Archive for February 24th, 2019

24/02/2019

A Journey across Russia’s Desolate Oil Region

Aerial view of Kushor © Igor Podgorny / Greenpeace

Aerial view of some the destruction caused by the heavy seismic vehicles in the forest © Igor Podgorny / Greenpeace

Seismic testing is a geophysical study of the earth’s crust to look for valuable minerals and oil. The tests are being conducted carelessly and hastily.

In 2017, villagers from Ust-Usa and Novikbozh demanded an end to oil exploration works in the lower lands of the Pechora River.

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24/02/2019

PODCAST: Why Biodiversity’s Loss Is Your Loss

Human Wrongs Watch

Listen to the latest FAO podcast that focuses on biodiversity and what its loss will mean for humankind.*

Bees, soils, trees – even the tiny organisms we can’t even see – all play a vital role in producing the world’s food. Yet, this biodiversity that supports our food and agriculture is in serious decline. So what does that mean for our future food? Dan Leskien from the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture explains.*

Interview: Charlotta Lomas, FAO.

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24/02/2019

Origin, Beginning and Causality

Human Wrongs Watch

By Vera Felicidade de Almeida Campos*

24 February 2019 (Wall Street International)*Wassily Kandinsky used to say that everything starts from a dot. He simplified, or forgot, that a dot is an intersection of lines.

Wassily Kandinsky's dots
Wassily Kandinsky’s dots | Image from Wall Street International.

Kandinsky’s statement emphasizes ideas of beginning, of origin, of causality. When one thinks of beginning, of start, one looks for origins, for causes of the existing.

Discovering the beginning is the great question of science, it embraces every idea of creator and creature, referring to an absolute, an explanatory cause of everything.

Where does the self begin? When does the world begin? What is the cause of great passions and unfulfilled, interrupted encounters? What is the abysmal instant that collapses perspectives, the point responsible for change, for the contingent continuity that creates intersection?

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24/02/2019

Surviving Ebola: “I was so afraid to die and be put in a body bag”

Jémima Masika was infected with Ebola and survived. © UNFPA DRC/Brigitte Kiaku
Jémima Masika was infected with Ebola and survived. © UNFPA DRC/Brigitte Kiaku

“I did not believe in the existence of Ebola,” she said. “Like many, I took the disease for a [story] made up by politicians.”

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is no stranger to Ebola. This is the country’s tenth Ebola outbreak – but it is the first time the densely populated province of North Kivu, an active conflict zone, has been affected.

Ms. Masika contracted the disease while taking care of her sick aunt.

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24/02/2019

“Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change,” UN Women Urges World Leaders on International Women’s Day

Human Wrongs Watch

The United Nations’ gender equality entity puts spotlight on public services, income security, safe spaces and technology to advance progress for women and girls.

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International Women's Day 2019: Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change

 

New York (UN Women)* –  In celebration of International Women’s Day on 8 March, UN Women is celebrating its 2019 theme of “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change”, along with hosting hundreds of festivities around the world through the organization’s global network.

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24/02/2019

Another Somber Milestone for Afghanistan: 2018 Saw Record-High Civilians Killed in Decade – UN Report

With over 3,800 civilian women, children and men killed in just one year, Afghanistan has hit yet another “deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable” record, according to a new report issued on Sunday [24 February 2019] by the UN political mission in the country (UNAMA) and the UN human rights office (OHCHR).*

Reuters/Omar Sobhani | A group of journalists and first responders are caught in a downtown Kabul suicide attack on 30 April 2018. | Photo from UN News.
Fighting and brutal violence claimed exactly 3,804 civilian lives in 2018 – including 927 children, another tragic record for the year – according to data carefully collected by the UN. The number represents an increase of 11 per cent compared to 2017.
24/02/2019

Women and Human Rights – Front and Centre at the Oscar Ceremony this Year

Human Wrongs Watch

23 February 2019 — Gender equality, the marginalization of indigenous languages, migration, the refugee crisis, the lives of domestic workers, poverty… All these issues which are at the heart of the United Nations’ work, are also front and centre in some of the films celebrated this year at the Academy Awards.*

© UNHCR/Tom Pilston | Cate Blanchett (right), a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, at “Capernaum” film screening with director Nadine Labaki (left), in London, UK.
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Two women, Yalitza Aparicio and Nadine Labaki, could make history during the 91st Oscar ceremony taking place this Sunday [24 February 2019] in Los Angeles, in the United States.
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