'Unseen' News and Views
World Meteorological Organisation* — The 2017 global land and ocean temperature will likely end among the three warmest years on record, and is expected to be the warmest year without a warming El Niño.
Source: World Meteorological Organization – 19 December 2017
People around the world, especially poor farmers in developing Asian countries, will benefit through the use of nuclear techniques in combatting diseases affecting farm animals and improve water management practices, the United Nations atomic energy agency has said.
A farmer and his wife use a pair of oxen to plough their field in Surkhet district, western Nepal. Photo: IFAD/Sanjit Das
“Improved farming practices, healthier animals and – ultimately – increased food security will be the outcomes,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on 29 December 2017 said.
As the conflict in Yemen passes the grim 1,000-day milestone, the United Nations is warning that if humanitarian workers cannot gain greater access and the violence does not subside, the cost in lives will be incalculable.
People queue to fill containers with water from a tank provided by UNICEF in Sana’a, Yemen. Some 14.5 million people in the country have no access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Photo: UNICEF/Algabal2017
1 January 2018 – Nearly 386,000 babies will be born on New Year’s Day – some 90 per cent in less developed regions – and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is challenging nations around the world to make sure more newborns survive their first days of life.
2018’s first baby – a girl named Vilisi Ciri Sovocala – was born at 1.44 am on New Year’s Day in Suva, the island capital of Fiji. Photo: UNICEF/Chute
**Photo: A basic and popular Fast food meal, which includes a burger, french fries and a drink. | Author: LukeB20161933 | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
1 Jan 2018 – TRANSCEND Media Service –– Two basic institutions in Western history and individual lives: Christianity offering Salvation to those following Laws, Commandments, and Science offering Truth to those who believe in scientific laws.
Johan Galtung
After Enlightenment ushered in a godless world, one is waning and the other vexing, seen as antithetical to each other. Is evolution being contested by “intelligent design”? By “diversity and symbiosis”? Neither one nor the other? Or both?
We do not know, nor do we come to grips with evolution beyond homo sapiens. Neither did Christianity.
But we are used in history to successors carrying the imprints of predecessors, and vice versa.
We are used to plus ça change plus ça este la même chose (the more it changes, the more it stays the same). And the more intended Italian cambiamo le cose affinche se mantengono le stesse (we change the things so that they remain the same).
(RT)* — Charles Shoebridge takes a look at some of the last year’s security and foreign policy developments.
**Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet at the 2017 G-20 Hamburg Summit | Kremlin.ru | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
The Arrival of Trump
One year ago, expectations for 2017 were running high. Donald Trump was about to take office, and predictions ranged from a new era of US policy pursuing peace and international partnership, to the US becoming a puppet of Russia, and even World War III.
It is simply about the growing voracious consumption in particular in rich societies, and the never-stoppable commercial greed dominating worldwide. See what happens:
When you go to the supermarket, you will be challenged with tremendously attractive, almost irresistible “bargains” such as, “Pay 2, Take 3”! “Special Offer,” or simply “Save”!
NOBODY DESCRIBED the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict better than the historian Isaac Deutscher.
Uri Avnery
A man lives in a house that catches fire. To save his life, he jumps out of the window. He lands on a passer-by in the street below and injures him grievously. Between the two a bitter enmity arises. Who is to blame?
Of course, no parable can reflect reality exactly. The man who jumped out of the burning house did not land on this particular passer-by by chance.
The passer-by became an invalid for life. But on the whole, this parable is better than any other I know.
Deutscher did not provide an answer to the question of how to solve the conflict. Are the two condemned to fight each other forever? Is there a solution at all?
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 