22 June 2018 (Pressenza)* — Eleven years after joining the European Union, Romania is trying to clean itself up, but poverty and corruption are still in control. Only Bulgaria, among EU member states, is below Romania on the poverty scale.
(Picture: Daniel Mundin)
Right in the centre of Bucharest, outcasts live underground in the former heating tunnels of the Romanian capital.
Daniel and Matthias wanted to know what kind of conditions people in the European Union still have to live in. And they wanted to help, provide them with the essentials, show that there is solidarity, even if misery is not always knocking on our door, as it did, when the waves of refugees arrived in Germany.
They gather every Monday. Hundreds of low-wage workers, faith leaders, civil rights organizers, trade union members and liberal activists from all over the US have been taking to the streets each week since May 13th 2018 to protest inequality, racism, ecological devastation, militarism and all kinds of discrimination.
“AS LONG as in the heart, within, a Jewish soul is yearning…” thus starts the official translation of Israel’s national anthem.
Uri Avnery
Actually, the Hebrew original says “the soul of a Jew”, but the translator probably got it right. It’s the Jewish Soul that was meant.
But is there a Jewish Soul? Is it different from the souls of other people? And if so, what is the difference?
FRANKLY, I don’t know what a soul is. But let’s assume that there is such a thing as a collective psychology, the general spirit of all the men and women who make up this collective – each of whom has a psychology of his/her own. What is it that differentiates it from that of other peoples?
Looking at the present day Israeli people, a stranger may well be perplexed.
First of all, more than a fifth of Israelis are not Jewish at all, but belong to the Palestinian people, who presumably have a different “soul”. When people speak about Israelis, they generally really mean “Jewish Israelis”.
The Stories Have Been Used by IOM to Raise Awareness, Counter Risks in Bangladesh
IOM has created a series of cartoon books using real life stories of Rohingya refugees to help raise awareness of the risks of trafficking.
Cox’s Bazar, 22 June 2018 (IOM)* – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, has launched a series of new comic books, which tell the true-life stories of Rohingya refugees who have fallen victim to human trafficking, to raise awareness among those vulnerable to the crime in South Bangladesh.
New report paints a worrying picture, provides recommendations on what can be done.
Water pollution from agriculture affects billions of people and generates annual costs exceeding billions of dollars. Photo from FAO.
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ROME, 20 June 2018 (FAO)* –– Water pollution from unsustainable agricultural practices poses a serious risk to human health and the planet’s ecosystems, a problem often underestimated by policymakers and farmers alike, cautions a new report.
While workplace violence can differ depending on a country’s development level, the most common forms occur everywhere. In the poorest countries, unacceptable practices are often exacerbated by poverty. ILO looked at the situation in Madagascar.
ANTANANARIVO, 19 June 2018 (ILO)* – In the 1944 Philadelphia Declaration , the ILO proclaimed that “all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity”.
AGADEZ, Niger, 21 June 2018 (UNHCR)*— Their lives have been reduced to waiting in the heat. Many must sleep on the ground. But at least now they are safe.
They are refugees, asylum seekers and persons of concern for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. They wait now here, in Agadez, Niger. Most are Sudanese, and many have appalling stories to tell.
20 June 2018 — TRANSCEND Media Service — Friday 8 June 2018 in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, Hazara girls joined young Pashto boys to sing Afghanistan’s national anthem as a welcome to Pashto men walking 400 miles from Helmand to Kabul. The walkers are calling on warring parties in Afghanistan to end the war.
Most of the men making the journey are wearing sandals. At rest stops, they must tend to their torn and blistered feet. But their mission grows stronger as they walk.
In Ghazni, hundreds of residents, along with religious leaders, showed remarkable readiness to embrace the courage and vision of the Helmand-to-Kabul peace walk participants.
20 June 2018 – TRANSCEND Media Service — China and India have had a long and enduring relationship for centuries. The interaction between the two was both economic and spiritual in nature through the spirit of Buddhism. More recently the relationship has taken a political and military colour. This has occurred especially after the 1962 attack by China on India and the relationship has become sour due to military, economic and political factors.
