By Baher Kamal & The Like
17 October 2017 – The United Nations refugee agency is concerned about the humanitarian condition of up to 15,000 Rohingya refugees who are stranded in paddy fields near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
Thousands of new Rohingya refugee arrivals cross the border near Anzuman Para village, Palong Khali, Bangladesh. Photo: UNHCR/Roger Arnold
African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) soldier greets a group of children during a patrol in the Kaa’ran district of Somali capital, Mogadishu. Credit: UN Photo/Stuart Price
16 October 2017 – Voicing concern over restrictions on protests as well as attacks on judiciary and civil society in the run-up to presidential elections in Kenya, a group of United Nations independent human rights experts called on the Government to honour its obligations and protect the rights of Kenyans.
Independent Expert on Human Rights Michel Forst. Photo: Jean-Marc Ferré
“It is precisely when political tensions are high that governments should do their utmost to let people express their grievances and to protect their rights,” said the experts in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The Teles Pires river along the stretch between Sinop and Colider, two cities from which two new hydropower stations take their name, which are transforming the northern part of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a major energy generator and producer and exporter of soybean, maize and beef. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS
Food security for all requires tackling climate change and ending conflicts, His Holiness, Pope Francis, on 16 October stressed Monday at an official ceremony for World Food Day held at the Rome headquarters of the United Nations agriculture agency.
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Address by His Holiness Pope Francis. World Food Day Ceremony, FAO Headquarters (Plenary hall). Photo: FAO/Giuseppe Carotenuto.
16 October 2017 – TRANSCEND Media Service – There was what may have been the most violent white US massacre ever; 59 killed from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel. The assassin is now being criminalized, psychiatrized, individualized, characterized.
Johan Galtung
But the massacre was systemic. With strong forces for competition and for violence, US competition to be the most violent follows.
And that immediately indicates two ways out of the violence: the USA becoming less competitive, and the USA becoming less violent. How?
Anthony Stevens, in a touching article, “A Basic Need: A lack of community” (Resurgence No. 174) demands “the recreation of community life within the context of our post-industrial society”.
A community engenders solidarity, and cooperation rather than competition.
However, the “less violent” part. Gun control is not the way. Continue reading
16 October 2017 – United Nations human rights experts are urging the Government of France to devise long-term measures to provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation for migrants in Calais and other areas along the northern French coast.
Several thousand asylum-seekers and migrants from Syria, Iraq, Ethiopia, Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan are living in makeshift camps or in the streets in Calais, France. Photo: UNHCR/C. Vander Eecken
16 October 2017 — Earthquakes and hurricanes devastating parts of Mexico and the Caribbean; flooding in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan affecting more than 41 million people; refugee crises in Syria and Myanmar; protracted crises in Afghanistan, Chad and the Central African Republic; and more than 20 million people facing starvation and famine across Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen in the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two…
Photo: Transparency International
Around the globe, tens of millions of people need humanitarian assistance from governments, humanitarian aid agencies, and the UN.
Women and girls are central to the sustainability of rural households and communities, improving rural livelihoods and overall wellbeing, but their role and significance is often overlooked, the head of the United Nations entity for women’s empowerment on 15 October said.
Small farms in Madagascar are hard hit by erratic weather and locust invasion. Photo: FAO/Yasuyoshi Chiba
14/10/17
Ze’ev Begin, the son of Menachem Begin, is a very nice human being. It is impossible not to like him. He is well brought up, polite and modest, the kind of person one would like to have as a friend.
Uri Avnery
Unfortunately, his political views are far less likeable. They are much more extreme than even the acts of his father. The father, after leading the Irgun, sat down and made peace with Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt.
Ze’ev is closer to Golda Me’ir, who ignored Sadat’s peace overtures and led us into the disastrous Yom Kippur war.
Begin jr. is a strict follower of the “revisionist” Zionist creed founded by Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky. One of the characteristics of this movement has always been the importance it gave to written texts and declarations.
The labor movement, headed by David Ben-Gurion, didn’t give a damn about words and declarations and respected only “facts on the ground”. Continue reading
