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UN goals fight for a better world
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- Created on Thursday, 26 September 2013 00:00
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UN goals fight for a better world
The UN set an ambitious plan for itself back in 2000: Cut the number of poor in half and stop the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. In New York, the General Assembly looks at the progress of the Millennium Development Goals.
There's no contest as to what issues top the agenda at the UN General Assembly. They are the war in Syria and Iran's nuclear ambitions. But at the same time, there's another issue the delegates from some 193 countries will be discussing in their meetings: The eight Millennium Development Goals the UN agreed on back in 2000, which setting targets for the developing world to be reached by 2015.
The aim included reducing the number of poor by 50 percent, providing a primary school education for every child, cutting the death rate of children under five by two thirds and to halve the number of people without access clean drinking water. The money for implement the goals was to come from development aid.
Limited success so far
When it comes to what has been reached so far, UN Under-Secretary General David Malone drew a divided conclusion.
While it would be difficult to reach all the goals by 2015, he told DW, some would have been reached, such as the fight against extreme poverty. The number of people who have to live on less than $1.25 a day has indeed been halved according to Malone.
Aid organizations, though, have a slightly different take on the progress made. The reason for the improvements was the economic upswing in Asia, said Wolfgang Jamann, head of the World Hunger Help. "In sub-Saharan Africa, the situation is still very dramatic. The divide between poor and rich is rather increasing here," Jamann told German public radio. There are still some 900 million people suffering from hunger - that's one seventh of the world's population.
Malone said he sees further positive development in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The goal was to curb the spread of the illness by 2015. Although there are currently fewer people being infected with HIV than in the past, it's doubtful whether the UN will reach its original target.
With regards to education, the UN also sees itself on the right track. The under secretary general admitted though that a lot still needs to be done. The majority of kids are now going to school, but there are still some 60 million who don't.
Malone said it's not enough to make it easier to go to primary school. The focus should in the future also be on the actual quality of the education. It's an urgent problem. Studies in sub-Saharan Africa show that in many countries in the region, sixth graders still do not have basic math skills.
Clean drinking water target reached
One of the most important of the MDGs was, according to the UN, to give people access to clean water. More than 6 billion people, more than 90 percent of the globe's population, have by now access to clean water - 2 billion more than in 1990.
This achievement came thanks to progress in Asia rather than via successful development aid. As cities in Asia become more modern and cleaner, the hygienic situation improves without help from abroad.
According to Malone it's time to reconsider the basics of classic aid. "This aid is helpful, but it's not decisive," he said. What counts is that the countries agree on trying to achieve the MDGs - and there is growing agreement worldwide that this is necessary.
The end of classic development aid?
It's a view shared also by former German President Horst Köhler. Bilateral development was not out of date, but needed to be liberated from old concepts, Köhler told DW.
He's co-author of an experts' report that promotes finding ways to continue the MDGs after 2015. The General Assembly agreed on Wednesday to hold talks on this issue in September 2014.
The new agenda should not only look at social indicators like poverty, illness or education, Köhler said. It should also to pursue a more comprehensive approach including trade and financial systems, and climate politics to tackle climate change. Companies and business leaders are to be won over as supporters of the new approach.
Köhler added, however, that it is important not to underestimate the importance of social security around the globe. In the period until 2030, there would be another 400 million young people who would demand income and work. In light of what's happening in northern Africa, Köhler said, "If we fail to give them perspectives, they will rebel."
Date 26.09.2013
Author Heimo Fischer /ai
Editor Sean Sinico
Source: Deutsche Welle
No commentsOfficial German election results confirm Merkel's victory
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- Created on Monday, 23 September 2013 00:00
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Official German election results confirm Merkel's victory
Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have won Germany's general election, but her preferred coalition partners are out of parliament. The official results saw the Christian Democrats fall just short of a majority.
The preliminary official results released by the federal returning officer early on Monday gave Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), a combined 41.5 percent. That's just short of a majority.
