Human Wrongs Watch

A group of women in Mogadishu, Somalia, after leaving Toro-Toro, 100 kilometres away, because of a lack of water and food. Credit: OCHA
'Unseen' News and Views

A group of women in Mogadishu, Somalia, after leaving Toro-Toro, 100 kilometres away, because of a lack of water and food. Credit: OCHA
Ordos, September 11, 2017 (UNCCD)* – Up to 2 billion hectares of land are degraded. On average, 12 million hectares are lost every year and 169 countries are affected by land degradation, desertification and drought.

For those of us committed to systematically reducing and, one day, ending human violence, it is vital to understand what is causing and driving it so that effective strategies can be developed for dealing with violence in its myriad contexts. For an understanding of the fundamental cause of violence, see ‘Why Violence?’

Robert J. Burrowes
However, while we can tackle violence at its source by each of us making and implementing ‘My Promise to Children’, the widespread violence in our world is driven by just one factor: fear or, more accurately, terror.
And I am not talking about jihadist terror or even the terror caused by US warmaking.
Let me explain, starting from the beginning.
The person who is fearless has no use for violence and has no trouble achieving their goals, including their own defence, without it. But fearlessness is a state that few humans would claim. Hence violence is rampant.
Hurricane Irma continues to wreak havoc in the Caribbean, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, the United Nations humanitarian wing on 8 September 2017 said, warning that areas along its path continue to remain at risk of significant damage.
A seven-year old boy stands in front of debris as Hurricane Irma moves off from the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. Photo: UNICEF/UN0119399
“There is continued risk of catastrophic damage from hurricane-force winds, storm surge and flooding in areas on Irma’s trajectory,” read an update issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
09/09/17
Today is the last day of the 93rd year of my life. Ridiculous.

Uri Avnery
Am I moderately satisfied with my life until now? Yes. I am.
If by a miracle I could be returned to, say, 14, and travel all this long way again, would I like that? No, I would not.
Enough is enough.
IN THESE 93 years, the world has changed completely.
A few days after my birth in Germany, a ridiculous little demagogue called Adolf Hitler attempted a putsch in Munich. He was put in prison, where he wrote a tedious book called Mein Kampf. Nobody took any notice.
The World War (no one called it World War I yet) was still a recent memory. Almost every family had lost at least one member. I was told that a remote uncle of mine had frozen to death on the Austrian-Italian front.
Deprivation, marginalization and perceived state violence or abuse of power are pushing young Africans into the clutches of violent extremism, a groundbreaking study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reveals.
A former Al-Shabab fighter at a rehabilitation centre in Baidoa. Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN | Source: UN News Centre
“This study sounds the alarm that as a region, Africa’s vulnerability to violent extremism is deepening,” Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, UNDP Africa Director, on 7 September said at the launch of the report in New York.
The United Nations migration agency on 8 September 2017 confirmed that 270,000 people have fled violence in Myanmar for safety in Bangladesh over the past two weeks, and the number of new arrivals continues to increase.
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After fleeing violence in Myanmar in October 2016, Rohingya refugees live in overcrowded makeshift sites in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo: UNHCR/Saiful Huq Omi