---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dr.Nandkumar Kamat <nandka...@gmail.com> Date: Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 2:41 PM Subject: Explanation needed To: Hartman de Souza <hartman.deso...@gmail.com>
What's Canadian interest in western ghats?. Are Indian funding agencies gone bankrupt?. Or is there something more than meets the eyes? Canadian interest in mining, biodiversity etc. is inexplicable...there are conflicts of national interests! While you find 'conflict of interests' with my nomination on MFG , foreign funding seems to be most welcome, we lick their boots... check http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-83010-201_104645-1-IDRC_ADM_INFO.html I view the following statement with a lot of curiosity... Maureen O'Neil, President, International Development Research Centre (Canada) (the same organization which sponsored Dr. Ligia Noronha's studies on mining in Goa and a donor to PANOS) In her address to the Kroeger College Leadership Forum (Carleton University) "Globalization--Is Canada Ready?" on February 8, 2001 she made this interesting comment... "In Latin America and the Caribbean, foreign investment in mining promises new wealth and economic growth. Canadian mining companies are major players. But it can also threaten new abuses of human rights, or place indigenous cultures at risk, or assault fragile environments. In a very new project known as the Mining Policy Research Initiative, IDRC is helping communities in the region to define their own concerns and then, armed with new knowledge, to negotiate on more equal terms with prospective investors. To cite a second case: our research project that supports research on Micro Impacts of Macroeconomic and Adjustment Policies was launched first in the Philippines to monitor and predict how national economic policies actually affect poor people in their own communities. Lessons learned are already being shared with researchers and applied in more than a dozen other countries of the South—knowledge that directly ameliorates inequalities with better governance and that is being applied by policy-makers. " -- Dr. Nandkumar Kamat, GOA -- Dr. Nandkumar Kamat, GOA