Tag: new internationalist

Tax avoidance: the damage done


A worker from Peru’s state-run oil company tries to hammer a piece of wood into a gaping hole in the country’s northern pipeline. He fails. Repeatedly. The oil continues to gush with alarming speed and force. Dead fish float belly-up in the black slime.

By the time the spills were stopped this August, over 4,000 barrels of oil had poured into a tributary of the Peruvian Amazon – source of a fifth of our planet’s fresh water. Dozens of indigenous villages were left without drinking water and children were covered in angry rashes.

Leonardo Tello, director of a local radio station, produced a report illustrating these horrific images. He is angry, frustrated and heart-broken. Over the past 19 years the government has registered 190 spills, most affecting the Amazon rainforest.

The dubious honour of hosting the Olympic Games

If their economic benefits are so underwhelming, why do countries jump at the chance to organize the Olympics?

‘I’ve never won a gift. The first gift I ever had, I had to buy. It was an old bicycle with a chain that broke every day, and I had to fix it. And today, people we don’t even know have given me the greatest gift a president could wish for: to host the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.’ It was with tears in his eyes that Brazilian president Lula da Silva accepted the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to send the Olympic Games to South America for the first time.

The city, he added, deserved the honour of hosting because it had ‘suffered’ in the past. ‘This victory is a restitution for a people who often appear only in a negative light in the press,’ he said. ‘Those who think Brazil can’t afford to host the Games will be surprised.’

‘I will never give up my land’

In April 2016, Peruvian farmer Máxima Acuña was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her environmental advocacy and courageous stand against the Newmont Mining Corporation, the world’s second-largest goldmining company. This is her story.

Before the mine came with lies about jobs and economic development, I lived here without any problems. I have been poor all my life, but I always lived in peace.

I was born and raised in the mountains of Cajamarca. When I was a child I never had any toys, never went to school. So I never learned how to read or write. I worked in the fields, helped around the house and took care of my deaf younger brother. In my spare time, I would make hats and clothes for other children’s dolls.

Helping in two clicks: how digital technology is making INGOs irrelevant

Why bother with aid agencies? To ‘do good’ all you need is a phone and Google Maps. Amy Hall takes a closer look at the rising trend in ‘direct giving’.

Zoran is a friendly looking 45-year-old father of two who lives in Kosovo. In order to supplement what he and his wife earn in their day jobs he also grows vegetables to sell at the market. Zoran is trying to raise $1,700 to install a water irrigation system for his greenhouse. Borrowing $25 from you could help him do that.

Zoran is one of over 5,600 people or groups from across the world available to lend to through the Kiva website in just a few clicks.

A good day for the Philippines

Iris Gonzales reports on the historic ruling against China’s claim over disputed territory.

The United Nations’ Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at the Hague has ruled in favour of the Philippines, saying that the West Philippine Sea belongs to the Philippines and not to China.

In a landmark historic ruling, the international tribunal ruled that China’s claim over the disputed territory is invalid.

Ethiopia drought: on the edge of a crisis

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (NI) – ‘Lower quality means less profit,’ Roba Adola tells me, flicking through a thin wad of well-thumbed notes and gesturing at the arid Ethiopian savannah around us. ‘Foot and mouth disease has badly affected our livestock, driving…

‘How can you say no?’

After nearly five years of war in Syria, its tiny neighbour Lebanon has the highest concentration of refugees in the world. But while an overstretched government is increasingly hostile, some Palestinian residents are bucking the trend, responding with great generosity – across the religious divide. Reem Haddad reports.