SOUTH AFRICA: Teenagers’ Health at Tremendous Risk
Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN, May 5 2010 (IPS) – I sometimes drink alcohol because it makes things funny, 15-year-old Senelo* giggles shyly. I go to unlicensed taverns. They sell alcohol without asking questions.
Many South African teenagers are exposed to behaviour detrimental to their health. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS
The petite, pretty teenager from Mfuleni township 35 kilometres outside of Cape Town is far from being an exception. Thirty-five per…
Native Canadians See Way of Life Under Assault
TORONTO, May 29 2012 (IPS) – Canada s West Coast First Nations are feeling overwhelmed by crises affecting their land rights, economic well-being and health, prompting warnings in one territorial dispute with a local energy company that the country risks a degeneration of Aboriginal-federal government relations to a level unseen in two decades.
Enbridge Inc. s controversial Northern Gateway Pipelines, a project which will span more than 1,100 km and transport petroleum from Edmonton, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia on the Pacific coastline, reached a crescendo this month in a so-called Freedom Train made up of First Nations people traveling from their homes in northern B.C. to the oil and gas firm s annual general meeting in Toronto.
As of now, the Yinka Dene Allian…
Violence Against Women Surging in India
Women demand their rights outside the government secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, India. Credit: K.S. Harikrishnan/IPS
NEW DELHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 19 2012 (IPS) – As gender-based violence across India becomes more frequent, and more savage, increasing numbers of women are speaking out against the cruelty.
On Oct. 6, a 14-year-old girl from the Sacha Khera village in the Jind district of northern India’s Haryana state set herself on fire after a brutal gang rape.
In her statement to the police, the girl claimed that two male youngsters dragged her into a house, while the sister-in-law of one of the culprits stood guard on the terrace.
The teenage…
COVID-19 Has Blown Away the Myth About ‘First’ and ‘Third’ World Competence
JOHANNESBURG, May 15 2020 (IPS) – One of the planet’s – and Africa’s – deepest prejudices is being demolished by the way countries handle COVID-19.
For as long as any of us remember, everyone “knew” that “First World” countries – in effect, Western Europe and North America – were much better at providing their citizens with a good life than the poor…
Zimbabwe’s High-Risk Cross-Border Trade
COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions meant that many informal sector traders lost their jobs. Not eligible for compensation, some have turned to sex work. Credit: Marko Phiri/IPS
Bulawayo, ZIMBABWE , Nov 4 2021 (IPS) – Thirty-six-year-old Thandiwe Mtshali* watched helplessly as her informal cross-border trading (ICBT) enterprise came to a grinding halt when the Zimbabwean authorities closed the border with South Africa as part of global efforts to stem the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.
“That was last year, and I had no idea what to do next,” Mtshali told IPS.
Before the lockdown, she made up to four trips each month to Musina and Johannesbu…