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| October
2001 |
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| A
man shot during fights in Kingston, Jamaica arrives at
the hospital for treatment (Photo: Jamaica Gleaner). |
This
Island Is Not a Nation
July 7 in Kingston, Jamaica, was a familiar refrain from the
1960s: the rough-and-tumble of party politics played out by
police and gangs. Three days of clashes left at least 25 dead.
The latest disorder erupted after a series of tit-for-tat killings
precipitated by the murder of a gang leader tied to the ruling
party. The government sent troops into the Tivoli Garden neighborhood,
ostensibly to disarm gunmen, but the opposition claims the action
was really an assault on its supporters. Ian Boyne, of Kingston's
The Jamaica Gleaner, reports...
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Russia's "Dirty" Security Sweeps |
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| September
2001 |
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Still the Most Powerful Man in Peru
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| August
2001 |
 |
| An
Afghan refugee stands near a group of women the end of
June 2001 in Lala Guzar refugee camp, in Afghanistan's
northeastern Takhar province. (Photo: AFP) |
Surviving
the Winter on Mulberries
“Isolated from the rest of the country, tens of thousands
of people in the mountains of northeastern Afghanistan live
in increasingly dire circumstances.
“The
first European face we have seen in our week of travel through
northern Afghanistan belongs to a Russian major, who is serving
out his lonely tour of duty here on the Afghanistan-Tajikistan
border, at the foot of snow-covered 20,000-foot mountains....”
Andreas Rüesch,
writing for Zurich's conservative Neue Zürcher Zeitung,
reports on his visit to drought-striken northeastern Afghanistan.
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| Delegates
of Berber towns during a banned protest in Algiers, held
July 5, 2001 (Photo: AFP) |
The
Rise of North Africa's Berber's
Recent
clashes between Algerian security forces and the Berbers of
Kabylia have once again spotlighted the plight of minorities
in North Africa, whose rights are often trampled by Arab-controlled
regimes.
Since
April, at least 90 people have died and some 800 have been injured
in confrontations between Berber demonstrators and police in
the Kabylia region, east of Algiers. On June 15, four people
were killed and hundreds injured in a massive antigovernment
demonstration in Algiers.
Nizar
Al-Aly, writing for Rome's Inter Press Service, provides a historical
perspective.
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| July
2001 |
Disputed
Oil Production in Southern Sudan
Canadian, Chinese, and Malaysian oil companies are shipping
212,000 barrels of oil a day out of southern Sudan. Witnesses
allege that the Sudanese army has been razing the areas surrounding
the oil fields, leaving the local inhabitants homeless. Kristina
Bergmann reports for Zurich, Switzerland's conservative
daily, Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
|
BRAZIL: Patent Wars
“The
commercial war between Brazil and the North will not stop at
mad cow disease: Already, we are gearing up to face the World
Trade Organization (WTO) for another much more significant trade
battle. Leaning on the Paris Convention of 1883, Brazil has
long refused to recognize foreign patents on medications, allowing
any national corporation to manufacture cheap generics, similar
to the medications patented abroad, without paying royalties.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s government, however, has bowed
to pressures from the WTO and the United States, and in May
1996 ushered through Congress a law recognizing foreign patents,
albeit with a few safeguards.”
—
Istoé (weekly newsmagazine),
São Paulo, Brazil, Feb. 28, 2001. From the May 2001 issue
of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.5).
ISRAEL: Preoccupied by
Syria
“The polished Arabic used by Sheik Sayed Hassan Nasrallah,
director-general of [the Lebanese radical Islamist group] Hezbollah,
this week drew him into unfamiliar metaphorical realms. He called
[Israeli] Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon a ‘hideous
toad with [an] annoying croak,’ described former Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as ‘weaker than a mosquito’s
wing,’ and dubbed Prime Minister Ehud Barak ‘flabbier
than a spider web.’ The government of Israel, he said,
‘is haunted by a ghost called Hezbollah—in every action
Palestinians take, it sees a Hezbollah plot. If only we were
carrying out the actions within Palestine. But these were the
Palestinians.’ ”
—Zvi Bar’el, Ha’aretz
Week’s End (liberal), Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 23, 2001.
From the May 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48,
No.5).
|
| VIETNAM:
The Cunning of the Great Serpents
“Vietnam is continuing its struggle to build a socialist
society, regardless of whether it takes a century or more, assures
Le Kha Phieu, first secretary of the Central Committee of the
Vietnamese Communist Party. Socialism or not, business is business—as
attested to by the deeds of Vo Viet Thanh, the head of the Municipal
People’s Committee in Ho Chi Minh City.”
—Jan Trzcinski, Rzeczpospolita
(independent),
Warsaw, Poland, Dec. 18, 2000. From the March 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.3).
CUBA AND VENEZUELA: Oil Politics
- Castro and Chávez
Although Cuban President Fidel Castro’s visit to Venezuela in
October was met by labor protests, the official welcome from
President Hugo Chávez included discussion of an agreement under
which Venezuela will sell oil to Cuba. “The Venezuelan president
wants to create a new power bloc in Latin America and the Caribbean
as part of his multipolar conception of the world. But until
now, he has not said whether Castro will be at its head, or
whether he is thinking of leading it himself, or perhaps both,”
says the centrist newsmagazine Semana of Bogotá, Colombia
.
— Semana (centrist
newsmagazine), Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 1, 2000. From the January
2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.1).
INDONESIA: In Crisis
“Indonesia is listing like a rudderless ark. The country
is in danger of keeling over on the shoals of religious conflict,
economic incompetence, and political intrigue. The long-suffering
people of the world’s fourth most populous nation must be wondering
what they’ve done to deserve the weak, divided leadership that
has delivered them to such a pass.”
—Fred Brenchley, The
Bulletin (centrist newsmagazine), Sydney, Australia, Aug. 1, 2000. From the November 2000 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.11).
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