The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
Cultural pressures are slowly decimating Mexico's rich heritage of indigenous languages. The 200 languages and dialects spoken in Mexico when it was overrun by Spanish colonisers 5 centuries ago have been throttled to 70, although the indigenous population has more than doubled. Bilingual education is offered to only 7.5 per …
Mexico hosted an international seminar -- Urban Sustainability and Management of the Atmospheric Basin of Mexico City's Metropolitan Zone -- in May '95 to discuss ways to save its capital from the plague of devastating pollution. Sponsored by the 25-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (of which Mexico is …
Geologists have found in Mexico the filssil remains of a multicellular organism which is believed to have lived about 15 million years before the oldest known. The organism, resembling small jellyfish, lived an estimated 590 million years ago, said the lead researcher, Mark McMenamin of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
Ernesto Zedillo, the President of Mexico has thrown open the gates of the country's telecommunications industry, causing a veritable stampede. Giant inter- national carriers are rushing in to find places for themselves in the vast us $7 billion market; most of them are us players, like AT&r;, MCI,GTE, Motorola and …
International oil companies are overjoyed with the Zedillo regime in Mexico, which recently decided to open transport, distribution and storAge of natural gas to the private sector. The oil giants are convinced that the move will speed up development plans. They believe that many gasfired power stations were inexcusably delayed …
Peace may yet return to Mexico. Mexican rebels from the troubled southern state of Chiapas have signalled their willingness to bury the hatchet and strike truce with the federal government. The Zapatista National Liberation Army, in a statement dated March 24, appealed for talks on "politiCal, social, cultural and economic …
Mexico is fighting hard to correct its ozone levels on ground. According to the Metropolitan Commission for the Prevention and control of Mexico City Pollution, lead levels have decreased by almost 90 percent a and CO levels are "with in norms equivalent to those of the US environment protection agency". …
MEXICO'S woefully inadequate environment conservation infrastructure has been a boon for multinational waste disposal firms. Over 40 such companies have opened shop in Mexico City, including leading international firms such as Chemical Waste Management. The revenues of the Mexican subsidiary of the company rose by 40 per cent last year …
MAYAN Indians are turning the tables on ranchers near Bachajon town in Mexico's Chiapas state. Just about 175 years after they were forced off their lands, the Indian supporters of the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army have occupied more than 28,000 ha of their ancestral land around Bachajon. Cattle, food …
FOR THE residents of San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico's poverty stricken southern state of Chiapas, the New Year began with a bang. Just minutes into 1994 -- as locals and tourists ushered in the New Year with music and fireworks -- Uzi-toting, machete-wielding guerillas of the Zapatista National …
"WE WILL be back. The revolution will continue." Such was the graffiti left by the Zapatista National Liberation Army as they withdrew from San Cristobal de las Casas in the face of the Mexican army. The abortive uprising in Chiapas province indicates clearly that the poor and powerless even now …
THE GROWING fear of losing jobs has fuelled the debate on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Among the major opponents to the pact between the US, Canada and Mexico, are Ross Perot, a contender for the US President's post in 1992, the American Federation of Labour-Confederation of Industrial …
The suspicion that the exotic Mexican beetle (Zigogramma bicolorata) may be causing more harm than good has been confirmed by the Union agriculture ministry. The ministry's plant protection adviser, R L Rajak, has asked agricultural universities to stop immediately multiplication and distribution of the species. The beetle was introduced in …
BASED on a study by a Dutch academic, this book attempts to analyse variations in female employment by examining a cross-section of different forms of production and estimating their impact on women's bargaining power within the household. It suffers, however, from a major weakness: It dwells at length on the …
A FOUR-tonne stela -- an upright slab usually used as a gravestone -- discovered accidentally by fisherfolk at the small fishing settlement of La Mojarra near Vera Cruz, Mexico, has enabled archaeologists to crack a complex pictorial script widely used in Central America 2,000 years ago. Part of the engravings …
AT LEAST 600 million of the 1.5 billion urban inhabitats in AsiaAfrica and Latin America live in squattersettlements on illegally occupied land or in housingdevelmopment schemes that never received municipalapproval. Their houses fail to meet government buildingstandards and their inhabitants are victims of overcrowdingpoor constructionlack of piped waterrudimentarysanitationinadequate drainage and …
Thanks to the foresight of an American plant collector 20 years ago, several bean varieties are today resistant to a pest scientists had given up trying to control. During a trip to southern Mexico, H S Gentry recognised a wild vine considered a useless weed was, in fact, a wild …
THE NORTH America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which will bind the USA, Mexico and Canada into a common market, has everyone wondering what the pact will do to the environment of the region. The key concern is that US companies hiding behind less stringent Mexican norms will reduce their own …
GLOBAL trade wars are turning green and, across the world, battles are raging to enforce environmental decisions through the power of trade restrictions and embargoes on the countries deemed responsible for environmentally unfriendly products. Japan faced punishment for endangering the hawksbill sea turtle whose shell is used to make jewellery. …
