Tourists Causing Water Crisis

Wealthy tourists are causing a water crisis at resorts in developing countries.  You can read a summary of a report by NGO Tourism Concern here.  For more information on Tourism Concern and their campaigns, click here.

South Sudan Update

It is one year since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan.  Read a summary of what has happened in the last year here and here.  For facts and figures, click here and for pictures, try here

South Sudan branded 'enemy' state

Sudan's parliament votes unanimously to brand the government of South Sudan "an enemy" in the wake of the seizure of a disputed oil field. Read the full article here. < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17727624 >

America's homeless resort to tent cities

Development isn't always straight forward! Read about America's homeless living n tent cities here.

Syria's escalating conflict

An article about Syria's descent into civil war is here. An interactive timeline showing the escalating conflict is here.

Afghanistan and poverty

According to this report, over half of Afghanistan's families live in poverty. Read the full article here. http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/15/more-than-half-of-afghanistan’s-families-live-in-extreme-poverty/

Soldiers loot after coup in Mali

Renegade troops in Mali loot the presidential palace in the capital as the leaders of the coup call for calm and say all borders are closed. < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17474946 >

Sudan and South Sudan clash on the border

Clashes break out between Sudan and South Sudan in what is described as the biggest confrontation since the South's independence last July. < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17515209 >

Multiculturalism in London's schools

Evidence of multiculturalism (including an interactive map) of various different aspects of multiculturalism in London's schools. http://m.guardian.co.uk/uk/datablog/2012/apr/12/london-school-pupils-poverty-race?cat=uk&type=article

South Sudan branded 'enemy' state

So you want a revolution?

Who is Srdja Popovic?

Question: what do the so-called "colour" revolutions – Georgia (2003) and Ukraine (2004), and the rest – have in common with the uprising that drove Egypt's Hosni Mubarak from power? Answer: the great majority of the people involved avoided committing acts of violence; and the organisers took advice from a young Serbian revolutionary called Srdja Popovic and his colleagues.

Read the full article here.

Kosovo Serbs defy Nato demands over blockades

Kosovo Serbs defy Nato demands over blockades.

"Ethnic Serbs in Kosovo have defied demands by Nato to remove roadblocks, amid tensions over control of border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo.
Nato peacekeepers had given the minority Serbs until Tuesday to remove barricades set up at two crossings. But Nato troops sent to the area left without dismantling them in an apparent bid to give the Serbs more time. The blockades were erected in July when the mainly ethnic Albanian government sought to seize the crossings."

Read the full article here.

Climate change a grave threat to security and health

Read this article from the BBC. It is useful for the 'security' bit at the end of the Conflicts module and the Health AS module.

The London Riots and Poverty

There has been a lot of news coverage about the London Riots this week but the causes of the riots are extremely complex. Is there a link between poverty and the riots? Have a look at the map here which shows poverty and the areas of the rioting. Is there a link?

From this same page you can also access the Guardian's interactive map about the riots.

There is an alternative map looking at deprivation and the location of the riots here.

This short post here
examines the link between the riot areas and areas of child poverty.

South Sudan

On 9th July 2011 South Sudan becomes the world's newest country. See the new world map here

UPDATE
Only a month after the South became independent all is not going smoothly between the new neighbours. This BBC article reports on Northern Sudan blocking oil exports from the South after accusing them of failing to pay custom duties. As most of the oil is now in South Sudan, the government in the North was never going to be happy with the South gaining all the oil revenue. I think there will be more difficulties here.....

Withdrawal of British forces from Afghanistan

This article from the Telegraph describes how Britain's withdrawal from Afghanistan will not be straightforward. This is useful background information for the conflicts 'issue' (No development without security and no security without development).

Rising Asia - in graphics

As part of the BBC's series they have this website which can be used to compare development indicators for different countries, including NICs.

What happens when aid is withdrawn from a state In political turmoil?

The Guardian poverty blog has a useful article looking at aid and poverty in contrasting locations.

There are a number of other stories here examining the links between poverty, aid and development. Definitely worth a look!

Conflict, security and development

The 'issue' at the end of the Conflicts section of the course is 'No development without security and no security without development'. You will need some evidence that security and development are interrelated. We will be looking at this in relation to Afghanistan but you do need some 'breadth' examples as well.

The world development report from the World Bank (published April 2011) has lots of useful information. The summary (with some nice facts and figures!) can be found here

http://wdr2011.worldbank.org/early-findings and the full report can be downloaded from http://wdr2011.worldbank.org/fulltext

Cost of war

Visit this website to see the total cost of wars since 2001 to the USA. There are also separate counters for the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The figures are huge but if you look at them as a proportion of GDP there is a different picture emerges.....



Source: www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cost-war