Transnational news - 26 August 2008

Editor's pick: Articles of the week

	Withdrawal symptoms for Golden Triangle drug trade Martin Jelsma and Tom Kramer Opium production in the Golden Triangle has decreased significantly over the past decade. But the rapid decline has caused major suffering among former poppy-growing communities in Burma and Laos, making it difficult to characterise developments as a "success story".

	The US and Russia: the limits of a superpower Boris Kagarlitsky The war between Russia and Georgia has shown the US that its power and influence in the region is limited, but it has also fed the Russian imperialist agenda in the Caucasus. See also Russia's upside in the Georgia conflict and listen to Boris interviewed on Radio France International

	Manu Chao, the neighbourhood singer Oscar Reyes Manu Chao could be the most famous singer that many English speakers have never heard of. Yet he is to the alter-globalisation movement what Bob Dylan was to peace and civil rights in the 1960s.

New report

Withdrawal Symptoms
A significant decline in opium production in Burma and Laos, which has been heralded as a major success for international drug control policy, is having a devastating effect on farmers and is triggering worrying consequences for drug users.

Global perspectivess

How Doha died: A ringsider’s view
Riza Bernabe interviewed by Walden Bello
Regarded as one of the leading experts on Philippine trade and agriculture issues, Riza Bernabe was interviewed by Walden Bello on the latest collapse of the WTO "Doha Round" trade negotiations.

South Africa government has to make a clean break with past
Trusha Reddy
If South Africa is to seek a major transition to a low-carbon economy why does its government remain committed to new coal and nuclear power plants?

The Lebanese government is on the right of the World Bank
Ghassan Ghosn interviewed by Beatriz Martínez and Francesco Volpicella
The President of the Lebanese General Workers Union (CGTL) speaks about the national strike in May 2008 and the ongoing struggle for workers’ rights in Lebanon.

Musharraf was rambling and impervious to tormented cries from his people
Tariq Ali
Post-Musharraf Pakistan will stumble on, its people trapped between the hammer of a military dictatorship and the anvil of political corruption.

Playing with fire in Jammu and Kashmir
Praful Bidwai
Jammu and Kashmir is burning as a result of inflammatory tactics used by Hindhu right-wing party BJP, for which Indian people will pay the price.

India/US: Suppliers' Group Stalls Nuclear Deal
Praful Bidwai
Dashing hopes that the United States-India nuclear cooperation deal would sail through the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), a Vienna meeting of the 45-nation association has failed to produce a consensus on a U.S. drafted text.

Baseball – Big and Little: its role in US-Cuba relations
Saul Landau

En español

Selección del editor

	Musharraf ha sido sordo a los gritos de dolor de su pueblo Tariq Ali El Pakistán posterior a Musharraf seguirá avanzando a trompicones, con un pueblo atrapado entre el martillo de una dictadura militar y el yunque de la corrupción política.

	La IV Flota destruyó a Imperio Atilio Borón La nefasta tesis que proponían aquellos autores: pensar que existía un “imperio sin imperialismo” ha quedado sepultada por los hechos. Que en paz descanse.

	El Gobierno libanés a la derecha del Banco Mundial Entrevista con Ghassan Ghosn Presidente de la Confederación General de Trabajadores del Líbano habla sobre la crisis libanesa de mayo de 2008.

Perspectiva global

La Crecida de las Aguas en Bolivia (PDF)
Oscar Olivera y Luis A. Gómez
Si la voluntad política colectiva de los pueblos andinos, en particular la de los aymara, tiene alguna validez en nuestro tiempo es, tal vez, porque su ejercicio (comunal) se sostiene sobre una práctica ancestral que rompe lógica e históricamente con la producción del capital.
El texto presentado en el seminario Agua: bien común, gestión publica y alternativas

Victoria geopolítica para Rusia
Mariano Aguirre
La breve guerra entre Rusia y Georgia ha supuesto una fuerte victoria geopolítica para Moscú y un profundo fracaso para el presidente georgiano y para la diplomacia occidental.

¿Diplomacia de béisbol o simplemente béisbol?
Saul Landau

New from our network

Accra Briefing: Forests are more than carbon (PDF)
Friends of the Earth International >>

Acuerdos con la Unión Europea ¿Firmar la renuncia a la soberanía nacional?
GRAIN >>

History Is Not Poetry: A Tribute to Mahmoud Darwish
GRITtv >>

From the archives

Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)
Responses to the EU Offensive against ACP Developmental Regions
Dot Keet
May 2007

REDD: Growing money on trees
Oscar Reyes
February 2008

Events

23 - 25 August •
Water: common good, public management and alternatives
Cochabamba, Bolivia

17 - 21 September •
European Social Forum
Malmo, Sweden

13 - 18 October •
Asia Europe People’s Forum
Beijing, China