Natural Disaster
Development, not climate control
IPN Opinion article
The world's poorest people suffer most because of climate -- not climate change. This article argues that restricting greenhouse gas emissions in poor countries would be misguided and counterproductive.
UN disaster reduction strategy an unmitigated failure
IPN Press release
Wealth and prosperity increase resilience to natural disasters, says a new Sustainable Development Network study
Economic growth saves lives
IPN Opinion article
This week's tsunami tragedy in Asia has the world's attention - but every week in 2005, over 120,000 people will die from the side effects of poverty. All of these deaths, and many caused by the tsunami, could be prevented but for the anti-growth, anti-technology policies of many governments. Sadly, such policies are also promoted by western environmental groups, to the benefit of no one today nor anyone in the future.
Long-term solutions needed to solve famine, say experts
IPN Press release
Only a combination of better institutions and modern technologies can end hunger and poverty, according to World Food Prize winner.
HIV-Aids a poverty disease?
IPN Opinion article
Kenya will receive $179,4 million from the UN Global Fund to fight Aids and other diseases. The health ministry indicated that $129m of this would go to the fight against HIV-Aids, $33,6m to malaria and $11,2m to tuberculosis.
However, to check the Aids tide, Africans really need economic empowerment through trade and productivity. Countries may receive all sorts of aid packages, but as long as they subject their populations to policies that sustain them in poverty, there is a danger that disease will be turned into a tool of global politics. It may well be that the famine in southern African countries is largely attributable to the HIV-Aids scourge. With over seven million deaths among agricultural workers since 1985, crop output plummeted nearly 60%.
Mosquito bites the economy
IPN Opinion article
Never mind that the country hasn't seen the monsoon in its full fury this year. That's not going to take the sting out of the anopheles mosquito, as its dreaded bite injects the malaria parasite into bloodstreams across the country. The first reports of malarial deaths have already started trickling in.
The deaths in themselves are tragic since it is now 50 years since India declared war on malaria. Now, a study by a Delhi-based think-tank, Liberty Institute, suggests that malaria is draining the economy by as much as Rs 1,692 crore a year.
Keep Politics Out of Fighting Disease
IPN Opinion article
The WHO has once again denied Taiwan the right to participate in the annual World Health Assembly...
Public health, medical knowledge and human lives should not be used as political bargaining chips. It is especially odd that Beijing would resort to threats in the WHO forum, when Beijing receives far more in aid from the WHO than it contributes, while Taiwan is eager to contribute to the WHO for the benefit of all peoples, including mainland Chinese. The cash-strapped WHO would surely welcome new contributors to its coffers and to its knowledge and capabilities.