'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
– Meeting the President of the Republic of Korea in September 2019, President Donald J Trump bragged that the “US economy is the envy of the world”. Trump reiterated such claims in his State of the Union address in early February, hailing his own policies with typical humility.
Trump touted US economic success at the Davos World Economic Forum in January as “nothing short of spectacular”, asserting “I’m proud to declare the United States is in the midst of an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen before.”
To the contrary, US economic growth slowed after Trump started the ‘trade war’ with China, dropping from 3.5% in the second quarter of 2018 to 2.1% in the last quarter of 2019, much less than the 5.5% per annum peak in the second quarter of 2014 during the Obama presidency. Continue reading
Worldwide material consumption has expanded rapidly, as has material footprint per capita. In 1990, some 8.1 tonnes of natural resources were used to satisfy a person’s need, while in 2017, almost 12.2 tonnes of resources were extracted per person.
Malcolm Lightbody | Unsplash mlightbody.com
More funding needed to combat locust swarms ‘unprecedented in modern times’
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There is no scarcity of literature in this field, much of it permutations around the basic core of “I am of course against war, but – -”. So let it be clear from the outset that the present author is against war, there being no “but”.
Johan Galtung
War as an institution to resolve conflict is an abomination, like slavery and colonialism as institutions. Occasional war, slavery and colonialism are probably hard to eliminate.
But the key word is institution, legitimized by social norms and mores.
A doctrine of just war is designed to do exactly that, offer a legitimation, for instance by seeing the evil of war as something that can be outweighed by possible positive consequences. But all human activity carries in its wake something good and something bad, weighing one against the other we can justify anything, like justifying Hitler with the Autobahnen.
24 February 2020 (UN News)* — Because the production of everything we eat transforms the environment, the United Nations agriculture chief told a high-level UN meeting on biodiversity that careful discussions are needed to decide on the scale of acceptable transformations.
(UN News)* — While a sudden increase in new cases of COVID-19 is of concern, the spread of coronavirus is not yet a pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on 24 February 2020.
“Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely, it has. Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva.
(UN News)* — Cheap and easily accessible small arms are increasingly becoming the “weapon of choice” for many terrorist groups, the UN counter-terrorism chief told an event on Friday [21 February 2020] aimed to raise awareness of the nexus between terrorism, organized crime and illicit small arms trafficking.
See: 1242 Signatures from 99 Countries as of 21 Feb 10:30 a.m. GMT
[TMS editor is #700 on the list]
Julian Assange, founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, is currently detained in Belmarsh high-security prison in the United Kingdom and faces extradition to the United States and criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act.
He risks up to 175 years imprisonment for his part in making public the leak of US military documents from Afghanistan and Iraq, and a trove of US State Department cables.
The ‘War Diaries’ provided evidence that the US Government misled the public about activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and committed war crimes. WikiLeaks partnered with a wide range of media organizations worldwide that republished the War Diaries and embassy cables.
The Taliban remain strong despite everything the US is throwing at them – but how serious is Trump about a peace deal?
20 February 2020 (openDemocracy)* — The US and the Taliban have agreed that they would like to hold a seven-day ceasefire. The chances of it actually happening varies by the day, and it’s not clear whether Donald Trump and those close to him do genuinely want a deal.
Beyond those hurdles, however, could a short-term ceasefire open into a lasting peace – one that brings stability while ensuring respect for human rights?
From the US perspective, the war is low profile but extraordinarily intense. The country’s armed forces are dropping many more bombs than a decade ago, when they had many more boots on the ground.
24 February 2020 (Wall Street International)* — In previous articles, I discussed the importance of eating little or no meat (especially beef)1-3.
Unfortunately, the food industry is a powerful force working against this idea. Clever marketing continues to increase the demand for mass-produced beef throughout the world.
So, it’s especially disappointing when news agencies publish headlines like this one: “Vegan and Plant-Based Diets Worsen Brain Health”4.
