16/12/2020
© UNHCR/A. Zavallis | A volunteer life-guard helps a young girl out of the sea after the boat she used along with her family and other Afghan refugees to cross part of the Aegean from the coast of Turkey to Lesbos towards the end of 2015 crashed on a rock off the island’s coast.
(United Nations)* — The world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. An unprecedented 70.8 million people around the world have been forced from home by conflict and persecution at the end of 2018. Among them are nearly 30 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. There are also millions of stateless people, who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. People fleeing persecution and conflict have been granted asylum in foreign lands for thousands of years.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
16/12/2020
16 December 2020 (United Nations)* — Since the earliest times, humanity has been on the move. Some people move in search of work or economic opportunities, to join family, or to study. Others move to escape conflict, persecution, terrorism, or human rights violations. Still others move in response to the adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters, or other environmental factors.
Raber Y. Aziz/UN Migration Agency | Migrant women at work in the “Hopeful Hands” sewing factory started by two Iraqi women in Canada.
Today, more people than ever live in a country other than the one in which they were born. In 2019, the number of migrants globally reached an estimated 272 million, 51 million more than in 2010.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
16/12/2020
16 December 2020 (IOM)* — Twenty-eight-year-old Roam Khot sits in his small corner shop, in South Sudan’s capital, Juba. Shoppers trickle in, one by one.
He gladly asks us to enter the shop and take a seat.

Roam Khot, de 28 años en su pequeño negocio en Juba. © Nabie Loyce / OIM 2020
Roam has gone through a rough time in his struggles for a better life and future. In 2017, he left South Sudan for Egypt with the hope of starting a new life there after losing both his parents.
“I decided to leave South Sudan because I wanted a better life, better education, and I knew I would not get this here, as the country was still reeling from years of civil war,” he says.
Roam, together with his friend Abraham Puok, packed a bag of clothes each, took their modest savings and embarked on a journey to Egypt, leaving behind everything they knew.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
16/12/2020
15 December 2020 (UN News)* — The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has challenged world leaders to put him “out of a job” by addressing the root causes that drive millions to flee their homes due to war and insecurity.
UNICEF/Enri Canaj Magnum Photos | Refugees cook food and charge mobile phones at a temporary site after a fire destroyed the main camp at Moria, in Lesvos island, Greece.
In a message commemorating the 70th anniversary of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), High Commissioner Filippo Grandi called on the international community “to build a world in which there is truly no need for a UN refugee agency because nobody is compelled to flee.”
“Don’t get me wrong: as matters stand, our work is crucial”, he continued, “yet the paradox is that we ought not to exist. If we find ourselves observing many more birthdays, the only conclusion will be that the international community has failed.”
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
16/12/2020
Many scientists believe that for the first time, instead of the planet shaping humans, humans are knowingly shaping the planet. This is the Anthropocene – the Age of Humans – a new geologic epoch.
15 December 2020 (UNDP)* — Thirty years ago, UNDP created a new way to conceive and measure progress. Instead of using growth in GDP as the sole measure of development, we ranked the world’s countries by their human development: by whether people in each country have the freedom and opportunity to live the lives they value.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
15/12/2020
15 December 2020 (UN News)* — Countries must redesign their development pathways to reduce pressures exerted on the environment and the natural world, or risk stalling humanity’s progress, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has cautioned.
UNICEF/Oliver Asselin | A girl carries a basket of fruits through a flooded street in Cotonou, a large port city in Benin.
While the coronavirus pandemic is the latest crisis facing the world, but unless humans “release their grip on nature”, it won’t be the last, the agency said in its latest edition of the Human Development Report, entitled The Next Frontier, released on Tuesday [15 December 2020].
“Humans wield more power over the planet than ever before. In the wake of COVID-19, record-breaking temperatures and spiraling inequality, it is time to use that power to redefine what we mean by progress, where our carbon and consumption footprints are no longer hidden,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
Leave a Comment »
15/12/2020
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 9 2020 (IPS)* – On Dec. 2 Gabriel Arias, 42, left a Washington Heights, New York, money transfer agency after sending money home to the Dominican Republic. For the past eight years, every fortnight he would come to this branch at 171st street after getting paid from his construction job. But things are different this year and he worries about his family back home.

A landmark United Nations report is calling on governments to declare remittance transfer an essential service. Photo by Christine Roy on Unsplash
.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
15/12/2020
The year is drawing to a close, memorable for its unrelenting spotlight on coronavirus. Reflecting on the past 12 months, imagine what you would do if you were in a position of great power and influence. Two scenarios are offered, each with different underlying goals.

Marilyn Langlois
The Global Power Elite scenario is geared toward protecting the right of the super-rich to continue amassing ever more riches, and the One Earth Family scenario is aimed at ensuring every human being can live in dignity and harmony with the earth. I’ll start this exercise; then it’s your turn.
Global Power Elite Scenario
The Global Power Elite[i] described by Peter Phillips include many of the world’s wealthiest and well-connected people in high finance, mega-corporations, information technology, intelligence agencies, public relations, media, academia and politics, in other words, the 0.01%.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
15/12/2020
Migrants earn nearly 13 per cent less than national workers, an ILO study shows. In some countries, the gap is as much as 42 per cent.
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »