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The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, have launched a joint US$18 million project to help about four million poor children in six Philippine cities. Entitled “Early Learning for Life,” the project will operate in targeted areas of high need across the country.
The research wing of the U.S. Congress is warning that three decades of “historically unprecedented” build–up in the number of prisoners incarcerated in the United States have led to a level of overcrowding that is now “taking a toll on the infrastructure” of the federal prison system. Over the past 30 years, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the federal prison population – not counting with the states’ system – has jumped from 25,000 to 219,000 inmates, an increase of nearly 790%. Swollen by such figures for years, the United States has incarcerated far more people than any other country today, imprisoning some 716 people out of every 100,000.
The waves of the Pacific Ocean crash against the wall. The poles and the barbed wire fence seem to dip into the blueness of the sea and disappear but, in reality, they do not budge an inch, they remain firmly anchored to the ocean floor. And this is not where the three–meter high wall ends. This is just where it starts. It stretches right across the Mexico–U.S. border, covering a distance of two thousand kilometers. The hundreds of crosses along the wall give it a white tint, almost as if they were meant as decorations to liven up a miserable looking monument dedicated to the thousands of migrants who have lost their lives trying to cross the border. Some die of cold or hunger, others from snake bites or police gunfire. People have tried to climb over it, cross the mountains and make a dream come true: the American dream. Tijuana, Mexico is one of the most heavily trafficked borders in the world.
Kevin Maramakami met his wife Marikita when they both scratched out a living in Cebu. They would make ends meet by diving to the bottom of the bay in search of coins thrown over the side by arriving and departing passengers of ships. Known as Badjao, or sea gypsies, this couple came together after leaving their home in Mindanao.
Basic economics tells us that demand dictates supply. But despite government’s beefing up inter–agency efforts to curb demand for illegal drugs to gradually cut off the supply line, the number of identified illegal drug users in the Philippines is, nevertheless, “steadily increasing.” According to the Department of Health’s records, there are at least 1.7M illegal drug dependents across the archipelago, and only about 10,000 of these are housed in some 15 government–run drug treatment and rehabilitation centers nationwide. At least 922 of this number are currently treated at the DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (DOH TRC) inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City that is considered to be the largest of all state–run facilities in terms of population.
Vegetable gardening has been introduced at the Capanda Agro–industrial Pole (PAC) as a source of income for local small farmers. The vegetable gardens are part of a social program, Kulonga pala Kukula (“education for development” in Kimbundu, which also includes actions to promote health, water availability and education. Women and a few men plant a variety of seeds brought from Brazil to 10 villages close to the Capanda hydroelectric plant, 360 kilometers from the capital, Luanda.
Sex workers in Vietnam are struggling to figure out their next steps after the government’s decision earlier this year to release them from compulsory detention centers that have been widely condemned for alleged human rights abuses. Until recently, women aged 16–55 caught selling sex were sent to these “rehabilitation” centers where they were detained for up to 18 months without due process, and required to take classes and receive vocational training. But detention has done little to prepare these workers for a life off the streets, they said. What was the legal change? In a move to what it calls “voluntary rehabilitation,” the National Assembly passed the Law on Administrative Sanctions in June, which requires authorities to release all women detained on sex work charges by July 2, 2013.
The Elders warmly welcomed the appointment of Lesley–Anne Knight as chief executive officer from January 2013. She will manage the London–based staff and foundation that supports the work of The Elders.
Top political and financial leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos say recent natural disasters, along with Obama’s inauguration announcement that he is making the battle against rising temperatures a pillar of his second term, could rev up the glacially slow climate pact negotiations and revive fund–raising for global action to cool the planet.
A new report on global religious identity shows that, while Christians and Muslims make up the two largest groups, those with no religious affiliation – including atheists and agnostics – are now the third–largest religious group in the world. The study, released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, found that more than 8 in 10 (84%) of the world’s 7 billion people adhere to some form of religion. Christians make up the largest group, with 2.2 billion adherents, or 32%, worldwide, followed by the Muslims, with 1.6 billion adherents, or 23%, worldwide.
