“It is a duty of a society of solidarity in times of crisis to ensure that migrant citizens have access to health and social security,” the Minister of Internal Affairs said.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s socialist party returned the country to economic growth while reversing austerity policies. | Photo: EFE (Photo fromteleSUR’s article).
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29 March 2020 (teleSUR)* — The current socialist government in Portugal decided to grant citizenship rights to all migrants and asylum seekers with pending residency applications from Monday until July 1 at least due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s authorities announced Saturday [28 March 2020].
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 30 2020 (IPS)* – As coronavirus makes its way through different continents, countries, and communities around the world having claimed more than 23,000 lives, experts are ringing alarm bells about the implications of the disease as it hits South Asia, which hosts almost 2 billion of the world’s population.
The first case of coronavirus was found near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.Over a million Rohingya refugees are now cramped in hilly terrains of Ukhiya in southeastern regions of Cox’s Bazar along Bangladesh border with Myanmar. Credit: ASM Suza Uddin/IPS
FAO’s Chief Economist maps the ways the world can mitigate shocks to agriculture and food systems (*).
Global food supply chains are complex and include these kale farmers in Uganda.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put the world on a crisis footing, with unprecedented actions to restrict movements and plans for radical deployment of public funds to combat the threat posed by a novel coronavirus that knows no boundaries.
Women and girls face particular challenges as migrants, whatever their reason for leaving their country of origin. UN agencies are learning more about these difficulties, and how to address them.
28 March 2020 (UN News)* — Mauritania, where the job market has been tight in recent years, has seen many people fall prey to the patter of so-called hiring agents, who sell false promises of lucrative job opportunities abroad, and charge a hefty price for their services.
As the elderly and unwell self-isolate, a network of Syrians provides a vital bridge to the outside world for Swiss in greatest need. | Español | Français | عربي
Amnesty InternationalResponding to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement it would indefinitely suspend enforcement of environmental laws due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Richard Pearshouse, Amnesty International’s Head of Crisis and the Environment, said:
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“The Trump administration is cynically abusing this crisis to achieve its pre-COVID-19 goal of gutting US environmental regulations.
The headlines provide abundant details about economic shutdowns in order to slow the spread of the COV-19 virus.
Dr. David Adams
But behind the headlines, there is another story more important in the long run: the global economy is a house of cards based on speculation and military spending.
It seems likely that the house of cards will come crashing down as a result of the global economic shutdown.
The details of how this will come about in economic terms are difficult to predict since there are so many interacting factors.
But even more important is how this can play out in political repercussions and opportunities.
Will it provide us with the opportunity to make the transition from the culture of war to a culture of peace?In the novella that I wrote ten years ago, I foresaw a global economic crash in the year 2020, which opened the possibility for this radical transformation.
24 March 2020 — (Wall Street International* — Chinese astrology and constellations were mostly used for divination. Chinese astrology is perhaps the oldest known horoscope system in the world.
29 March 2020 (UN News)* — The International Labour Organization (ILO) marked its centenary in 2019 and as part of the commemoration launched a photography project called “Dignity at Work: The American Experience” to document the working life of people across the United States. UN News joined the ILO on a visit to the US state of Hawaii.
UN News/Daniel Dickinson | Diane Paloma is the CEO of Lunalilo Home in Honolulu, Hawaii.
.Diane Paloma is the CEO of Lunalilo Home and the King William Charles Lunalilo Trust which cares for elderly people in Honolulu, the capital of the US state of Hawaii..Some 80 residents and day-care clients are looked after at Lunalilo, which was established in 1883 following a bequest by King William Charles Lunalilo, the first of a long line of Hawaiian kings to be formally elected by the island’s people.
“This is a population that has a poor nutritional status, and also has diseases that have not been treated, so they are more likely to contract the virus.”
Homeless Chileans live in tents in public spaces | Photo: Twitter/@RendirseJamass
26 March 2020 (teleSUR)* — Chile’s government requested the homeless population to “stay at home” and to maintain hygiene to prevent Covid-19. The administrative request generates mockeries and polemic reactions.
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Chile’s Social Development and Family Minister, Sebastian Sichel, affirmed that his administration is asking the ones who live on the streets to go back to their houses.
“I came from a big family and I am the youngest girl. My parents never wanted me to leave and work abroad. We are very close, and they used to tell me “you are here – you don’t know how to live abroad.” (*).
