Most of us cringe at hearing the word inflation. It takes a toll on everyone's pocketbook, but for many Indonesians, it is also tearing families apart.

Many Indonesian parents are being forced to place their children in orphanages. In a country where 100 million people live on less than a dollar a day, skyrocketing costs of food and fuel are making it difficult for families to feed themselves. Childcare institutions offer the children not only food, but also an education and the chance at a brighter future.

"I know my children are angry with me, but I try to convince them that is the best choice for us.… As a mother I want to take care of my children but I cannot be selfish. I want the best future for them, so I have no choice," said Tinor Niang, a mother who brought her two sons to an orphanage in central Jakarta nine years ago.

Only 6 percent of the 500,000 Indonesian children in childcare institutions are orphans, according to a recent report released by Save the Children in conjunction with UNICEF and the Indonesian government. Many of the institutions were understaffed, the report found, with nearly half running on less than $10,000 a year. When not being schooled, the children were found cooking and cleaning while caring for themselves and those younger than them.

While rising costs put financial pressure on parents, the children bear the price emotionally. "I just want to be with my parents, even if it means I cannot get an education," says 13-year-old Yulianto who has spent half his life in an orphanage.

Some parents argue that education is worth the emotional toll. "I just want him to get a proper education," says one mother who had to take her 11-year old to an orphanage. "I hope that one day he'll do something useful for this country and help his brothers, because we are living in poverty."

Photo: sektordua (flickr)

The average age of marriage for Yemeni girls is 12 or 13. Photo: Brajeshwar (flickr)

An article last week by the International Herald Tribune reported how Arwa Abdu Muhammad ran out of her husband’s house to a local hospital in Yemen, where she said her husband had beat and raped her for the last eight months. Arwa is nine years old.

Arwa sparked an international debate over child marriage. In Yemen and elsewhere, child marriages are a powerful illustration of misogyny and how it hurts developing economies.

The Global Gender Gap Index explains that women are a very important factor in the economy — when children are forced into young marriages, it leads to high rates of maternal and child mortality, an uneducated populace, and loss of economic opportunity.

The statistics speak for themselves. General health expert Dr. Abdullah Al-Kamil says a recent study found that the average age of marriage in Yemen is 12 or 13, and as Al-Kamil noted, “The problem here isn’t only early marriage, but also early pregnancy – and in most cases, early death.”

In a country where 30 percent of women between 15 and 19 have at least one child, early marriage and sky high maternal mortality rates are major causes of continuing poverty and underdevelopment. Suha Bashren, a policy officer from Oxfam, said she had no doubt that child brides were a significant reason Yemen’s ranking has recently fallen on the UN’s Human Development Index.

Yet in Yemen, poverty and conservative social values are driving forces in child marriage. Most parents in Yemen continue to believe that the earlier they marry their daughters, the better off their daughters will be. Early marriage is also encouraged by parents’ fears of girls being kidnapped and forcibly married, which is not uncommon.

Conservative Islamists supporting child marriage gained power after north and south Yemen reunited in 1990. In a government which recently modified laws to legally allow children under the age of 15 to marry, those against child marriage are a minority.

Because of Arwa’s bravery, child marriage is now being discussed. A few members of Parliament, such as Abdulbari Dughaish, are trying to change the laws in spite of religious opposition. The negative press within Yemen and internationally may be these children’s best hope for change — and their community's best hope for economic progress.

Fisheries are being demolished, while nations argue over who and what is to blame. Photo: Christingo (flickr)

As fisheries decline, nations are busy arguing over who's to blame. Japan is pointing to whales as a culprit, and in doing so, drawing the ire of conservationists and scientists.

Japan has claimed that whales' eating habits are responsible for the diminishing numbers of fish. Many say this is because Japan has been campaigning to end the ban on whale hunting and is looking for international support.

At the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission, a coalition of conservation groups and scientists accused Japan of dodging responsibility for the declining stocks.

Daniel Pauly, director of a renowned fisheries research center, said whales are "no more responsible than the Martians" and that Japan's accusation "prevents the very small resources of West African countries from being devoted to understanding the real reasons why their fisheries are declining."

