2M6 Lydie and Flavia
2M2 Aline and Cristina
Sunday, July 16, 2006
The Star (South Africa) 30.04-04.05.07
Week SEVEN selected 23-27.04.07
2M6 Lydie and Flavia
2M2 Aline and Cristina
2M6 Lydie and Flavia
2M2 Aline and Cristina
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Aline Rigaldo and Cristina Rivas want to deal with this newspaper
Aline Rigaldo and Cristina Rivas 2m2 want to deal with this newspaper
lydie allaz and flavia broglia 2m6
Aline and Cristina have choosen the following article :
A day for SA to remember
April 27, 2007 Edition 1
April 27 looms large in the history of South Africa as Freedom Day, the day in 1994 on which long queues of people of all races waited to elect a government that would be representative - for the first time - of the majority of all South Africans.
Lest time blur memories of that significant turning point, it is appropriate to spell out why April 27 should be commemorated annually.
For black people the watershed 1994 election marked the birth of the new South Africa and the end of their long sojourn on the lowest rungs of a racial hierarchy, initially structured by the protagonists of segregation and later refined by the apostles of apartheid. It formally elevated black people to an equal political status with whites.
White South Africans benefited as well, as it relieved them of the guilt of enjoying their privileged position - and the comforts that it conferred on them - at the expense of blacks generally and indigenes of Africa particularly.
Not even the minority of whites who raised their voices against the iniquities of apartheid escaped the nagging discomfort induced by undeserved privilege, particularly when they had to present their passports while travelling abroad. They, too, were grateful for not being under a compulsion to explain themselves or apologise for their nationality.
Political equality for blacks was, of course, not enough on its own. It had to be the prelude to a steady and significant improvement in their socio-economic position to become fully meaningful.
To its credit the African National Congress government has done reasonably well in tackling the huge task before it, bearing in mind the huge government and fiscal debts that it inherited from the profligate National Party.
Poorer black communities benefited from the building of subsidised houses, extension of electricity networks and the supply of clean drinkable water.
Efforts were made, too, to end the inequality of educational opportunities, though it is uncertain how successful that has been for the majority of black learners who were unable to find places in schools in historically white suburbs.
The achievements of the ANC government are subject to broader qualifications, however.
The crime rate is still high. A major acceleration in the campaign against HIV/Aids is needed in view of the time wasted - and lives lost - due to an initial reluctance to use anti-retroviral drugs.
The killing and maiming of people by criminals deprives them of the most precious of the rights associated with freedom … the right to life. Ditto those who died prematurely, and unnecessarily, of HIV/Aids. For them, to quote Thomas Hobbs, life has been nasty, brutish and short.
Unfortunately, too, socio-economic improvements in the black community are unevenly distributed, so much so that the disparity of wealth within the indigenous black community is now greater than the difference between the average earnings of whites and blacks. The heavy reliance on the grants to improve living standards of the poor is another worrying development, as it raises questions of whether South Africa can afford the growing cost of social welfare.
Already high levels of unemployment of between 25% and 40% of the working-age population, depending on how unemployment is defined, are still rising - as the labour market is multiplying more quickly than demand for labour. Failure to significantly decrease unemployment has compounded the difficulty of reducing poverty, the extent of which, like unemployment, depends on how poverty is defined.
If the liberation from bondage promised in 1994 is to be fully realised, however, the ANC needs to recover the sense of political evangelism that characterised it in the past. Its once-impressive commitment to the cause of freedom has been soiled by an intrusive - and offensive - mercenary element. Too many people in the ANC are motivated by careerism, materialism and plain greed.
To make these comments is not to indulge in anti-ANC bashing. Similar sentiments are contained in the report to the 2005 ANC national council conference by ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe, as well as the writing and speeches of President Thabo Mbeki.
The ANC needs to recapture the reforming zeal that characterised it in the past. If it does so, it will do itself - and South Africa - a service.
Lydie and Flavia have choosen the following article:
World
'2 degrees more could wipe out up to 30% of world population'
April 30, 2007 Edition 4
Bangkok - A major climate meeting opened today in the Thai capital. Delegates are debating how to rein in rising greenhouse gas emissions that could threaten hundreds of millions with hunger and disease in the coming decades.
For the rest of the week, hundreds of scientists and diplomats attending the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting will work to finalise a report detailing technological options to mitigate rising levels of carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping gases.
"The time to act is now," Chartree Chueyprasit, a deputy secretary in Thailand's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, told delegates.
"Global warming has increasingly become a hot (issue) which requires harmonised co-operating between all nations," he said.
"The IPCC has realised the scientific knowledge to provide the necessary solutions."
The draft report, which will be amended following comments from dozens of governments, says emissions can be cut below current levels if the world shifts away from carbon-heavy fuels like coal, invests in energy efficiency and reforms the agriculture sector.
Two previous IPCC reports this year painted a dire picture of a future in which unabated greenhouse gas emissions could drive global temperatures up as much as 6°C by 2100.
Even a 2°C rise could subject up to 2-billion people to water shortages by 2050 and threaten extinction for 20% to 30% of the world's species, the IPCC said.
Scientists have said that global warming could increase the number of hungry in the world in 2080 by between 140-million and 1-billion by contributing to widespread droughts and flooding.
Diseases like malaria, diarrhoea and dengue fever could spread as temperatures rise and weather becomes increasingly erratic, affecting the poorest of the world's poor.
The third report stresses that the world must quickly embrace a basket of technological options - already available and being developed - just to keep the temperature rise to 2°C.
Making buildings more energy-efficient, especially in the developing world, through better insulation, lighting and other steps, could also lead to significant cuts as would converting from coal to natural gas, nuclear power and renewable energy such as wind.
Less significant but also important would be steps to make motor vehicles more fuel-efficient, reduce deforestation, and plant more trees as a carbon "sink," absorbing carbon dioxide. Even capturing methane emitted by livestock and its manure would help, the draft report says.
Over the next century, it says, such technology as hydrogen-powered fuel cells, advanced hybrid and electric vehicles with better batteries, and carbon sequestration - whereby carbon emissions are stored underground - will become more commercially feasible.
"The most important thing is to improve energy efficiency," said Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a member of the Belgian delegation.
"There is a lot of energy wasted everywhere in the world," he said. "In the long-term we won't have fossil fuels anymore. We have to improve the way we use renewable energy." - Sapa-AP
Post a Comment