Helen Clark
HANOI, Sep 29 2009 (IPS) – At a tra da (iced tea) stand in Hanoi s Truc Bach area, men in baggy white singlets sit on low plastic stools drinking strong green tea poured from a chipped porcelain tea pot.
A hissing squeal cuts over the revving of a motorbike one street down as one of the men pulls smoke through his thouc lao , a traditional bamboo water pipe. It is popular mainly with older men and farmers, not the city s trendy youth.
The stall owner sells bags of rough tobacco for 2,000 Vietnam dong or less than 10 U.S. cents.
In Vietnamese tobacco is called thouc la , which means medicinal leaves . Given a reported 40,000 die each year from lung cancer, it is not the most apposite name.
Huong who only gave one name has been smoking more t…
Charles Mpaka
LILONGWE, Oct 9 2009 (IPS) – It was, Malawian police say, a routine sweep for criminals at one of the country s busiest border posts. They were looking for criminals.
A Malawian sex worker who says she was forced by police to undergo an HIV test. Credit: Charles Mpaka
But when police arrested 14 prostitutes as part of their search, and then allegedly forcefully tested them for HIV and charged them for deliberately trading in sex while having a sexually…
Sabina Zaccaro
ROME, Nov 16 2009 (IPS) – World farmers are not part of the official delegations at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food summit on food security that opened here Monday. But they came anyhow to express their views, since, they say, it is their communities that are most impacted by the food crisis.
Hortense Kinkodila of La Via Campesina in Congo Brazaville. Credit: Sabina Zaccaro/IPS
Small-scale producers from the Amazonian rainforest, from Africa, the Pacific islands and th…
Evelyn Matsamura Kiapi
ARUSHA, Dec 4 2009 (IPS) – Although he was born with the virus, it was only 15 years after his birth that Robert* and his family discovered he was HIV-positive.
School children face stigmatisation for being HIV-postive, making it hard for them to receive an education. Credit: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN
His mother, Flavia Kyomukama, was devastated by the discovery.
Kyo…
Ansel Herz
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 17 2010 (IPS) – Millions of dollars in aid are pouring into Haiti. Another head of state visits each day. The misery in Port-Au-Prince dominates the news nearly a week after the 7.0 earthquake struck the heart of this island country.
Children in Cité Soleil, Haiti, play with a kite made from a plastic bag among the shanty town s rubble. Credit: UN Photo/Logan Ab…