Breaker 1: Several well-respected analysts have raised serious concerns about this increasing diversion of food crops toward the production of fuel for automobiles.

Breaker 2: Cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in grain production this year — a serious concern in a world where the grain required to make enough ethanol to fill an SUV tank can also feed a person for an entire year.

The Biofuels Act by itself would not address the most urgent problem of exorbitant and soaring oil prices caused by foreign monopoly control. Worse, only landlords and bourgeois-compradors like Zubiri and his co-authors are the ones who will benefit the most from the Biofuels Act, at the expense of genuine land reform.

For more than six years in office, President Gloria Arroyo systematically violated Filipinos’ political, economic, social and cultural rights, according to one of the initiators of a case against her before an international juridical body, which starts its hearing sessions today.

The recently-passed anti-terrorism law will further support the Arroyo administration’s repressive moves to be able to sustain the illusion of an improving local economy and please foreign and local elite interests.

Globalization, not global warming, is the bigger threat to the country’s food security as the neoliberal restructuring of domestic agriculture has substantially undermined its capacity to produce food for local consumption. Nonetheless, the warning of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) of an impending shortage of food resources in the country due to global warming should highlight the urgency for policy makers to reverse the neoliberal policies on agriculture to prevent the worsening of the food security situation in the Philippines, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

The big question for the US economy now is whether it will make it through 2007 without a recession. Most of the top economic forecasters are predicting a “soft landing,” which means the economy slows but not so sharply as to cause a recession. But almost all of these same experts failed to forecast the last recession, and they missed the stock market bubble (the largest financial asset bubble in history). And most of them also missed the housing bubble until it began to burst. So it would not be prudent to rely solely on their forecasts at this time.

The International Labor Office reports that even though more people are working globally than ever before, the number of unemployed remained at an all-time high in 2006 while the number of working poor remained mostly unchanged due to lack of decent and productive jobs. 

Bangalore, India – A public outcry has followed the challenge offered by Novartis AG in the Madras High Court to the Indian Patents Act as violating international trade laws and restricting the Swiss pharmaceutical giant’s trade.

The water crisis, whether in the Philippines or globally, is a crisis underlined by the fact that majority of the poor people have no access to water while most of the water goes to the rich.

Wind energy has taken off in India and the country is now the fourth largest wind energy power in the world. This renewable technology has a bright future though it faces some challenges and raised a number of concerns.

Pakistan has embarked on poverty reduction strategies that do not include land reform -- a thorny issue in a country where most farmland belongs to wealthy landowners who use power and influence to maintain their wealth and privilege. Panos Features analyses poverty in Pakistan, and the obstacles to change.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently said before members of the diplomatic corps that “Through the painful but necessary battles to raise new revenue, crack down on tax cheats and prosecute corrupt officials, we are now finally a nation ready to do right by our poorest citizens.” And indeed, the Arroyo administration’s major economic effort in 2006 was to rein in mounting public fiscal deficits.

Members of the media in Baguio City wore black T-shirts as their contribution to the nationally-coordinated observation of the international day of protest against media killings in the country.

The findings of United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston that the military was behind a “significant number” of human rights violations in the country proves a welcome vindication for widespread public opinion about who was really responsible for the spate of political killings under the Arroyo government.

No one disputes that the Philippines is mired in economic and political crises. There is endemic poverty that despite government hype everyone knows is nowhere near being overcome. Around 65 million Filipinos struggle to live on P96 or less a day, according to the latest 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) of the National Statistics Office (NSO). The net worth of just the ten richest Filipinos is equivalent to the combined annual income of the poorest 49 million Filipinos. The situation can only get worse with corporate profits rising even as joblessness is at a sustained historic high.

It takes convincing the electorate who have long been sickened by elections that mean nothing to their lives and future that this one is more than just a choice between Estrada's candidates and Arroyo's candidates and is, therefore, different. The opposition should be able to show that this is beyond ousting Arroyo and beyond retaking power.

Before " Blood Diamond" was released in the US last December, the international diamond industry was reportedly concerned about the movie’s effects on their sales. There was even talk of a public relations campaign to counter any possible backlash resulting from the film’s portrayal of human rights violations resulting from the illicit diamond trade. But based on the toothless end-result, De Beers and other gem companies have nothing to worry about.

Iraqis have left a bloody 2006 behind, but the two opening weeks of 2007 do not bode well for the rest of this year.

A conference in Kuala Lumpur organized by former Malaysian premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad heard the testimony of many victims of war and occupation and set up a Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission. It aims at influencing world opinion on the illegality of wars and occupation undertaken by major Western powers.  

Stress related disorders have become the major health afflictions of the twentieth century. Doctors often treat them by prescribing a whole host of drugs. The author questioned this method and suggested taking a more holistic approach in confronting ailments.

Across the United States and around the world, people are speaking up for their right to breathe clean, smoke-free air, free from the proven dangers of secondhand smoke.

Teachers, school administrators, and other members of the academe have a significant position in their communities and the whole Philippine society in promoting responsible voting and guarding against anti-democratic schemes that hound Philippine elections.

As of January 2007, the prevailing pump price of gasoline and diesel is now more than twice their price when President Gloria Arroyo took over in January 2001.