'Unseen' News and Views
Washington’s wars are unendable as well as unwinnable
President Ronald Reagan meeting with Afghan Mujahideen leaders in the Oval Office in 1983 | Author: Michael Evans, see stamp and name on roll #C12820 | Source: THE PRESIDENT AT WORK/SIGNIFICANT EVENTS (file: c12820-32.jpg) | Public Domain
17 January 2019 — After fleeing her home in Macina, a small village in central Mali, where she was due to be forced into marriage against her will, 16-year-old Fatouma took shelter with her brother.
By Robert J. Burrowes*
DAYLESFORD, Australia, 17 January 2019 — It is easy to identify the ongoing and endless violence being inflicted on life on Earth. This ranges from the vast multiplicity of assaults inflicted on our children and the biosphere to the endless wars and other military violence as well as the grotesque exploitation of many peoples living in Africa, Asia and Central/South America. But for a (very incomplete) list of 40 points see ‘Reflections on 2018, Forecasting 2019’.
Robert J. Burrowes
However, despite the obvious fact that it is human beings who are inflicting all of this violence, it is virtually impossible to get people to pay attention to this simple and incontrovertible fact and to ask why, precisely, are human beings behaving in such violent and destructive ways? And can we effectively address this cause?
– After Teresa May’s defeat in the British parliament it is clear that a new spectre is haunting Europe. It is no longer the spectre of communism, which opens Marx’s Manifesto of 1848; it is the spectre of the failure of neoliberal globalisation, which reigned uncontested following the fall of the Berlin Wall, until the financial crisis of 2009.
Roberto Savio
In 2008, governments spent the astounding amount of 62 trillion dollars to save the financial system, and close to that amount in 2009 (see Britannica Book of the Year, 2017), According to a US Federal Reserve study, it cost each American 70,000 dollars.
Belatedly, economic institutions left macroeconomics, which were until then used to assess GNP growth and started to look at how growth was being redistributed.
And the IMF and the World Bank, (also because of the prodding of civil society studies, foremost those of Oxfam), concluded that there was a huge problem in the rise of inequality.
14 January 2019 (UN Women)* — Three Cambodian women welcome their first customer of the day to have a seat in the salon chair. Chantrea* gently scrubs her hair, dries it, and styles the locks in long twists. When the next customer enters, Kunthea* provides a manicure, her steady hands painting each nail twice before a clear coat seals the color. Finally, Sokhanya* finishes the treatment with a bit of eye shadow and powder to the customer’s face.
The world is facing multiple health challenges. These range from outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and diphtheria, increasing reports of drug-resistant pathogens, growing rates of obesity and physical inactivity to the health impacts of environmental pollution and climate change and multiple humanitarian crises.
17 January 2019 (UN Environment)* — In the Northern Malian region of Gao, Adoum looks at his phone. It’s time to go find greener pastures for his herd. He has a few spots in mind but needs to gather more information before embarking on the weeks-long journey.
Photo by SNV | Photo from UN Environment.
In the Sahel, climate change has translated into more frequent, longer drought spells that threaten the resilience capacity of nomadic livestock pastoralists like Adoum. Freshwater points are scarce during the dry season and many animals are at risk of dying before reaching the next oasis.
With over 800 schools forced to close due to insecurity, and 2.3 million vulnerable people in need of assistance this year, a top UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday [16 January 2019] that the humanitarian situation in Mali “remains dire”.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
