Good News Agency – Year II, n° 4
Weekly - Year II, number 4
– 23 February 2001
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi,
Ph. D.
Rome
Law-court registration no. 265 dated 20 June 2000.
Good News Agency carries positive and constructive news from all over the world relating to voluntary work, the work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations, and institutions engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn out” in the space of a day.
Good News Agency is distributed through Internet to over 1,400 editorial offices of the daily newspapers and periodical magazines and of the radio and television stations with an e-mail address in 18 countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, and it is available in its web site:
It is a free of
charge service of Associazione Culturale
dei Triangoli e della Buona Volontà Mondiale, a registered non-profit
educational organization chartered in Italy in 1979. The Association operates
for the development of consciousness and supports the activities of the Lucis
Trust, the U. N. University for Peace, Radio For Peace International, The Club
of Budapest and other organizations promoting a culture of peace in the ‘global
village’ perspective based on unity within diversity and on sharing. Via
Antagora 10, 00124 Rome, Italy. E-mail: s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
Contents:
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International legislation
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Health
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Disarmament
and peace
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Energy
and safety
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Economy
and Development
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Environment and wildlife
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Solidarity
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Culture
and education
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DEONTOLOGICAL CODE OF THE MEDIA
(TOP)
African Ministers of
Public Service adopt Charter for Public Service
New York, 8 February (DESA) -- Forty-one African
Ministers of Public Service unanimously adopted a Charter of Public Service for
Africa at the conclusion of the third biennial Pan-African Conference of
Ministers of Civil Service, held in Windhoek, Namibia, from 5 to 6 February.
The Charter’s adoption is the beginning of a campaign by African
governments to restore prestige and dignity to the public service, reinforce
integrity in public life and raise performance levels and competence in
government at large. It was drafted with the assistance of experts on public
service matters from the United Nations and the African Training and Research
Centre in Administration for Development (CAFRAD). It took two years to
complete, and several meetings of ministers and experts to arrive at a
consensual text.
Strengthening the public service is considered a necessary
prerequisite to building the capacity of African States to face the many
challenges of globalization, and to play a leading role in development for
Africa.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/afr302.htm
9 February - The United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) applauds the Government of Uganda for granting full access to a
political and military training camp housing child soldiers from the Democratic
Republic of Congo, and for agreeing that all soldiers in the camp under the age
of 18 will be handed over to UNICEF for care and protection.
This action represents a major breakthrough for ending
the recruitment of child soldiers by all sides in the conflict in DRC.
http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr12.htm
Vienna, 9 February - Russian President Vladimir Putin
met here today in Vienna with Pino Arlacchi, Director-General of the UN Office
in Vienna and Executive Director of the UN Office of Drug Control and Crime
Prevention (ODCCP). Among the issues discussed were money laundering, drug
control, organized crime and on-going cooperation between the Russian
Federation and the United Nations in Vienna.
President Putin said he strongly supported the
activities of the United Nations because the area in which Mr. Arlacchi and
ODCCP work "is one of the most important today". He said
"negative phenomena become global and must be countered on a global
scale".
Noting that Russia had signed
the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in Palermo, Italy, in
December, he affirmed that his government would do its best to ensure
ratification as soon as possible. He also expressed interest in the completion
and adoption of the remaining protocol on arms trafficking early this year.
http://www.undcp.org/press_release_2001-02-09_1.html
(TOP)
5 February – Peace-building done well was a powerful deterrent to
violent conflict, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today, as the Security
Council began a day-long debate on comprehensive approaches to the question. The Secretary-General said peace-building was not a
dramatic imposition of a grand plan, but a process of building pillars of peace
from the ground up, bit by bit. He said whether it started before, after or
during the eruption of conflict, peace-building must be seen as a long-term
exercise. At the same time, there was
an unmistakable element of urgency -- a need to achieve tangible progress on a
number of fronts in a short time.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/SC7007.doc.htm
Southern Africa: SADC military
officers receive peace training in SA
10 February - Senior military officers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) converged in Benoni, about 30 km east of Johannesburg, on Monday for a two-week United Nations peacekeeping training course, news reports said on Wednesday. Opening the course, Deputy Defence Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was quoted as saying that the officers should be ready to be deployed for peacekeeping duties anywhere in Africa. "The learners we have here are some of the key operational planning staff in their respective countries," she said. "In future, these individuals could well find themselves deployed to a UN mission headquarters as members of staff," she added.
