'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
6 August 2018 – Calling 2017 “the first year in human history” that more electricity was generated globally from the sun, than oil, gas and coal combined, Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has told UN News that “we are on track” but “we really need to speed up”.
6 August 2018
[The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.]
An Interview with Mrs. Koko Kondo, The Tanimoto Peace Foundation, Conducted in Kobe, Japan on 27 Jul 2018
Mrs. Koko Kondo showing the manuscript written by her father, Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, that inspired John Hersey’s classic, Hiroshima.
Do you think the Hibakusha are still important?
6 August 2018 – The state of the world is right now going from bad to worse, with more violence or threats thereof; an epidemic, even pandemic, of violence. And more inequality within and between countries and money buying votes in fake elections and politicians in fake democracies turning plutocracies run by money.
Johan Galtung
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And nature insulted; less diversity and less symbiosis with CFCs in the ozone layer. But not all over.
There are regions low on violence, often headed by a state or nation as a “pole”, and a multi-polar world with passive peaceful coexistence. Disputes, not war.
Which are these regions headed by a “pole”?
Anglo-America is one, headed by USA.
Latin-America/Caribbean is one, with Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil playing leading roles, but no single leader. Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC) is a coordinating forum for all 35.
Algiers, 6 August 2018 (IOM)* – The buses left Algiers almost a day ago. Although the buses are comfortable, it has been a long day on the road for everyone.
Migrants and refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos. File Photo: IOM/Amanda Nero
It is perfectly understandable that people in Europe and elsewhere would react to alarming messages. Yet, looking at the actual numbers regarding migration and labour forces in Europe and other global economies reveals a much less alarming situation.
One way to address public worries about migration is to present the actual numbers.
Societal changes, however, are making these choices more complicated. While many countries are still dealing with undernutrition, more and more people around the world are eating energy-dense, high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt foods.
Urbanization, more sedentary types of work and changing modes of transportation are decreasing people’s levels of physical activity, creating entire populations at risk of obesity, overweight and related diseases.
Indigenous peoples are among the most vulnerable populations in the world. This International Day is an opportunity to raise public awareness of their precarious situation, particularly in relation to migration, which is the Day’s theme in 2018.
Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO
Migration influences the way of life of many indigenous peoples, whether these be nomadic pastoral societies who follow the transhumance calendar, such as the Red Fulani cattle herders in West Africa whose seasonal migration covers several thousand kilometres, or hunter-gatherer peoples who travel several hundred square kilometres, in the Kalahari Desert and the Congo Basin, for example, in order to benefit from the unique resources of their ecosystem and to preserve a delicate balance.
There are an estimated 370 million indigenous people in the world, living across 90 countries. They make up less than 5 per cent of the world’s population, but account for 15 per cent of the poorest. They speak an overwhelming majority of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages and represent 5,000 different cultures.*
6 August 2018 (UN Environment)* — As the world’s population expands and we become wealthier, drugs and chemical-based care products become more prevalent.
While pharmaceuticals are essential for human health and well-being, less is known on the effects they have on the freshwater sources on which we depend for our existence, and their impact on human health and biota.
The occurrence of pharmaceutical substances in the environment is of global concern.
