'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
4 February 2019 (UN Environment)* — Monish Siripurapu’s air cooling system may be based on the design of a beehive but the Indian innovator’s inspiration did not come while he was striding through fields of flowers. He was actually in a stifling hot factory in New Delhi, where he was doing some design work.
5 February 2019 (FAO)* — A third of all food produced is lost or wasted each year, but just a quarter of what we waste is enough to end world hunger.
Zero Hunger starts with you. Watch the video to find out more.
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The human waste treatment facility under construction at the refugee settlement near Kutupalong, Bangladesh. © UNHCR/Firas Al-Khateeb
By the UN Refugee Agency (UNHR)* — UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and Oxfam have together put into service this week in Cox’s Bazar the biggest human waste treatment facility ever built in a refugee settlement.
“Citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self-defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for more meaningful democracy.” — Noam Chomsky, 1989 (Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies)
Odysseus is tempted by the swirling Sirens in Homer’s The Odyssey.
My copy of Homer’s The Odyssey, a remnant of high school Latin days, has been gathering dust on a shelf for decades now.
But I’ve been thinking more about the book in recent years, especially as my writing has increasingly turned to the psychology of propaganda.
Syria calls on our full attention, for a fresh look. Looking at what? The “reality of Syria”, the “real Syria”, and then seeing what?
Johan Galtung
The Germans make an apparently useful distinction between reality für mich, as I, ich, see it, and, an sich, reality in, by, for itself, reality as such. Objective, not subjective.
A useful distinction; making us ponder, how different are they?
Apparently useful; how do we get to, at this an sich thing?
Old questions; maybe no new answers, but worth pondering.
To the West, Syria spells colonial history–by the West since 1916 more than by the Ottomans since 1516–and post-colonial history. Why?
Inequality is an “entrenched imbalance”
The question of inequality was raised several times by the UN in January: speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, UN chief António Guterres pointed out that, while technological progress and globalization have led to “fantastic improvements” in many areas, they have also increased inequality and marginalized millions.
With mercenaries undermining global peace and security and weakening States’ capacities to protect their people, the UN Security Council on Monday [4 February 2019] shone its spotlight on their activities as a source of destabilization in Africa.
