National Projects

Join Alternatives and the millions of other organisations around the world who are mobilising during this day of action launched by the World Social Forum.

On 1 February 2005, King Gyanendra of Nepal usurped all executive powers of State through a proclamation of Emergency in the country that has been precipitously descending into bloody chaos since his anointment as the king following the inexplicable massacre of the royal clan on 1 June 2001.

Caracas: In most places, the word globalisation conjures up images of businessmen and corporate consultants on six figure salaries making offers that governments cannot refuse. But in Nuevo Horizonte, a vast barrio, or slum, strung out like dirty linen high above the Venezuelan capital, globalisation means Martha Perez Miranda, a smiling 50-something Cuban dentist, who fixes poor folks’ teeth for free.

Beginning in the 15th century silver exploitation of Potosi and continuing to today, women have been involved in intricate and often invisible ways in the Bolivian mining sector.

"The Iraqi people gave America the biggest ’thank you’ in the best way we could have hoped for." Reading this election analysis from Betsy Hart, a columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service, I found myself thinking about my late grandmother.

“Two or three years after the partition of India and Pakistan, the two governments remembered that inmates of mental asylums should also be switched. Meaning, all mentally retarded Muslims languishing in Indian asylums should be sent to Pakistan and those Hindu Sikhs in the mental asylums of Pakistan should be sent to India. Several high level intellectual conferences were held and finally a date was fixed for switching the mentally disabled”. Thus begins a famous short story ‘Toba Tek Singh’ written by a renowned writer of his times, Saadat Hasan Manto.

My first run-in with Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army came on March 31 in Baghdad. The US occupation chief, Paul Bremer, had just sent armed men to shut down the young cleric’s newspaper, Al Hawza, claiming that its articles comparing Bremer to Saddam Hussein incited violence against Americans.

Completed in 1914 by the United States, the Panama Canal has been described as “one of the supreme achievements of all time” and “the greatest liberty Man has ever taken with Nature”.

Thomas Friedman, New York Times’ foreign affairs columnist, wrote about the joys of call-centre work in Bangalore on February 29. These jobs, are giving young people "self-confidence, dignity and optimism" - and that’s not just good for Indians, but for Americans as well. Why? Because happy workers paid to help U.S. tourists locate the luggage they’ve lost on Delta flights are less inclined to strap on dynamite and blow up those same planes.

On April 5, Indonesia will hold the first of three votes to elect its parliamentary representatives and president. These elections will be Indonesians’ first chance to elect their president directly. But political stability is far from being assured in this the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Despite frequent references in the western press to Indonesia’s problems with terrorism, it is the military and foreign companies that appear to play a more important role in this year’s election.

Women’s groups and unions in Quebec have been organizing for more than a decade to win better parental leave. So, of course, Quebec women’s groups are delighted that the Quebec Court of Appeals has unanimously ruled that the federal government was violating its constitutional role by providing maternity and parental leave as part of Employment Insurance. While the Court did not strike down this provision of the EI Act, its decision could have important legal ramifications if it stands.

Four months after the popular rebellion in October, the new government of Bolivia has so far failed to propose realistic solutions to any of the serious problems facing the country. At the same time, the official opposition in parliament, the party of indigenous union leader, Evo Morales, is transforming Bolivian democratic practice forever.

At the end of December Lula completes a year at the head of the Brazilian government. In these dark times of international regression, a perspective of peace and social justice is coming from Brazil, the country where the World Social Forum was born. But in the end, where is the Lula government going?

Cancel the contracts. Ditch the deals. Rip up the rules.Those are a few suggestions for slogans that could help unify the growing movement against the occupation of Iraq. So far, activist debates have focused on whether the demand should be for a complete withdrawal of troops, or for the United States to cede power to the United Nations.

India’s governing party, the BJP, is a master at the tactical game of dancing between seduction and blackmail, governance and repression. Prime Minister Atel Behari Vajpai’s and Interior Minister Lal Kishan Advani’s are promoting a profoundly reactionary vision of India that threatens a long-term cycle of war and oppression. But the opposition, weakened by internal quarrels, provides little hope as its own legitimacy is being called into question by the emerging social movements.

A recent study by the British government shows that the use of genetically modified (GM) crops seriously degrade biodiversity on and around farms over a short period of time. In response, scientists, farmers and environmentalists across Canada are concerned that current the Canadian approval process is not taking these negative effects of GM crops into consideration, due to the minimal health and environmental testing performed before governmental approval.

A two month long general strike continues to paralyze schools, colleges and universities in Niger, where the government has made serious reforms to the education system in response to demands from the World Bank and international capital. Teachers and students continue to protest against the cuts that have come along with restructuring, which has led to numerous violent confrontations and arrests. The following is a portrait of the education crisis in Niger.

A gigantic gas explosion: This was the popular uprising that shook all of Bolivia and culminated in the resignation of President Sanchez de Lozada, who fled, leaving behind him a trail of corpses.

Waiting in the lobby of Jakarta’s World Trade Centre (WTC - pronounced Way-Tay-Say in Jakarta), the building that houses the Canadian Embassy to Indonesia, I heard jeers and chanting outside the front doors. A small but vocal group of protesters from rural villages on the island of Sulawesi and members of environmental NGOs had gathered to protest the actions of Canadian nickel mining giant INCO.

It is midday in Baghdad and there are no women or children to be seen on the streets. Instead of the "new era of freedom" which the US army was supposed to introduce to Iraq, the chaos and insecurity has resulted in an escalation in kidnappings of women and children and the rape of women and girls. No women can walk on the streets and no children can play in the parks during their school vacation.

Millions of people, the majority women, are dying needlessly of AIDS. Racism and sexism are two major factors in these deaths. So why aren’t women around the world up in arms?

The collapse of the Fifth Ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Cancun, Mexico, last Sunday, Sept. 14, was an event of historic proportions.

What does it take to become a major news story in the summer of Arnold and Kobe, Ben and Jen? A lot, as a group of young Philippine soldiers discovered recently. On July 27, 300 soldiers rigged a giant Manila shopping mall with C-4 explosives, accused one of Washington’s closest allies of blowing up its own buildings to attract US military dollars-and still barely managed to make the international news.

It’s being called "the worst coffee crisis of the last 100 years" by Latin American heads of state. With the catastrophic failure of unregulated global markets, the world faces yet another crisis of overproduction and ruined lives.

Although America’s "road map to peace" is looking more and more uncertain, the other component of the Bush Administration’s Middle East strategy is moving forward. The president has moved one step closer to creating a free trade zone between the United States and the countries of the Middle East. But not everyone is convinced of the benefits of U.S.-style economic integration.

Many Palestinians waiting for their refugee claims to be heard compare going to court to playing the lottery: sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you know the odds aren’t in your favour.

I’m always fascinated by the whispers of African cities: the neighbour’s radio, the rooster crowing in his yard, the market, and the taxi stand.

Immigrating to or seeking asylum in a new country is a trying experience. In Quebec, the government currently assists new arrivals in tackling the difficulties of learning a new language, adapting to a new culture, and breaking into the job market. However, with the budget cuts announced by Quebec’s Liberal government, these services are in jeopardy.

Fighting poverty and exclusion in the global South is often reported as a dry struggle involving policies and regulations, and rarely as an effort to reclaim simple everyday joys for the world’s poorest.

Argentine by birth and Quebecois at heart, Thomas Jensen weaves words and rhythms like only he can. With a social conscience and a critical spirit, he casts a lucid, cynical view on the world that surrounds him. Introducing a committed songwriter.