Journalist
By Neena Bhandari
Melbourne, 19.04.2008 (IANS): Dizzying heights are not for the fainthearted, but if you can muster up the courage to be propelled to the 88th floor of Melbourne‘s Eureka Tower, the awe-inspiring 380 degree vista is an experience like none other.
As the lift doors slide shut, there is a sound of heavy breathing as some visitors squeeze palms with their eyes fixed at the red digital display. They are going up to the Southern Hemisphere’s highest viewing platform!
By Neena Bhandari
Sydney, 14.04.2008 (IPS): While millions of children’s lives have been saved as a result of a successful worldwide campaign to boost vaccination programmes, governments across the world are failing in following through on their commitments to health aid and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
‘’Wealthy countries such as the G8 members continue to content themselves with largely symbolic gestures. We have to make sure that the pledge made by governments (on MDGs) is followed,” eminent medical scientist Gustav Nossal told IPS.
By Neena Bhandari
Sydney, 03.04.2008 (IANS): Switching off lights for 60 minutes in a year on a perfect spring Saturday night in Sydney, when it was neither too hot nor too cold for comfort and most offices and businesses were closed anyway, one can’t help but question the contribution of the Earth Hour to the cause of tackling climate change.
An event that started in Sydney last year had about 25 countries participating this year. So is it, indeed, “Our (Sydney’s) gift to the world”? As one of the Sydney Morning Herald readers wrote in the letters’ column, “The headline shouts of our vanity, selfishness and self importance”.