News

Global Land Forum forges international agreement on territorial development

Published in Friday May 17th, 2013 In Social movement news

As the global population continues to grow and the demand for food and the land to produce it on increase in lock step, the International Land Coalition brought together 273 people from 47 countries in Antigua, Guatemala from April 23-27 to discuss territorial governance and food security in the context of rapid urbanisation and shifting patterns of land use throughout the developing world.

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Five Years After A Quake, Chinese Cite Shoddy Reconstruction

Published in Tuesday May 14th, 2013 In In the media

The fear is that the post-quake buildings may also have been built with substandard materials and too hastily, since they were completed in just two years, one year ahead of the target date, as local officials vied to impress their superiors with their efficiency.

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Land disputes spark eviction fears in Haiti displacement camps 3 years after quake

Published in Tuesday May 14th, 2013 In In the media

The camp residents managed to protect their homes the day they were menaced but they also brought to life a far-reaching problem. In the few weeks since the confrontation, their plight has become a symbol for what many say is the growing use of threats and sometimes outright violence to clear out sprawling displaced person camps, where some 320,000 Haitians still live.

The standoff set off a chain of events that left several shelters burned and a camp resident dead. It occurred a little more than a week before the human rights group Amnesty International issued a report on the jump in camp evictions in Haiti over the past year.

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Floods in Bukoba, Tanzania, Kill Two and Displace 300 Families

Published in Friday May 10th, 2013 In In the media

Flooding in Bukoba, the capital of Tanzania’s Kagera region, has killed two people and displaced more than 300 families after several of their homes were destroyed, Tanzania’s Daily News reported Wednesday.

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Property and the Lady

Published in Friday May 10th, 2013 In In the media

THE halo has slipped from Aung San Suu Kyi’s head, at least in the eyes of the monks and villagers of Ah Lay Daw. The Nobel peace prizewinner, who has resumed her career as a working politician in Myanmar, dismayed villagers earlier this month by giving her backing to the development of a copper mine on nearby Letpadaung Mountain, on land that was confiscated from them by the government.

Angola’s poor people hit hard by urbanisation crackdown in Luanda

Published in Friday May 10th, 2013 In In the media

The Angolan government says it is waging “a sustained war against chaotic urbanisation”, but this appears to have become a war against poor people. The most extreme examples are in Luanda, a city bursting at the seams. Around half a million people lived in Angola’s capital in 1975, when the Portuguese moved out. Now, with many forced into the city to escape the country’s 27-year civil war, 5 million jostle for space, of whom three-quarters live in informal settlements with little or no documentation or land tenure.

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The future’s communal: meet the UK’s self-build pioneers

Published in Wednesday May 8th, 2013 In News

A new co-housing development of 41 homes has just been completed here – and all without a developer in sight. By sharing facilities, the Forgebank community aims to solve these problems, reducing costs and environmental impact. It has its own laundry and a workshop with shared tools. There are two guest bedrooms, freeing up space in individual houses, and a huge kitchen, dining room and living area in the common house, as well as a shared playroom – complete with big box of communal Lego.

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New York to sue banks in mortgage settlement case

Published in Wednesday May 8th, 2013 In In the media

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday he intends to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo, saying they violated terms of last year’s $25 billion mortgage settlement. Schneiderman said his office has documented 210 violations by Wells Fargo and 129 involving BofA since October. The banks have “flagrantly violated” the settlement’s standards, he said.

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Post flood reconstruction in Mozambique could cost 517 million dollars

Published in Wednesday May 8th, 2013 In In the media

According to the Minister of Planning and Development, of this amount about 353 million dollars will be for reconstruction in the public sector and 164 million dollars in the private sector. Flooding in January and February affected over 478,000 people and resulted in 117 deaths. In addition, more than 172,000 people were made homeless.

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Seniors face eviction in Detroit gentrification plan

Published in Wednesday May 8th, 2013 In Social movement news

Retired workers living in a rent-subsidized senior housing building are facing eviction in downtown Detroit. New owners who recently took over their apartment building have given the elderly residents on fixed income a year to clear out so they can raise rents to “market rates.”

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