– A major discrepancy between Nepal government and foreign records of the number of Nepali children adopted in North America and Europe has exposed a trafficking ring that involves various child welfare agencies in Kathmandu.
The Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens has records of only 64 children from Nepal sent for adoption to ten western countries from 2010 to 2019. However, a list submitted to the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) by the US Department of State and the nine other countries reveals that 242 Nepali children were taken for adoption in those nine years.
Suspend Military Ties; Press for Accountability
Screenshot of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing receiving Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar, Andrea Faulkner, on January 29, 2020. Source: http://www.seniorgeneralminaunghlaing.com.mm
Sydney, 20 February 2020 (Human Rights Watch)* – Australia should avoid dealings with Myanmar that play down its military’s egregious rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne. Human Rights Watch urged the Australian government to immediately end military ties with Myanmar.
– The United Nations, which has long preached the irrefutable concept of income equality to the outside world, is now accused of condoning wage discrimination in its own backyard.
The message from the UN Staff Coordinating Council in Geneva was brutally frank—“protesting the UN’s hypocrisy” for launching “International Equal Pay Day*” while failing to reverse an illegal pay cut that has left 3,000 staff being paid 5 per cent less than colleagues on the same grades. Continue reading
“With COP13, the important role of CMS in protecting nature around the world has been strongly embraced”, affirmed CMS Executive Secretary Amy.
22 February 2020 (UN News)* — More than 10,000 civilians in Afghanistan were killed and injured last year, according to a new United Nations report that details record-high levels of civilian harm in the ongoing conflict.
Food security worsened significantly in areas hit by last year’s floods
Agong and her child from South Sudan, where some 6.5 million people are at risk of hunger.
JUBA (FAO)* – Some 6.5 million people in South Sudan – more than half of the population – could be in acute food insecurity at the height of this hunger season (May-July), three United Nations agencies on 20 February 2020 warned.
(UN News)* – The people of South Sudan have been “deliberately starved” in different parts of the country for ethnic and political reasons, and sexual violence against women and men as a weapon of war is ongoing, UN investigators said on Thursday [20 February 2020]
They warned of intercommunal conflict and terrible rights violations “in large swathes of territory”, as a new deadline approaches the formation of a unity Government after years of conflict.
Basis for a war crime
– The UN’s highly-touted socio-economic agenda, which lays out an ambitious global plan for “people, planet and prosperity”, has been dominated by “goals, targets and deadlines.”
Credit: IPBES
But regrettably, most developing nations are struggling to reach these goals—due largely to a shortfall in much-needed funding or lack of political will on the part of most governments. Continue reading
18 February 2020 (UN Environment)* — More than 90 per cent of rice is produced and consumed in Asia. Prior to the green revolution in the 1960s, India was home to more than 100,000 rice varieties, encompassing a stunning diversity in taste, nutrition, pest-resistance and, crucially in this age of climate change and natural disasters, adaptability to a range of conditions.
Photo by RCDC
Today, much of this biodiversity is irretrievably lost, forced out by the quest for high-yield hybrids and varieties. Nevertheless, a significant number of traditional varieties of rice are still grown by small and marginal farmers across India, where they cater for local consumers’ quality preferences and market niches.
20 February 2020 (UN News)* — A new study conducted by researchers from the United Nations health agency revealed that bladder cancer mutations can be detected in urine up to 10 years before clinically diagnosing the disease.
The test is based on detecting mutations in the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene – a crucial element for cancer genesis and progression – the most common mutations in bladder cancer, according to the report conducted by the UN World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and international partners.
The new evidence is detailed in an article published by The Lancet, which highlights the potential of early detection.
