Blogs

As a Member of Parliament human rights is the fundamental lens through which I make decisions. And it is the deepest responsibility I hold for New Zealand, for our global family and for future generations. International Women’s Day is a call for action to us all. Starting simply, perhaps, by asking oneself “what is my personal relationship with inequality? Where do I experience it? Why do I care, or not? What can I do?” These are sincere questions.

Today, AAP has an absolute majority to actualise its manifesto and people’s aspirations courtesy the incredible election verdict. And, of course, the challenges are many! A paradigm shift from the agitational to action mode may help the party. Another positive aspect is that the Delhi victory of AAP will put pressure on Modi for delivering. If AAP comes up to its promises, only then the signature poll-tune Paanch Saal Kejriwal (Five years for Kejriwal as chief minister) would be meaningful!

On 25 January, Syriza won Greece’s parliamentary election with 36 percent of the votes. That translates into 149 out of the 300 seats in the Greek Parliament, including 50 bonus seats for being the largest party. Greek voters have decisively changed the political tide away from the previous conservative government’s cuts to public services and towards public investment values. This signifies what may become a shift in fiscal and monetary policy across Europe and beyond.

The Lima climate talks did not go far enough to engender confidence for an ambitious global pact in Paris, but it has pulled negotiations back from the brink of collapse.

If this UN process is to change for the better, we must accept that two realities are being lived by rich and poor nations, and Australia must stop being miserly and obstructive.

The deep changes necessary to accelerate progress against society's most intractable problems require a unique type of leader—the system leader, a person who catalyzes collective leadership.

In the absence of strong employment mechanism, Nepalese youths are under the state of limbo regarding the job opportunities whereabouts and whatabouts. Neither the government has a concrete plan & policy to stave off the challenges in coming days, as a result, about 1.5 thousand youths are flying abroad in search of job everyday. In this context, a group of youth has started “Youth Self-employment Campaign” to make young people skilful and Self-employed through Agricultural entrepreneurship. MJ Jha, National Coordinator of the campaign shares his experience with “Agro-Times” correspondent. Excerpts:

Workshops held by India's Uttarakhand Parivartan Party as part of the Global Greens climate campaign in September produced the 'Dehradun Resolution on Climate Change' appealing to the world's leadership to commit itself to climate change mitigation. Amongst other things the resolution says: the welfare of living beings has to be strengthened as part and parcel of the ecological system; there has to be a balance between consumption and production; it is very important not to haphazardly withdraw energy subsidies in developing countries; and western societies have to take a lead in reducing consumption.

Climate change adds new complexity to the interdependency between migration and the environment. Rwanda, Kenya and other African countries have experienced dramatic impacts from drought and famine leading to environmental migration in the last decade. Environmental migration is a transnational issue that requires structured dialogue between Africa and Europe and a coherent policy on migration and climate change including investment in the Green Climate Fund.