'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
Despite the significant global outrage at US President Donald Trump and his supporters – best highlighted by the Pew surveys and more viscerally by the enormous anti-Trump protests in London in July 2018 – anti-Americanism is less apparent under Trump than it was under President George W. Bush.
Shortly into the Bush presidency, a wave of books such as Why do People Hate America?became bestsellers. This was part of a lively debate at the time about what constituted anti-Americanism.
Open, predictable and fair global food markets can help strengthen climate change response efforts and contribute to fighting hunger, says new report.
ROME, 17 September 2018 (FAO)* – With climate change poised to alter significantly the ability of many world regions to produce food, it is expected that international trade in agricultural products will have an increasingly important contribution to feeding the planet and responding to climate-related hunger flare-ups, says a new report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
International trade rules established under the auspices of the WTO and newer mechanisms created under the Paris Agreement aimed at responding to climate change can be mutually supportive, argues The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets, 2018. Continue reading
As conflict continues to rage in Yemen, leading to widespread economic hardship and a rampant inflation, the World Food Programme (WFP) is sounding the alarm over soaring food prices that are affecting millions of Yemenis.
“My primary concern is the innocent children, women and men of Yemen, and I urge all parties to end the fighting and support efforts to build peace,” said David Beasley, WFP Executive Director, in a statement on 19 September 2018.
The report, A future stolen: young and out-of-school, looks at the education situation of children and young people from pre-primary to upper secondary age across all countries, including those affected by humanitarian emergencies.
Progress that destroys traditional culture, language, land and human heritage “is not development, but willful destruction”, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights on 19 September 2018 said, in defence of indigenous peoples everywhere.
Kate Gilmore’s comments were followed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli Corpuz, who expressed concern at a “drastic increase” in attacks against indigenous peoples, and efforts to criminalize them.
By Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate | The Peace People – TRANSCEND Media Service*
Inventing a foe to sell military ambitions: still the most dangerous of games.
In examining the future, we must look to the past.
As we watch the media today, we are spoon fed more and more propaganda and fear of the unknown, that we should be afraid of the unknown and have full faith that our government is keeping us safe from the unknown. Continue reading
ROME, 13 September 2018 (Other News) – This testimony to Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General, comes a month after his death. Much has already been written, and it is now superfluous to recall his efforts for peace and international cooperation. It is better to place his figure in a crucial context: how the great powers progressively reduced the figure of the UN Secretary-General and charged a high price from those who tried to keep the system’s independence.
Roberto Savio
First of all, it must be remembered that the United Nations was born – to a considerable extent – due to the strong propulsive drive of the United States.
The United States, the great winners of the Second World War [with 416,800 soldiers and 1,700 civilians dead, compared with over 20 million Soviet Union soldiers and civilians], wanted to avoid the recurrence of a new world conflict.
It therefore sought the construction of a multilateral system, able to maintain – through peace in a ruined world – its economic and military hegemony intact.
By John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service*
Can we abolish war?
In the long run, because of the terrible weapons that already have been produced through the misuse of science, and because of the even more terrible weapons that are likely to be invented in the future, the only way in which we can ensure the survival of human civilization is to abolish the institution of war.
John Scales Avery
But is this possible? Or are the emotions that make war possible so much a part of human nature that we cannot stop humans from fighting any more than we can stop cats and dogs from fighting?
Can biological science throw any light on the problem of why our supposedly rational species seems intent on choosing war, pain and death instead of peace, happiness and life? Do tribal emotions make us easy victims for the neofascist politicians who serve the military-industrial complex? Continue reading
The new session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on 18 September 2018 with its President pledging to use her year in office to bring the world body closer to the people and strengthen their sense of ownership and support for the UN.
In her first keynote address to what is the 73rd session of the 193-member General Assembly, President María Fernanda Espinosa, said that the need for stronger global leadership in the service of multilateralism, to ensure more peaceful, equitable and sustainable societies, would underpin her work.
Warring parties in South Sudan must demonstrate their willingness to a peaceful end to their conflict by “making their guns fall silent. Immediately and everywhere,” said Nicholas Haysom, outgoing UN Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, on 18 September 2018.
Haysom’s comments were delivered during a briefing to the Security Council on South Sudan, led by Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the head of UN Peacekeeping Operations.