According to Dr. Pauly’s decade-long study, only about 1 percent of what whales eat is also desired by human consumers.

He and others blame not whales but East Asian and European fishing fleets trolling the coast of West Africa.

"Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working ecosystems," says Stanford's Steve Palumbi, "then this century is the last century of wild seafood.”

Here's one thing you can do to make sure that doesn't happen: Urge the U.S. Senate to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty, which would ensure that the world's oceans are managed sustainably.

The World Wildlife Federation, whose website offers letters you can email to your Senator and e-postcards to alert your friends, gives ample reason why the law is needed:

"Two-thirds of fish stocks that supply the global market have been overexploited or fished to maximum capacity; more than half of the world's coral reefs are threatened by human activity; and close to one-fifth of Southeast Asia's reefs have been damaged or destroyed by coral bleaching.

Photo: Swiss.frog's photostream (flickr)

Working Villages International (WVI) is an NGO with a unique take on how to eliminate poverty in Africa. Their new initiative, Village Reliance, aims to combat poverty directly, rather than dealing only with its effects. They want to give people the skills and tools to take control of their own lives and bring themselves out of poverty.

The goal of this program is to build a village that will be environmentally and economically self-sustainable for people living in the Ruzizi Valley of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

They are building from scratch a model village which will have full employment, private ownership of small farms and businesses, zero carbon footprint and total 100 percent recycling. This project is a practical demonstration that it’s possible to profoundly increase living standards in rural Africa without hampering local culture and ingenuity.

In the future, WVI hopes to spread these villages across the DRC and the entire continent.

The Green Jobs Act puts $125 million to developing green jobs in the U.S. Photo: Rain Forest Action Network (flickr)

The unemployed in the U.S. may be taking the next big steps to solve our climate crisis.

The U.S. House of Representative recently approved the Green Jobs Act of 2007, which provides $125 million dollars to fund national and state job training programs in green industries, such as energy efficient buildings and construction, renewable electric power, and energy efficient transportation. It also researches new jobs and skills that are created by growing renewable energy and energy efficiency industries. This research is then used to develop job standards and create training programs.

The Green Jobs Act would create jobs that allow people in poverty programs to become self sufficient. Priority for the training programs would go to veterans, displaced workers, and at risk youth. The Senate has passed a similar bill, and a conference committee is meeting to work out the different versions.

The Green Jobs Act was largely supported by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, as part of founder Van Jones’ Green Collar Job Campaign, which argues that the only way for a green economy to succeed is for all sectors of society to be equally involved and equally benefiting.

As Van Jones explains, “It’s not a hand out here; you’re really connecting people who most need work with the work that most needs to get done.”

Highway 13 runs from China in the north of Laos to Cambodia in the south. Photo: sivanelle (flickr)

The isolated hills in landlocked Laos have become the newest portion of a multi-billion-dollar highway system connecting China to Southeast Asia. Laos, a region once impoverished by decades of conflict and isolation, now finds itself in the middle of a fast-paced flow of people, goods and services benefiting from China and the Asian Development Bank’s decade-long plan for an integrated regional trade route.

A new road linking Laos to its richer neighbors brings up the question of balance between rapid economic progress and environmental protection in less-developed countries. While Laos is certainly among the world’s most environmentally pristine countries, and for that reason an appealing backpacking destination, its people seek a life beyond meager trading in opium and tiger bones.

Laos is the final link in a 6,500-kilometer overland route expected to boost trade and tourism from Singapore to Beijing. Supporters of this regional highway network argue that the new trade route will help reduce poverty by providing access to markets, income, and employment opportunities. According to the International Herald Tribune, total trade between China and the Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam has risen from $5.7 billion a decade ago to $53 billion in 2007. The highways will also provide people with easier access to social services, such as health clinics, and increase revenue in the tourism sector.

Critics from abroad, however, are quick to argue that the network of highways will contribute to widespread pollution and natural resource depletion as well as promote illegal wildlife and timber trade.

