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GS(3) Intel Brief 9-5-06: Resource-Rich, Ethical Norway is Model, Over-Population in Uganda, Chinese Build Eco-Cities, Australian Water Woes, Murder in Kazakhstan, Paper Pulp Industry Threatens Argentina & Paraguay, Syrian Cyber Dissidents Jailed & Tortured, Climate Change Demands Adaptation, Pervasive Corruption in Water Management
Edited By Richard Power
Here are highlights from a collection of twelve news stories and op-ed pieces, from nine diverse, international news sources: Inter Press Service, Der Spiegel, Eurasianet, EU Observer, Economist, Independent, Guardian, OneWorld.net, and Reporters Without Borders. These pieces provide insight on important global issues and trends, including ethical investing, sustainability, over-population, travel security, energy security, environmental security, human rights, corruption and global warming.
(NOTE: I continue to monitor developments in regard to the genocide in Darfur, the spread of bird flu and the struggle over the disputed results of the Mexican presidential election. I will post updates as circumstances dictate.)
Here is a summary. Longer excerpts and links follow below.
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Europe, Middle East & Africa
Norway is rich in oil and natural gas. But it's also a resource success story that could provide a model for other nations. The country invests the lion's share of its oil riches in programs aimed at improving the lives of everyday Norwegians.
Norway is investing its oil money to ensure the prosperity of future generations…. (Der Spiegel, 8-31-06_
The Portuguese recycle the smallest percentage of their rubbish, according to the results of a survey by the British Institute for Public Policy Research. The survey - which only covers the 15 member states before EU enlargement mainly to the east in 2004 - shows that Portuguese recycle three percent of their rubbish. Other recycling laggards are the Greeks at eight percent and Britons at 18 percent….(EU Observer, 8-28-06)
There are 27.7 million people in Uganda. But by 2025 the population will almost double to 56 million, close to that of Britain, which has a similar land mass. In 44 years its population will have grown by nearly as much as China's. (Guardian, 8-25-06)
Asia Pacific
The world's driest inhabited continent, Australia is facing water shortages unprecedented in the two centuries since Europeans settled it. There is a long-running drought in the country's east, the main farming belt. Sydney, the biggest city, whose main supply reservoir is just 40% full, and Canberra, the capital, are both on indefinite water restrictions. (Economist, 8-31-06)
British engineers will this week sign a multi-billion contract with the Chinese authorities to design and build a string of 'eco-cities' - self-sustaining urban centres the size of a large western capital - in the booming country. Arup, the London-based consulting firm that has already signed up for one such project near Shanghai, will announce it has clinched a deal to extend the concept into a string of cities around China. The eco-cities are regarded both as a prototype for urban living in over-populated and polluted environments and as a magnet for investment funds into the rapidly growing Chinese economy….(Guardian/Observer, 11-6-05)
The violent death of a French researcher in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital in early August has focused an international spotlight on the crime situation in the Central Asian nation. Gregoire de Bourgues, a freelancer for a Greece-based communications firm, was found dead in his rented apartment in central Almaty on August 2....De Bourgues had been in Kazakhstan for several months performing economic research….(Eurasianet, 8-15-06)
Americas
A million-barrel a day oil deal and a promise by China to back Venezuela's bid to join the United Nations security council were the main fruits of a week of meetings in Beijing, ending with talks between Hugo Chávez and the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, yesterday. The warming of relations reflects a shift in global diplomacy as China seeks energy resources to fuel its economy and Mr Chávez attempts to build alliances with nations threatened by US power, including Iran, Syria and North Korea…(Guardian, 8-26-06)
Over the next few decades, there will be significant pressure to expand tree plantations and pulp factories to reach large-scale production in South America….Greenpeace describes the paper pulp industry as "voracious and devastating to natural resources" with the methods it currently uses....Greenpeace says this is the time for Argentina and Uruguay to establish strict environmental standards and guidelines for the development of the industry, in order to ward off the environmental disaster that could occur in the event of uncontrolled expansion of the industry.... (Inter Press Service 8-30-06)
Global
Frances Cairncross, who chairs the Economic and Social Research Council, dismissed the Kyoto agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions as "largely ineffectual". To a large extent, global warming was an inevitable reality the world was going to have to cope with, she told the BA Festival of Science in Norwich.
