Archive for March, 2022

24/03/2022

Waltzing Toward Armageddon with the Merchants of Death

Human Wrongs Watch

By Chris Hedges | ScheerPost – TRANSCEND Media Service*

The doctrine of permanent war dominated our lives during the Cold War and dominates our lives now.
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Raft of Doom / Illustration by Mr. Fish

The Cold War, from 1945 to 1989, was a wild Bacchanalia for arms manufacturers, the Pentagon, the CIA, the diplomats who played one country off another on the world’s chess board, and the global corporations able to loot and pillage by equating predatory capitalism with freedom.

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24/03/2022

Water Scarcity in Africa to Reach Dangerously High Levels by 2025 – Experts

Human Wrongs Watch

Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 23 2022 (IPS)* – Joan Waweru was among villagers on their regular trek to the river to fetch water when they discovered a neighbour’s dead body, believed to have committed suicide by drowning in river Kamiti.

Access to clean, affordable and safe drinking water is far from universal across Africa. Credit: Joyce Chimbi

She was thirteen years old and recalls how even after the traumatizing incident, the village, and many others along river Kamiti, which runs along coffee plantations in Kiambu County of Kenya’s Central region, continued to rely on the river as their primary source of water for all domestic purposes.

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22/03/2022

War on Syria: Eleven Years of Carnage

Human Wrongs Watch

 

“Today the poverty rate in Syria is an unprecedented 90 percent; 14.6 million people in Syria depend on humanitarian aid.” Credit: Zak Brophy/IPS

MADRID, Mar 22 2022 (IPS)* – “Hundreds of thousands have been killed, more than half of the pre-war population – somewhere in the order of 22 million – have been displaced. More than 100,000 are missing or forcibly disappeared….

“Syria’s cities and infrastructure have been destroyed. Today the poverty rate in Syria is an unprecedented 90 percent; 14.6 million people in Syria depend on humanitarian aid.”

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22/03/2022

6 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Not the Way to a Green and Peaceful World

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22/03/2022

“The Last Glaciers” Film Issues a Global Wake-Up Call for Climate Action on World Water Day

Human Wrongs Watch

New documentary with UNEP Mountain Advocate Malcolm Wood shows the drastic loss of ice worldwide.

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Geneva, Switzerland, 22 March 2022 (UNEP)* – UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Mountain Advocate Malcolm Wood features in a unique new documentary released today, shining a spotlight on how the world’s water towers are being lost due to climate change.

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22/03/2022

International Law Is a Meaningless Concept When It only Applies to U.S. Enemies

Human Wrongs Watch

By Caitlin Johnstone – TRANSCEND Media Service*

International law is a meaningless concept when it only applies to people the US power alliance doesn’t like. Neither George W Bush nor Tony Blair are in prison cells at The Hague where international law says they ought to be.Australian whistleblower David McBride just made the following statement on Twitter:

“I’ve been asked if I think the invasion of Ukraine is illegal.
My answer is: If we don’t hold our own leaders to account, we can’t hold other leaders to account. If the law is not applied consistently, it is not the law. It is simply an excuse we use to target our enemies.

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22/03/2022

“Profound Crisis” Facing Access to Basic Human Rights in Myanmar

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — The UN’s top rights official said on Monday [21 March 2022] that amidst a “profound crisis” facing access to basic human rights in Myanmar following the coup in February last year, hundreds of localized armed resistance groups have now formed across the country, triggering “widespread violence in areas that were previously stable”.

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Unsplash/Pyae Sone Htun | Young people take part in a pro-democracy demonstration in Myanmar.
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High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet told the 49th session of Human Rights Council (HRC) that the country’s humanitarian crisis continues to expand as systematic brutality by security forces known as the Tatmadaw, has inflamed pre-existing armed conflicts in multiple ethnic states.

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22/03/2022

Groundwater Accounts for 99% of All Running Freshwater on Earth, And It Is Often Undervalued, Mismanaged, and Overexploited

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — While groundwater accounts for 99 per cent of all running freshwater on Earth, it is often undervalued, mismanaged, and overexploited, according to a report published on Monday [21 March 2022] by the UN scientific organization, UNESCO.

© FAO/ Zhongshan Luo | Rice Terraces System in Southern Mountainous and Hilly Areas, China.

“Groundwater is a critical natural resource, invisible but indispensable for life on our planet”, UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay said in the Foreword of Making the invisible visible, the latest edition of the UN World Water Development Report  (WWDR).

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21/03/2022

Planet Earth into Planet Plastics

Human Wrongs Watch

PORTLAND, USA, Mar 21 2022 (IPS)* – Planet Earth is increasingly being transformed into planet Plastics. Approximately 400,000,000 metric tons of plastics are produced worldwide annually. Those plastics amount to about 50 kilograms, or 110 pounds, every year for each of the 8 billion human inhabitants living on the unfolding planet Plastics.
Plastic pollution: Approximately 400,000,000 metric tons of plastics are produced worldwide annually. Those plastics amount to about 50 kilograms, or 110 pounds, every year for each of the 8 billion human inhabitants living on the unfolding planet Plastics

Today, plastics are ubiquitous, pervading all aspects of human activity and invading all dimensions of the environment, with the result being the emergence of planet Plastics. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS.

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21/03/2022

Indonesia: Proposed Gold Mine Is ‘Recipe for Disaster’ amid Repression of Indigenous Papuans

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Papua protest©Private

Intan Jaya Regency, where the gold ore deposit known as Wabu Block is located, has become a hotspot of conflict between Indonesian security forces and Papuan independence groups in recent years.

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