'Unseen' News and Views
The United Nations human rights office on 20 January 2015 confirmed that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has established unlawful, so-called ‘shari’a courts’ in the territory under its control that have been carrying out cruel and inhuman punishments against men, women and children.
Children in the Khanke Camp near Dohuk city, Iraq, which mainly houses Yazidis fleeing from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Photo: UNAMI
Geneva, 20 January 2015 (ILO)* – Unemployment will continue to rise in the coming years, as the global economy has entered a new period combining slower growth, widening inequalities and turbulence, warns a new ILO report.*
Fighting in South Sudan has separated families and orphaned children. Meet four teenagers who are raising younger siblings on their own.
Lina, 13, is raising her four younger siblings in Pariang, South Sudan. UNHCR/Andrew McConnell
The situation has grown worse since December 2013, as renewed fighting among supporters of rival politicians has morphed into ethnically driven violence, causing massive displacement inside South Sudan and across borders.
UNHCR and its partners provide essentials for families who ran from their homes with nothing – including shelter, rain protection, and items like buckets to store drinking and washing water.
19 January 2015 — Tonight, an Aurora Borealis graced UNESCO’s Globe in Paris. The Northern Lights, a natural phenomenon only seen in much higher latitudes, were reproduced by artist Kari Kola on the UNESCO Headquarters in celebration of the International Year of Light 2015, which opened with a special event on 19 and 20 January.
Installation “Light is Here” by Finnish artist Kari Kola, installed by Valoparta Ltd.© UNESCO/Nora Houguenade
“I have been fascinated by light for as long as I can remember”, said Finnish artist Kari Kola. “In Finland, autumns and winters are long and dark. I wanted to teach myself to use light to make most of the darkness that surrounded me during those times of year. When it’s dark 20 hours a day, you can really make a difference with light.”
He chose to represent the Aurora Borealis in a stylistically abstract form through his installation “Light is Here”, bathing the buildings in blues and greens, in contrast with the warmer colors of dawn.
“I was 1 year old when I first saw the Northern Lights, and I’ve seen them every year since. But I have learned most of what I know about light by watching the sunrise.”
Genetic resources have a critical role to play in feeding the world — especially as climate change advances faster than expected — and much more needs to be done to study, preserve and utilize the biological diversity that underpins world food production, according to a new book released by the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 19 January 2015.
A crop of sorghum in Uruguay, funded by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic resources for Food and Agriculture.
“Time is not on our side” warns the book, Coping with climate change: the roles of genetic resources for food and agriculture. “In the coming decades, millions of people whose livelihoods and food security depend on farming, aquaculture, fishing, forestry and livestock keeping are likely to face unprecedented climatic conditions.”*
Crops, livestock, forest trees and aquatic organisms capable of surviving and producing in a changing climate will be needed.
20 January 2015 – TRANSCEND Media Service – Three, maybe four dramatic, global processes are unfolding.
Johan Galtung
First, the West–particularly USA, Israel, France–fighting very violently and counter-productively to keep their grip on the world.
Second, Eurasia, spearheaded by Russia-India-China in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) expanding and consolidating, successfully and nonviolently.
Third, Islam expanding and consolidating, partly by conversion to Islam, partly through the dream of a new caliphate, partly violently.
Fourth, Latin America and Africa in the old Third World expanding and consolidating, spearheaded by Brazil-South Africa in BRICS.
If you want to live drama, you have chosen the right year.
THE THREE Islamic terrorists could have been very proud of themselves, if they had lived to see it.
Uri Avnery
By committing two attacks (quite ordinary ones by Israeli standards) they spread panic throughout France, brought millions of people onto the streets, gathered more than 40 heads of states in Paris.
They changed the landscape of the French capital and other French cities by mobilizing thousands of soldiers and police officers to guard Jewish and other potential targets. For several days they dominated the news throughout the world.
Three terrorists, probably acting alone. Three!!!
A teacher and student at a school in India. Photo: UNESCO/GMR Akash
“This report serves as wake-up call to mobilize the resources needed to guarantee basic education for every child, once and for all,” said Irina Bokova, Director General at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a co-facilitator of the findings.*
By Oxfam*, 19 January 2015 – The combined wealth of the richest 1 percent will overtake that of the other 99 percent of people next year unless the current trend of rising inequality is checked, Oxfam warned today ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
Source: Oxfam
Pressenza, 19 January 2015 — The West is behaving with unspeakable physical violence against the Muslim world, just as the Western economic system is behaving with unspeakable economic violence against their own populations. It is not a surprise that unspeakable physical violence by “terrorists” in Paris, London, New York, Madrid and other places is the result. Nevertheless this violent response is ultimately pointless because it will not work.
**Pro-nonviolence protesters at an anti-globalization protest | Author: Carolmooredc | Wikimedia Commons
Why is a nonviolent response so important? Well Gandhi and Luther King have shown us the power of active nonviolence in practice. They have shown how it is possible to bring down apparently unbreakable systems without throwing a single stone or hitting anyone else.
For Gandhi’s and Luther King’s supporters the first thing they learnt was how to control the responses they gave in front of violent stimuli. They had to learn to control their anger and channel it elsewhere so that it could be effective.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 