(TOP)
NGOs address Preparatory Committee for Least Developed Countries
Conference
7 February – In a short meeting this morning, the
Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee for the Third United Nations Conference
on the Least Developed Countries heard an address by a representative of a
parallel meeting of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
During its current one-week session, the Preparatory
Committee is conducting the first formal reading of a draft programme of action
and considering national reports on preparations for the Conference, which will
take place in Belgium in May.
In her statement on the draft programme of action,
Motarilavoa Hilda Lini of the NGO the Pacific Concerns Resource Center Inc.
said that, in its substance, the draft pointed in a number of encouraging
directions, which should be developed and built on as a positive lead for the
international community. The Conference in May could mark another step forward
in lifting the burden of debt from the world's poorest people, she said. It
should also give a strong signal for ensuring strengthened flows of official
development assistance (ODA) to those countries. The event had a vital role in
setting a positive agenda for the upcoming financing for development
conference, and in strengthening donors' commitment to the United Nations
target of allocating 0.15 per cent of gross national product to development
assistance for least developed countries.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/dev2280.htm
Donor funding doubles for agricultural rehabilitation
Funding from donor governments
doubled to nearly US$54 million in 2000 for FAO's agricultural rehabilitation
projects to help countries recover from emergencies. Contributions went to
support 114 projects in 43 countries and regions. Government donations were up
from US$26 million in 1999, continuing the positive trend of recent years…
Among the principal reasons for the increase in
funding, Ms Bauer (Chief of FAO's Special Relief Operations Service) cites more
systematic liaison with donor governments and NGOs in the field, which has
generated additional support. FAO has also increased its participation within
the UN humanitarian community, particularly with the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which organizes UN assistance in
complex emergencies that go beyond the capacity and mandate of any single
humanitarian agency.
http://www.fao.org/news/2001/010203-e.htm
New
report of Plan to Cut Global Poverty by 50% calls for renewed efforts to avoid
failing
Rome, 19 February - The United
Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) introduces its
new poverty report at a press briefing in Rome. Entitled, Rural Poverty Report
2001 – The Challenge of Ending Rural Poverty, the report states that world
leaders will not meet their commitment to cut global poverty in half by 2015,
with only 10 million people escaping poverty annually, instead of the expected
30 million. According to the report, the ramifications of this failure are
especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa where the rate of poverty reduction is
six times too slow to meet the 2015 target. The report calls for renewed
efforts to focus on the oft-neglected needs of the rural poor. “Those
living in rural areas still form the majority of the world’s
poor – and all scenarios for the future suggest that this will still be true
30 years from now,” says the UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan. “If
we are to live up to our Millennium goal, we need a much greater and clearly
focused effort.”
http://www.ifad.org/press/2001/01-08.htm
Namibia: land reform to be
speeded up
10 February - Namibian
President Sam Nujoma said on Tuesday his government would speed up its efforts
to give land to people but reiterated the state would stick to its
willing-buyer, willing-seller policy, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
"Starting this year
increased efforts will be made to resettle our landless people in a speedy
manner," Nujoma said at the first cabinet meeting of the year. "In
the same vein, I also call on those who own excess land to cooperate with the
government in its efforts to address and resolve the present imbalances in land
redistribution," he said. Reports said that an estimated 34,000 people
have been resettled on commercial farm land since independence from South
Africa in 1990. The government wants to resettle a further 243,000 people and
has said it wants to acquire 9.5 million hectares of land for its programme.
White farmers numbering just over 4,000 own nearly 30.5 million hectares, with
2.2 million hectares held by an estimated 200 black commercial farmers.
(TOP)
United Nations supports mobile health clinics for indian quake victims
New York, 7 February (UNFPA) -- The United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) announced today it is supporting 12 mobile health
clinics in Gujarat State, India, and providing counselling support to women
affected by the recent earthquake. Following a rapid needs assessment,
identifying health sector needs in the entire State, the UNFPA has dispatched
emergency resources and additional personnel.
