More than two million hectares. That is the area of Western-funded plantations for energy crops in Africa. Investors in biofuels have a rendezvous from the 12th until the 15th of April in Johannesburg for the annual African Biofuels conference. They are discussing their business prospects in Africa, the future paradise for the green gold. Will the ...

One out of five Flemings doesn’t trust his bank anymore Six percent of the Flemish has switched banks as a response to the financial crisis – a stupendous number according to experts. One quarter saw his income reduced, and one in five doesn’t trust his bank anymore. These are a few remarkable results from the survey on the management of the econo ...

Long before Iran's identity was based on Khomeini and oil, there was literature. For Iran language is like food and water; writers are held in a much higher regard than mollahs, which the latter, would like to see changed by petty laws and brutal repressions. Just ask writer Shahriar Mandanipour:

Kashmir is an explosive mixture of colonial hangovers, national identities, regional ambitions, serious human rights violations, increasingly scarse water and a global jihad. No surprise, then, to see the violence in Kashmir being linked to the war in Afghanistan and the violent uprisings in Pakistan. Geographical proximity and religious-ideologica ...

Within the tangle of violence in Eastern Congo, the Rwandese militias of the FDLR count today as the main culprits. The militia grew out of the two million people who fled from Rwanda to Congo after the genocide, and is systematically called ‘the génocidaires’ by the Rwandese government. John Vandaele put on his walking boots and crisscrossed the f ...

For decades, students of security and international politics have debated the emergence of a multipolar system. It’s time we recognize the new economic parallel.

At the MO*lecture, Irene Khan will sharply delineate the consequences of the thesis on an ethical foreign policy. Minister of Foreign Affairs Steven Vanackere gives his vision on the connection between human rights, development and foreign policy.

The climate summit in Copenhagen was sadly, as MO* predicted, the biggest missed opportunity to save the planet. In 2010, working toward a climate agreement with the utmost urgency and energy will be essential. An agreement that has to be reached in November in Mexico. MO* spoke with one of the people in the eye of the diplomatic climate storm: Joh ...

The big Belgian banks were saved with billions of Euros in tax money in 2008. By doing so, the Belgian government could prevent a deep economic crisis and obtained some seats in the Board of Directors’ teams of those banks. What are they doing now with these mandates? MO* discovered a serious lack of transparency and ethical norms. Minister Reynder ...

He has built a temporary Cathedral, majestic haciendas for landlords and one social housing estate in Colombia. All in bamboo. ‘The poor hate bamboo and it embarrasses the government, because it is used exclusively by the very poor. I want to break that cultural taboo by building prestigious projects in bamboo.’

The Arabic world isn’t the brightest star on the cultural firmament but we also have to admit we just don’t know the famous names from literature, music, contemporary art and cinema. MO* wouldn’t miss the chance when the Moussem Festival of December brought the greatest Arabian poet alive to Brussels.

One out of two Flemish citizens is in favour of a CO2-tax on meat consumption, six out of ten want to ban heavy SUVs and seven out of ten think that politicians react much too slow . Flanders thinks green, according to the opinion poll on the climate crisis commissioned by MO*.