Opinions

UNESCO has recognised the efforts of The Philippine Madrigal Singers to promote dialogue and understanding between people in South East Asia. The Philippine group who were organised under the direction of Professor Andrea O. Veneración, at the University of the Philippines in 1963 has been recognised as one of the best choirs in the world.

Organisers of the World March in Ghana today highlighted the issue of the Treaty of Pelindaba to the Deputy Speaker of parliament who promised to investigate and see what could be done to ratify it as soon as possible.

According to the UN World Food Programme the economic crisis is adding four million hungry people per week.

Although Obama and Medvedev pledged to work for a nuclear weapons free world this spring, they failed to take meaningful steps at their July summit to put the world on the proper path to nuclear abolition.

Pressenza rediscovers an article from the Brazilian religious activist Frei Betto in which he makes a surprising proposal regarding the devolution of occupied territories. For the former consultant and personal friend of Lula and Fidel Castro, the USA should not only withdraw their troops from Iraq, but also return Texas, California and Arizona to Mexico, and Puerto Rico to the Puerto Ricans, in addition to returning the Guantanamo Naval base to the Cubans.

With President Barack Obama and other world leaders now talking about building a nuclear-free world, it is time to consider whether that would be a good idea. Six reasons for supporting nuclear abolition are particularly cogent.

156 people have died and more than 800 have been injured in the worst wave of ethnic violence in many decades in China during strong clashes between the Han and Uigur ethnic groups. A curfew was declared today in the Xinjiang region from 9pm until 8am to “avoid more chaos”.

Last July 2nd, the Brazilian President sanctioned a new law which benefits an estimated 50,000 foreigners living illegally in the country. During the signing of the new law, President Lula criticized the anti-immigration policy adopted by richer countries which restrain immigrants’ rights.
*”All we want is for Brazilians living abroad to be treated in the same way we treat immigrants here in Brazil”*, said Lula.

Barack Obama is getting ready for his first trip to Moscow that will last from Monday 6th of July to Wednesday 9th. This is a re-start of a new area in the relations between Russia and the USA. Depending on those meetings is the future of the bilateral nuclear programme of disarmament and the anti missile shield affair (NMD) that the USA plans to build in Central Europe.

In this Summit a new treaty will be prepared in order to reduce the nuclear strategic arsenal of both countries, to replace the START-1 treaty that will expire on December 5th 2009.

Whether in the Korean peninsula, in unstable Pakistan, or in the volatile Middle East, the risk of military or terrorist nuclear attacks is escalating daily. Yet one of the most real chances to rid the world of nuclear weapons is happening and will be won or lost far from the headlines.

Next week in Moscow, Presidents Medvedev and Obama could make history by agreeing to reduce their nuclear arsenals and set the world´s course towards a nuclear-free world. A group of highly influential figures called Global Zero has presented a four-step plan to achieve that goal and, though it seems incredible, they are successfully persuading the nuclear powers that the world is more secure without nukes.