‘A lot is happening, but nothing is going on,’ John Lennon once said.
Behind the happenings and short-like hypes of everyday life, often much more important developments are going on. Things we are rarely aware of. Examples like the climate hype - what is really going on, behind the emotionally loaded quotes of politicians and [...]

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What Do You Want to Change in the World?
Here’s a nice inspirational platform. Go and change the world!
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Fifteen guidelines for peacekeepers, by Jan Pronk, published on his weblog. Nice words. But when are they being translated into action…?
Here’s an abstract of some of the guidelines.
Twelve: Fight bureaucracy. Fight also the bureaucrat in yourself. Stay a movement; keep the spirit of a pioneer.
Thirteen: Care for people. People first.
Fourteen: Peacekeeping is a calling, not [...]

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The Dutch Africa Day 2007, this year in the Hague Polytechnic University and organized by the Evert Vermeer Stichting, was a great success: around 1500 poeple came to listen to speeches, workshops and debates by a.o. Jan Pronk, Mo Ibrahim, Jerry Rawlings, Minister of Development Cooperation Bert Koenders, and many more…
Click here for a photo [...]

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It’s the first time that such “hard core” issue as international politics, has been spoken about in connection with “soft issues” such as gender rights, HIV/AIDS and peacekeeping.
On the eve of the first United Nations Security Council debate on global warming, the UK foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, warned US businesses to invest in carbon-free technology [...]

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ABN AMRO has launched the first Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) fund in India. The initiative was warmly welcomed in the Indian business media. “India joined the globally growing ethical-investing force,” exults the Asia Times Online. For India the fund is a novelty. Not for ABN AMRO Asset Management, having similar schemes in 24 countries in [...]

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Livestock and climate change, an article by Joris Tielens
Anyone who wants to help prevent climate change would do better to give up eating meat rather than their car, suggests a recent FAO report. Scientists agree that livestock are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, but not all of them endorse the proposed solution – [...]

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A 20-year international effort to put the planet on a path to sustainable development has been woefully inadequate and will need a radical rethink if it is to achieve its aims, says a report published today by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
The report was written by Steve Bass, a senior fellow at [...]

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India’s torrid economic expansion over the past five years delighted investors internationally, but the inevitable shakeouts of rapid growth are starting to rub some nerves raw at home. Thousands of Indian farmers battled police (Telegraph) in the country’s West Bengal state in March, protesting government plans to confiscate their land and turn it into a [...]

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Good 50X70 is a communication design competition focusing on five of the burning social issues which the UN recognizes as the plagues of our millennium: AIDS, Environmental damage, Human rights violation, Underdevelopment and War.
Designers are invited to submit a 50cm X 70cm poster design addressing one of the categories above. The international jury will initially [...]

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