19 April 2018 (Wall Street International)*— Notions of character, temperament, vocation, nature, or finally previous situations that determine human behavior and motivation are a constant in the layman’s thinking and unfortunately also in psychological thinking.
Notions of character, temperament, vocation, nature, or finally previous situations that determine human behavior and motivation are a constant in the layman’s thinking and unfortunately also in psychological thinking.
The next trillion-dollar industry will be in the mining sector, and the world’s first trillionaire will make his/her fortune by mining in outer space, Goldman Sachs claims.
The prediction is echoed by renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who says: “The first trillionaire there will ever be is the person who exploits the natural resources on asteroids.”
“There’s this vast universe of limitless energy and limitless resources. I look at wars fought over access to resources. That could be a thing of the past, once space becomes our backyard,” Tyson said.
Washington D.C., 18 April 2018 (ILO)* — In a statement to the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder warned that high and rising levels of inequality are impeding inclusive and sustainable development.
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Cost of a plate of beans in Switzerland: 0.4 per cent of daily income. Cost of same meal in Malawi: 41 per cent of daily income, according to new World Food Programme (WFP) data. Photo: WFP West Africa
Looking to the future of work, he also called for a focus on decent work to confront the challenges of demography, technology, and climate change.
(Greenpeace)*— It’s hard to imagine living somewhere as beautiful as beside the Pechora river in northern Russia. But when you see the unbearable destruction of oil spills in the area, you have to do something.
Last year, I joined a volunteer movement that helps the Indigenous people who live in the Komi Republic to fight against the oil spills that are devastating this incredible landscape. I’ve seen the lifeless sites of old oil spills, and new oil spilling out every day.
12 April 2018 (UN Women)* — Wekoweu (Akole) Tsuhah, from a rural community in Nagaland, India, is the first generation of women in her family to have been educated. She spoke to UN Women during the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women about the situation of women in her community, and what they want.
Wekoweu (Akole) Tsuhah. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
“Everyone does farming in my community. I am educated, I have a job, but I continue to farm with my family. But women are not recognized as farmers because they do not own land and resources.
Geneva, 20 April 2018 (IOM)*– IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 18,575 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea through the first 108 days of 2018, with about 40 per cent arriving in Italy and the remainder divided between Greece (38 per cent) and Spain, at roughly 20 per cent.
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This compares with 43,645 arrivals across the region through the same period last year, and 205,613 at this time in 2016. In comparative terms, then, current arrivals are running at 42 per cent of last year’s pace, and at just over 9 per cent of 2016’s.
Poverty and lack of employment prospects make many teenage girls in coastal areas of Madagascar vulnerable to becoming trapped in commercial sexual exploitation. An ILO project supports community efforts to fight against the problem, one of the worst forms of child labour*
TULEAR, Madagascar, 12 April 2018 (ILO)* – Located in southern Madagascar on a beautiful, sun-kissed, stretch of coastline, the town of Tuléar is an ideal holiday spot. But, the presence of tourists in an extremely poor region is also a risk for children, who may fall into commercial sexual exploitation.
20 April 2018 — Despite warnings, Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers who fled Boko Haram violence continue to be returned from Cameroon, the United Nations refugee agency has said, underscoring the need to accord international protection to those in need.
OCHA/Ivo Brandau | A refugee camp in northern Cameroon hosting Nigerian refugees (file photo). Boko Haram violence in north-east Nigeria forced thousands to flee their homes, many sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Transforming pineapple skins into product packaging or using potato peels for fuel may sound far-fetched, but such innovations are gaining traction as it becomes clear that an economy based on cultivation and use of biomass can help tackle pollution and climate change, the United Nations agriculture agency on 20 April 2018 said.
FAO/Ezequiel Becerra | The skins of the pineapple fruit can be transformed into biodegradable packaging.
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A sustainable bioeconomy, which uses biomass – organic materials, such as plants and animals and fish – as opposed to fossil resources to produce food and non-food goods “is foremost about nature and the people who take care of and produce biomass,” a senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official said at the 2018 Global Bioeconomy Summit in Berlin, Germany.
TWO DAYS ago, the State of Israel celebrated its 70th birthday. For days we heard about nothing else. Innumerable speeches full of platitudes. A huge festival of kitsch.
Uri Avnery
Everyone agreed: It was a historic moment, when David Ben-Gurion got up in a small hall in Tel Aviv and declared the foundation of the state.
Everybody still alive from then was asked this week: Where were you at that moment? What did you feel, when history knocked on the door?
WELL, I was alive. And I did not feel anything.
I was a soldier in the new army, which was not yet called “Israeli Defense Army ” (its official name in Hebrew). My company had a small encampment of pup tents in Hulda, a kibbutz south of Tel Aviv.
We were to attack an Arab village called al-Kubab, near the town of Ramleh, that night.