Chancellor Merkel's preferred coalition partners, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), were voted out of the Bundestag in Sunday's national election, having taken just 4.8 percent of the vote. This is short of the 5 percent hurdle required to send lawmakers to the German parliament and it is the first time that the FDP has failed to get elected to the Bundestag since World War II.
The main opposition Social Democrats, led by Merkel's challenger for the chancellery, Peer Steinbrück, finished well behind her conservative bloc, with 25.7 percent.
The far Left party took 8.6 percent, followed by the Green Party, with 8.4 percent.
The euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party took 4.7 percent, meaning that like the FDP, they fell short of the 5 percent hurdle.
These results are described as preliminary, due to the fact that while they are official, they can still be challenged in court.
New coalition partner required
Several hours before the preliminary official results were released, the chancellor commented on her party’s clear victory in a speech at the CDU’s Berlin headquarters.
"We will do everything we can in the next four years to make them successful ones for Germany," Merkel said, adding that it was too early to comment on possible coalition partners. "We will talk about this tomorrow when we know the final results, but we can surely celebrate tonight, as we have done a great job."
Based on the preliminary results, the CDU/CSU will have 311 seats in the new Bundestag, five short of the number needed to form a majority.
Throughout the election campaign, the chancellor had stressed that the FDP, with whom she has governed for the past four years, remained her preferred coalition partners. However, with the Free Democrats shut out of the Bundestag, they are no longer an option.
This appears to leave the Social Democrats, with whom she governed in a grand coalition from 2005 to 2009, as the most logical choice.
While refusing to comment on possible coalition partners on Sunday night, Merkel told ARD public television that she intended to seek a "stable majority," something the SPD, with its 192 seats in the new parliament, would certainly be in a position to deliver.
With their 63 seats, the Greens could also help Merkel to an ample majority, and party officals have not ruled out at least talking to the conservatives. At the same time they have expressed skepticism about prospects for finding enough common ground with the CDU/CSU to make a coalition government workable. The Bavaria-based CSU has also categorically ruled out working with the Greens.
While the current opposition of SPD, Greens and the Left party could mathematically form a majority of 319 seats, this is not seen as a realistic possiblilty as the Social Democrats have repeatedly ruled out working with the Left party at the federal level.
All of the parties are to begin examining their options at meetings to be held in their respective national headquarters in Berlin during the course of the day on Monday.
Source: pfd/lw (dpa, Reuters)
Sunny Malta struggles with energy
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- Created on Friday, 13 September 2013 00:00
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Sunny Malta struggles with energy
Naval yard shooting: killer arrested twice before over guns
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- Created on Tuesday, 17 September 2013 00:00
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Naval yard shooting: killer arrested twice before over guns
Dan Roberts in Washington, Tom Dart in Houston and Karen McVeigh in New York
Authorities are investigating why a former US navy reservist walked on to a historic naval base in Washington DC, opened fire and killed 12 employees before police shot him dead.
Aaron Alexis, 34, started shooting at the Washington navy yards just after 8am on Monday as many of the 3,000 employees were arriving for work on the base.
It was later revealed later that he had been discharged from the US navy in 2011 after being arrested for a shooting incident while he was stationed at Fort Worth, Texas. It was at least the second time Alexis had been arrested for a gun-related incident.
The computer firm Hewlett-Packard confirmed he was employed by one of its subcontractors on an IT project. At a late-night press conference, the FBI said Alexis had gained access to the base with his contractor's ID.
As authorities began to piece together the details of what happened, Barack Obama lamented "yet another mass shooting" and called it a "cowardly act".
Police released an initial list of seven people killed. They were Michael Arnold, 59; Sylvia Frasier, 53; Kathy Gaarde, 62; John Roger Johnson, 73; Frank Kohler, 50; Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46; and Vishnu Pandit, 61. Other victims' names were being withheld until family were notified, officials said. All were civilian staff.