The mobile clinics are part of the UNFPA’s integrated population and development programmes in
Gujarat State, which are now being refocused to help earthquake victims,
especially pregnant women and newborn babies. The clinics will provide
reproductive health care, including HIV prevention, and help ensure safe
deliveries. The projects cover the five districts of Surendranagar, Kutch,
Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Dahod. Three of the five districts were severely
affected by the earthquake, which has resulted in the collapse of the district
health system in Kutch, and severe damage in the Surendranagar and Banskantha
Districts.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/pop788.htm
WFP welcomes U.S. aid to Afghans suffering from
hunger and cold
Rome, 7 February - The United Nations World Food Programme today welcomed the arrival of
U.S. emergency aid for Afghans displaced by cold and the hunger spawned from
two successive years of drought. Afghans have been suffering from severe
and widespread food shortages since last summer's devastating drought in
Central Asia. But with deadly sub-zero temperatures now killing hundreds of
people, many of them children, in Afghanistan, WFP officials said the U.S. aid
will help save many lives among the battered population.
"This airlift will give
the Afghan refugees in Pakistan and the internally displaced in Afghanistan the
assistance they desperately need," said WFP Country Director Gerard Van
Dijk.
WFP, the world's largest food
aid agency, has been feeding 1.6 million people in Afghanistan who have borne
the brunt of the drought. Meanwhile, a new emergency operation for Afghanistan
(estimated at $71 million) is expected to begin April 1 for some three million
people as more and more Afghans flee the barren countryside in search of
opportunities in the cities.
http://www.wfp.org/prelease/2001/0207.htm
Guinea: Washington grants US
$5m for refugees
10 February - US State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday that his government had
given an additional US $5 million in emergency aid to refugees and internally
displaced persons in Guinea. Of this, $3.5 million will support the UNHCR's
ongoing relocation of refugees to safe sites within Guinea, Boucher said. He
added that $1.25 million would enable the World Food Programme to feed the
refugees and the remaining $250,000 would go to the International Organization
for Migration to help in the voluntary repatriation of Sierra Leonean refugees.
West Africa: Germany gives US
$250,000 for ECOMOG
10 February - Germany agreed
on Monday to provide US $250,000 to airlift West African troops due to be
deployed on the border between Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the Economic
Community West African States (ECOWAS) reported.
The agreement was signed in
Abuja, the Nigerian capital, by German Ambassador Karlfried Bergner and ECOMOG
military liaison officer Colonel Dixon Dikio. Bergner also presented ECOWAS
with a second set of five satellite telephones to support its efforts to bring
about peace and security in the subregion. Some 1,700 troops from Mali, Niger,
Nigeria and Senegal are to protect the Guinea-Liberia-Sierra Leone border,
facilitate the free movement of persons and ensure the safety of humanitarian
agencies serving the tens of thousands of refugees trapped in the areas of
conflict.
15 February - Following the
earthquake that struck the Indian state of Gujarat two weeks ago, the Indian
Red Cross Society, supported by the ICRC, set up a programme enabling quake
victims to send news to family members elsewhere in India and abroad. Through
the worldwide Red Cross / Red Crescent network, people outside India may also
request information on their relatives by submitting tracing requests to their
local National Societies.
"With many villages razed
to the ground, large numbers of people are still on the move, seeking to join
friends or relatives, while others are living in temporary shelters," said
Violene Dogny, ICRC tracing coordinator in India. "It may therefore take
longer to find those about whom we receive enquiries from abroad."
The Red Cross has based a team
in Bhuj, the worst-hit town, and completed an initial assessment of needs in
more than 30 villages. Around 25 personal messages have already been collected
and sent to family members abroad, in most cases through the American, British
and Canadian National Societies, but also through others in East Africa and the
Gulf, where many Indian communities are to be found.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
15 February - Some 570 people of Ethiopian origin were
repatriated on 9 February from Eritrea under ICRC auspices. Most of the returnees were families from
Asmara. After expressing their wish to go back to Ethiopia, they were
transferred to the border under the supervision of ICRC delegates based in
Eritrea and with the help of the Eritrean Red Cross. A team of ICRC delegates
based in Ethiopia met them on the other side and, with the aid of the Ethiopian
Red Cross, provided them with assistance before handing them over to the
authorities.
