'Unseen' News and Views
The imbalance between spending on conflict, and spending on peace, must be tackled head-on, Secretary-General António Guterres on 5 March 2018 said, urging the United Nations to rally all international actors “for our efforts across the peace continuum – from prevention, conflict resolution and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and sustainable long-term development.”
5 March 2018 – TRANSCEND Media Service — The world is getting worse. Violence used to be clustered around US global and Israeli regional hegemony, and still is. But add to that:
Johan Galtung
* “The unstoppable growing power of China” (NYT editorial 28 Feb 2018)
* “Erdögan’s Neo-Ottomanism at a Dangerous Turning Point” Pier Zaccone (Other-news.info/2018/02, 28 Feb 2018). One global, with “Military buildup on the reefs” in South China Sea (NYT), one regional.
There are similarities. Xi and Erdögan have a religious base, Buddhism and Islam. And great successes, Xi in “lifting the bottom up”, Erdögan in ridding his country of secular military dictatorship.
One may speculate that the successes have gone to their heads so they see themselves as indispensable for the countries, and as invincible. Being male and strong they have Trump’s approval, a fragile benefit.
The United Nations food relief agency has urged Governments in West Africa to spend more money on school meal programmes as these investments not only contribute to children’s better future but also create local jobs around agriculture.
“It is a win-win opportunity which governments must seize,” said Abdou Dieng, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “Children enjoy healthy meals that make it more likely that they will stay in school and learn for a better future, while jobs are created and businesses develop.”
Updated data reveals that some 263 million – one-in-five – children, adolescents and youth worldwide are out school, a figure that has barely changed over the past five years, according to a new United Nations cultural agency report.
3 March 2018
THE FLOOD of corruption affairs that is now engulfing the Netanyahu family and its assistants and servitors does not seem to diminish his popularity among those who call themselves “the People”.
Uri Avnery
On the contrary, according to the opinion polls, the voters of the other nationalist parties are rushing to the rescue of “Bibi”.
They believe that he is a great statesman, the savior of Israel, and are therefore ready to forgive and forget everything else. Huge bribes, generous gifts, everything.
Strange. Because my attitude is exactly the opposite. I am not ready to forgive “Bibi” anything for being a great statesman, because I think that he is a very minor statesman. Indeed, no statesman at all.
A wave of cold weather hitting Europe this week poses health risks, particularly to people in vulnerable situations, WHO/Europe experts on 28 February 2018 warned*.
WHO/Annalisa Buoro
Temperatures are expected to plunge below average in western European Russia, central Europe, the Balkans and the Baltic States.
“Cold, even in places where the temperatures are not at their lowest, can be harmful to people’s health in many ways. It can aggravate existing conditions and raise the risk of increased blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Taking preventive action can help reduce the health impacts and risks,” says Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe.
**Photo: General Khalefa Haftar | Magharebia | Flicker | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
1 March 2018 — On the final two days of the Standing with Rohingya Women delegation, Shirin Ebadi, Tawakkol Karman, and Mairead Maguire brought the stories of the women they met to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, diplomats, the media, and members of civil society in Dhaka. The women called on each group to take action, with their powerful message:
To mark Zero Discrimination Day (1 March), the United Nations agency coordinating the global effort to tackle HIV/AIDS is challenging people to recognize where everyday discrimination takes place and take action to stop it by asking themselves simple questions: ‘What if the person you bought your vegetables from was living with HIV? Would you buy tomatoes from him?’
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 