For Laotians, the concerns aren't environmental but social.

Lao expert Martin Stuart-Fox of Australia's University of Queensland said many Lao people now feared the "truck-stop development" of their country.

"Lao friends of mine fear that social ills such as HIV/AIDS and prostitution will flourish, and that it will make it easier to lure young Lao to be exploited — sexually and otherwise — in Thailand and Vietnam."

Photo: tlindenbaum(flickr)

Ethanol is traditionally used as an additive to fuel, but these days it's adding to something else: the global food crisis.

Most U.S. ethanol is made from corn, the kind used mostly to make high fructose corn syrup and feed for cattle, chicken and pigs. But it seems a little backwards to devote farmland for fuel when 850 million people go hungry each year, according to the UN, a number expected to increase by 100 million in the next year.

Ethanol’s supporters say its environmental, economic and strategic benefits outweigh any link to higher food prices. The National Corn Growers Association claims greenhouse gases could be reduced by 20 percent if we used 15 billion gallons of ethanol in our cars.

As an example of its economic advantages, The Ethanol Factbook reported that:

A 40 million gallon per year ethanol plant will cost about $60 million to build, expand the economic base for the local economy by $110 million, generate an additional $19.6 million in household income, improve the tax revenue for the state and local governments by $1.2 million, and create nearly 700 permanent jobs.

Ethanol also has the potential to reduce our dependence on Middle East oil.

Moreover, many supporters of ethanol claim that there is a very low correlation between higher food prices and expanded ethanol production. “We think that there are enough elements in current commodity markets that resulted in very high prices for cereals and oilseeds and even they would have happened without this hike in biofuel production," says Loek Boonekamp, a top official for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Skeptics of ethanol say there’s not enough research to prove ethanol is beneficial in the long term, that it is fueling increased food prices, and that ethanol-based corn subsidies help only a select few.

Environmental benefits? Two independent scientists looked at the footprint of biofuels, and found that the way they’re produced creates more harm than good to the environment.

The latest World Bank assessment on rising food prices found that, “Almost all of the increase in global maize production from 2004 to 2007 (the period when grain prices rose sharply) went for biofuels production in the U.S.” The New York Times reported that, “Work by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington suggests that biofuel production accounts for a quarter to a third of the recent increase in global commodity prices.”

What’s clear is that ethanol is coming under fire — even here in the U.S. — as food prices climb higher. According to the L.A. Times, “Some analysts believe the rapid increase in the use of corn to make ethanol has left the nation with little room to maneuver through weather-related disasters in the Midwest.”

Economist Jeffery Sachs argues we should redouble scientific efforts to grow biofuels on land that’s not suitable for growing food, but that we should end our “misguided” corn-to-ethanol subsidies. “Farmers hardly need them given world demand for food and feed grains.”

Regardless of the arguments for and against, ending ethanol subsidies may not provide the immediate assistance that UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon is looking for to solve the world’s food crisis. It would take time for farmers to convert their fields. Factor in growing time, and the impact might not be felt for several seasons.

But some experts say the conversions would take immediate pressure off food prices. At the very least, this is a great opportunity for the U.S. government to show that they are concerned about the world's growing hunger.

Photo: Ryan Orr (flickr)

Congratulations: Children in the United States do not have the worst quality of life in the developed world. That honor is held by Britain — with the United States a close second.

— editorial in The Nation

Because the focus of alleviating child poverty is usually the developing world, it is easy to forget there are poor kids in rich nations, too. In fact, according to the UN’s 2007 overview of child well-being in rich countries, “there is no obvious relationship between levels of child
well-being and GDP per capita.”

It may be of a surprise that despite America’s vast wealth, the country has one of the highest child poverty rates in the developed world. In fact, the total number of children in the country in poverty has increased by one million from 2000 to 2006. According to Kids Count, a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States, between 2000 and 2006 child poverty increased in 32 states and the District of Columbia.

The numbers are no better in the United Kingdom – recent figures showed that 2.9 million children in the U.K. are officially living below the poverty line – up 100,000 since 2005-06.

