(August 3, 2013) A little-known Crown corporation is doing what it can to help corruption-plagued SNC-Lavalin get a lucrative contract in Trinidad and Tobago.
UK lawmakers unclear on how aid money is spent
(July 30, 2013) Lawmakers in the UK say the country is handing out billions of dollars in foreign aid without knowing how it is spent.
Bono embraces capitalism
A rock star who preaches capitalism. “Wow; sometimes I hear myself and I just can’t believe it,” Bono told students at Georgetown University.
Back to the future for the World Bank and hydropower
(July 19, 2013) The World Bank is once again getting back into the risky business of building large-scale dams.
Indigenous leader killed in resistance fight over Honduras mega-dam
(July 17, 2013) Tomás Garcia, a leader of the indigenous Lenca community in Honduras, was fatally shot on Monday, and his son Alan seriously injured, when members of the Honduran Army began firing indiscriminately at a demonstration protesting the construction of the 22-megawatt Agua Zarca Dam already underway on the Gualcaeque River in the country’s southwest. International Rivers reports.
NY regulators approve Fortis takeover of CH Energy, with advice to “understand our rules and regulations”
(June 13, 2013) The New York state Public Service Commission unanimously approved the $1.5 billion bid by Canadian-based Fortis Inc. to take over Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp.’s parent company, CH Energy Group despite “fierce public hostility.” Commission Chairman Garry Brown warned Fortis to avoid looking at the local utility as a profit-generating holding. “Get to know New York,” he advised Fortis. “The way you may do things, business, elsewhere is not New York,” in a probable reference to Fortis’s controversial record of dam-building in Belize.
Farewell, CIDA
(April 2, 2013) Now-abolished foreign aid pork barrel won’t be missed. Patricia Adams’ epitaph for CIDA.
Despite the best of famous intentions
(November 13, 2012) A new documentary asks whether celebrity-led crusades to relieve poverty and hunger, such as Bob Geldof’s Live Aid mega-concerts in the 1980s, have actually made a difference.
The dying days of the Pygmy people
(October 1, 2012) This article on the crisis facing Pygmy tribes in the Congolese rainforest by anthropologist Geoffrey Clarfield underscores the crucial relationship between property rights and human rights. For the last decade, competing militias have terrorized the Pygmies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while in the Central African Republic (CAR) they face losing much of their traditional hunting areas to logging. The government, the World Bank, the EU, the Chinese and most of the large development organizations believe that the CAR can only “develop” its economy by cutting down its rainforest and selling the timber. Without recognized property rights, Pygmies are being forced from their forest homes, dispossessed of the lands they have stewarded and lived in for 40,000 years.
The best way to promote human rights in Asia
(December 8, 2011) The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada held an online conversation on the question: is there a “best way” for Canada to promote human rights in Asia? Patricia Adams of Probe International says that there is: by “getting its own house in order and ensuring that Canada does not aid and abet abuses abroad.”
Grand Inga Dam: Another white elephant for the DR Congo
(November 21, 2011) An article in the Daily Maverick argues that the proposed Grand Inga Dam in the DR Congo is a “beautiful vision” that would “fix Africa” by “lighting up the heart of darkness”, powering African industries and forcing countries to rely on each other.
Egypt Rethinking Aid Options
(July 15, 2011) Since the days of President Anwar Sadat through January of this year, Egypt has relied heavily on Western sources for assistance as well as for loans and credits.
Bill Gates: Foreign Aid 2.0
(May 27, 2011) Bill Gates’ version of foreign aid should look to Microsoft’s original recipe for success to empower Africa.
Haitians becoming weary of NGOs
(February 15, 2011) Foreign NGOs in Haiti have been coming under increasing fire from both Western media, and from Haitian political elites. But as William Booth of the Washington Post writes, ordinary Haitian citizens are also getting fed up with the NGOs.
International aid’s ‘dirty secret’
(February 10, 2011) Images from the protests in Egypt have put the relationship between funding security and development in the spotlight
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