'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
(UN News)* — Vulnerable communities disproportionately bear the brunt of environmental degradation caused by plastics pollution, and action is urgently needed to address the issue and restore access to human rights, health and well-being, according to a new UN report published on Tuesday [30 March 2021].
PANAMA CITY, 29 March 2021 (UNICEF)* – The number of children migrating up north through the dangerous Darien rainforest between Colombia and Panama has increased more than fifteen-fold in the last four years, UNICEF reported today after a two-day field visit to the Darien border by Jean Gough, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
UNICEF/UN0433742/Moreno Gonzalez
Since 2017, the number of children crossing the Darien Gap has skyrocketed from 109 to 1,653 in 2020, with a peak of 3,956 in 2019. This is fifteen times more children migrating through the Panama jungle in the last four years.
30 March 2021 (Wall Street International)* — It has been a year since the Covid-19 virus interrupted and changed our lives forever. The virus attacked not only our bodies but every aspect of our lives, our livelihoods, our children’s care and education, our ability to gather, to even kiss our grandparents.
A virus attacks the bodies of those who are most vulnerable, who have the least strong and healthy immune systems, but most critically those with “pre-morbidity.”
With COVID-19 lockdowns depriving many of jobs and income, increasing numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers are going hungry.
Amid downtowns resulting from coronavirus restrictions, displaced people are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. © UNHCR/Kamrul Hasan
(UN News)* — The report from a team of international scientists assembled by the World Health Organization (WHO) to examine how COVID-19 first spread to humans was published on Tuesday 30 March 2021, and was described by the UN health agency’s chief as a welcome start, but far from conclusive.
“This report is a very important beginning, but it is not the end”, said WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“We have not yet found the source of the virus, and we must continue to follow the science and leave no stone unturned as we do.”
(UN News)* — In a statement released on Tuesday [30 March 2021] the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has concluded that a 3 January French military airstrike on the central Malian village of Bounty, hit a group largely made up of civilians, killing several of them.
The day after the attack, a MINUSMA fact-finding team, made up of 15 human rights officers, and supported by two UN forensics experts and two public information officers, was deployed to investigate the strike, and shed light on the allegations surrounding the deaths.
(UN News)* — Though significant steps have been taken to prevent debt crises across the world sparked by the COVID-19 crisis, they have not been sufficient to restore economic stability in many developing countries, according to a policy brief issued by the UN Secretary-General on Monday 29 March 2021.
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– COVID-19 has set back the uneven progress of recent decades, directly causing more than two million deaths. The slowdown, due to the pandemic and policy responses, has pushed hundreds of millions more into poverty, hunger and worse, also deepening many inequalities.
Anis Chowdhury
Development setbacks
The outlook for developing countries is grim, with output losses of 5.7% in 2020. Compared to pre-pandemic trends, the expected 8.1% loss by end-2021 will be much worse than advanced countries dropping 4.7%.
COVID-19 has further set back progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As progress was largely ‘not on track’ even before the pandemic, developing countries will need much support to mitigate the new setbacks, let alone get back on track.
In late 2020 Robert J. Burrowes and myself were asked by some Melbourne activists protesting against the lockdowns and Covid vaccinations to help them develop more effective strategy.
Anita McKone
Many of the protesters were new to activism, and those with an inclination towards following a nonviolent approach wanted education in this area.
In February, Robert and I ran two Introduction to Nonviolent Action workshops, and one Nonviolent Strategy weekend, and with the inspiration and input of this great group of participants, I have now put the basics of a worldwide nonviolent campaign strategy to defeat the Great Reset on a website. We have named this campaign We Are Human, We Are Free.
The website is designed as a resource that activists anywhere in the world can use to develop effective local nonviolent campaigns.
