Pratap Chatterjee*
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 2009 (IPS) – Murtaza Jimmy Farukhi was killed while on patrol with the U.S. Marine Corps on Sep. 9, 2008, at the age of 23. He was not a soldier, but a local translator employed by Columbus, Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel (MEP).
Farukhi was one of 24 MEP translators killed and 56 injured since the company s contract with the U.S. military began in September 2007, according to company statistics.
MEP was awarded a five-year contract in September 2007 by the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) to provide 1,691 translators in Afghanistan. MEP defeated the incumbent contractor, San Diego, California- based Titan Corporation. The contract is worth up to 414 million dollars.
When he was alive Farukhi was…
Zofeen Ebrahim interviews noted social demographer KAREN HARDEE
KARACHI, Sep 17 2009 (IPS) – Are climate change and reproductive health two disparate subjects?
Not if one asks Dr Karen Hardee, a social demographer for over 20 years, with extensive experience in population and development as well as family planning.
The world population is expected to reach seven billion by 2011, and there are 200 million women who have unmet family planning needs, resulting in millions of unintended births, according to the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau.
In Pakistan, for instance, family planning and reproductive health services still remain out of reach for millions of Pakistanis, she said in a 2008 research commentary she co-authored, Population, Fertility and…
Chryso D’Angelo
NEW YORK, Nov 4 2009 (IPS) – The rate of breast cancer in developing countries is on the rise, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, which estimates that the poor will account for more than 55 percent of breast cancer deaths this year.
Women are coming in with high stage breast cancers stage 3 or higher and lesions that are protruding, Dr. Felicia Knaul, director of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative, told IPS. By the time the disease is diagnosed, it is often too late for effective treatment.
To meet this global challenge, cancer experts, government officials, and representatives of international organisations participated in an international conference Nov 3-5 in the United States.
Breast Cancer in Developing Countries; Meeti…
Mirela Xanthaki
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 29 2009 (IPS) – While most HIV-positive people in the Western world can gain decades of good health thanks to increasingly effective drug regimens, in the developing world, nearly a third of children born with HIV are still dying before their first birthday.
Maureen Sakala partici…
Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON, Jan 6 2010 (IPS) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday pledged to make development, along with defence and diplomacy, a central pillar of U.S. foreign policy and results, rather than ideology, a guiding principle in devising development policy.
In what was billed as a major address to the Peterson Institute for International Economics here, Clinton listed six key features of the Barack Obama administration s approach to development.
They include greater coordination with recipients, with other donors, and among the many U.S. agencies, including the Pentagon, that deliver foreign aid; and a more-targeted focus on key sectors in poor countries; namely, health, agriculture, security, education, energy, and local governance.
Washingt…
Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE , Mar 16 2010 (IPS) – Her swollen feet are a constant reminder to Sanele Matsebula that she needs to take her medication.
Swaziland’s Finance Minister Majozi Sithole delivers his budget speech to parliament. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS
The 26-year-old HIV-positive mother of two says the swelling of her feet are side effects from the antiretroviral treatment (ART) she began two years ago.
I m always told that dic…
Thalif Deen and Jennie Lorentsson
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 21 2010 (IPS) – An international coalition of over 120 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is demanding a North-South partnership to resolve the spreading global crisis in water and sanitation.
As a first step, Western donors and national governments are being urged to form agreements in at least seven to 10 pilot countries to develop credible national plans, including a new pooled fund and enhanced technical support to develop capacity and planning systems.
The coalition which includes End Water Poverty, African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation, Global Call to Action Against Poverty, Freshwater Action Network, Oxfam and WaterAid says donors should also refocus investments towards low-income countrie…
Paul Virgo
ROME, May 23 2010 (IPS) – Saving the planet from environmental catastrophe is undoubtedly very important, but one of the reasons many people are not doing their bit could be that being green does not seem much fun.
Gary Nabhan lecturing at a biodiversity festival in Rome. Credit: Paul Virgo/IPS
Activists frequently tell us, with good reason, that things such as driving cars, eating red meat and jetting off overseas on holiday should be cut down or eliminated because of their hefty carbon footprints…
Mehru Jaffer
VIENNA, Jul 23 2010 (IPS) – Kiren Kaur, 37, has come to terms with HIV she contracted from her husband in 1997. The HIV positive status, per se, is not difficult to deal with. But dealing with the stigma that comes with it is an excruciating experience.
My HIV status does not bother me any more, she told IPS at the global conference on AIDS that concludes in Vienna Jul. 23. It is the double stigma that I face as a widow and an openly HIV positive person that is painful. It is stigma that prevents me from enjoying an intimate relationship (with my family).
Kaur was 24 years old when her husband died in her arms of AIDS. She suspects he contracted HIV before marrying her.
My husband was depressed after he was told he had AIDS and he did not talk …
Kerry Cullinan
DURBAN, South Africa, Aug 23 2010 (IPS) – Almost a million South Africans are already on lifelong antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and this number is supposed to triple in the next decade if the South African government keeps to its implementation plan.
But the prospect of the government being able to meet its target of treating 80 percent of those who need it by 2011 is being threatened by a lack of funds. A number of organisations and prominent officials in the AIDS field condemned the flat-lining of donor funds at the recent international AIDS conference in Vienna.
In 2009, donors contributed 7.6 billion dollars to the international fight against HIV and AIDS, slightly down from 7.7 billion dollars in 2008, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.