"Adaptation policies have had far less attention than mitigation, and that is a mistake," she said. "We need to think now about policies that prepare for a hotter, drier world, especially in poorer countries. That may involve, for instance, developing new crops, constructing flood defences, setting different building regulations, or banning building close to sea level." (Independent, 9-4-06)
Expressing concern over the "pervasiveness of corruption" in the management of water, a coalition of six international non-governmental organisations has created a new global anti-corruption watchdog body: the Water Integrity Network (WIN)…."At a time when we are talking about increasing investments to expand water supplies and water resources, we also have indications that about 25 to 30 percent of state budgets on water investments are lost due to corruption," Hakan Tropp, WIN's interim chair, told IPS....(Inter Press Service, 8-22-06)
Marking the International Day of the Disappeared, United Nations officials joined international human rights groups Wednesday to draw attention to the plight of the thousands of people around the world who have been seized and imprisoned without recourse to their families or lawyers….Since its creation in 1980, the Geneva-based U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has submitted more than 50,000 individual cases to governments in more than 90 countries….(OneWorld.net, 8-31-06)
Cyberspace
“Syria, which is on our list of the Internet’s 15 ‘black holes,’ is getting tougher with people who express dissident views online,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Four cyber-dissidents have been arrested, arbitrarily detained and tortured in the past three years. President Bashar al-Assad has become the Middle East’s worst Internet predator.” (Reporters Without Borders, 8-30-06)
Europe, Middle East & Africa
Norway is rich in oil and natural gas. But it's also a resource success story that could provide a model for other nations. The country invests the lion's share of its oil riches in programs aimed at improving the lives of everyday Norwegians.
Norway is investing its oil money to ensure the prosperity of future generations….The central bank administers the country's pension fund, which is financed mainly by Norway's booming oil and natural gas industries. As the world's third-largest oil exporter, the fund has a king's ransom at its disposal. The last time the the books were balanced, the fund disposed of €196 billion ($250 billion) in assets. Analysts predict it will grow this year to become the second-largest pension fund in the world. Roughly four percent of the fund's financial resources have gone into the state budget every year since 2001. The money is used to cover shortages and finance projects that benefit the well-being of country's citizens. Most of the remaining sums are invested for future generations -- for the time when Norway's oil and natural gas reserves will have been used up. The fund is responsible for no less than 0.3 percent of all the stocks traded worldwide, it holds shares in more than 3,200 corporations and its portfolio reads like a "Who's Who" guide to the world of international investment….In November 2004, the government established ethical guidelines for the investment policy of its pension fund. Since then, an Ethical Council has overseen the various investments and separated the good from the bad. Seven corporations -- among them BAE Systems, Boeing and Honeywell -- were recently removed from the portfolio. Norwegian stocks worth 3.3 million Norwegian krona or €420 million ($535 million) have been sold as part of the ethical clean-up effort. The corporations were blacklisted because of their involvement in arms production -- for producing components that go into the production of nuclear weapons that clash with the "fundamental humanitarian principles" of the Norwegian codex. Overall, 17 arms corporations have been declared off limits by Norway's ethics guardians. Manfred Ertel, INVESTING IN ETHICS: The Norwegian Model, Der Spiegel, 8-31-06
The Portuguese recycle the smallest percentage of their rubbish, according to the results of a survey by the British Institute for Public Policy Research. The survey - which only covers the 15 member states before EU enlargement mainly to the east in 2004 - shows that Portuguese recycle three percent of their rubbish. Other recycling laggards are the Greeks at eight percent and Britons at 18 percent. At the other end of the scale, the Dutch recycle 65 percent of their waste, followed by the Austrians at 59 percent and the Germans at 58 percent. The report's authors note that in countries like Germany where some local areas charge per kilo of waste not recycled, regional collection of recyclable materials goes up to more than 65 per cent. The Irish, who rank around the middle in terms of how much they recycle (31 percent) produce the most rubbish per head - clocking in 869 kg per person each year. Their nearest waste-producing rivals are the Danes at 696 kg per head. The Greeks produce less than half of the rubbish produced by the Irish with 433 kg per capita. The full report is to be published in autumn and is based on figures from 2003/2004. Honor Mahony, Portuguese worst at recycling, study shows, EU Observer, 8-28-06
