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By Jaya Ramachandran
VIENNA | QUITO (IDN) – Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), comprising old computers, televisions, fridges, mobile phones, and other appliances, also known as e-waste, is expected to reach 52.2 million metric tons by 2021.
It is equivalent to the weight of more than 29 million passenger cars, and would suffice to build 1,000 Eiffel towers, according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
By J C Suresh
TORONTO (IDN) – Ahead of the next hurricane season in the Caribbean, faith leaders are calling for action from government leaders, the United Nations system, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and regional development institutions.
A statement signed and endorsed by 22 religious leaders from Grenada to Saint Lucia is urging the establishment of debt relief as an instrument for emergency support and reconstruction.
"Across the Caribbean, we still see immense suffering from the hurricanes that landed last year," said Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte who endorsed the statement. "Islands that are struggling to recover after natural disasters and meet basic needs of their people should not be making debt payments."
By Sean Buchanan
LONDON (IDN) – Brazil is emerging from its long recession and is headed for solid growth in 2018 and 2019 as recent structural reforms start to bear fruit, but the country still has some way to go.
The mixed outlook comes in the latest OECD Economic Survey of Brazil which notes that sustaining this recovery, unleashing Brazil's full economic potential and spreading the benefits fairly will require additional efforts to rein in public spending, increase trade and investment, and further focus social spending on those most in need.
By Jorge Alberto López Lechuga
Jorge Alberto López Lechuga is Research and Communication Officer of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL). The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of OPANAL and its Member States. – The Editor
MEXICO (IDN) – On February 2, the Government of the U.S. published the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which includes the strategy to increase the role of nuclear weapons in national security. The NPR considers the need to double the military budget from 3% to 6.4% in order to modernize the U.S. arsenal. This would mean an investment of 1 trillion USD over the next 30 years. It also states that expanding "flexible U.S. nuclear options now, to include low-yield options, is important for the preservation of credible deterrence against regional aggression", a strategy that will raise "the nuclear threshold".
Viewpoint by Marcelo Colussi*
GUATEMALA CITY (IDN) – Between 50 and 60 percent of the inhabitants of the three countries of the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) live below the poverty line, and this structural and chronic poverty is compounded by alarming rates of delinquent violence (largely a product of this state of impoverishment).
In past decades, the entire region has witnessed bloody armed conflicts (Guatemala with 245,000 victims, El Salvador 75,000 and Honduras serving as the base of operations for the Nicaraguan Contras), which has strengthened a culture of violence that has become "normal" to a very large extent, given that the respective States have not adequately dealt with the after-effects of war.
By J Nastranis
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Nearly six weeks after the Security Council on November 30, 2017 marked the one year anniversary of the signing and entry-into-force of the peace agreement between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC-EP), peace efforts remain challenged by the task of reintegrating 14,000 former rebel combatants.
The Secretary-General's Special Representative, Jean Arnault, told the Security Council on January 10 that the UN will 'closely follow' reports of a just-broken ceasefire between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian Government. He was presenting the first quarterly report on the activities of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, which he heads.
Viewpoint by Marcelo Colussi*
GUATEMALA CITY (IDN) – Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, known by his nom de guerre 'Timochenko', of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has recently announced that he intends to run for the presidency of his country. It is difficult to predict what will happen in the next presidential elections in May 2018 but, if won by Timochenko, what might happen?
First of all, two considerations: 1) deepest respect for the struggle of an armed revolutionary movement such as FARC, and 2) this is no whimsical exercise in futurology.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.