18 February 2020 (IWGIA)* — The situation for Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh in many ways echoes the situation of other Indigenous Peoples in Asia: they face heavy militarization; they are stigmatized as anti-national for wanting to be included in decisions affecting their lives – such as industrial development taking place on their ancestral lands, lands which they depend on for their livelihood; and their lands are grabbed at the speed of light, and with their land goes a huge part of their identity. Indigenous women are targeted, and rape is used systematically as a weapon to suppress them. The misery seems to be unending. Yet they are still here; alive, struggling, fighting, uniting.
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Geneva (IOM)* – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 19 February 2-2o called on the international community including the European Union to find an alternative safe disembarkation mechanism for migrants rescued fleeing Libya by boat after roughly 200 migrants were returned to Tripoli, hours after the city’s main port was heavily shelled on Tuesday [18 February 2020].
IOM Libya staff assist migrants at a disembarkation point in Tripoli. Photo credit: IOM 2020
20 February 2020 (United Nations)* — Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations. We uphold the principles of social justice when we promote gender equality, or the rights of indigenous peoples and migrants. We advance social justice when we remove barriers that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.
For the United Nations, the pursuit of social justice for all is at the core of our global mission to promote development and human dignity.
The adoption by the International Labour Organization of the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization is just one recent example of the UN System’s commitment to social justice.
If the future is going to work for everyone, it will mean putting people and planet first. But how? Tell policymakers what you think!
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© Ronn aka “Blue” Aldaman
(UN News)* — Malnutrition, disease, floods, droughts and displacement in Niger have put nearly three million people, more than half of them children, in need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF on 19 February 2020 said, calling for increased attention to their plight.
19 February 2020 (UN News)* — The world’s survival depends on children being able to flourish, but no country is doing enough to give them a sustainable future, dozens of highly respected international health experts on 19 February 2020.
In a UN-backed report assessing the capacity of 180 countries to ensure that their youngsters can survive and thrive, the authors highlight numerous “immediate” threats to their health, environment and opportunities.
March to May is the main cropping season for many countries in Eastern Africa (most of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, southern South Sudan, southern Ethiopia and southern Somalia).
The swarms of locusts, which have now spread to eight countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Eritrea), have been laying eggs along their migratory paths. The eggs are expected to hatch between March and April, posing serious risks to the upcoming cropping season.
As climate and commercial threats intensify, WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission presses for radical rethink on child health
Credits: PAHO/WHO/Fernando Revilla
No single country is adequately protecting children’s health, their environment and their futures, finds a landmark report released today [19 February 2020] by a Commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world.
Measures Proposed for the Sperm Whale and the Nut-Cracking Chimpanzee at UN Wildlife Conference
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Nut-cracking skills enable Chimpanzees to survive dry seasons in their western habitats © Tetsuro Matsuzawa Primate Research Institute, Kyoto
– When UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the 193-member General Assembly last December, he focused on the smoldering climate crisis– pointing out that the last five years have been the hottest ever recorded.
Ice caps are melting, he said, In Greenland alone, 179 billion tonnes of ice melted in July. Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing 70 years ahead of projections. Antarctica is melting three times as fast as a decade ago.
“Ocean levels are rising quicker than expected, putting some of our biggest and most economically important cities at risk.
– In an annual ritual early in the year, most major economic organizations have released forecasts for the global economy in 2020. Incredibly, almost as a reminder of where financial power resides in this day and age, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its forecasts at the World Economic Forum’s 50th annual meeting in Davos.
Anis Chowdhury
Although the IMF revised its global economic growth prognosis slightly downwards from its October 2019 forecast, it still offers the most optimistic prospect of 3.3% growth in 2020.
The World Bank’s forecast of 2.5% – identical to the United Nations (UN) estimate – is the lowest, with the OECD’s at 2.9%.
(UN News)* — Many animals – including birds, fish and mammals – migrate along set routes in search of food or breeding grounds. How best to protect them in a rapidly changing world is the focus of a major UN wildlife meeting which opened in Gandhinagar, India, on Monday [17 February 2020].