KURDISTAN, Iraq, 26 March 2020 (UNFPA)* – Intisar* was only 15 years old when her parents forced her into a marriage. She described it as an act of commerce: They sold her to another family to pay off a debt. “It is the worst feeling in the world to be traded off like that by the people who are supposed to protect you,” said the now-37-year-old Intisar, during a recent interview.
Her husband was 25 years her senior, and immediately abusive. He never missed an opportunity to remind her that she was “just a bargaining chip,” she said.
March 2020 (FAO)* — Do you see the world in numbers? Do you study charts like an art lover studies Renoir? Do you love statistics in all its forms? Well, FAO does too! When it comes to food and agriculture data, FAO is one of the world leaders in knowledge.
Subject experts and in-house statisticians work day in and day out to collect, validate and disseminate data and information on food and agriculture, from hunger, malnutrition and rural poverty to food systems and the sustainable use of natural resources.
27 March 2020 (UN News)* — Migrants are playing an increasingly important role in the provision of health care around the world. The number of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who move from developing countries to take up posts in developed countries is expected to rise as the global population of older persons and children continues to grow.
UN News/Daniel Dickinson | Novena Sanchez immigrated from the Philippines to Hawaii.
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It’s three o’clock in the afternoon at the Lunalilo Home, a residential and day care centre for elderly people nestling at the foot of a dormant volcano on the outskirts of Honolulu, the capital of the US state of Hawaii.
27 March 2020 (Wall Street International)* — We are in the middle of a pandemic crisis, and it is imperative to know all the angles that are affecting, because obviously at this moment we are not conscious of it. Due to quarantine, physical crimes have decreased, but on the other hand, cyberattacks have been increasing considerably, as the environment is just right for cybercriminals to strike, and since the world is completely dependent on Internet and computers, we need to be extremely careful to keep them alive and “healthy”.
The far-right president hints that a regime more authoritarian than Chile’s Augusto Pinochet dictatorship could be the “price to pay” due to the “chaos” that the “small flu” triggers.
President Jair Bolsonaro at a press conference in Brasilia, Brazil, March 23, 2020. | Photo: EFE (Photo posted here fromteleSur’s article).
26 March 2020 (teleSUR)* — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro Wednesday [25 March 2020] affirmed that democracy runs the risk of “ending” if the crisis caused by the coronavirus leads to “chaos.”
Respiratory diseases have been the leading cause of death among indigenous populations.
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Guarani Mbya Indigenous people near the Jaragua village, Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 10, 2020. | Photo: EFE (Photo posted here fromteleSUR’s article).
25 March 2020 (teleSUR)* — The Sao Paulo Federal University (UNIFESP) researcher Sofia Mendonca Wednesday warned that Brazilian Indigenous peoples can be decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic if there are no forceful containment actions.
26 March 2020 (UN News)* — A Brazilian activist who regularly receives threats of violence says he will continue fighting for the right of people of African descent to access land and property in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
UN Brazil/Joana Berwanger | Damião Braga is an activist and community leader.
Damião Braga is a quilombola leader, a term which originally referred to enslaved African people and which is now used to describe the descendants of these populations.
Mr. Braga leads Pedra do Sal, one of the main urban quilombola communities, which has been fighting a long-standing judicial and administrative battle to obtain ownership of properties in central Rio, now owned by the State and claimed by the Catholic Church.
23 March 2020 (Wall Street International)* — Where would you go if you wanted to meet an Angel? In a sacred place? In a wonderful natural environment? In the infinite space? Yes, all these places are perfect, and they allow you to meet the angelic energies, but there is one even better: your inner life, the place of absolute peace that exists inside you.
25 March 2020 (Wall Street International)* — I would like to announce the publication of a book, which discusses the most serious dangers which the world faces today. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link.
25 March 2020 (UN Environment)* — Both great ape research and tourism have allowed people to learn about chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans, and to observe them from a close proximity. Great ape tourism also serves as an important source of revenue for governments and communities, and a significant proportion of this income is reinvested in the protection of endangered species and their natural habitats.
26 March 2020 (UN News)*— Every year, migrants embarking on sea-crossings see their journey end in tragedy: those who survive and return home can struggle to cope with daily life, and need support. To help migrant returnees, the UN has a range of programs aimed at tackling the mental health side-effects of trauma.
Sulayman*, an 18 year old from the North Bank region of The Gambia in West Africa, says that he will never forget what he saw, the day that he was caught up in a devastating tragedy: the ship he was travelling on sank off the Mauritanian coast, drowning at least 62 people who had left the country, in the hope of a better life elsewhere.
UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz | Details from ‘Ark of Return,’ the permanent memorial in acknowledgement of the tragedy and in consideration of the legacy of slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
“Two categories of propaganda must be distinguished. The first strives to create a permanent disposition in its objects and constantly needs to be reinforced. Its goal is to make the masses ‘available,’ by working spells upon them and exercising a kind of fascination.
Edward Curtin
The second category involves the creation of a sort of temporary impulsiveness in its objects. It operates by simple pressure and is often contradictory (since contradictory mass movement are sometimes necessary).” – Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society
The French-Algerian writer Albert Camus’ great 1947 novel, The Plague, is a warning to us today, but a warning in disguise.
When he died sixty years ago at the young age of forty-six, he had already written The Stranger, The Fall, and The Plague, and had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(UN News)* — India’s decision to impose a 21-day lockdown, which was announced on Tuesday [24 March 2020], comes after a call from the UN health agency, WHO, for the country to take “aggressive action”.
UN India | Normally bustling streets in cities across India were mostly deserted as the country observed the shutdown.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s order for the country’s 1.3 billion people to stay home, is an escalation of the 07:00 – 21:00 “Janata curfew” introduced on March 22, and it comes a day after the government grounded all domestic flights.
Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus could wipe out any of Brazil’s indigenous isolated tribes.
Around 100 isolated groups live in Brazil’s Amazon with 16 of them in the same reserve in the Javari Valley. | Photo: EFE (Photo posted here fromteleSUR’s article).
24 March 2020 (teleSUR)* — Isolated tribes in the Brazilian Amazon are at high risk of contracting deadly diseases including the coronavirus because of missionaries who swore to convert all of them, a report from the Guardian published Monday revealed.
GENEVA, 24 March 2020 (WHO)* — New World Health Organization (WHO) guidance will help countries accelerate efforts to stop people with tuberculosis (TB) infection becoming sick with TB by giving them preventive treatment. 中文 | Français | Русский | Español |
A quarter of the world‘s population is estimated to be infected with TB bacteria. These people are neither sick nor contagious. However, they are at greater risk of developing TB disease, especially those with weakened immunity.
(UN News)* — As countries across the world grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Health agency reminded everyone on Tuesday [24 March 2020], World Tuberculosis Day 2020, that TB remains the world’s most deadly infectious disease.
UNDP/Aurélia Rusekn|nA Somali refugee who was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2017 holds her chest x-ray in a camp in Djibouti where she lives with her family.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a quarter of the global population is estimated to be infected with TB bacteria.
A civilization or culture is defined as a set of customs, traditions, ethics, values, language, music, dance, gastronomy, clothing, religion, and social and political organization of a people, ethnic group, tribe, or nation.
British scholars of the 19th century classified the peoples and races as Civilized, Barbarians and Savages, based on their respective “evolutions.” Such classification was based primarily on three factors:
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution;
the Industrial Revolution in the beginning of industrial capitalism; and
the Reformation of the Catholic Church, the schism from which Protestantism arose.
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 24 2020 (IPS)* – When US President Donald Trump repeatedly characterized the fast-spreading COVID-19 as a “Chinese virus” last week, it prompted some white supremacists to resurrect an age old ethnic slur against Chinese and East Asians: the “Yellow Peril” which, in a bygone era, was touted as a xenophobic threat to the Western world.
Moreover, the ongoing human death toll from the activities that are generating this crisis numbers in the many millions each year while the number of species driven to extinction is estimated at 200 per day.
In contrast, a virus that is killing a very small proportion of the minuscule number it has infected is causing panic in many countries around the world, devastating the travel and tourism industries while emptying supermarket shelves of food and that apparently most vital of commodities: toilet paper. Continue reading →
23 March 2020 (RT)* – The head of Germany’s public health institute claims that the rate of new coronavirus infection in the country is showing signs of flattening, highlighting the success of social distancing measures adopted nationwide.
“We are seeing signs that the exponential growth curve is flattening off slightly,” said Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute. “But I will only be able to confirm this trend definitively on Wednesday.”
23 March 2020 (RT)* — Stock markets around the world are starting the week mostly lower as the spread of the coronavirus continues to drag down the global economy,
The FTSE index is down over four percent at the start of trading in London, while Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC have plummeted almost five percent. The pan-European Stoxx 600 dropped 4.5 percent at the opening bell on Monday, with industrials nosediving six percent to lead the losses.