Although these children bear no responsibility for living in poverty, they are penalized by their governments’ neglect and disinvestment in poverty-reduction policies. As The Nation observes:

One can talk about military as opposed to social spending; about pro-business, oil-driven economies; about the distractions of patriotism and the culture of aggression; about valuing the imperatives of power above the duty of care. But however one chooses to name it, the deep, intractable connection between military adventurism abroad and the neglect of needs at home has never been more starkly evident. The pity is that it's so difficult to fight the problem, so hard to focus on a pregnant teenager too scared to ask for help or a child hungry at school when the casualty figures from Baghdad demand our attention. The fog of war may be most blinding for the folks back home.

Future leaders of Sierra Leone. Photo: Mike North (flickr)

Sierra Leone is OK now. A newly-elected government is in power and day-to-day activities of the administration are ongoing.

—Olusegun Ogundeji, Concord Times of Freetown.

In the aftermath of the brutal civil war from 1991 to 2002 in Sierra Leone, tens of thousands lost their lives while one-third of the country's population was displaced. Today, however, Sierra Leone has enjoyed several years of peace and has strengthened its security sector, promoted human rights and rule of law, and prepared for upcoming elections. Now, the country is ready to rebuild its economy through new private investments.

Determined to make a fresh start, Sierra Leone’s new president, Ernest Bai Koroma, has promised to tackle the country's economy with a highly ambitious program of reforms aimed to encourage foreign and local investment, build basic public infrastructure and services, and improve government accountability. One such initiative by the Sierra Leonean government includes negotiating entry into the UK-based Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which would make corporations and government become more transparent — and more attractive to investors.

Sierra Leone’s government has also been working with the IFC World Bank Investment Climate team for Africa, which will advise them on how best to implement reforms “to improve the country’s investment environment and remove obstacles blocking private sector development.”

In addition to the agricultural and gold-mining industries, Sierra Leone’s tourism industry is also getting a makeover. According to The Independent, "London-based travel companies are now marketing the former British colony as an adventure holiday destination as well as the setting for off-season sun and surf vacations to compete with the Canary Islands.”

Sierra Leone has a long way to go. It still ranks near the bottom on the UN's Human Development Index, one popular indicator of a country's well-being. But even without private investment, Sierra Leone has a lot to celebrate. As the UN Peacebuilding Commission has noted, “Sierra Leone could take pride in having restored State authority throughout the country, disarmed former combatants, resettled over 1 million displaced people, held elections, re-established public and social institutions, rehabilitated government infrastructure and provided some basic services.”

For a country once torn by war, those are certainly signs of progress.

Sparks fly from a grinding machine while youngsters sort discarded computer parts to prep for recycling. Photo: Greenpeace India (flickr)

Don’t know what to do with your old analog TV?

The Basel Action Network (BAN), a global environmental justice organization, cautions you to think twice before recycling it.

"Most people are not aware that 50-80 percent of so-called recyclers will export your old computer to countries like China where it will be managed in horrific nightmarish conditions, that are highly polluting and damaging to human health," says BAN's Jim Puckett.

E-waste refers to broken or unwanted electronics that contain high levels of hazardous materials such as lead and mercury. According to the UN Environment Programme, “some 20 to 50 million metric tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide every year … [and] developing countries are expected to triple their output of e-waste by 2010.”

For countries such as China and India, the low costs of processing e-waste, combined with weak health and environmental regulations, has led to a stream of material from industrialized countries. As the world's e-waste piles up, poorer countries increasingly face a dangerous tradeoff: serious health risks for a rise in incomes.

Besides toxic substances, e-waste also contains valuable metals such as gold and silver. Recovery of these precious materials is dangerous work. Unprotected workers, some of them children, pry these appliances apart to get to the metals. Sometimes, the plastic casings must be burnt away or treated with acid baths, releasing toxic fumes into the air.

These chemical by-products poison the water supply and disrupt endocrine and immune function in humans. “The air near some electronics salvage operations that remain open contains the highest amounts of dioxin measured anywhere in the world," reports National Geographic.

