HEALTH HAZARD: How the system makes us sick - NI 331 - Chronicle 2000

Health hazard / CHRONICLE

.WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON THE MAJORITY WORLD

JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC
Click a month above to read an alternative view of the key events of that month.

As the world’s leaders gathered at The Hague there were great hopes that, finally, Western nations might act on promises made at the 1997 Kyoto Climate Change Conference to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Delegates from small-island states such as the Maldives, which face inundation due to rising sea levels, struggled to make their voices heard. Angry at the obstructive attitudes of the US, Japan, Canada and Australia, these countries pointed out that the talks were ‘not just a matter of economics but a matter of survival’.

But ‘economic rationalism’ dominated the talks at The Hague. The US, which currently produces 24 per cent of global greenhouse gases, sought to deal with its problem through the international trading of ‘pollution credits’. It proposed to buy itself out of trouble by purchasing the ‘credits’ of less polluting countries. The US plan also involved factoring in ‘carbon sinks’ such as forests and tree plantations, which may be of doubtful environmental benefit. Fourteen other countries backed the US, but many in the European Union strongly disagreed, insisting that penalties be imposed on countries that did not keep within their limits.

Participants failed to agree and the talks ended in a row between the French and British delegates – over the US proposals, unsurprisingly. Now industry groups from the World Coal Institute to the European nuclear association Foratom have been jumping in to fill the void left by The Hague with their own ‘climate change action plans’. Lobbying is likely to be intense over the months leading up to the resumption of the talks in May 2001.

WORLD The UN calls for a $3-billion campaign to combat aids in sub-Saharan Africa where an estimated 25.3 million people are infected with the hiv virus – 70 per cent of the global total of 36.1 million. China officially faces up to the scale of its aids problem, admitting 500,000 cases – but other estimates put it at 1.2 million.

CZECH REPUBLIC Elected representatives of the Roma hold their first international congress in Prague to discuss ways of improving representation in European governments. There are an estimated 12 million Roma living in Europe with only five deputies in national parliaments.

ETHIOPIA/ERITREA A peace treaty is signed between the two warring nations.

MEXICO Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos plans to visit Mexico City with 23 other rebels in February in an unprecedented move to lobby Congress for Indian autonomy. He tells President Fox Quesada he will meet with him but adds: ‘Your programme of “disappear an Indian and create a business-person” won’t be permitted in our territory.’

NORTH KOREA The UN’s World Food Programme asks for more than 800,000 tons of food to be donated to North Korea. Two million people have already starved to death, due to a poor harvest and natural disasters. But there are also reports that endemic official corruption is keeping food away from the hungry.

JAPAN The Kajima Corporation agrees to pay compensation to Chinese workers forced to work at the Hanaoka mine in the Second World War. Of the 986 workers, more than 400 had died by the end of the War.

Western sahara Refugees from Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara despair as the UN, the US, Britain and France slide away from the long-promised referendum on self-determination. The motive seems to be currying favour with the new King of Morocco. The Saharawis begin to see no alternative but to return to a liberation war they suspended in 1991.

BRAZIL A police commander is accused of ordering the killing of 111 inmates at Latin America’s biggest jail – Carandiru Detention Centre, São Paulo State – in 1992. Human-rights campaigners say this could reverse Brazil’s tradition of impunity for officials accused of brutality.

WEST PAPUA West Papuans protest against 30 years of Indonesian occupation and declare their independence to the world. At least eight die in early clashes between protesters and police. An Indonesian military force of 25,000 is mobilized and British-supplied Hawk fighter jets are used to intimidate the population. West Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay is detained by police.

EUROPE Adidas and Nestlé refuse to attend an EU parliamentary hearing that airs evidence of the unethical corporate behavior in poor countries. The Parliament says corporate codes of conduct are frequently vague or ignored and presses for binding rules.

GHANA Opposition leader John Agyekum Kuffuor takes an early lead in presidential elections marking the end of President Jerry Rawlings’ rule of two decades.

CHILE Chilean human-rights lawyers start proceedings to try General Pinochet on charges of murder and kidnapping.

UNITED STATES After five weeks of legal wrangling Republican George W Bush finally becomes President with the narrowest of disputed margins. Democrat Al Gore, having failed in the courts to get a recount, concedes victory. A more nationalistic and isolationist approach to foreign affairs seems likely, though gung-ho republicanism may be moderated by their lack of an overall majority.

PERU In a move to escape criminal charges for corruption, former president Alberto Fujimori declares, while on visit to Japan, that he is not a Peruvian citizen after all but a Japanese national.

BURMA Officials in Burma give a surprise indication that the house arrest and stringent security measures surrounding opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi could soon be lifted. It’s a sign of the possible effectiveness of international boycotts and campaigns.

ROMANIA Former communist Ion Iliescu wins the presidential election, winning 70 per cent of the vote against the 30 per cent won by ultranationalist Corneliu Vadim Tudor.