There are 27.7 million people in Uganda. But by 2025 the population will almost double to 56 million, close to that of Britain, which has a similar land mass. In 44 years its population will have grown by nearly as much as China's. "You look at these numbers and think 'that's impossible'," said Carl Haub, senior demographer at the US-based Population Reference Bureau, whose latest global projections show Uganda as the fastest growing country in the world. Midway through the 21st century Uganda will be the world's 12th most populous country with 130 million people - more than Russia or Japan….Across much of sub-Saharan Africa the population is expanding so quickly that the demographic map of the earth is changing. In the rest of world, including developing nations in Asia and South America, fertility rates have steadily declined to an average of 2.3 children to each mother....Part of the reason is cultural, with bigger families seen as a sign of security. It is also because of fears of high levels of infant mortality. Stigmas about birth control are another factor....For that, donors must share in the blame, said Steven Sinding, director-general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. He said the world had declared premature victory in the battle to cut fertility rates. Curbing population growth is not one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals, which aim to halve poverty by 2015, and barely features in the Commission for Africa report championed by Tony Blair. "In sub-Saharan Africa population remains a very serious problem," said Mr Sinding. "Yet donors have completely shifted their focus to HIV/Aids and nobody is talking about it any more. Population is off the development agenda and that's a tragedy for Africa." Xan Rice, Population Explosion Threatens to Trap Africa in Cycle of Poverty, World's poorest nations set to triple in size, Uganda leads growth that can change face of earth, Guardian, 8-25-06
Asia Pacific
IF HE wins re-election on September 9th, Peter Beattie, Queensland's premier, has promised to hold a referendum on whether to turn sewage effluent into drinking water. As campaign pledges go, this is hardly appetising. Yet it illustrates the increasing prominence of water, or the lack of it, in Australian politics. So does the timing of the poll, which Mr Beattie was careful to call shortly before summer brings yet more water restrictions to Queensland's densely populated south-east. The world's driest inhabited continent, Australia is facing water shortages unprecedented in the two centuries since Europeans settled it. There is a long-running drought in the country's east, the main farming belt. Sydney, the biggest city, whose main supply reservoir is just 40% full, and Canberra, the capital, are both on indefinite water restrictions. The Murray River and Darling River (known as the Murray Darling Basin, or MDB), which supply more than two-thirds of Australia's farming irrigation, are flowing at their lowest levels in a century. Dry as a dead dingo's donger, Fear over water security is increasingly dominating Australian elections, Economist, 8-31-06
British engineers will this week sign a multi-billion contract with the Chinese authorities to design and build a string of 'eco-cities' - self-sustaining urban centres the size of a large western capital - in the booming country. Arup, the London-based consulting firm that has already signed up for one such project near Shanghai, will announce it has clinched a deal to extend the concept into a string of cities around China. The eco-cities are regarded both as a prototype for urban living in over-populated and polluted environments and as a magnet for investment funds into the rapidly growing Chinese economy….Peter Head, the Arup director in charge of the first eco-city, at Dongtan near Shanghai, said: 'We are going to help establish a model of how a sustainable city works, but it must also be a viable financial proposition in the long term to attract international investment.' The Dongtan development, on an island in the mouth of the Yangtze river near Shanghai, aims to build a city three-quarters the size of Manhattan by 2040. The first phase will accommodate some 50,000 people. It is on target to be open by the time of the Shanghai Expo trade fair in 2010. Up to four more eco-cities will be built, though exact locations have not yet been revealed. Experts believe that the real challenge will be to build them in China's interior, in regions that have been polluted by heavy industry and depopulated by the movement of millions of Chinese people to the booming Pacific coast....Frank Kane, British to help China build 'eco-cities', Guardian/Observer, 11-6-05
The violent death of a French researcher in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital in early August has focused an international spotlight on the crime situation in the Central Asian nation. Gregoire de Bourgues, a freelancer for a Greece-based communications firm, was found dead in his rented apartment in central Almaty on August 2....De Bourgues had been in Kazakhstan for several months performing economic research. As details of the killing emerged, some observers voiced concern that the circumstances suggested more than a casual attack. De Bourgues was attacked at his home by three men, two of them masked. His interpreter was also present and survived the incident. Reports suggested that de Bourgues had been subjected to considerable violence before being killed. The murder was carried out with "particular cruelty", reported Adil Soz, an NGO promoting freedom of speech in Kazakhstan....The director of Kazakhstan’s Journalists in Danger foundation, Rozlana Taukina, remains unconvinced that the root cause of de Bourgues’ death was robbery. Citing a conversation with a source familiar with de Bourgues’ activities, Taukina suggested that the French researcher had perhaps uncovered potentially explosive information concerning the deaths of two prominent Kazakhstani politicians, Zamanbek Nurkadilov and Altynbek Sarsenbayev....De Bourgues worked on a contract basis for SML Strategic Media, a communications firm based in Athens, Greece. His assignment in Almaty involved preparing a two-part advertising insert highlighting Kazakhstan’s economic growth and investment potential...There is no tangible evidence that de Bourgues had been researching controversial material....Joanna Lillis, FRENCH RESEARCHER’S MURDER FOCUSES ATTENTION ON CRIME CONDITIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN, Eurasianet, 8-15-06
Americas
China and Venezuela, two of the biggest nations on Washington's worry list, drew closer together yesterday with the signing of trade agreements that the Venezuelan president called a "Great Wall" against American hegemonism.
