'Unseen' News and Views
Source: UNODC
Speakers at a high-level UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) meeting warned that transnational crime and public security threats in Asia risk overwhelming border management, law enforcement and justice agencies of many states. This comes as the acceleration of trade and migration flows in the region increases.
There are four historical reasons to understand how the anger and frustration now all over the Muslim world leads to attraction to the Islamic State (IS) in poor sectors.
**President Reagan meeting with Afghan Mujahideen leaders in the Oval Office in 1983 | Author: Unknown, possibly Tim Clary [1] | As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain | Wikimedia Commons
– The 23 October 2014 attack on the Canadian Parliament building by a Canadian who had converted to Islam just a month earlier should create some interest in why an increasing number of young people are willing to sacrifice their lives for a radical view of Islam.
Until now, this was dismissed as fanaticism, but when you have over 2,000 people who blow themselves up, it is time to look to this growing reality and put stereotypes to the side.
Let us recall that there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, with Indonesia the world’s largest Muslim country followed by India. The entire Middle East-North Africa region has 317 million, compared with 344 million in Pakistan and India alone.
There are 3.4 million Muslims in the United States and 43.4 million in Europe, making perhaps one jihadist for every 100,000 Muslims.
It is worth noting that there are a growing number of voices arguing that the Muslim world and its values are intrinsically against the West. Well, basic data do not support that theory, even although it is being used by all xenophobic parties which have sprung up everywhere in Europe.
It all starts with a ball. Add an inspiring coach and a safe place to play, and the power of sport takes root. Since 2009, Just Play has helped empower and mobilize children in 11 Pacific Island countries in a positive, practical and fun manner.
©Just Play/2012 | Source: UNICEF
By Melissa Palombi*, 03 Nov 2014 — It all starts with a ball. But when you add an inspiring coach and a safe place to play, the power of sport takes root. Children are naturally drawn to sport, recreation and play, which are a vital part of childhood.
Not only are they a vital part of helping children to grow, learn and explore, they are every child’s right. As outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary on November 20th, 2014, every child has the right to leisure, recreation and cultural activities.
Source: ILO
By Johan Galtung*, 3 November 2014, Kuala Lumpur – Transcend Media Service — “Countercyclicity” means that both move through history in cycles, up and down; with one moving up when the other moves down.
**The Trinity is the belief that God is one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit | Author: AnonMoos | Wikimedia Commons
Christianity started with its founder crucified, like the first pope St Peter; Christians were tortured, killed, expelled from Jewish Palestine. But then indeed up, as religio licita in the Roman Empire in 313, defined in Nicaea in 325 by Emperor Constantine.
The Empire split in 395, with a Catholic Church in the West–contracting, monastic after the Western Empire fell in 476–and an Orthodox Church in the East, till Constantinople became Istanbul in 1453–Moscow became “the Third Rome”.
Hundreds of refugees from Syria cross the border into Jordan, receiving food and water before being transported to processing centres. Photo: UNHCR/J.Kohler
In an interview with UN Radio, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, described “a feeling of despair and of tiredness” in the Middle Eastern country from which he recently returned, adding that the strongest message he received from people on the ground was an appeal to “stop this carnage” and “give us some light.”*
Geneva, 4 November 2014 (UNHCR)* – The UN refugee agency, with endorsement from high-profile supporters, on 4 November 2014 launched a global campaign aimed at ending the devastating legal limbo of statelessness, which affects millions of people around the world.
© UNHCR | One of the striking “I Belong” campaign images created by United Colors of Benetton. | Source: UNHCR
“The goal of eradicating statelessness is looking increasingly possible thanks to dramatic recent progress in the number of states acceding to two key UN human rights treaties,” said a UNHCR press release announcing the “I Belong” campaign.
At least 10 million people worldwide are currently stateless and a baby is born stateless every 10 minutes. Not allowed a nationality, they are often denied the rights and services that countries normally offer their citizens.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 