Doctors at the MedStar Washington hospital centre said they were treating three victims. The chief medical officer, Janis Orlowski, said one police officer had multiple gunshot wounds to his legs and was undergoing complex surgery. It was unclear whether he would walk again, she said. Two other civilian patients were women: one shot in her shoulder, the other in her head and hand. The second woman's head wound was not serious: "She is a very, very, lucky young lady," Orlowski said.
There was no indication of a motive. Addressing questions about whether it had been a terrorist attack, the mayor of Washington, Vincent Gray said: "We don't have any reason to think that at this stage."
On Monday night, officers from the New York police department cordoned off a section of the tree-lined street in Brooklyn, where relatives of Alexis lived in a brownstone apartment.
The navy yards incident began at about 8.15am, in building 197 of the complex, when many people were having breakfast in the basement cafeteria. A witness, Rick Mason, said a gunman was shooting from a fourth-floor overlook in the hallway outside his office. He said the gunman was aiming down at people in the cafeteria. Mason said he could hear the shots but could not see a gunman. He said there were multiple levels of security to reach his office. That "makes me think it might have been someone who works here", he told the Associated Press.
A lockdown remained in effect for hours after the shooting. Sailors and civilians assigned to the Washington navy yard, as well as all personnel assigned to the nearby joint base Anacostia-Bolling, were advised to stay put while authorities continued to investigate the scene.
In the confusion after the attack, police initially feared two other men dressed in "military-style" uniform had been involved, and launched a huge manhunt. They issued descriptions of two suspects, one said to have been a white man wearing a navy-style khaki uniform and carrying a pistol, the second described as black and wearing a drab olive military uniform and carrying a rifle.
One of the suspects was quickly identified and ruled out of the investigation. The second was not eliminated from inquiries until later in the evening. At a 10pm press conference, police said the manhunt was over and lifted remaining restrictions on residents.
Police in Seattle said Alexis was arrested in 2004 after an incident that he described to detectives as an anger-fuelled "blackout". Two workers on a construction site told police that Alexis walked out of a next-door home on 6 May 2004, pulled a pistol from his waistband and fired three shots into the rear tyres of their parked car. Alexis later told police he thought the victims had "disrespected him".
Court records reviewed by the Associated Press said he was released on the condition that he did not contact any of the workers.
According to a statement by Seattle police, Alexis's father told detectives his son had "anger management problems" associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. He had been an "active participant in rescue attempts on 11 September 2001", the Seattle police statement said.
Alexis signed up for the reserves in 2007. In 2010, while he was based at Fort Worth in Texas, he was arrested after discharging a firearm into the ceiling of his upstairs neighbour. Police accepted his explanation that it was an accident, but it appears that the incident led to Alexis's discharge from the navy in 2011.
After leaving the reserves, Alexis worked as a waiter and delivery driver at the Happy Bowl Thai restaurant in White Settlement, a suburb of Fort Worth, according to Afton Bradley, a former co-worker, quoted by the Associated Press.
A former acquaintance, Oui Suthametewakul, said Alexis lived with him and his wife from August 2012 to May 2013 in Fort Worth, but that they had to part ways because he was not paying his bills. Alexis was a "nice guy", Suthametewakul said, though he sometimes carried a gun and would frequently complain about being the victim of discrimination.
Suthametewakul said Alexis had converted to Buddhism and prayed at a local Buddhist temple. Ty Thairintr, who attended Wat Budsaya, a temple in Fort Worth, said: "We are all shocked. We are nonviolent. Aaron was a very good practitioner of Buddhism. He could chant better than even some of the Thai congregants."
Thairintr said that Alexis told him and others at the temple that he had taken a job as a contractor and he indicated to them he was going to go to Virginia. He last saw Alexis five weeks ago. "He was a very devoted Buddhist. There was no tell-tale sign of this behaviour," Thairintr said. Hewlett-Packard said Alexis was employed as a subcontractor for The Experts, a professional services company based in Alexandria, Virginia. It said in a statement: "Aaron Alexis was an employee of a company called The Experts, a subcontractor to an HP Enterprise Services contract to refresh equipment used on the navy marine corps intranet (NMCI) network. HP is co-operating fully with law enforcement as requested."
