Over the past year, the world has watched with great interest as the Arab Spring has dissolved decades of repression. Citizens weary of injustice have stood up and demanded control of their destinies. I wish that oppressed people everywhere in Africa could benefit from the dramatic changes we are witnessing in North Africa. The people of Equatorial Guinea, for instance, an oil-rich country home to the continent’s longest-ruling leader, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, have endured decades of repression, and many remain mired in poverty despite the country’s considerable natural resource wealth. Torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and harassment of journalists and civil society groups have been well documented by the United Nations and other sources.

Despite this abysmal record, in 2008 UNESCO agreed to establish a science prize named for and funded by President Obiang aimed at “improving the quality of human life.” Outrage UNESCO suspended the prize in October 2010 after an overwhelming number of Equatoguineans, human rights groups, press freedom organizations, anti-corruption groups, public health professionals, prominent writers, and esteemed scientists from Africa and around the world voiced their outrage over the prize. I myself, in solidarity with the people of Equatorial Guinea, joined in this effort.

As part of the so called BRICS countries (along with China, India, Russia and South Africa), Brazil has established itself as one of today’s most important emerging economic powers. The country has not only become increasingly involved in giving aid to African countries but is also expected to provide help to the European Union’s (EU) indebted member states, as a means to overcome the current financial crisis, reported Eurostep based on news published by several media outlets.

Representatives of BRICS’ governments will discuss next weekend in Washington, on the occasion of the 2011 World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, “how to help the EU get out of this situation,” Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced last week, in an interview with World Policy Report.

With several European economies, such as Greece and Portugal, struggling with huge debts, government austerity measures and high unemployment rates, the EU’s economic and financial situation has recently come under significant pressure.

Representatives of the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean who convened this week in Santiago de Chile did not include among their recommendations to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio2012), to be held next year in Brazil, the concept of “green economy”.

On the other hand, the document of conclusions approved by the Regional Preparatory Meeting for Rio2012, gathered at the ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile, reiterates that “the objective to be achieved is sustainable development, which should ensure the balance between these three interconnected pillars: social, economic and environmental, while maintaining the fundamental principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and equity”.A global institutional framework is necessary to achieve sustainable development "which is efficient and flexible and ensures the effective integration” of those pillars, it adds.

The delegates stated that a change in patterns of production and consumption must be achieved, in addition to better ways of measuring countries' wealth that adequately reflect the social, economic and environmental dimensions, "while maintaining the fundamental principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and equity".