A similar operation for 873
persons took place on 3 February 2001. Since early December last year, four
other operations have been carried out in which more than 5,110 Ethiopian
civilians, mainly former internees, were repatriated under ICRC auspices.
The ICRC will continue to
assist people affected by the international armed conflict between Ethiopia and
Eritrea and make efforts to ensure that the rules and principles of
international humanitarian law, in particular the 1949 Geneva Conventions, are
respected and applied.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
CARE and Save the Children's
relief efforts in India and El Salvador following January's earthquakes in the
two countries got a $3 million boost from the Bill and Melinda Gates.
Foundation. CARE will use its
$1 million grant to help begin rebuilding Bhuj, Anzar, Bhachua, and Rapar--four
of the hardest hit areas in the Indian state of Gujarat. The state was hit with
a earthquake measuring 7.9 on Richter scale on January 26. CARE says it will
work to rebuild primary schools, health centers and water systems that were all
but destroyed by the quake.
Save the Children is focusing
on providing health care services and emergency shelter in India.
In El Salvador, both CARE and
Save the Children will work to build temporary schools to help some of the
nearly 300,000 children that are currently out of school in the country. El
Salvador was hit with an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale.
By JASON TOPPING CONE © Earth Times News Service
http://www.earthtimes.org/feb/developmentgatesgivesfeb9_01.htm
(TOP)
UNAIDS congratulates
Tanzania for speedy action on AIDS
Pledges Support for AIDS
Commission and for Partnership Forum
Dar-Es-Salaam, 9 February – Tanzania is now moving quickly to grapple with
AIDS and is to be congratulated for setting up the structures needed to deal
with a fast-growing epidemic, according to the United Nations’ top AIDS official.
"Tanzania must be
commended for its growing and visible political commitment to the fight against
HIV and AIDS," said Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), during a three-day visit to Tanzania.
"Not only has it mainstreamed HIV/AIDS issues into development strategies,
but the government has also placed AIDS high on its expenditure agenda by
giving it high priority for resource mobilization and allocation. This is a
clear indication of how seriously it takes the epidemic."
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/pressarc01/tanzania_090201.html
UNDP launches new
initiative against HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
UNDP is allocating $8 million for a new initiative to reduce the spread
of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The project aims to increase people's
understanding of how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and help governments put in place
policies to combat the pandemic and support people living with the disease. The initiative will also promote partnerships
between governments and non-governmental organizations in addressing risk
factors linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS, including inequality between the
sexes, poverty and other social and economic factors.
UNDP Resident Representatives serving in 15 countries in Southern Africa
and the Indian Ocean region approved the project on 9 February at the end of a
five-day gathering in Maseru, Lesotho. In addition to the UNDP funding, other
partners will provide $5.9 million towards the project's total cost of $13.9
million.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
The Gambia gives youth a
voice in battling HIV/AIDS
In partnership with the
newly established National Youth Council, UNDP is supporting a national
platform on the issue of youth, HIV/AIDS and poverty in The Gambia. The national platform aims
to sensitise young people on the linkages between HIV/AIDS, poverty and gender
relations and create opportunities for youth throughout the country to discuss
HIV/AIDS and related issues.
The platform will give
young people a voice in shaping local strategies to combat the HIV/AIDS
pandemic and making recommendations to the Youth National Conference in April.
The sensitisation programme will draw youth representatives from the districts
and administrative capitals, as well as the media, and transform them into
advocates in the battle against HIV/AIDS.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
Non-governmental
groups show Ethiopians how to prevent further spread of HIV/AIDS
In Ethiopia’s intensifying battle against HIV/AIDS,
non-governmental organizations are on the front lines, distributing condoms and
counselling couples, young people and sex workers about avoiding
infection. While most operate on a small scale relative to the country’s pressing needs - one in ten adults is infected with
HIV - NGOs are developing innovative approaches to AIDS
prevention. Adanech Kebede, 25, counsels women and couples in their homes.
“It was difficult
at first," she says. But gradually, after we became friends, people opened
up and began to talk about personal matters like sexual relationships.”
http://www.unfpa.org/news/newsmain.htm
12 February - Almost a million child deaths have been
averted since 1998 through the distribution of high-dose vitamin A capsules,
the United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF announced today at the XXth
International Vitamin A Consultative Group meeting in Hanoi.