On its website, The Experts describes itself as providing "innovative and mission-critical IT, engineering and litigation professional services for federal, state and local governments and departments".
It said in a statement: "The Experts would like to express our deepest condolences and sympathies regarding the incident that occurred at the DC naval yards. We are actively co-operating with the FBI and other authorities in relation to the investigation on the suspect."
Source: The Guardian UK
Conflict forces DRC jungle dwellers to leave their traditional homes
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- Created on Thursday, 12 September 2013 00:00
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Conflict forces DRC jungle dwellers to leave their traditional homes
In conflict regions in the DRC schools often serve as emergency accommodation for refugees, many of whom have left their traditional jungle homes. This can lead to problems with local residents.
It is early September and school should be resuming after the summer break. But tempers are running high in the town of Oicha in eastern DRC, some 70 kilometers (44 miles) from the border with Uganda. Around 60 refugees have found shelter in a primary school - much to the anger of the pupils. They are furious that classes cannot be held because of the newcomers who have fled from rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU).
One girl tells journalists from a local radio station that she and her fellow pupils will do all they can to make sure the newcomers leave again as quickly as they came. "We'll make sure these pygmies leave our classrooms," she declares. "Either we'll make a lot of noise or we'll throw stones."
The word 'pygmy' is commonly used to describe an ethnic group in eastern Congo who call themselves 'Bambuti.' They live in small settlements in the jungle of central Africa, living mostly from the animals and plants to be found there. Because of their simple style of living and their small stature, they are frequently the target of mockery and discrimination by other groups. This has been the case for generations, says Ulrich Delius of the Society for Threatened Peoples. And so an atmosphere of hostility is pretty much pre-programed should they find themselves having to live in close proximity to other Congolese, as is the case in Oicha.
Lack of understanding
Delius says many Congolese have no respect for the Bambuti, even though "they are an ethnic community who possess a high level of knowledge in their familar habitat."
"But what can they do when they are forced to leave? They have to start again from zero," Delius said in an interview with DW. That is exactly what is happening now. Forests are cut down, appropriated by mining companies or invaded by rebels. The indigenous population are never consulted.
However in Oicha the refugees do have something to say. They vehemently defend themselves against the complaints from local residents. "We Bambuti are only in the town because of the war," said a representative of the group now living in the school. "But we have nothing to do with the war. Our home is in the forest." The Bambuti say they will leave the school if the authorities provide material for alternative accomodation. They also say they are surprised by the reaction of the people of Oicha.
For Ulrich Delius, it's a situation that pits two groups of victims against one another. He points out that many groups within the population are suffering; they are either treated badly by the authorities or they are the victims of violence perpetrated by either the authorities or by the army or rebel militias. "The stronger group then hits out at the weaker members of society," says Delius. The Bambuti are the weakest link in the chain.
Seeking a solution
Experts estimate there are more than 20 different rebel groups active in DRC. Prominent in the headlines has been the M23 group which has occupied territory in North Kivu for more than a year. With their spectacular capture of the provincial capital Goma in November 2012, they forced the DRC government to enter into negotiations. International mediators were also involved but without so far finding a solution. Other militia groups are often forgotten, much to the dismay of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni who would like to be rid of the problem on his border.
When African heads of state met in the Ugandan capital Kampala in early September to seek a solution to the M23 problem, Museveni drew their attention to the rebel group ADF-NALU. For years they have terrorised people on the Congolese side of the border. Many people also sought refuge in Ugandan schools. "These refugees are suffering," Museveni said and called on the international community for support.
In Oicha a Congolese Pygmy aid organisation is now trying to help. With help from the German emergency aid NGO "Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe", it is trying to organise material so that alternative shelters can be built for the refugees.
Date 12.09.2013
Author John Kunyunu and Philipp Sandner / sh
Editor Asumpta Lattus
Source: Deutsche Welle