A million-barrel a day oil deal and a promise by China to back Venezuela's bid to join the United Nations security council were the main fruits of a week of meetings in Beijing, ending with talks between Hugo Chávez and the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, yesterday. The warming of relations reflects a shift in global diplomacy as China seeks energy resources to fuel its economy and Mr Chávez attempts to build alliances with nations threatened by US power, including Iran, Syria and North Korea. China agreed to increase its imports of Venezuelan oil, refined fuels and a hydrocarbon called Orimulsion from the current 160,000 barrels a day to 500,000 by 2009 and a million by 2016. This is crucial for China, which is the world's second largest oil user after the US. From being a net exporter of oil little more than a decade ago, the world's most populous and fastest growing economy is increasingly dependent on overseas supplies. It uses about 7.4m barrels a day, up half a million from last year. It has strengthened ties with suppliers Iran and Sudan, and made deals with Canada...Mr Chávez sparked controversy during the visit when he weighed in on the war in Lebanon, saying Israeli leaders should be prosecuted for genocide. "Israel is doing the same thing as Hitler today," he said. "We give our sympathy to the Arab people and condemn Israel." Jonathan Watts, Chávez says China deal 'great wall' against US. Venezuela to supply a million barrels of oil a day, Beijing scrambling to feed energy-hungry economy, Guardian, 8-26-06
The situation in the global market for paper and the expansion of pulp production to Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay are the focus of the first part of the three-part report presented Wednesday in Buenos Aires, "The Escalation of Cellulose in the Region: Dirty Industry or Clean Production". Over the next few decades, there will be significant pressure to expand tree plantations and pulp factories to reach large-scale production in South America, warns the report, which is available in Spanish. Greenpeace describes the paper pulp industry as "voracious and devastating to natural resources" with the methods it currently uses. The production of cellulose or pulp, the raw material used to make paper, requires enormous quantities of water and energy, as well as vast extensions of land for monoculture tree plantations of fast-growing species, the environmental watchdog points out. The industry puts pressure on native forests, while releasing huge volumes of pollutants into the environment....The Greenpeace report goes on to discuss the conditions in which pulp and paper plants currently operate in Argentina and Uruguay, neighbouring countries that are involved in an ongoing dispute over the construction of two large cellulose factories on the Uruguayan side of a border river....Greenpeace says this is the time for Argentina and Uruguay to establish strict environmental standards and guidelines for the development of the industry, in order to ward off the environmental disaster that could occur in the event of uncontrolled expansion of the industry....Global paper consumption rose from 300 to 366 million tons a year from 2000 to 2005, and is expected to climb to 566 million by 2020, says the report…Marcela Valente, Writing on the Wall for Paper Industry, Inter Press Service 8-30-06
Global
Frances Cairncross, who chairs the Economic and Social Research Council, dismissed the Kyoto agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions as "largely ineffectual". To a large extent, global warming was an inevitable reality the world was going to have to cope with, she told the BA Festival of Science in Norwich.
"Adaptation policies have had far less attention than mitigation, and that is a mistake," she said. ".We need to think now about policies that prepare for a hotter, drier world, especially in poorer countries. That may involve, for instance, developing new crops, constructing flood defences, setting different building regulations, or banning building close to sea level."
Ms Cairncross was addressing the meeting at the University of East Anglia in her capacity as this year's president of the BA - the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
She pointed out that greenhouse emissions would have to be slashed by 60 per cent to stop levels of global warming gases increasing.
