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Category: World Touch
Malawi

50 Cigarettes a Day for 5-Year-Olds

Child laborers working in Malawi’s tobacco plantations are being exposed to dangerous levels of nicotine, tobacco dust, abuse and exploitation, says a new study by Plan, a UK-based international children’s charity, titled “Hard work, little pay and long hours.” According to the report, child pickers are subjected to high levels of nicotine poisoning – the equivalent of 50 cigarettes per day. “You reach a point where you cannot breathe because of the pain in your chest; then blood comes when you vomit,” one child told researchers.

Irin News
World

Rich Countries Have a Huge “Ecological Debt”

Industrialized nations owe the poorer countries a US $2.3 trillion “ecological debt,” said a University of California study, and it should be assessed and penalized by an international court, an ecumenical gathering heard. “Ecological debt keeps growing,” Joan Martinez Alier, a university professor in Barcelona, told the World Council of Churches hearing in Geneva, held during a meeting of the WCC’s main governing body, Ecumenical News International reported. “The demand for economic growth means more use of energy and resources, which produces more waste.”

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Spirituality

Meditation and Prayer Boost Brain Power

Intense meditation alters our grey matter, strengthening regions that focus the mind and foster compassion while calming those linked to fear and anger, according to a new book, “How God Changes Your Brain.” Whether the meditator believes in the supernatural or is an atheist repeating a mantra, says neuroscience author Andrew Newberg, the outcome can be the same, a growth in the compassion that virtually every religion teaches and a decline in negative feelings and emotions, Reuters reports.

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West Africa

Another Stab at the “Resource Curse”

In Africa, billions of dollars from oil, gas and mining revenues go missing, leaving populations dependent on international assistance, according to a new report on natural resource use in the continent. The report, which details resource management in seven West African countries, was released in July at the launching of the West Africa Resource Watch (WARW) Institute in the Senegalese capital Dakar. Established by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), WARW is set up to provide information, training and policy advice – for policymakers and citizens alike – to foster sound and equitable use of natural resource revenues.

Irin News
World

Land Grab is Accelerating at an Alarming Rate

According to The Guardian, the acquisition of farmland from the world’s poor by rich countries and international corporations is accelerating at an alarming rate, with an area half the size of Europe’s farmland targeted in just six months. New reports from the UN and analysts in India, Washington and London estimate that at least 30m hectares are being acquired to grow food for countries such as China and the Gulf states which cannot produce enough for their populations. The land grab trend is accelerating and could severely impair the ability of poor countries to feed themselves.

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Laos

Barn Owls to the Rescue

A burgeoning rodent population is damaging crops and worsening the food security situation for thousands of families across northern Laos, but experts believe the introduction of barn owls could ease the problem. A study by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) proposes introducing barn owls (Tyto alba) to control the rodents. Native to Laos, the owl is a natural predator of rats which make up 99% of its diet.

Irin News
World Touch

Indian Appointed New Archbishop of Bulawayo

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Fr. Alex Thomas Kaliyanil SVD, the Mission Superior of Zimbabwe, as the new Archbishop of Bulawayo. Fr. Kaliyanil was born on May 27, 1960 in Vallamchira parish in the Archdiocese of Changanacherry, Kerala, and is the youngest of five siblings.

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Africa

Helping Small Farmers Feed a Continent

As an African Union Summit on Agricultural Investments opened in Libya, donors and non-profit groups called the participants’ attention to the role smallholder farmers – mostly women – can have in feeding their communities.

Irin News
Oxfam

Climate Change Will Spread Hunger

Chronic hunger may be “the defining human tragedy of this century” as climate change causes growing seasons to shift, crops to fail, and storms and droughts to ravage fields, an advocacy group said. Oxfam International made the warning in a report released as leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) or the wealthiest nations prepared to meet in Italy, with an agenda to include both food security and climate change.

www.ap.org
Ireland

Meteor Award for Fr. Shay Cullen

Fr. Shay Cullen, a regular contributor to World Mission, has been honored with the Humanitarian Award at the 2009 Meteor Ireland Music Awards. The founder of the PREDA Foundation received the prestigious statuette with a Celtic design, together with a donation of $140,000. Fr. Shay, nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize, is a missionary priest from Dublin and a member of the Missionary Society of St. Columban who has worked tirelessly in protecting women and children and human rights in the Philippines since 1969.

World Mission
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