'Unseen' News and Views
Independent UN rights experts on Thursday [11 April 2019] said the arrest of Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange by police in the United Kingdom, after the Ecuadorian Government decided to stop granting him asylum in their London embassy, exposed him to “the risk of serious human rights violations”, if extradited to the United States.
A Quasi-Review of, A Lie Too Big To Fail: The Real History of the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, by Lisa Pease
“‘We’re all puppets,’ the suspect [Sirhan Sirhan] replied, with more truth than he could have understood at that moment.”
– Lisa Pease, quoting from the LAPD questioning of Sirhan
Edward Curtin
8 Apr 2019 – When Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968, the American public fell into an hypnotic trance in which they have remained ever since.
The overwhelming majority accepted what was presented by government authorities as an open and shut case that a young Palestinian American, Sirhan Sirhan, had murdered RFK because of his support for Israel, a false accusation whose ramifications echo down the years.
That this was patently untrue and was contradicted by overwhelming evidence made no difference.
Sirhan did not kill Robert Kennedy, yet he remains in jail to this very day.
More than four in 10 women in 51 countries surveyed, feel they have no choice but to agree to their partner’s sexual demands, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, said on Wednesday [10 April 2019], noting that they are also unable to make basic decisions about getting pregnant and accessing health care for themselves.
Monica Ferro, Director of UNFPA Geneva, said the figures were “worrisome” and it was essential to raise the level of consent and access to vital health services, for millions of women around the world. “Don’t forget: each one of these numbers is a person”, she added.
Tensions in the country escalated in January this year, when Juan Guaidó, head of the country’s National Assembly, challenged the legitimacy of the sitting President, Nicolás Maduro, in power since 2013 and sworn in again for a second term this past January, following an election process disputed by many in opposition.
Speaking to reporters outside the Security Council in New York on Wednesday [10 April 2019] night, UN chief António Guterres said there was still time for a “bloody battle for Tripoli” to be avoided, despite the continuing fighting in and around the Libyan capital.
The offensive directed towards the capital, and troops loyal to the internationally-recognized Government led by Faiez Serraj, began on Monday [8 April 2019]. UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric briefed reporters earlier in the day that clashes were “reportedly intensifying, with increased use of artillery and airstrikes”.
School gardening takes root in Kenyan refugee settlement.
Thanks to a Junior Farmer Field and Life School training course in her school, Dimiana Nange Clement now wants to be a farmer. ©FAO/Sven G. Simonsen
10 April 2019 (FAO)* — Dimiana Nange Clement is a young refugee and a budding farmer. The 11-year-old lives with her family in the Kalobeyei integrated settlement in northern Kenya. The settlement is adjacent to the Kakuma refugee camp, one of the largest such facilities in the world.
Families and schools here are increasingly turning to gardening as a source of better nutrition and a way to inspire youngsters like Dimiana, who comes from South Sudan.
An upsurge of violence in the south-east of Niger means that the population’s suffering is increasing “with each passing month,” a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson warned on Tuesday[9 April 2019], at a press briefing in Geneva. In March alone, some 88 civilians were reported to have died during attacks.
As often remarked in this blog, the world is in such a mess that we need radical action. In fact we need revolutionary change.
Dr. David Adams
But where can it come from? Who can be the revolutionary actors?
A century ago, it was thought by some that revolution would come from industrial workers.
They were constantly and obviously exploited by their capitalist bosses.
They were concentrated in large numbers in factories
They had the power to stop production by going on strike.
Today there are few such factories in the rich countries of the North. Factories have been automated or transferred to China and the poor countries of the South.
We don’t hear anymore that factory workers will change the world.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
In January 2019 Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly swore in congressman Juan Guaidó as the country’s interim president. Guaidó’s claim to power is a severe blow against the already weakened government of Nicolás Maduro, whose re-election as president in May 2018 was widely rejected by the international community and deemed illegitimate by over 50 foreign governments.