"That's simply not going to happen," she said….She told the meeting: "There are two main ways we can respond to climate change: we can adapt, or we can try to slow the process. In practice, we will do both. But adaptation to climate change has had relatively little discussion."
To ensure successful environmental policies, the current generation would have to make sacrifices for its descendants, she said. John Von Radowitz, Adapt to Climate Change, World Leaders Warned, Independent, 9-4-06
Expressing concern over the "pervasiveness of corruption" in the management of water, a coalition of six international non-governmental organisations has created a new global anti-corruption watchdog body: the Water Integrity Network (WIN). Launched Tuesday during "World Water Week" in the Swedish capital, the network vows to root out unethical behaviour by promoting good governance and transparency in the water sector. "At a time when we are talking about increasing investments to expand water supplies and water resources, we also have indications that about 25 to 30 percent of state budgets on water investments are lost due to corruption," Hakan Tropp, WIN's interim chair, told IPS....In a 37-page report released Tuesday, Janelle Plummer and Piers Cross of the Water and Sanitation Programme Africa say "petty corruption" involves a vast number of officials who abuse public office by extracting small bribes and favours while "grand corruption" involves the misuse of vast amounts of public sector funds by a relatively small number of officials....The study, titled "Tackling Corruption in the Water and Sanitation Sector in Africa" and released in Stockholm, says corruption involves a vast range of stakeholders: donor representatives, private companies, multinational corporations, national and local construction companies, consultancy firms and suppliers, large- and small-scale operators, middle men, consumers, national and sub-national politicians, and all grades of civil servants and utility staff....Water House says that corruption affects the governance of water by affecting who gets what water when, where and how. "Corruption worsens the world water crisis and evidence suggests that the costs are disproportionately borne by the poor and by the environment," the study says. Thalif Deen, Dirty Water Deals Cheat the Poor, Inter Press Service, 8-22-06
Marking the International Day of the Disappeared, United Nations officials joined international human rights groups Wednesday to draw attention to the plight of the thousands of people around the world who have been seized and imprisoned without recourse to their families or lawyers. "Enforced disappearance is a crime under international human rights law and -- when it occurs in war -- under international humanitarian law. It is tantamount to deleting a person's very existence and denies him or her the basic protection of the law to which every man and woman, irrespective of guilt or innocence, is entitled," said Philip Spoerri, director of law at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)….Since its creation in 1980, the Geneva-based U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has submitted more than 50,000 individual cases to governments in more than 90 countries. "The working group is deeply concerned about the large number of reports of enforced disappearances that have been submitted over the past year," it said in a statement....It stressed that "anti-terrorist" activities "are being used by an increasing number of States as an excuse for not respecting the obligations of the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance" adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1992....Mithre J. Sandrasagra, Vanished, But Not Forgotten, OneWorld.net, 8-31-06
Cyberspace
Reporters Without Borders today called for the release of Ali Sayed al-Shihabi (photo), a 50-year-old English teacher who was arrested on 10 August for posting articles on far-left websites and who is still being held by the security services without being able to see his family. Two other cyber-dissidents are currently imprisoned in Syria. The press freedom organisation also voiced dismay on learning that cyber-journalist Massoud Hamid has not been allowed to resume his journalism studies since his release five weeks ago on completing a three-year jail term for posting photos of a demonstration on the Internet.
“Syria, which is on our list of the Internet’s 15 ‘black holes,’ is getting tougher with people who express dissident views online,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Four cyber-dissidents have been arrested, arbitrarily detained and tortured in the past three years. President Bashar al-Assad has become the Middle East’s worst Internet predator.”
In the months before his arrest, Shihabi had been questioned several times by the security services about the articles he was posting on the Internet, especially on the far-left website www.rezgar.com. When his wife tried to visit him at the Kafr Soussa detention centre, officials told her she was not allowed to see him but she could bring him some of his personal effects.
problems and pains in his feet as a result of being tortured while in prison. Cyber-dissident held for past 20 days, while another prevented from resuming studies after release, Reporters Without Borders, 8-30-06
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Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net
Global Warming Norway Syria Sustainability Water Management China Central Asia Climate Change Environmental Security Africa Europe Uganda Geopolitics, Kazakhstan, Energy Security, Australia, Eco-Cities, Dissent, Information Warfare, Corruption, Portugal, Recycling, Ethical Investing, Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Reporters Without Borders, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Grenpeace, Paper Pulp Industry, Der Spiegel