Noting the tremendous success of the campaign so far,
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy urged renewed global commitment to
ensure children in countries prone to vitamin A deficiency are given
supplements twice a year.
"It is unacceptable for any child to die as a
result of deficiency in vitamin A, when a high-dose capsule costing about 2
cents, given twice a year, can provide adequate protection to a child,"
said Ms. Bellamy. "Our understanding of the role of micronutrients in
child development has greatly increased over the last decade. We no longer have
any excuse for lack of action."
http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr13.htm
MSF Challenges Pharmaceutical
Industry to Match Generic Prices
New York/Geneva, February 7 —
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) welcomes the announcement
made by generic drug manufacturer Cipla that it will sell its
triple-combination therapy for AIDS to MSF for $350 per year per patient and to
governments for $600 per year per patient. The details of the offer request
that government purchases have the "backing of MSF," which is not
practical or necessary, therefore MSF requests that Cipla offer this price
directly to governments and UN agencies.
This offer demonstrates that
the target price of $200 per year, set out in an MSF report at the international
AIDS conference in Durban last July, is almost within reach. The same
combination in the US which would cost about $10,400.
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/pr/pr122.htm
(TOP)
Green cars in U.S.
The greenest cars sold in the
U.S. are both made by Honda, says the American Council for an Energy-Efficient
Economy in its annual guide to cars and trucks. The groups ranked more
than 1,000 vehicles in the model year 2001 and found that the Honda Civic GX,
which runs on compressed natural gas, and the Honda Insight, a gas-electric
hybrid, were the most environmental on the road. The hybrid Toyota Prius
came in third. The GMC Sierra, Dodge Ram Pickup, and the Ford Excursion,
as well as a Ferrari sports car, brought up the rear.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/02/08/green.cars/index.html
London, United Kingdom, 16
February (ENS) - The United Kingdom's nuclear power generator, British Energy,
is to begin developing large scale offshore wind power in a joint venture with
Renewable Energy Systems, one of the largest wind energy companies in Europe.
Friends of the Earth hailed
Thursday's announcement as "a victory for common sense." …
The announcement follows last
December's opening of the Blyth Offshore Wind Project in northeastern England.
The £4 million (US$5.8 million) project one kilometer off Blyth Harbor is not
only the largest ever erected offshore but the first to be built in such a
demanding position, subject to the full forces of the North Sea.
The project was developed by
Blyth Offshore Wind Limited, a consortium of Powergen Renewables, Shell, Nuon
and AMEC Border Wind. Work started in July, with Danish wind energy company
Vestas, AMEC Marine, Seacore and Global Marine Systems as the main contractors.
(TOP)
China: reusable chopsticks in restaurants
6 February - More than 100
state-owned restaurants in Beijing promised this month to "go green"
and start washing and reusing chopsticks. The federal government in China
is considering a tax on disposable chopsticks, and Shanghai and other cities
are considering a ban on them.
Environmentalists say the
changes indicate that Chinese citizens are beginning to realize that their consumer
decisions affect the environment. China currently discards about 45
billion pairs of chopsticks every year, coming from as many as 25 million
trees. Kang Dahu, a 22-year volunteer with green groups, said, "Just
imagine, years from now, when my grandchildren ask me what happened to all of
China's trees, I'll have to say, 'We made them into chopsticks.' Isn't that
pitiful?"
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3296-2001Jan30.html
Environmental groups ads
To maintain public interest
and grow their membership lists, environmental groups are having to become
increasingly sophisticated marketers. For example, the Nature Conservancy
is spending $1 million to pilot TV and print ads featuring Paul Newman in
Portland, Ore., Denver, Colo., and Charlotte, N.C. The National Wildlife
Federation recently joined McDonald's for a Happy Meals promotion. NWF also
lent its name to a promotion with BP/Amoco gas stations -- when customers
purchased at least eight gallons of gas, they could also get stuffed animals
(Endangered Wildlife Friends!) with the NWF logo and the message that fossil
fuel companies contribute to global warming.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/01/02/lc_21brand05.frame
Mercury assessment among key
decisions taken at end of UNEP Governing Council
Nairobi, 9 February - A global
study on the health and environmental impacts of mercury is to be undertaken by
the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), it was announced today.
