'Unseen' News and Views
At the perimetre of Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. Credit: Jason E. Kaplan/IPS
After months of demonstrations by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of allies from across the world, the Army announced that it will not allow the 1,172-mile long pipeline to cross Lake Oahe in North Dakota.
These are not anecdotal examples, rather realities that many environmental migrants face. The International Organization for Migration predicts that by 2050 there could be as many be 200 million environmentally displaced people.
Stories of migration caused by environmental degradation pepper human history. The Dust Bowl exodus from the American praries in the 1930s, for example, was a combination of severe drought and poor land use led to massive soil erosion and the United States’ biggest internal migration.
Countries in the Horn of Africa are likely to see a rise in hunger and further decline of local livelihoods in the coming months, as farming families struggle with the knock-on effects of multiple droughts that hit the region this year, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO on 20 December 2016 warned.
Growing numbers of refugees in East Africa, meanwhile, are expected to place even more burden on already strained food and nutrition security.
The Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, has been shot dead by a gunman who opened fire at the opening ceremony of a photo exhibition in Ankara. | RT
Credit: Paul Hilton/Greenpeace
The challenges we will face in 2017 are urgent and massive. But the good news is that when we act together, we are stronger than any government, corporation or head of state. Next year, we can’t afford to be bystanders, so let’s get moving!
Here are a few resolutions you can make to help take back 2017 for people and for planet Earth.
‘Great-grandmother Eida Karmi doubted she would see her family again after they fled their homeland. Now in Greece, she is determined to join them.’
Eida, who is over 100, was the last remaining member of her family in Syria, but even she fled as the conflict © UNHCR/Yorgos Kyvernitis.
19 December 2016 (UNHCR)* – Aged over 100, Syrian great-grandmother Eida Karmi planned to live out her days in her home village in north-eastern Syria. She doubted she would ever see her family again after they fled the war and settled in Germany.
– 2016 has been a dramatic year for the world, and for the media. Political dysfunction appears to be on the rise, putting social media under increasing critical scrutiny even as prestigious global commercial news brands capable of acting as the fourth estate are downsizing.
Farhana Haque Rahman
Fiscal austerity in advanced economies is catalysing populist protests and a nascent form of nationalism that risks turning the international arena into a less generous space.
And yet times are even harder in conflict-riven lands such as South Sudan, drought-suffering regions in Madagascar and, for too long now, cities such as Aleppo. While robust and credible news coverage is under threat, never has it been more needed.
I would like, however, to announce some good news. A year ago, Inter Press Service was in troubled waters. Today, thanks to many stakeholders, and the fine work of the IPS team, that is less the case. I can confidently assert that we are alive and kicking.
Highlighting the plight of victims of human trafficking, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 20 December 2016 underlined the need to ensure justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators, as well as to address underlying factors by focusing on human rights and stability.
A young girl stands outside a tent at the Vinojug reception centre for refugees and migrants in Gevgelija, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Photo: UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson VII
“If conflict gives oxygen to traffickers, human rights and stability suffocate them,” Mr. Ban told the Security Council today at its ministerial-level meeting on the theme trafficking in persons in conflict situations.
– The Bring Back Our Girls Campaign has experienced some successes but must now overcome the challenge of hope fatigue, Bring Back Our Girls campaign co-founder Saudatu Mahdi told IPS in a recent interview.
Bring Back Our Girls campaign co-founder Saudatu Mahdi with Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda. Credit: Donor Direct Action.
“There is the challenge of hope fatigue, especially when the expected timelines are not achieved and financial streams are low…however, the campaign remains faithful in its advocacy,”Mahdi told IPS.
19 December 2016 – TRANSCEND Media Service – A President-Elect of the USA saying he wants no more intelligence briefings is like–like what? Hearing a priest about to be ordained saying he needs no more, not Bible readings, words from God?
Johan Galtung
Whatever this “intelligence” may be is it intelligent?
Information about the “capability, intention and circumstances” of foreign (CIA) and domestic (FBI) actors: nothing wrong about that.
With a good balance between friendly and hostile intentions; 80-20? It sounds more like 1-99, though. Outer and inner worlds are scanned for threats of violence, not for opportunities of peace.
The focus is on security, not building cooperation. That may be done by conventional diplomacy–where does Trump stand on that? The US “intelligence community”–19 big organizations–looms higher.
To disregard threats damage a top politician more than to disregard opportunities.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 