News headlines in March 2009, page 16

//THIS COLUMN IS RELATED TO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TIBETAN NATIONAL UPRISING IN SUPPORT OF THE DALAI LAMA ON MARCH 10//

The training in living "the historic" that we Cubans have received has aroused in us the feeling that this punishing phase of history may be nearing its end, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a dozen languages.

It is too early to judge whether we are at the bottom of the recession or whether this is just the beginning. But one thing is clear: the depth and scope of the crisis will be a function of the capacity of individual countries to act together at the global level and re-inject confidence in our economic and social systems, writes Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The current economic crisis poses an enormous challenge to global health but also offers opportunities to lay the foundations for more equitable and effective health systems in the future, and to rationalise and improve the way that international organisations work for the health of people throughout the world, writes Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation.

While few question that ecological agriculture is environmentally and socially desirable, there are fears it is insufficiently productive. This is not the case, writes Lim Li Ching, a Senior Fellow at the Oakland Institute.

The media gave ample coverage to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, attended since its beginning in 1971 by the same politicians and businessmen who have sustained for decades that financial capitalism was progressing towards a certain and every more generous prosperity and who now promise that they will revive it without offering any plausible explanation for the current catastrophic recession, writes Mario Lubetkin, Director General of IPS news agency.

The ninth World Social Forum ended on February 1 in Belen, one of the cities with the least green space in Brazil despite the fact that it is the gateway to the Amazon, writes Lucio Flavio Pinto, director of the Jornal Pessoal, which denounces corruption, impunity, and the economic and ecological consequences of the exploitation of the Amazon.

The good news in the cascade of terrifying statistics is that we are about to enter an era of unprecedented experimentation, writes Mark Sommer, host of the award-winning, internationally-syndicated radio programme, A World of Possibilities.

Innovation in the global marketplace is the very heartbeat of knowledge-based economies, and to solve the current financial crisis what is needed is more of it, writes writes Xuan Li, Coordinator at the Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme, South Centre.

In office only since January 20, US President Barack Obama has jumped into action so quickly he has not given adversaries or observers the time to organise criticism or attacks. Meanwhile Europeans, and in particular their political leaders, do not seem to have grasped the "Copernican revolution" that is underway in the US and appear stunned and incapable of reacting to the new developments that are taking place each day in Washington, writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal.