'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
One-in-five adults and 80 per cent adolescents worldwide are not getting enough exercise, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which on 4 June 2018 launched a new action plan to tackle the situation and promote good health.*
The ILO’s annual report on the situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories calls for dialogue and a joint search for solutions to bring about decent work.
GENEVA, (ILO)* – The unemployment rate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has risen to the world’s highest level, at 27.4 per cent in 2017, says an annual report of the International Labour Organization (ILO), entitled The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories .
Women and youth are particularly affected. Unemployment rates among Palestinian women are now approaching the 50 per cent mark, with rates for youth not far behind.
Kyoto, 4 Jun 2018 – TRANSCEND Media Service — The world may be losing a peace opportunity in the USA-North Korea conflict. With NK nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching mainland USA something close to “balance of power” had been obtained, by many seen as the key to peace via “mutual and balanced” disarmamenteven to “general and complete disarmament” (GCD).
Johan Galtung
Whether this ever happened is unclear. States tend to see “balance” as having more than the other and suspecting that of him.
But something else may happen: distargeting, not aiming at each other.
However, in all these formulas there is an element of equality, of the symmetry that may be a condition for peace. But symmetry is unacceptable to USA.
That state does not see itself as being on an equal footing with anybody in the world, and certainly not with small, even if very powerful, North Korea.
The same applies to “negotiation” as a mutual give-and-take.
DAYLESFORD, Australia — In a recent article titled ‘Challenges for Resolving Complex Conflicts’, I pointed out that existing conflict theory pays little attention to the extinction-causing conflict being ongoingly generated by human over-consumption in the finite planetary biosphere (and, among other outcomes, currently resulting in 200 species extinctions daily).
Robert J. Burrowes
I also mentioned that this conflict is sometimes inadequately identified as a conflict caused by capitalism’s drive for unending economic growth in a finite environment.
I would like to explain the psychological origin of this biosphere-annihilating conflict and how this origin has nurtured the incredibly destructive aspects of capitalism (and socialism, for that matter) from the beginning.
I would also like to explain what we can do about it.
4 June 2018 (FAO)* — Earth’s oceans are a major source of the planet’s biodiversity. Unfortunately, things like illegal fishing and abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear are damaging marine ecosystems and negatively impacting all of us.
Fishing and fish farming support the livelihoods and families of about 12 percent of the world’s population. ©FAO/Ines Gonsalves
UNICEF* — Hawa Oimar, 15, writes on a blackboard in a classroom at her school in Danamadja, southern Chad. June 2017. In emergencies, UNICEF provides dignity kits to women and girls, which include sanitary pads, a flashlight and whistle for personal safety when using the toilet.
UNICEF/UN0122322/Faffin
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Hawa said:” Before the dignity kits I didn’t have money to buy soap or sanitary pads. The kits gave me the courage and the confidence to come to school every day.”
Faith Kiraison, an advocate for girls’ rights and health, teaches her peers about menstrual health management. © UNFPA Kenya/Douglas Waudo
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa/NAROK, Kenya (UNFPA)* – “I felt embarrassed to be a girl and felt like it was a punishment,” recalled 13-year-old Faith, describing her first period.
She was living in a boarding schoolin Narok County, Kenya, when it happened. A friend taught her to use a cloth to manage the blood. “I was not knowledgeable about how and why it happens, and what to expect. So, naturally, I was scared and confused.”
Photo from UN Environment
Nairobi, (UN Environment)* –– In an effort to equip the world with the tools and knowledge to reduce plastic litter from ending up in our ocean, rivers, and lakes, UN Environment on 1 June 2018 published a report assessing the potential of replacing conventional plastics with alternative materials in certain applications.
The ocean has increasingly become a repository for discarded plastics and microplastics, with significant demonstrable social, economic and environmental impacts. It is neither possible nor desirable to remove all plastics from society.
Nearly 3.7 million Afghan children are missing out on school, due to on-going conflict, grinding poverty, and discrimination against girls, according to a new report from the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.
