Alex Whiting
Alex Whiting joined the AlertNet team in July 2005. Before that she was assistant editor of Panos Features and correspondent of Gemini News Service, specialising in trade, aid and development. She began her journalism career making television documentaries for the BBC and Britain's Channel 4, and since then has also worked in radio. Now she is combining work with a part-time MA in Middle Eastern studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Breaking Africa's longest-running land dispute
Author: Alex Whiting
There's a new glimmer of hope that Africa's longest-running territorial dispute - over the future of Western Sahara - is inching closer to a resolution. Groundbreaking talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front, an independence group representing the indigenous Sahrawi people, are taking place near New York City.
If the negotiations succeed, 160,000 Sahrawi refugees may finally get to go home after a 32-year exile in the Algerian desert, where temperatures sometimes rise above 50 degrees celsius (122 degrees fahrenheit). If the talks come to nothing, Polisario has threatened to restart its war for independence.
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Author: Alex Whiting
There's a new glimmer of hope that Africa's longest-running territorial dispute - over the future of Western Sahara - is inching closer to a resolution. Groundbreaking talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front, an independence group representing the indigenous Sahrawi people, are taking place near New York City.
If the negotiations succeed, 160,000 Sahrawi refugees may finally get to go home after a 32-year exile in the Algerian desert, where temperatures sometimes rise above 50 degrees celsius (122 degrees fahrenheit). If the talks come to nothing, Polisario has threatened to restart its war for independence.
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Getting UN troops to Darfur - why wait?
Author: Alex Whiting
Now the United Nations has the green light from Sudan to send 3,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, why will it take up to six months to get them there? After months of negotiations and shuttle diplomacy with Khartoum the idea can't come as a complete surprise to all concerned.
Well, not surprisingly, Darfur is one of the most challenging places to send peacekeepers. Here are some of the hurdles organisers still have to navigate:
First they need to get the money together - about $300 million - and negotiate with U.N. members for personnel and equipment. Although several countries agreed in principle to help out, they were reluctant to pledge anything until Khartoum had signed up to the idea. A U.N. official told me off the record that so far Nigeria, Egypt, Norway, Sweden, Jordan, Bangladesh and Pakistan look set to join the mission.
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Author: Alex Whiting
Now the United Nations has the green light from Sudan to send 3,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, why will it take up to six months to get them there? After months of negotiations and shuttle diplomacy with Khartoum the idea can't come as a complete surprise to all concerned.
Well, not surprisingly, Darfur is one of the most challenging places to send peacekeepers. Here are some of the hurdles organisers still have to navigate:
First they need to get the money together - about $300 million - and negotiate with U.N. members for personnel and equipment. Although several countries agreed in principle to help out, they were reluctant to pledge anything until Khartoum had signed up to the idea. A U.N. official told me off the record that so far Nigeria, Egypt, Norway, Sweden, Jordan, Bangladesh and Pakistan look set to join the mission.
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China: New kid on the block of Darfur diplomacy
Author: Alex Whiting
China has made it increasingly clear that, where Africa's concerned, Western donors must take the new kid on the block seriously.
China comes with an impressive legacy of economic growth and a new package of solutions for Africa's problems. But it also comes with different rules, such as not interfering in another country's affairs, and giving massive loans with no political strings attached.
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Author: Alex Whiting
China has made it increasingly clear that, where Africa's concerned, Western donors must take the new kid on the block seriously.
China comes with an impressive legacy of economic growth and a new package of solutions for Africa's problems. But it also comes with different rules, such as not interfering in another country's affairs, and giving massive loans with no political strings attached.
...
Trees - Africa's weapon against drought and desert
Author: Alex Whiting
One thing that helps keep water in the soil is trees. The two regions in the world that have lost the most forest cover are Africa and Latin America, according to the State of the World's Forests 2007, released on Tuesday. Whereas many regions are reversing centuries of deforestation, Africa lost nearly 10 percent of its forests in the last 15 years.
Some countries, however, are bucking the trend. Farmers in Niger have saved their land from the encroaching Sahara desert, and local researchers are amazed to find that trees have spread to over 3 million hectares in just two or three decades. And to boot, the process has cost practically nothing. In an excellent article published in the New York Times last month, Lydia Polgreen explains how the farmers transformed their lives and land.
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Author: Alex Whiting
One thing that helps keep water in the soil is trees. The two regions in the world that have lost the most forest cover are Africa and Latin America, according to the State of the World's Forests 2007, released on Tuesday. Whereas many regions are reversing centuries of deforestation, Africa lost nearly 10 percent of its forests in the last 15 years.
Some countries, however, are bucking the trend. Farmers in Niger have saved their land from the encroaching Sahara desert, and local researchers are amazed to find that trees have spread to over 3 million hectares in just two or three decades. And to boot, the process has cost practically nothing. In an excellent article published in the New York Times last month, Lydia Polgreen explains how the farmers transformed their lives and land.
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Ethnic Nepalis try to break centuries'-old power grip
Author: Alex Whiting
Just when Nepal thought it had finally put an end to a decade-long civil war between its royalist government and Maoist rebels, which killed more than 13,000 people, up pops a wave of ethnic groups threatening to derail the peace process with violent protests and strikes.
But why? Well, according to an article in the Economist, the ethnic movements are trying to break a centuries'-old stranglehold by the country's top Hindu castes.
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Next entries
Author: Alex Whiting
Just when Nepal thought it had finally put an end to a decade-long civil war between its royalist government and Maoist rebels, which killed more than 13,000 people, up pops a wave of ethnic groups threatening to derail the peace process with violent protests and strikes.
But why? Well, according to an article in the Economist, the ethnic movements are trying to break a centuries'-old stranglehold by the country's top Hindu castes.
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