'Unseen' News and Views
TOPIO (“TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot”) is a bipedal humanoid robot designed to play table tennis against a human being. TOPIO version 3.0 at Tokyo International Robot Exhibition, Nov 2009. Photo: Humanrobo. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
OSLO, 5 January 2017
A drop of good sense, in a sea of emotion
John Scales Avery
When I was 7 years old, and in the third grade of school, my teacher described human behavior in a way that has stuck in my mind for three quarters of a century.
She said “A drop of good sense, in a sea of emotion!”
Our emotional nature is very ancient. Many human emotions can be traced back to our remote ancestors in the animal kingdom.
These emotions are not necessarily appropriate in the complex society of today. The Nobel-laureate physiologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi once wrote:
“The story of man consists of two parts, divided by the appearance of modern science…. In the first period, man lived in the world in which his species was born and to which his senses were adapted. In the second, man stepped into a new, cosmic world to which he was a complete stranger…
– President-elect Donald Trump has promised that he will take the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) on the first day of his presidency. The TPP may now be dead, thanks to Trump and opposition by all major US presidential candidates. With its imminent demise almost certain, it is important to draw on some lessons before it is buried.
If current trends continue and the world fails to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nearly all of the world’s coral reefs will suffer severe bleaching – the gravest threat to one of the Earth’s most important ecosystems – on annual basis, the United Nations environment agency on 5 January 2017 reported.
Most of the reefs in the Seychelles have died due to El Niño, bleaching, fishing and the rising temperature of the seawater. Photo: Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR
There are about 150 million migrant workers around the world, according a recent United Nations study, which provides useful labour migration data for policy makers as they seek to make headway on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Migrant workers, like these in northern Thailand, often work in high-risk sectors, such as construction. The ILO works to strengthen national occupational safety and health systems to improve protection of migrant workers. Photo: ILO/John Hulme
“Decision makers will now have real data on which to base their policies,” on 5 January 2017 said International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Guy Ryder in a news release.
Submitted By Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate*
2 January 2017 – TRANSCEND Media Service
Dear President and Members of the UNSC,
As you are aware, a human tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity is unfolding in Myanmar.
Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticised for failing to protect the Rohingya population.
30 December 2016
Over the past two months, a military offensive by the Myanmar Army in Rakhine State has led to the killing of hundreds of Rohingya people. Over 30,000 people have been displaced.
The Paris agreement, which was adopted in December 2015 and which came into force in record time in October 2016 as a demonstration of international concern over climate change, may face a major test and even an existential challenge in 2017, if Trump fulfils his election promise to pull the US out. Credit: Diego Arguedas Ortiz/IPS.
There will be a thunderous clash of policies, economies and politics worldwide. We will therefore be on a roller-coaster ride, and we should prepare for it and not only be spectators on the side-lines in danger of being swept away by the waves.
**President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama | Lauren Gerson
I can hear the wolves at the gate already. Quick disclaimer: The following analysis will not tackle the Palestinian peace process or Israel’s aggressive occupation of Palestinian land.
However important those subject matters maybe, we ought to realize that the latest UN resolution – which made a loud political and diplomatic bang – was really meant as a poisoned apple.
I would like to think that by now we are well-equipped to smell a political set-up. If anything, Syria has taught the world how insanely conniving and manipulative the United States can be when it comes to pushing its narrative forward – to hell with the consequences.
2 January 2017 – TRANSCEND Media Service – This New Year announces itself with bangs all over, not whimpers.
Johan Galtung
Pope Francis made a tour d’horizon on all continents, strongly denouncing the violence in favor of his alternative: negotiation.
Much violence is copycat or copyrat; violence being a la mode. Copying–aka learning–is not wrong. But it depends on what is copied.
Wish no. 1: copying peace rather than violence, for instance from ASEAN and the Nordic Community, making peace self-reinforcing.
Wish no. 2: reporting violence less prominently, more toward the end of newspapers-TV-radio news, and reporting peace upfront.
Wish no. 3: understanding war better, not only how many killed but how many bereaved; understanding peace better as model for others.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 