alternative plan. Now, amid rising controversy and protests over the aerial spraying campaign, which would repeatedly blanket whole cities, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the owner of the company that produces the moth pesticide is a major political campaign donor. Stewart Resnick, who owns some of the largest almond, pistachio and citrus farms in the country and the world, also owns a pesticide company in Oregon that produces CheckMate, a pheromone that disrupts the moth breeding patterns.

Economy

From Sweatshops to Cotton Fields: Child Labor Goes Rural

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Far from the urban industrial sweatshops, child labor remains widespread in rural parts of the developing world. In the Philippines, advocates say tens of thousands of children are working on farms, in mines, and even in deep-sea fishing. The Philippine Department of Labor and Employment, in a press release late last month, claimed to have rescued 76 children under age 15 from working at a single sugar plantation. The agency plans to send the children back to school, and also to provide them with medical care and economic assistance. Wire services reported last month that the United States has promised $5.5 million to the Philippines to help it with a stepped-up campaign to combat child labor.

Democracy & Civics

News Outlet Seeks Reader Donations to Fund Iraq Trip

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An Oregon news service has come up with an unusual way to help pay for a reporter’s trip to Iraq: It’s asking readers to donate money to the cause
Tim King, executive editor for the Salem News, is heading to Iraq later this month to spend up to six weeks embedded with Oregon National Guard troops. In order to defray the high costs of such a trip, the agency is putting on a fundraising event March 9 at an Oregon winery, and also has links on its Web site for readers to donate through PayPal. The site has taken a strongly populist approach in its funding appeals. One article requesting donations is headlined “Making War Coverage a National Community Project,” while another reads: “If You Really Care About our Soldiers in Iraq.” The Salem News also solicited and received donations for a previous reporting trip to Afghanistan.

Democracy & Civics

Koran in Hand, She Wins Over Mullahs

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Fiery and not yet out of her 20s, Wazhma Frogh has been making waves in Afghanistan by using the Koran to undermine oppression of women and boost her literacy and education programs.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that Frogh’s work is part of a trend among liberal-minded Muslims to use sacred texts to advance women’s issues where secular approaches have failed. Now an employee of a Canadian international development agency, Frogh works at both the policy level and on the street. Her greatest task — to win over the men who predominate both in Afghan government and village life — has been surprisingly successful, given the country’s struggles with the fundamentalist Taliban. Her boosters say among Frogh’s great strengths are her encyclopedic knowledge of the Koran, and her facility with Arabic, both of which often exceed the capacities of local mullahs. Source:
“Inside Islam, a woman’s roar”
Christian Science Monitor, March 5, 2008

Democracy & Civics

Short-Changed by the Labels? Musicians Dispute Napster Settlement

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The recording industry may have netted hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money from lawsuits targeting Napster, Kazaa and other music-sharing services — but a group of “prominent” artist managers say their clients have not shared in the bounty. The New York Post reports that EMI, Universal and Warner are still calculating payouts and the “level of copyright infringement” for each artist. Yet even if there is money owed, industry insiders told the Post that legal fees have drastically cut into what would have been passed along to the artists. Now, artist managers for performers such as Jewel, the Eagles, Don Henley, Korn and others are threatening to sue. Representatives of the labels told the Post that they have already distributed settlement funds to their artists, or are beginning to do so.

Democracy & Civics

"Enviropig": Less Pollution, More Questions

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A little bit of genetic editing is all that’s required to slash the environmental damage caused by sewage from industrial pig farms, researchers in Canada say. Salon.com reports that scientists in Guelph, Canada, have combined an E.Coli gene with a mouse protein, and spliced it into pigs to improve their ability to breakdown phytase, a natural substance rich in phosphorous. In industrial conditions, phosphorous from superabundant pig sewage leaches into water supplies, causing algae blooms, fish kills, and similar ecological mayhem. Now, advocates fear FDA approval of cloned meat for American consumption will open the door for the genetically modified “Enviropig,” as it’s been dubbed, to enter the marketplace and the ecosystem without proper testing. In fact, that already happened in Canada, where a simple error saw 11 stillborn Enviropigs turned into poultry feed for a farm in Ontario, rather than incinerated as required by Canadian law.

Democracy & Civics

Radiation on the Reservation

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As the market booms for uranium mining in the American West, a Seattle newspaper took a new look at what can happen when industry ignores the potential risks of the practice. The Seattle Times reported on the toxic mess left behind by uranium mines on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington: toxic pools, radioactive homes and very high rates of cancer. Former workers say the mines had very lax safety controls when they were in operation, and left behind little help with cleanup. Residents tell of driveways paved with radioactive rock from the mines and of children playing with rubber balls used in processing the radioactive ore. Many tell of relatives dying of cancer, and National Book Award-winning author Sherman Alexie, who grew up on the reservation, told the Times “I have very little doubt that I’m going to get cancer.”

World

Beijing Olympics: It's the Water

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A senior Chinese official has sharply criticized a multi- billion-dollar government plan to divert water from the Hubei and Shaanxi provinces north to Beijing, the BBC reports. An Qiyuan, a former Community Party leader from Shaanxi province, said that the plan would endanger the livelihood of millions of residents, and that compensation is necessary to prevent what the BBC described as “social upheaval and environmental harm.” The plan — which will cost at least $60 billion, more than the Three Gorges Dam — will build a network of canals and dams to deliver water from southern rivers to the thirsty north, where the Beijing Olympics alone are expected to increase water needs by 30 percent. Drought is already affecting more than 12,000 square miles in Hubei Province, and a quarter-million people are “facing problems with drinking water,” according to the BBC. Source:
“Olympics ‘threat to water supply'”
BBC News, February 27, 2008
Previously on Newsdesk.org:
“Trouble at the Roof of the World”
Newsdesk.org, December 26, 2007
“Cracks at the Seams?