Ethiopians Starve With Climate Change To Blame
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi will push Africa’s case at Copenhagen next month, in hopes for a reduction in emissions to alleviate the damage already caused to the planet. He will, alongside other African countries, be fighting hard for additional financial resources and compensation for the consequences of the ‘burn baby burn’ mentality of the West, which is affecting countries like Ethiopia. Ethiopia will be looking for answers, ideas and opportunities to adapt amidst the unpredictability of a climate gone haywire. In Ethiopia alone, there are currently more than 10 million people who have been affected by drought, with six major droughts in just two decades; many families never have time to recover from one calamity before the other hits. Some 6.2 million are threatened by hunger and malnutrition and require urgent food assistant. To add insult to injury, Ethiopians food prices have soared – the cost of cereals has more than doubled in the last year; a village can fall into poverty with just one drought, a family’s livelihood threatened by the loss of just one cow.

Sierra Leone’s 10 year old Boys Fight Crime
Sierra Leone has launched an initiative to enlist boys as young as ten as crime-fighting volunteers in the Capital, Freetown. Sierra Leone is still recovering from a decade-long civil war that ended in 2002 in which child soldiers fought. The young boys are to be used to help tackle anti-social behaviour and armed robbery. There have been many concerns about launching such a scheme, residents have little confidence in the police and are concerned that some of the boys may have criminal records themselves.

UN Celebrates 20 Years Of Convention On Rights Of The Child
Ceremonies are taking place around the world today to mark the 20th anniversary of a landmark agreement which seeks to protect the rights of children. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), signed in 1989, guarantees children the right to life, education, the right to play, and to be protected from abuse. The treaty is ratified by 193 countries with only the US and Somalia yet to give their backing. Despite the fact that the treaty has been well embraced, the UN can’t deny the billions of children in the world who will still go without food, shelter or healthcare and the millions of others facing lives of poverty and abuse. A good start but still a long way to go…10.9 million children, under five, die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths.

Google Spyware To Help Environmentalist Save The World
Environmentalists across the world are to be chosen to save the world through the medium of the Internet. Folks will take their seats as armchair detectives and monitor satellite images on the look out for illegal logging. Every four seconds an area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is cut or burnt down for timber and paper, or to clear land for cattle and plantations.Rainforest destruction accounts for 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than produced by all the world’s cars, ships and aircrafts. The detectives will report their findings to an international agency that will monitor whether countries are meeting their commitments to reduce deforestation.

Hamid Karzai Promises To Clean Out Corruption
In an eagerly awaited speech, President Karzai pledges to tackle corruption, work towards reconciliation with the Taliban, and to press for the Afghan Army and police to take responsibility for security. David Milliband, the Foreign Secretary and other representatives of Western Government were left in high hopes. However, the question which remains on everyone’s lips is, can Karzai turn these words into deeds? The reaction from Afghans was less supportive; the Taliban mocked his offer of reconciliation and responded with two suicide attacks in the south, killing ten Afghans and two US soldiers. Many city residents also remain unconvinced. Zafar Mohammad, 46, an official in the Education Ministry, said: “Karzai is always promising but never delivering. It is hard to trust him again”.

Words: Holly Davis. Holly is one of our Manchester-based Ctrl.Alt.Shift reporters.
Photo: Flickr user JOIN MASSIVEGOOD