Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Overfishing Threatens Malawi’s Blue Economy Mabvuto Banda Lake Malawi, Africa’s third largest lake, provides an economic lifeline to many fishing families. But overfishing is affecting many of these lives, with women being affected the most. The lake, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, has the largest number of endemic ... MORE > >

Human Trafficking - Hidden in Plain Sight Romy Hawatt The media globally tends to have a bias to negative, sensational and headline grabbing stories and events and this certainly applies to reporting related to human trafficking in the third world. With the abundance of stories around sweat shops, massage parlours and organ trafficking networks ... MORE > >

Nigerian Radio Drama Tells True Life Stories of Irregular Migration Sam Olukoya The International Organization for Migration has taken its campaign against irregular migration to the airwaves in Nigeria. Working in conjunction with some Nigerian radio stations, the United Nations Migration Agency has launched a radio series on safe migration. The programme, which includes ... MORE > >

Ghana’s Contribution to Plastic Waste Can Be Reduced with the Right Investment Albert Oppong-Ansah Twelve-year-old Naa Adjeley lives in Glefe, a waterlogged area that is one of the biggest slums along the west coast of Accra, Ghana. The sixth grade student, his parents and three siblings use 30 single-use plastic bags per day for breakfast. When they finish eating the balls of ‘kenkey’, fried ... MORE > >

Mercury Contamination Threat Gravitates into Outer Space Thalif Deen The dangers of mercury contamination have escalated from the dental chair to the realm of outer space. First, it was the hazardous use of mercury in dentistry, then in cosmetics, particularly skin-lightening creams, and now it is threatening to make its way into satellite propulsion ... MORE > >

Stemming Waste of Human Talent Farhana Haque Rahman The year now closing, 2018, culminates an extraordinary period in the quest for a world where sexual harassment and assault are, as the words indicate they should be, rare and punished. Farhana Haque RahmanThe star of this phase was no doubt the #MeToo hashtag popularized by Alyssa Milano, an ... MORE > >

For Love of the Game: Using Football to Educate Nigerians About the Dangers of Irregular Migration Sam Olukoya Hundreds of desperate young Nigerians die yearly in the Sahara Desert or at sea while making irregular journeys to Europe. The desperation to reach Europe at all cost, irrespective of the risks, is a major social problem in Africa’s most populous country. Besides the desire for Europe, ... MORE > >

Restoring Ghana's Mangroves and Depleted Fish Stock Albert Oppong-Ansah It was just three and a half years ago that the Sanwoma fishing village, which sits between the sea and the mouth of the Ankobra River on the west coast of Ghana, experienced perpetual flooding that resulted in a loss of property and life. This was because the local mangrove forests that play a ... MORE > >

Global Pact Gives Dignity and Rights to Latin American Migrants Orlando Milesi A landmark global migration pact provides dignity and rights to migrants in every situation and context, stressed representatives of non-governmental organisations in Latin America and the Caribbean, where some 30 million people live outside their countries, forced by economic, social, security, ... MORE > >

As Climate Change Pummels Agriculture, Irrigation Offers the Best Protection Busani Bafana The changing climate and extreme weather events are affecting agricultural productivity in Africa to such an extent that a panel of experts are urging governments to prioritise and invest in irrigation to ensure food security. Increased heat spells, coupled with flash flooding and frequent ... MORE > >

Of Cockroaches and Humans Roberto Savio Rita Levi-Montalcini, the Italian Nobel laureate honoured for her work in neurobiology, once gave a splendid conference with the title “The imperfect brain”. There she explained that man has a brain that is not used completely, while the reverse is true for the cockroach. In the growing fog ... MORE > >

Is it Time to End Cheque Book Diplomacy at the UN? Thalif Deen The UN’s major donors – led by the United States – have long been accused of influence-peddling and misusing their financial clout not only to grab some of the high ranking jobs in the world body but also threaten funding cuts to push their own domestic agendas. The Trump administration's plan ... MORE > >

Investors Turn Kenya's Troublesome Invasive Water Hyacinth into Cheap Fuel Benson Rioba Currently 30 square kilometres of Lake Victoria, which stretches to approximately 375 kilometres and links Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, is covered with the evasive water hyacinth that has paralysed transport in the area. But scientists are harvesting and fermenting the weed, and one intrepid ... MORE > >

The Arduous Search for Dignity Through Integration and a Pay Check Sejjari Mehdi One of the most common words used by speakers during the Global Compact on Migration was “dignity”—granting migrants the dignity they deserve. As with any advocacy, there is a danger a word can lose meaning through overuse. But on the streets of Morocco the same word means a lot to migrants looking ... MORE > >

Q&A: For Vietnam, the Quality of Economic Growth is Starting to Matter Pascal Laureyn Vietnam’s shift from a centrally planned to a market economy has transformed the country. And while it is now is one of the most dynamic emerging countries in Southeast Asia, this has sometimes been at the expense of the environment. But the country has begun to prioritise green ... MORE > >

Local Communities in Mexico Question Benefits of Mayan Train Emilio Godoy "If thousands of people flock to this town, how will we be able to service them? I'm afraid of that growth," Zendy Euán, spokeswoman for a community organisation,said in reference to the Mayan Train (TM) project, a railway network that will run through five states in southern Mexico. Euán, a ... MORE > >

From Irregular Migrant to Graduate Lawyer: One Woman's Journey to Success Mikaila Issa Masters of Laws student Khoudia Ndiaye will graduate from Senegal’s University Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) next year. The 24-year-old, who specialised in notarial law and dreams of becoming a notary, wants to bring justice closer to local communities like those in her local district of Hann Bel-Air, in ... MORE > >

Brazil Will Test a Government in Direct Connection with Voters Mario Osava The government that will take office on Jan. 1 in Brazil, presided over by Jair Bolsonaro, will put to the test the extreme right in power, with beliefs that sound anachronistic and a management based on a direct connection with the public. "People's power no longer needs intermediation, new ... MORE > >

African Media Poorly Represented at the United Nations Climate Change Negotiations Isaiah Esipisu As negotiations at the United Nations conference on climate change come to a close, the highest expectation is that finally, there will be a rulebook to guide countries on what should be done to slow down greenhouse gas emissions that make the earth warmer than necessary, and how countries can ... MORE > >