Social Issues
Strategies for achieving poverty
IPN Opinion article
Politicians in all countries love policies known to prevent prosperity and we must therefore assume that they, or their advisors, want poverty. There is good news for them: the causes of wealth and poverty ñ free markets and interventionism respectively ñ are now so well known that state-of-the art strategies for maximising poverty are within their reach.
Let the trade in waste continue
IPN Opinion article
Last week marked the sixth meeting of the Convention of Parties to the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, a treaty that seeks to eliminate human and environmental harm caused by the trade in hazardous waste. Among other things, the meeting discussed how to ban trade in plastic and electronic-goods waste and certain chemicals.
But in truth, halting the trade in waste between industrialized and developing countries will do more harm to people. Indeed, the Basel convention was never even necessary. It was a response by the international community to a few misrepresented claims of exports of hazardous waste to developing countries, against which laws already existed. The treaty was agreed upon in 1989 and came into force in 1992. Subsequently, 62 parties approved the Basel Ban Amendment -- not yet in force -- which prohibits the trade in hazardous waste between industrialized and developing countries.
Labels and Trade Wars
IPN Opinion article
This week the Environment Committee of the European Parliament met to discuss the traceability of genetically modified (GM) food and its labeling. With some luck Parliament will base its decisions on sound science.
But it got no help or guidance last week when the European Union\'s Agriculture Council botched an opportunity to resolve the genetically modified food labeling dilemma. It chose to make labeling mandatory, shamefully exempting those products of large European multinationals.
Letter to the editor: \'Squeezed to the last drop\'
IPN Opinion article
Unpublished Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post, regarding coffee markets and agriculture 29 November, 2002
Bad Labels, Bad Science
IPN Opinion article
This week the EU\'s Agriculture Council is trying to resolve the dilemma concerning the labeling of genetically modified food. So far European policy on GM food has been unscientific, misleading and even internally inconsistent. Policy, driven by the bureaucratic, protectionist European Commission, has created costly uncertainty for European food producers and consumers, and has prevented the transfer of the life-saving aspects of the technology to developing countries. This week\'s meeting cannot resolve everything but it could remove confusion from one area -- the labeling of GM food.
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Letter to the editor: Affordable medicines
IPN Opinion article
The issue of drug patents is a red-herring and is being used as a crowd pleaser by WTO delegates, while the US and EU drag their feet in reducing trade restrictions and agricultural subsidies ñ moves that could actually increase wealth and allow for long-term health improvements.
The developing world needs trade, not aid, to help the poor
IPN Opinion article
Guilt and goodwill have blinded many to the damage that aid can do. Trade, not aid, is the solution for the poor. At this week\'s informal WTO ministerial meeting in Sydney, trade ministers should make good on their promise at Doha to create a world trading system that benefits all participants. That means reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers on all goods, as well as reducing agricultural subsidies.
Trade, not aid, will eliminate the welfare trap
IPN Opinion article
If foreign aid is the answer, the question has to be, how do you make a corrupt clique rich? By James Shikwati
DDT still saving lives
IPN Opinion article
The South African Department of Health reintroduced DDT in 2000 and in one year saw an 80 percent reduction in the number of cases. Since then malaria has almost become a rarity for physicians
It is not only in South Africa that DDT is saving lives. Dr. John Goyere from World Health Organization Africa estimates that over 16 million people in seven different African countries, including Ethiopia, Eritrea and Madagascar, are currently protected by the insecticide.
In an exciting example of private provision of public health, the Konkola Copper Mine in Zambia started malaria control in the two towns around its mining operations using DDT. As explained by Dr. Brian Sharp and others in a recent paper in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and International Health, after one spraying round, the number of malaria cases was dramatically reduced.