Gandhinagar, 18 February 2020 (CMS)* – a short film titled „You, come home when I am big“ depicting the hazardous first moments in the lives of turtle hatchlings has been produced to coincide with the CMS COP13.
A short film titled „You, come home when I am big“ depicts the hazardous first moments in the lives of turtle hatchlings
Gandhinagar (UN Environment)* – The Thirteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP13) opened in Gandhinagar, India on 17 February 2020.
The Conference kicks off ‘the super year’ for nature, which will include a UN Summit in September and culminate in the UN Biodiversity Conference at the end of 2020, when a new global biodiversity strategy for the next decade will be adopted – the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Our Addiction to Fossil Fuels Can Kill Us
The Industrial Revolution marked the start of a massive human use of fossil fuels. The stored energy from several hundred million years of plant growth began to be used at roughly a million times the rate at which it had been formed.
John Scales Avery
The effect on human society was like that of a narcotic. There was a euphoric (and totally unsustainable) surge of growth of both population and industrial production.
Meanwhile, the carbon released by the burning of fossil fuels began to duplicate the conditions that lead to the 5 geologically-observed mass extinction events during each of which more than half of all living species disappeared forever.
We all know that drug addicts can die from their addiction.
The world’s scientists are unanimous in telling us that unless we take immediate action to kick the habit, our addiction to fossil fuels will kill human society and much of the biosphere.
– When President Saddam Hussein ran one of the world’s most authoritarian regimes in the militarily-volatile Middle East during 1979-2003, US newspapers routinely described him as “the strongman of Iraq” — as most journalists rightly view dictators worldwide.
Credit: Iraqi News
But one of his political aides, described as “Saddam’s right-hand man” (what if Saddam was left-handed?), took issue with a visiting US journalist when he rather hilariously challenged the description. Continue reading
14 February 2020 (UN Environment)* — Data from satellite sources assembled by the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) World Environment Situation Room confirms that the wildfires in Australia in the last two months of 2019 and the first six weeks of 2020 were far from normal.
The Orroral Valley Fire viewed from Tuggeranong in southern Canberra |Nick-D | CC BY-SA 4.0
2019 was the second hottest year on record since 1880, and Australia recorded its warmest temperatures ever in December 2019.
(UN News)* — Four countries in Africa have licensed an Ebola vaccine to “cement hard-fought progress” in keeping their people safe from the deadly disease, the UN health agency said on Friday [14 February 2020].
And once licensed doses are available, use of the vaccine will not require clinical trial or other research protocols.
Ninety-four of the businesses are domiciled in Israel and the rest are in six other countries.
As infections from COVID-19 coronavirus continue to rise, a senior UN health expert on Thursday [13 February 2020] said that there were some indications that disease transmission outside China might not be the tip of the “iceberg” that had been feared.
(UN News)* — A monthly average of 11,500 people traveling from the Horn of Africa to Yemen last year made the so-called Eastern Route the busiest maritime migration path on earth, the UN migration agency said on Friday [14 February 2020].
This government was not democratically elected and its not functioning according to the laws of the land (Image posted here from Wall Street International).Today
Dear Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands and even Germany,
As Abuse Is Known, Material Assistance Makes Rome Complicit
Photo released by the Libyan Coast Guard showing people disembarking in Libya after being intercepted offshore, June 24, 2018. © 2018 Libyan Coast Guard via AP
Milan – The Italian government should suspend all support to the Libyan Coast Guard until Libya commits to a clear plan to fully respect migrants’ safety and rights, Human Rights Watch said today [12 February 2020].
The EU is aiming to take concrete actions against the Trump Peace Plan in the Middle East | Photo: Reuters (Photo posted here from teleSUR’s article).
11 February 2020 (teleSUR)* — Leftist MEPs on Tuesday demanded concrete actions from the European Union (EU) in favor of Palestine and the end of an association agreement with Israel, following the U.S. plan for the Middle East.