Accountability and enforcement remain weak despite efforts to stop illegal e-waste flows, such as the Basel Convention, an international treaty that the U.S. has yet to ratify. There's also the fact that some communities rely on the e-waste industry economically, including Guiyu, China (150,000 workers) and New Dehli (25,000).

"China, like India and many other countries, is really hungry for resources, so they let e-waste into their country to support their production chain," says Ruediger Kuehr, executive director of Solving the E-Waste Problem to The Star. "They have many people making their living off of e-waste, so they cannot easily say, 'Let's stop all of these imports.' "

So what can you do with that old TV? Thanks to BAN, there remains a socially conscious solution. The next time you want to recycle your old electronics, refer to their list of responsible e-cyclers.

This short clip by BAN is part of "The Digital Dump," a investigative documentary shot in Lagos, Nigeria.

Robert Mugabe stoked the fire between Zimbabwe and the West at the UN food conference in Rome, blaming the West for his country's deteriorating economy and the opposition groups that seek to oust him from power. He specifically identified humanitarian organizations as culprits, and had already suspended CARE — one of the world's biggest humanitarian agencies — and several other organizations from working in the country.

CARE has worked in Zimbabwe since 1992 helping educate and feed thousands of people and assisting with disaster relief. According to the New York Times, the suspension will leave 110,000 people without food aid for the month. Mugabe says giving CARE the boot is justified because the organization has ulterior motives. In his speech at the UN conference Mugabe declared:

Funds are being channeled through nongovernmental organizations to opposition political parties, which are a creation of the West. These Western-funded NGOs also use food as a political weapon with which to campaign against government, especially in the rural areas.

With nearly half the population threatened by hunger, the decision to suspend humanitarian organizations is likely to lead to more hardship.

In the Gulf area, religious customs and social norms make it a taboo for women to mix publicly with unrelated men, even for trivial purposes. In a male-dominated world, this makes it nearly impossible for women to earn an income. Now, economic necessity is forcing the conservative society to accept the idea of women in the workplace.

Many women-only ventures are being created to bring more women into the country’s workforce. Mega-retailer H&M is opening the first women-only department store in Saudi Arabia. Though small female-run stores already exist, this major venture is a landmark concession by the Saudi Government.

Saudi Arabia’s newest hotel is also women-owned, women-managed, and women-run – from the IT engineer to the electrical engineer. Until January, women could not check into any hotel alone unless accompanied by a male family member or if they had written permission from a male guardian.

Saudi and UAE banks have set up segregated branches for women only. In the UAE, a government holding company has set up an investment company run by women for women. These facilities allow women to manage their finances independently of prying fathers, brothers or husbands.

Home businesses and business dealings are also starting to crop up. The Economist reports, Western female bankers are seizing this opportunity and travel regularly to the region to hold private meetings with female clients in their homes.

Saudi official Faisal bin Muammar said high unemployment among Saudis and the reliance upon seven million foreign workers was forcing the societal change. “We cannot go on having seven million foreigners [at work] and our graduate women in their houses.”

To some, the Gulf’s women-only places are a sign of progress; for others, it simply reinforces gender segregation. Whatever the case, there are still problems for women gaining access to capital. It is difficult for female businesswomen to obtain loans, especially if they are not from prominent families. Even in Bahrain, where nearly one-third of businesses are registered by women, some can only get a business license in their husband's name. This just goes to show that the idea of women in the workplace has yet to fully materialize.

Photo: El Ojo Inoportuno (flickr)

Photo: Deforestation in Mato Grosso, a major soybean growing region in Brazil leoffreita (flickr)

The woman known as the “guardian angel” of the world’s biggest rainforest has called it quits.

Marina Silva cited "the growing resistance found by our team in important sectors of the government and society" in stepping down as Brazil’s environment minister. Environmentalists saw her as a key ally in defending the Amazon.

