(April 13, 2009) Rauf Naqishbendi, a contributing writer at the American Chronicle, looks at some of the negative consequences of US foreign aid.
CPPIB venturing into bond market
(April 8, 2009) The Globe and Mail reported on March 26 that Canada’s Pension Plan Investment Board plans to venture into debt markets by selling up to $5-billion in bonds to cut borrowing costs and increase its flexibility to make new investments.
FACTBOX: Hydro development along the upper Yangtze and tributaries
(April 6, 2009) A table showing dams with generating capacities along the upper Yangtze and tributaries
Geological risks and sediment problems with dam building in southwest China
(April 7, 2009) Scores of high dams and deep reservoirs newly-built or under construction in seismically-active southwestern China are “truly dangerous,” a leading geologist warns in this Science Times (Kexue shibao) article.
Thailand’s electric utility set to build war-zone dam in Burma
(April 7, 2009) In the name of cheap power, Thailand’s electric utility has joined forces with its Burmese counterpart to build a large hydroelectric dam near the Thai border, where the Burmese army has waged war against ethnic minorities for decades.
Demands for arbitration mechanism to end odious debts as IMF receives funding boost
(April 7, 2009) Apparently while the G-20 leaders were agreeing in London last week to quadruple the IMF’s financial capacity to $1 trillion, they had no idea that parliamentarians, intergovernmental representatives and civil society campaigners in Johannesburg were hatching a plan to challenge the massive debts created by IMF lending policies.
Aid Keeps Latin America Poor
(April 6, 2009) The Wall Street Journal‘s Mary Anastasia O’Grady pokes at Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for jetting to last week’s Inter-American Development Bank annual meeting in order to propose a near tripling of the development bank’s capital.<.
Montreal play gives light-hearted look at world debt crisis
(April 7, 2009) Danielle Boudreau’s “The Dictatorship of Debt” is showing at Montreal’s Atwater Library Threatre on Thursday April 9th at 8pm.
Today’s Third World stimulus packages will be tomorrow’s odious debts
(March 31, 2009) In the frenzy to resuscitate the failing global economy, the World Bank and IMF are planning to rescue the Third World’s poor, whom they describe as the innocent bystanders to a problem that originated in the rich north.
Chinese scientist forewarned of deadly Sichuan quake
(March 30, 2009) The popular online media community AlterNet has unearthed another expert to join the scientific battle of opinion over what exactly caused the M7.9 earthquake that killed 80,000 people in China’s Sichuan province last May.
Beijing’s water supplier faces serious water shortage
(March 21, 2009) North China’s Hebei Province, the major water supplier to Beijing, has overexploited its groundwater which caused subsidence and formed "20 hopper areas" of more than 40,000 square km, said a local water conservancy official on Saturday.
In the Name of Progress: The Underside of Foreign Aid
In clear, uncompromising language the book explains where progress went wrong and the remedies needed to prevent foreign aid from doing more of the same in the future.
Endnotes
Introduction
1. “Yao Yilin Says That for the Time Being China Will Not Consider Starting the Three Gorges Project Immediately,” Zhongguo Tongxun She, 23 January 1989.
2. Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard, The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams, (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1984), p. xi.
3. CIPM Yangtze Joint Venture (CYJV), Three Gorges Project Water Control Project Feasibility Study, Vol. 1, p. 16-12.
Appendix B
On September 17, 1990, Probe International filed complaints against British Columbia Hydro International, Hydro-Québec International, SNC, Lavalin International, and Acres International for their work on the Three Gorges Water Control Project Feasibility Study. The complaints were filed with the regulatory bodies that are legally responsible for regulating the profession of engineering in the provinces of British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario.
Appendix A
1. The population subject to resettlement should, at a minimum, maintain its current standard of living and should have the opportunity to achieve a higher standard of living after resettlement has taken place.
2. The resettlement transition period should be minimized and adequate support of both a social and economic nature should be provided during the transition period.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
Other News Sources
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