The study, which will also
undertake an assessment of the cost effectiveness of mercury anti-pollution
measures and technologies, was one of several important decisions adopted at
the close of the 21st session of UNEP's Governing Council.
It was also decided "to
establish an open-ended intergovernmental group of ministers or their
representatives" to examine how to strengthen international environmental
governance and the funding of UNEP in the run up to the World Summit on
Sustainable Development to be held in 2002 in Johannesburg.
The first meeting of the new
group will take place within three months and is likely to coincide with the
meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development taking place in New York
in April.
Explore the virtual
environmental reality on UNEP dot net
Nairobi - 8 February - The
launch today by UNEP of a new
interactive environmental Web site (http://www.unep.net) known as
"UNEP dot net" will provide an expanded series of environmental
management solutions. The network portal will offer a forum for
scientific, technical peer review; provision of insights on environmental
issues to the global community; and exchange of ideas, information and
data.
Developed with industry,
academic, government, and NGO partners, UNEP.Net is an Internet-based
environmental information network, or meta-system (system of systems).
This will bring together new integrated information frameworks and harmonized,
readily accessible data sets to support assessment and decision-making across
the international system, including UNEP's own assessment activities. It
will also reduce national reporting burdens.
Sao Paulo, Brazil, 16 February
(ENS) - Shell Chemicals of Brazil was ordered yesterday by the Sao Paulo State
Environmental Protection Agency to clean up an area 90 kilometers (56 miles)
east of Sao Paulo where it manufactured toxic pesticides during the 1970s and
1980s.
The company has been given 30
days by the Sao Paulo State Environmental Protection Agency to present a
decontamination plan for the pesticides aldrin, dieldrin and endrin that are
poisoning the water and soil at the site. The mayor of Paulinia, the town where
the pesticides plant is located, has been requested by his environmental
secretary to evacuate the area.
Shell admitted that it had
contaminated the groundwater and community on February 8, sixteen years after
the pesticide plant closed.
http://www.oneworld.net/anydoc2.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fens%2Elycos%2Ecom%2F
Greenpeace: nuclear-free
Tasman flotilla 2001
Sidney - A flotilla of seven
yachts from Australia and New Zealand left port on February 18, 2001 to sail to
the north-west Tasman Sea where they will protest the use of the Tasman and the
Pacific Ocean as a nuclear highway for plutonium ships to Japan.. "We are
trying to stop these shipments from taking place worldwide and to break the
nuclear cycle that the world is locked into," said Henk Haazen, skipper of
Tiama
www.nuclearfree.co.nz
The governments of many
countries oppose these plutonium and nuclear waste shipments from Europe to
Japan. These shipments pose significant risks to the environment and people’s
health along the transport route. While dozens of costal nations will be
endangered by the shipments, their governments have not been consulted about
the rout, security arrangements, or emergency planning details.
www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/transport/mox00/
New
fishing net may help keep ocean creatures
Most fishing gear isn’t
discriminating when it comes to catching seafood: globally, the annual amount
of such bycatch is more than 44 billion pounds, about 80,000 cetaceans and
seabirds and marine turtles are unintentionally caught worldwide every year.
The new net (developed by
Atlantic Gillnet of Gloucester, Massachusetts) that looks and feels like a
normal gillnet has a substance — barium sulphate — added to the nylon that
reflects sound in ranges used by echo-locating animals, limiting the catch of
non-targeted fish A tinted-blue version of the net has the added benefit of
reducing the numbers of seabirds caught, according to Edward Trippel, research
scientist with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans at St. Andrews Biological Station,
“ It might turn out to be a
global solution” says researcher David Potter with the National
Marine Fisheries Service.
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/02/02192001/gillnets_41948.asp
Windmills to power Australian
Antarctic bases
Australian
Antarctic Division scientists plan to power their Antarctic bases with giant
windmills, and says that if the wind turbines survive the freezing environment,
wind power could replace conventional diesel powered generators at all
Antarctic bases.
Several Antarctic
bases have small wind turbines for recharging batteries and these generate only
around 10 kilowatts of power, while Australia's planned giant windmills would
generate 280 kilowatts each.