Silva’s resignation is but one in a series of foreboding events in the face of increasing deforestation. Despite three years of decline, deforestation accelerated in the Brazilian Amazon during the last half of 2007. Land conversion pressures are attributed to soaring prices and demand for soy and beef exports. Brazil’s ascent to an agricultural superpower and its steady, 5-percent economic growth has stimulated hydroelectric dams, roads and other infrastructure projects.

The environmental effects of Amazonian destruction have global consequences. Deforestation not only threatens the existence of the indigenous populations who have lived in the Amazon for millennia, but also irreversibly damages a region of unparalleled biodiversity. Deforestation also exacerbates global warming. According to mongabay, an environmental news site:

… the country is ranked as the world's fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases due largely to deforestation and forest degradation, which account for 70 percent of its total greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite the global importance of the Amazon, Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made it clear that an international debate on the Amazon's fate is unwelcome.

This week, President Lula declared: "The Brazilian Amazon has an owner, and that owner is the Brazilian people.” He acknowledged conservationists' concerns but stressed the need to use the resources of the Amazon forest, which makes up two-thirds of the country’s territory.

If Brazil insists on framing the Amazon as a domestic issue, perhaps the best hope for conservation lies with the people who inhabit it. Construction of the Belo Monte dam — which would be one of the world's largest hydroelectric power plants, after China's Three Gorges and the Itaipu dam shared by Brazil and Paraguay and would also threatens severe ecological and social damage — gathered more than 1,000 environmental activists and Indians protesters in Altamira last week.

Nineteen years ago, a similar dam project was successfully defeated after being met with international condemnation. With today’s rate of deforestation and economic pressures, however, the future of the Amazon looks grim. The actions of both President Lula and Marina Silva lead us to one conclusion: in Brazil, economic growth trumps environmental protection.

"If you've ever smoked a major-brand cigarette, the chances are you've smoked Malawian tobacco," says the BBC. "Virtually every western cigarette uses a bit of the produce from this small southern African nation in its blend."

The battle between cigarette companies and anti-tobacco campaigns poses a challenge for Malawi, one of the poorest nations in the world. In Malawi, tobacco production contributes to 10 percent of GDP and is the second-largest employer in the country.

Proponents of tobacco production argue that tobacco is a crop of choice for farmers because it is easy to grow on marginal soils that yield little else, and earns about seven times more than maize and 22 times more than cotton. In Malawi, revenues from tobacco production are generated from a mere 2 percent of the country’s arable land.

Critics of tobacco production argue that the wealth generated by this resource is not spread evenly across the country. With the price of tobacco constantly fluctuating, those hardest hit are small farmers who are often forced to sell their produce at a loss when tobacco prices fall below market value. According to The Malawi Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), a local government watchdog, it takes US$1 for farm workers to produce a kilogram of tobacco, but that kilo is sold for only US$0.70. As a result, farmers on the big tobacco estates become bonded laborers, forcing whole families to work and repay the landlord. One study found Malawi's tobacco industry employs 78,000 children.

What's not in dispute is that Malawi's tobacco industry is struggling. The government is starting to push alternatives. One is farming mushrooms, where there is already a"brisk local market" — and a potential to meet unmet global demand.

On the tobacco auction floor. Photo: joellaflickr (flickr)

Social entrepreneur Steven Redgrave gained renown by winning gold medals in rowing in five consecutive Olympics from 1984 to 2000. After retiring from competition, Redgrave was knighted in 2001, launched a line of men’s leisurewear and started a charitable trust focusing on educational and social needs in the UK.

In 2005 he visited Africa, and was moved to action by the poverty he observed. With the help of a major British retailer, Redgrave relaunched his clothing line, FiveG (short for "Five Gold"), as a 100-percent fair-trade enterprise.

In this video diary, produced by Fairtrade Foundation, we follow Redgrave as he visits a rural farming community in Mali that produces cotton for his products.

Thanks to fair trade, not only do these rural farmers receive a higher wage, but their community as a whole benefits as well. The video explains how the community receives what is called a "social premium" that is used for community development projects, including a new health center and a primary school.

For an in-depth look at fair-trade cotton, check out this analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in our archives.