22 March 2020 (UN Environment)* — This 2020 theme for the International Day of Forests on 22 March is Forests and Biodiversity. It’s an often-quoted fact that forests are home to 80 per cent of terrestrial biodiversity, but did you know that one type of tree also supports marine biodiversity—the mangrove tree?
Photo by Steven Lutz, GRID-Arendal
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Awareness is growing among governments and coastal communities in tropical countries of the incredible value of mangroves to nature and humans.
22 March 2020 (Wall Street International)* — Have you ever felt taken for granted in your relationships? Have you taken care of others needs more than yourself, to the point of exhaustion? Do you find it difficult to say no? Have you struggled with getting yourself heard and acknowledged? If your answer is yes, you are not alone.
Setting emotional boundaries in relationships is a conscious process | Image fromWall Street International.
23 March 2020 (World Meteorological Organization)* — Fresh water is vital for life. On average, a human being cannot survive more than three days without it. Water is essential for the production of our food, virtually all of our goods and services and for the environment.
The world now faces increasing challenges posed by water stress, floods and droughts and lack of access to clean supplies. There is an urgent need to improve forecasting, monitoring and management of water supplies and to tackle the problem of too much, too little or too polluted water.
22 March 2020 (World Water Day)* — Climate delay is almost as dangerous as climate denial. Every country in the world must work more quickly.
What do we mean when we say: ‘We cannot afford to wait. Climate policy makers must put water at the heart of action plans’?
Extreme weather events are making water more scarce, more unpredictable, more polluted or all three.
Humans need water to survive, as do all the systems we rely on: sanitation, healthcare, education, business and industry.
Action plans to tackle climate change need to be integrated across different sectors and coordinated across borders. And they must have one thing in common: safe and sustainable water management.
22 March 2020 (UN News)* — On World Water Day, the United Nations is calling on everyone to take action to save the planet and its water, with the launch of a flagship report that says reducing both the impacts and drivers of climate change will require major changes in the way we use and reuse the Earth’s limited water resources.
UNDP Belarus | In Belarus, peat bogs like the one pictured here, are being revitalized and act as effective carbon sinks, which can absorb and capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and reduce its concentration in the air.
BERLIN, Germany, Mar 20 2020 (IPS)* – Water is essential and indispensable for life on earth. We know that; and many of us have perhaps heard, written and uttered these words themselves a ‘million’ times.
Primary School students in Grenada are seen here working together to promote awareness on water conservation on World Water Day. Credit: Global Water Partnership
Therefore, I am astonished and increasingly worried about the relatively low-level of attention and priority accorded to water at the practical-political level.
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Mar 19 2020 (IPS)* – The human factor is intimately involved in the origin, spread, and mitigation of the Coronavirus and we cannot afford to ignore that our future existence depends on compassion and cooperation. Response matters!
21 March 2020 (UNESCO)* — Forests are vitally important for sustaining life on Earth. It is estimated that around 1.6 billion people – including more than 2,000 indigenous cultures – depend on forests for their livelihoods, medicine, fuel, food and shelter.
21 March 2020 (United Nations)* — When we drink a glass of water, write in a notebook, take medicine for a fever or build a house, we do not always make the connection with forests. And yet, these and many other aspects of our lives are linked to forests in one way or another.
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Forests, their sustainable management and use of resources, including in fragile ecosystems, are key to combating climate change, and to contributing to the prosperity and well-being of current and future generations.
Forests also play a crucial role in poverty alleviation and in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Geneva, 20 March 2020 (IOM)*– As the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Network on Migration salutes the immense efforts to date to combat this crisis and urges that all – including migrants regardless of their migratory status – are included in efforts to mitigate and roll back this illness’s impact.
To that end, migrants must be seen as both potential victims and as an integral part of any effective public health response. It is particularly important that all authorities make every effort to confront xenophobia, including where migrants and others are subject to discrimination or violence linked to the origin and spreading of the pandemic.
COVID-19 does not discriminate, and nor should our response, if it is to succeed.
20 March 2020 (World Meteorological Organization)* – Flash floods cause more than 5,000 deaths worldwide annually, exceeding any other flood-related event. They have enough power to change the course of rivers, bury houses in mud, and sweep away or destroy whatever is on their path.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s socialist party returned the country to economic growth while reversing austerity policies. | Photo: EFE (Photo from teleSUR’s article).
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