"In terms of
annual wind, that is probably the best in the world. There are high constant
winds" the division's Peter Magill said.
http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/02/02142001/reu_wind_42004.asp
New from the Office of
Pesticide Programs
Pesticide Tolerance
Reassessment and Reregistration - EPA (Office of Pesticide Programs) is
reviewing older pesticides (those initially registered prior to November 1984)
under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to ensure
that they meet current scientific and regulatory standards. This process,
called reregistration, considers the human health and ecological effects of
pesticides and results in actions to reduce risks that are of concern.
http://www.epa.gov/epahome/whatsnew.htm
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/op/
Hazardous waste ship blocked: asbestos on
board
16 February
- The Netherlands has prevented a Mauritius-flagged vessel from leaving
the country on suspicion that it would sail to India for scrapping. The
Sandrien, a 560-foot-long cargo carrier used to transport chemicals and
molasses, contains asbestos, heavy metals and other toxic materials. The
environment ministry claims that if the ship was allowed to sail, it would
breach a 1999 European Union regulation implementing the 1995 United Nations
Basel convention ban on industrialized states exporting hazardous waste to developing
countries. This case sends a clear message to the shipping industry that it cannot
dump its toxic ships on Asia
http://www.msnbc.com/news/531882.asp
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Financial sector workforce hit by mergers and acquisitions
"Human Factor" is key element in
success rates for merged companies
Geneva, 5 February
- The decade long wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that is
reshaping the world's banking and financial service sectors is accelerating
aggregate employment declines in an industry that was traditionally
characterized by stable and even lifetime employment, according to an ILO
report* released in Geneva today for a tripartite meeting of
industry experts. In spite of the vast scale of M&A activity during the
last decade, the report notes that "two-thirds of M&As fail to achieve
their objectives," despite the often massive job losses and organizational
restructuring they entail.
All too often, the report says, the sought after
benefits of greater size and efficiency risk being “nullified by increased complexity and losses related
to top-heavy organisations, while the difficulties of adequately blending
cultural and other human factors in the integration of combined enterprises are
often underestimated”.
The report attributes much of the foundering of
M&A expectations to shortcomings in dealing with the human resource fallout
of redundancies, which may seriously undermine operational capabilities and
employee morale. Among the consequences of heightened merger activity for the
financial sector workforce that survives the restructuring, the report cites
"reduced job security, increased workloads, anxiety and stress," all
of which can impinge negatively on performance in an intensely competitive work
climate.
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2001/06.htm
Vienna, 2 February - A new UN public service
announcement spotlights the harsh reality behind human traffickers' promises to
young women of attractive jobs in other countries. The video spot, created by
the Vienna-based UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), uses
powerful music and images of women from several countries to underscore the
many dangers of what some experts refer to as "modern-day slavery".
According to ODCCP, more than 700,000 women and
children are bought and sold every year for sexual exploitation and forced
labour. The traffickers, often tied to organized crime groups, prey on a lack
of awareness and dreams of a better life. From Himalayan villages to East
European cities, women and girls are enticed by the prospect of a well-paid job
abroad as a domestic servant, waitress or factory worker. The ODCCP spot shows
what many women soon discover -- their documents are taken away, they are
"kept in line" with violence and threats and most or all of the money
they make is taken by their criminal "owners”.
Two video clips ( 30 and 60 seconds) can be viewed and
ordered for broadcast at:
www.odccp.org
http://www.undcp.org/press_release_2001-02-02_1.html
UNESCO Director-General stresses role of data-sharing
and education in environmental preservation
Nairobi (Kenya), 9 February - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today stressed the importance of education and of scientific information-sharing to bolster the political will required to meet the challenges of environmental protection, in an address to the 21st session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council and Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nairobi.
Before reviewing UNESCO’s activities and co-operation with UNEP in
environmental protection, Mr Matsuura observed that ten years after the Earth
Summit in Rio, the world’s nations had not done what they had undertaken to do
for the environment. He explained that “insufficient political will and at
times hesitant citizen involvement” play an important role in this failure and
stressed the “need for greater efforts in favour of education and
information.”
http://www.unesco.org/opi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-20e.shtml
Director-General stresses role of peace education at
inauguration of UNESCO chair at University of Ulster
Paris, 7 February - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro
Matsuura today emphasized the importance of education in building peace and
democracy at the formal inauguration of the UNESCO Chair in Education for
Pluralism, Human Rights and Democracy at the University of Ulster at Coleraine
on the last day of his first official visit to the United Kingdom since he took
office in November 1999.
