The General
Assembly of the United Nations (UN) selected the
next five non-permanent members
of the Security Council on 17 October for a
two-year term starting on 1 January 2008. The
five are Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, and
Uganda and will replace Belgium, Indonesia,
Italy, Panama, and South Africa on 31 December.
Bolivia will have a new constitution
if voters approve it in a referendum on 25
January. After a near-crisis and demonstrations
against the opposition, both sides agreed on a
compromise—essentially that the president will
give up on a third term--and Congress approved
the draft constitution on 21 October. Under the
new constitution a new bill of rights will give
autonomy to indigenous groups over ancestral
lands and grant them a share in national natural
resources. The presidential election will be
held one year earlier, in December 2009, and the
new presidential term is lengthened by one year
to five years.
The National Assembly of the Serb Republic
(RS) of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a
non-binding resolution on 15 October
expressing the conviction that it has the right
to secede. The continuing challenges to the
1995 Dayton Peace Accords are intensifying since
Kosovo declared its independence. The High
Representative has rejected those moves and
pointed out that the Serb Republic is not a
state but a component of B&H and that
nationalist maneuvers are blocking the country’s
path to the European Union (EU).
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is again
tackling the issue of agriculture
and the income gap between farmers and urban
dwellers. At the 3rd plenary session
of the 17th Central Committee on 9-12
October in Beijing a land reform plan was
approved which emphasizes the creation of
large-scale industrial farms to safeguard
self-sufficiency of grain production, allows
farmers to trade and mortgage their land rights,
and double per capita rural income by 2020. The
plan will be submitted to the next session of
the National People’s Congress in March 2009 and
is expected to be approved.
Viewing the World
The financial
crisis is still with us
and when other events become the day’s prominent
news, drops in stock prices and takeover of
banks in a number of countries around the world
bring back the problems of credit and stability.
For Americans especially, the significant event
was the outcome of the presidential election
on 4 November with the Barack Obama-Joe
Biden team claiming a substantial majority of
votes. The supporters of the new US president
were jubilant while others sighed in relief that
eight years of disastrous conduct and policy of
the administration were about to end. While the
election of a black president is certainly a
historical feat, ...
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UN warns coastal cities of future threat of
submergence
International
organizations, governments, and scientists are
increasingly concerned with a threatening side
effect of climate change: submerging of coastal
cities. Urban centers not physically affected by
global warming would still suffer when thousands
of “environmental refugees” arrive and
overburden communities. The term used to locate
the vulnerable cities is low elevation coastal
zones (LECZ) which account only for two percent
of the earth’s landmass but contain 10 percent
of the world’s population or about 634 million
people. ...more
Mauritius,
Seychelles, and Cape Verde rank tops in African
governance
The second annual survey tracking the quality of
government in 48 African countries places
Mauritius (2007: no. 1), Seychelles (no. 2),
Cape Verde (no. 4), Botswana (no. 3), and South
Africa (no. 5) in the top five places. ...more