A Buddhist humanist from Burma, Maung Zarni is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, former Visiting Lecturer with Harvard Medical School, specializing in racism and violence in Burma and Sri Lanka, and Non-resident Scholar in Genocide Studies with Documentation Center – Cambodia.
Zarni is coordinator for Strategic Affairs for Free Rohingya Coalition and an adviser to the European Centre for the Study of Extremism, Cambridge, UK.
22 October 2019 — Although exposure to lead remains a key global health concern, particularly as it impacts childhood development, only 73 countries have legally binding controls for lead paint, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported.*
Photo: UNEP | Children and pregnant mothers in developing world face widespread exposure to toxic lead in paint. Photo: UNEP
Lead exposure killed more than one million people in 2017, according to data cited by WHO, which is why the UN agency and partners are this week urging countries to take action to ban lead paint.
After nearly two weeks of fighting in northeast Syria, the UN’s huhumanitarian wing has estimated that around 180,000 have been forced to leave their homes or sheltermanitarian wing has estimated that around 180,000 have been forced to leave their homes or shelters, including 80,000 children, all in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.*
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Tuesday [22 October 2019] that despite a shaky five-day ceasefire, airstrikes and a ground offensive launched by Turkey on 9 October, targeting Kurdish held areas across the border, has had a “significant humanitarian impact.”
$4 Billion Humanitarian Appeal Nearly 50 Per Cent Unfunded Heading into Final Auarter of 2019
UNICEF/UNI214259/Souleiman
NEW YORK (UNICEF)* – Millions of children living in areas affected by conflict and disaster are at risk because of substantial shortages in funding for lifesaving humanitarian programmes, UNICEF said today [22 October 2019].
22 October 2019 (Norwegian Refugee Council)* — Over 300,000 people have been displaced due to drought and conflict in Somalia so far this year. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said insecurity is making it virtually impossible for humanitarians to provide aid in rural areas and is resulting in vulnerable people moving to overcrowded camps in urban areas for assistance.
“The crushing effect of drought has stripped rural communities of their crops, livestock and water sources, while armed conflict closes in on their homes. We are now likely to see 2.1 million Somali people suffering from hunger by December and into 2020,” said Victor Moses, Country Director for NRC.
The future does not belong to globalists, but to patriots …. We are the most powerful power in the world, but I hope I will never have to use that power.
Today, our emotions seem to be driving us towards disaster. At first this seems to be a paradox. Our emotions have been produced by evolution, and Darwinian natural selection is supposed to produce traits that lead to survival, rather than to destruction.
IPS Correspondent Ed Holt speaks to PAULINE ADES-MEVEL, Head of European Union & Balkan desk at RSF*
Pauline Ades-Mevel, Head of European Union and Balkan desk at Reporters Without Borders, warns that press freedom in Europe is declining. Courtesy: Reporters Without Borders
Rising populism, anti-media rhetoric from politicians, cyber-harassment of journalists and physical attacks are among the reasons why press freedom in Europe is on the decline, according to the global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
16 October 2019 (Norwegian Refugee Council)* – As thousands of civilians flee air strikes and shelling in North East Syria, aid agencies witness an escalation of the humanitarian crisis. UN estimates that more than 160,000 people have been displaced so far and believes up to 400,000 people could be displaced in the area if the violence keeps escalating.
Syrian families fleeing air strikes and shelling in north-east Syria. Photo: Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP NTB Scanpix | Photo posted here from NRC.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 