At the inauguration, held in the presence of Sean
Farren, Minister of Higher Education of Northern Ireland, Mr Matsuura expressed
satisfaction over the activities of the Chair which started operating over a
year ago, saying it has been “providing relevant educational support for the peace process in Northern
Ireland, and promoting international links and contributing to weaving a
worldwide network towards a culture of peace.” But he insisted that “to secure peace is not only to prevent new conflicts
but also to overcome the fissures of past wars.”
Mr Matsuura said it is UNESCO’s duty “to encourage peace-building from the foundations up,
by favouring the emergence of a true culture of peace among citizens whose
legitimate differences are recognized and appreciated, while their equal and
absolutely essential human dignity is affirmed.”
http://www.unesco.org/opi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-19e.shtml
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The building of a just and peaceful world is
man’s duty, just as its destruction could be determined by man.
In a democratic environment which tends to
assign to the citizen-elector a growing responsibility for the directions of
social development, the formation of a public opinion which is widely aware of
the main events that happen in the world is the key for directing the efforts
of humanity towards a global village based on unity in diversity and on
sharing, fundamental qualities for the development of a responsible and
sustainable social life.
In this perspective, the importance of the
media is fundamental and the consequent social responsibility of editors cannot
be based any longer on the only element which has so far been unquestioned: the
search for company profits through the maximum possible diffusion of the media.
This aim has so far prevailed over every other consideration, thus taking from
the media the responsibility for the formation of an aware and balanced public
opinion.
In pursuing the maximum possible company
profits, the media have placed the accent on the dissemination of sensational
and dramatic news, which appeal to the characteristics of a public seen as a
tangled mass of emotions and mortify the interest of another part of the
public, which has a quite different vision of life and of the information which
describes it. This situation in the world of information is the most obvious
evidence of a human activity which, with some enlightened exceptions,
sacrifices quality and balance on the
altar of quantity and immediate profit, ignoring those responsibilities of an ethical
kind which that very activity of itself implicitly confers.
Today, however, the media cannot continue any
longer to overlook the positive and constructive occurrences among that
part of humanity - estimated at between
10 and 15 percent of the citizen-elector-contributors in the developed
countries - which has by now adopted a social behaviour in harmony with the
fundamental values of a fair and sustainable social development. To give voice
also to the events which indicate in the world the response of humanity to the
greatest problems of our time is a responsibility of the media which can no
longer be put off, in order to allow public opinion to be formed on the basis
of a range of information corresponding to all aspects of the reality in which
we live.
Therefore, as is the custom for many other
categories of great importance in social life, the public opinion consisting of
that 10-15 percent of the population orientated towards the construction of a
just and sustainable global village asks the media to adopt and respect the
deontological code here laid down.
Deontological
Code of the Media
1.
It is the moral responsibility of the media to pursue the aim of disseminating
information on every aspect of the reality in which we live.
2.
The media must disseminate information with respect and consideration for all
the public.
3.
The information should be organized by distributing the “weight” of the
different sectors so as to respect the right to knowledge of important social
groups.
4.
The information must reflect reality with a variety of news which mirrors the
components of reality itself to the extent to which they define it.
5. The information must seek, as far as possible, the causes of the events in the determining behaviour of man.
6.
The media have the privilege and the task of also setting the events reported
in the context of their correspondence to the principles of responsibility and
the search for the common good.
7.
It is the privilege, task and responsibility of the media to do their best to
emphasize the connections between the most significant world events.
The Deontological Code of the Media will be
presented to the publishers of the world’s press, radio and television when it
has been signed by a large number of signatories belonging to:
-
organizations of the United Nations;
-
non-governmental organizations;
-
voluntary service associations;
-
journalists for whom the mandate of the editor represents a restraint;
-
enlightened editors who have already showed agreement with the values
of the Code.
To express your agreement with this initiative,
include your data here below and send this page to Good News Agency,
s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
I support
the Deontological Code of the Media:
Name and surname
Organization (name and address, also e-mail)
Date
*******
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