12/03/2015
By Ashoka Jegroo*
11 March 2015, Waging Nonviolence – While some of New York City’s activists continue marching in the streets and shutting down roads, others are using a different form of protest to spread the message of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Artists for Justice and Shut It Down NYC staged a performance in Grand Central Station earlier this week. (WNV / Ashoka Jegroo)
Grand Central Terminal and the Armory Show, one of New York’s premiere international art fairs, were the two most recent targets for “performance protests” by Artists For Justice NYC.
According to the group’s founder, Shamirrah Hardin, they use “the arts to address the issue of police officers killing unarmed black citizens without facing any consequence,” and to “awaken the humanity in people.”
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12/03/2015
When the moderator of a panel discussion on 11 March 2015 at United Nations Headquarters in New York on how to end violence against women looked a little disappointedly at her virtually all-female audience, she called out: “Where are the men? Where are the men?”*
UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, Bollywood icon Farhan Akhtar. Photo: UN Women (file)
Only a sprinkling of men could be found in the room, but among them was Bollywood actor-filmmaker-singer Farhan Akhtar.
Akhtar was there on behalf of the “Men Against Rape and Discrimination,” or MARD, a social campaign he launched two years in India “to make people think more positively” and work toward women’s empowerment in India and the need to end gender inequality.
He spoke about the inspiration for the initiative that came when someone he knew was sexually assaulted and then killed by a security guard in her own home. MARD, he said, is an acronym for his initiative but “mard” also means “man” in the Hindi language.
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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
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12/03/2015
Millions of children are subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation, being sold and trafficked for prostitution, forced labour, illegal adoption or the transfer of organs, an independent United Nations expert on 11 March 2015 told the Human Rights Council, calling for a real breakthrough to end such crimes.
Two children stand on the balcony of an immigration office in Laos. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works with the Government and partners to stem the flow of young people into dangerous labour agreements outside the country. Photo: UNICEF/LaoPDR04713/Jim Holmes
“Persisting and new forms of sale and sexual exploitation of children continue to be a reality in all regions of the world,” the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Maud de Boer, said in her first address to the Geneva-based Council since being appointed to the post last year.
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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
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12/03/2015
Rome, 11 March 2015 – An innovative partnership spanning five African countries is providing important lessons on how governments can procure food for public institutions, such as schools, directly from small-scale family farmers. Modelled on Brazil’s achievements in fighting hunger and poverty, the Purchase from Africans for Africa programme (PAA Africa) helps promote local agricultural production while also improving livelihoods and nutrition.*
Lunchtime at a school in Ethiopia. | Source: FAO
PAA Africa is implemented by Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal with technical leadership and expertise from FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP). Now entering its third year, the programme is yielding promising results as detailed in a recently released report.
As the PAA Africa programme shows, in developing countries the purchasing of produce from family-farmers – often among the most marginalized groups – can contribute towards government efforts to combat rural poverty.
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Posted in Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Mother Earth, The Peoples |
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