By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront T he  international demand for cocoa has risen in recent years.  As there  is  low supply and high demand, there had been a price rise and the scenario forced many cocoa beans grinding units to close their operations. The price of cocoa has increased up due to Ebola crises and weather conditions such as El Nino when ocean temperatures rise in the eastern Pacific. However, since last year, there seems to be a slump in the cocoa prices. Countries such as the Ivory Coast have been heavily dependent on cocoa production. It produces world’s 40 percent of cocoa. Around 7 million people are associated with the industry. Big companies such as  Mars, The Hershey Company and Nestle mostly use Ivorian cocoa for the production of their chocolate and have been expanding into the region Around 34,000 hectares of land have been destroyed by the farmers in Ivory Coast because they are planning to ma...

Photo Source: The Wire By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront To censure activism and opponents, Indian corporates, for a while, have been using legal protection against journalists and campaigners. Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) has become an instrument where the powerful dictate terms to the lesser privileged for their freedom of speech. Most commonly, they arise as defamation suits. Almost three years back, the RIL lawyers filed a complaint about a token damage of up to ‘₹100 Crore’ in ten days against the authors of ‘Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism And The Ambanis (2014)’. The antagonists in this book, the Ambanis, had called the charges laid down against them as ‘derogatory’. The kind of narrative, published in ‘Gas Wars’ (2014), had been quite different from what common masses heard about Reliance Industries. The adversarial views on RIL led to company’s ‘Streisand Effect’. In public, RIL, had been an entity, which had seemingly changed the corp...

By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront T housands of Tunisians gathered on the streets of Tunis in January 2018, to mark the anniversary of the ousting of President Ben Ali, who went into exile to Saudi Arabia in January, 2011. This has been the country where 2011 Arab Spring against a tyrannical rule actually started. Right now, the country is running a fragile government. They have promised that the common people will reap the fruits of prosperity mainly from foreign investments, but Tunisians don’t believe their leaders. Infact, there were protests in 2016 regarding unemployment, in the Kasserine region. Then, in 2017, there was Kamour movement in the south, which ended after government accepted demands. S ince 1956, Tunisia has followed an economic model that has focused entirely on cheap exports to Europe and on budget mass tourism for Europeans. The prime minister, president and the senate hold equal power. At the same time, social activists are ac...

Source: Al Jazeera By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Up Front T he slapping of an Israeli soldier by a sixteen-year-old activist, Ahed Tamimi in December 2017 has become a new symbol of Palestinian resistance.  While her cousin, Nour Tamimi had been released on bail for 5000 shekels (1400 USD), Ahed has been charged with twelve counts and if found guilty, could be convicted for a longer jail presence. Her mother, who filmed the video has also been charged. In 2015, Ahed bit a hand of an Israeli soldier to try to stop the arrest of her brother. This young activist comes from a prominent Tamimi family, residing in the village of Nabi Saleh, who are renowned for their political activism. Ahed’s father wants her to become the poster child of the most significant Palestinian peaceful resistance movement namely Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).  To many, Ahed is seen as the West Bank’s Joan of Arc. Interestingly, the media has not given her a...