On Modern Day Slavery

WHAT IS MODERNDAY SLAVERY??

“Slavery is very much alive on every continent. In fact, there are more slaves in the world today than ever before.

Some people maintain that every prostitute is a slave; some go so far as to assert that the only present-day slaves are prostitute. This absurd view in effect consigns to limbo millions of men and women who are , by any standard, living in slavery but not working in the sex trade.

In Uganda, for example, when the Lord’s Resistance Army seizes a fourteen-year-old girl and forces her to be an unpaid porter and a concubine, that is, by any definition, slavery.

In New York City, in the 1990s, one crime family forced hundreds of deaf and mute Mexicans to peddle trinkets ont he subway. At the end of each day, if the men and women did not meet their daily quotas, their traffickers beat them or shocked them with stun guns. That too is slavery.”

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Biofuel and developing countries: Case in Brazil

Biofuel and developing countries: Case in Brazil

This article was originally written by Natsuko Utsumi for World Bank’s web site.

As a result of rising world oil prices, concerns about energy security, and about climate change caused by CO2 emission from the fossil fuels, interest in biofuels as an alternative energy source continues to grow globally. Both the industrialized countries and developing countries have not ceased their pursuit of the commercialization of biofuels. In the case of developing countries, particularly oil-importing countries, biofuels are seen as a way to curb oil import, stimulate rural development and create jobs.

ADAPTATION TO RAPID GLACIER RETREAT IN THE TROPICAL ANDES (BOLIVIA, ECUADOR, PERU)

ADAPTATION TO RAPID GLACIER RETREAT IN THE TROPICAL ANDES (BOLIVIA, ECUADOR, PERU)
Article originally written for World Bank Web Site by Natsuko Utsumi

As “global warming” became the household term of the 21st century, the latest IPCC report in 2007 confirms that Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and “Observational evidence from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases”
Latin America region, in particular, is very vulnerable to the climate impacts that is very significant and expected to irreversibly affect key ecosystems and the services they provide.

Carbon Finance and Kyoto Mechanism

Going Forward: Carbon Finance in the Latin America and Caribbean Region
This article was originally written by Natsuko Utsumi for World Bank’s web site.

Background:

In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted unanimously as a part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. As of April 2008, 178 states have signed and ratified the treaty.

Under this treaty, signatory countries that are industrialized must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions over the period between 2008 and 2012 by an average of 5.2% below the 1990 level, amounting to about 550 million tons of CO2 equivalent. Signatories that are developing countries, such as Mexico and Brazil, are exempt from this requirement.

Sickness unto death, without despair.

Sickness unto death, without despair | The Japan Times Online 12/3/11 12:46 PM

The Japan Times

Sickness unto death, without despair
Hospice assists terminal patients to die in comfort and dignity
By NATSUKO UTSUMI Special to The Japan Times

One summer morning in 2001, a good friend of mine, Bronson Conrad, rang me at my Manhattan home. After we’d chatted for a while, he broke the news that he had incurable, terminal cancer in his hip bone.
“What do you mean by incurable terminal cancer?” I asked him, almost with annoyance.
“It means that I’m dying,” he said.
No! How could anybody sound so unperturbed at making such an announcement?
I cannot remember what I said afterward, but I was crying at the same time trying to make him tell me that there was even a faint hope of recovery. It was supremely ironic that he was the one doing the consoling as I became more and more distraught.
Bronson wanted me to visit him in  Toronto while he was still strong enough.

He was only fifty-something then, a tall and sturdily built former Canadian Army officer who had made his fortune starting up an Internet company and other businesses — even a diamond-mining concession in Sierra Leone.
Always an energetic risk-taker, he had enjoyed an adventurous life.  As an avid recreational pilot, he had flown two around-the-world trip in his own small Cessna. On the second of those flights, 2 years before his death in 1999, his wife and two sons accompanied him on what, unbeknown to any of them, would turn out to be their last family trip.

A week or so after his call, I flew up to Toronto. Frankly, I had had no idea what to expect. However, as soon as I walked into his large suburban home,  I relaxed as I saw my dear friend sitting up and smiling on a high hospital bed set up in a living room.  During my visit, Bronson made and received several business phone calls, while I looked at small woods through the living room’s panoramic windows that look out over a terrace.

As he was considerably calm and alert, we managed to talk about the fun times and adventures we’d shared.  Momentarily, it was easy to forget that he was dying.

It was not so easy, however, when he talked about his horrendous pain. That was controlled, he said, by morphine-based medication that he administered himself when he needed it by pressing a button on a portable pump called a “syringe driver,” which subcutaneously injected just the right amount to alleviate his pain without making him lethargic. Thanks to this self administration system, despite the fact he had tremendous pain from the cancer, he could still talk and even laugh almost like he used to.  Nevertheless, my emotional but rather inconsiderately strong goodbye hug made him wince.
Bronson died three weeks later.