'Unseen' News and Views
The international community must present a united front against gun violence which kills nearly 250,000 each year and injures many more, on 7 May 2018 said a senior United Nations official, marking the start of a Global Week of Action Against the scourge.
With extreme weather costing hundreds of billions a year and fears that by 2050, one in four people will be living in a country affected by severe water shortages, a global conference got underway on 7 May 2018 convened by the United Nations meteorological agency to manage the precious resource more sustainably.
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Transition to a Culture of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service — 7 May 2018 — War and threats of war. Resurgence of fascism. Indicators forewarning a global economic crash. Acceleration of global warming. Wherever you turn, there are signs of dramatic, radical, dangerous change.
David Adams
What is to be done? Where is the lever that can move history forward? We need radical action, but which action should we put first?
Personally, I’ve been active in all the relevant movements: socialism, ecology, peace, democracy, and each one has its proposals. What should be the priority?
Let’s look at the probable sequence, keeping in mind what happened 30 years to the Soviet empire.
7 May 2018 — Economies in the Asia-Pacific region registered robust growth in 2017 and prospects for this year look promising, the United Nations development arm in the region said, urging countries to take advantage of positive conditions and address underlying vulnerabilities.
7 May 2018 – TRANSCEND Media Service
The violence pandemic continues, unabated, particularly in the USA.
We read about bad incidents in other big countries like China, India and Russia but not massive school and church massacres, about vans running on pavements killing and wounding whatever moves, shooting from windows high up on people walking peacefully. Only USA, today.
Johan Galtung
There is also decline in US violence when the critical group of 18-25 years old males finds jobs. Hopefully not in the military.
What is this? So far, above the usual US suicide-homicide complex.
1. US violence cult at work? No doubt, but there are degrees, and it now seems to be directed at institutions, not only at individuals.
The largest cholera vaccination drive in history targeting two million people across Africa is underway, the United Nations announced on 7 May 2018, in response to a series of recent deadly outbreaks of the water-borne disease.
.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg "The cholera vaccination campaign gets underway in Mtendera, Zambia")
Feminism has always been mobilized and strengthened through collective joyful laughter.
Women’s march to denounce Donald Trump in Toronto, January 21 2017. Credit: Wikimedia/By booledozer. CC BY-SA 2.0.
There is no fiercer political weapon than laughter. The controversy around Michelle Wolf’s brilliant, uncomfortable, and brutally honest roast at the 2018 White House Correspondents Dinner is the latest in a long line of examples that reveal the threatening power of feminist jokes.
4 May 2018 — For years, the valleys and mountain slopes of Chapqulak Qabrizaghak village in Afghanistan’s Bamyan Province stood bare and exposed, at the mercy of the forces of nature – floods, avalanches, strong winds, dust storms.
Alec Knuerr/UN Environment
Today, rows of willow and poplar trees adorn the landscape – the fruits of an ongoing tree-planting initiative launched three years ago. This has been a welcome sight for the members of the local community.
The ecosystem restoration project was conceived as part of UN Environment’s Building Environmental Resilience in Afghanistan (BERA) programme, which includes components such as resilience and disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation as well as training, advocacy and outreach on environmental issues.
ROME, 4 May 2018 (FAO)* –– The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched an $8.3 million appeal to support Rohingya refugees and host populations – around 1.2 million people – in Bangladesh, as the onset of the cyclone season and monsoon rains is putting already vulnerable communities at even greater risk.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 