Archive for ‘Africa’

25/09/2021

Deadly ‘Invisible Shipwrecks’ Plague Migrants Bound for Canary Islands, Spain

(UN News)* — A sharp increase in the deaths and disappearances of migrants at sea heading to Spain’s Canary Islands, along the West African coast, is a cause for “extreme concern” the UN’s migration agency, IOM, said on Friday [24 September 2021].

IOM/Peter Schatzer | Conflict and poverty continue to compel people to undertake extremely perilous journeys at sea.
By the end of last month, the International Organization for Migration’s (IOMMissing Migrants Project recorded 785 people, including 177 women and 50 children, who had died or disappeared this year.
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Frank Laczko, Director of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre noted that the actual numbers are likely much higher.
24/09/2021

Food Is a Human Right, Not Just ‘A Commodity to Be Traded’

23 September 2021 (UN News)*Every day, hundreds of millions of people go to bed hungry. Three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. Two billion are overweight or obese and yet 462 million, are underweight. Nearly a third of all food that is produced, is lost or wasted.

FAO/Luis Tato | Women vendors sell fresh vegetables at a market in Limuru, Kenya.
These are just some of the problems and contradictions laid bare by the UN Secretary-General on Thursday [23 September 2021] at the opening of the landmark UN Food Systems Summit, that is bringing together farmers and fishers, youth, Indigenous Peoples, Heads of State, governments and many more, in an effort to transform the sector and get the world back on track to achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
24/09/2021

‘Despite Progress, Humanity Remains Unacceptably Close to Nuclear Annihilation’

Opening of Exhibition "Against Nuclear Arms"

From the very start, addressing the existential threat of nuclear weapons has been central to the work of the United Nations.

In 1946, the very first General Assembly resolution sought “the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.”

Seventy-six years later, we have yet to achieve that resolution’s goals.

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24/09/2021

International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons | 26 September 2021

Sculpture "Good Defeats Evil"

Sculpture depicting St. George slaying the dragon. The dragon is created from fragments of Soviet SS-20 and United States Pershing nuclear missiles. PHOTO:UN Photo/Milton Grant

24 September 2021 (United Nations)* — Achieving global nuclear disarmament is one of the oldest goals of the United Nations.

It was the subject of the General Assembly’s first resolution in 1946, which established the Atomic Energy Commission (dissolved in 1952), with a mandate to make specific proposals for the control of nuclear energy and the elimination of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.

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24/09/2021

The UN Food Systems Summit – Food Processing, Consumption, Supply Chain, Loss and Waste

LETHBRIDGE, Canada, Sep 22 2021 (IPS)* – Food processing extends shelf-life and can transforms raw food into attractive, marketable products. It can also prevent contamination. The transformation can involve numerous physical and chemical processes such as mincing, cooking, canning, liquefaction, pickling, macerating, emulsification, irradiation and lyophilization.

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Processed, canned food lines the shelves at a Canadian supermarket. Credit: Trevor Page

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24/09/2021

In the Guise of Converting the Heathens

By Prof Hoosen Vawda – TRANSCEND Media Service*

The Oppression of Indigenous Peoples in the Name of Religion

“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”[1] are the famous words of a reporter, from the New York Herald, Mr Morton Stanley[2], who was dispatched to the Dark Continent[3]: Africa, to search and locate Dr. David Livingstone, who was gone missing and found him in the city of Ujiji[4]on Lake Tanganyika in 1871[5].

Dr. Livingstone was a physician, journalist, explorer, and an empire builder.  However, first and foremost he was a missionary who embarked upon the Lord’s work to convert the heathens[6] in Africa to Christianity[7], the religion of the coloniser, which was his priority to eradicate the God of the “pagans”[8] in Africa.

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22/09/2021

UrbanShift – A New Global Initiative to Transform Cities into Green, Liveable Spaces that Address Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Pollution

New York, 21 September 2021 (UNEP)* – Today, at Climate Week NYC 2021, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Global Environment Facility (GEF) and partners launched UrbanShift – a new global initiative to improve lives and transform cities into green and liveable spaces that address climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

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Credit: Unspalsh/Koukichi Takahashi

Cities are home to 4.2 billion people, more than half of the world’s population. But they face growing challenges – from floods, storms and heatwaves triggered by the climate crisis to dangerous air quality, lack of affordable housing and deep social divides.

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22/09/2021

Following the Rhythm of Mother Earth

Learning from Indigenous Peoples’ food systems and their respect for nature

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Indigenous Peoples’ food systems have survived for centuries, generating an incredible diversity of food without depleting the natural resource base of surrounding ecosystems. ©National University of Columbia/Daniel Baena

(FAO)* — The running fresh water of the Amazon River is a welcoming sound to the peoples of the indigenous resguardo (reserve) in Puerto Nariño, southern Colombia.

This watercourse is the only access to the banks of rivers, lakes, flood plains and mainland areas that connect the 22 communities where the Tikuna, Cocama and Yagua peoples live.

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22/09/2021

Climate Science or Corporate Food? UN Food Summit Must Choose for a Liveable Planet 

Forest Fires in the Amazon. © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá
Smoke from man made forest fires to clear land for cattle or crops. © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá

Why food? According to scientists from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), land use for farming is responsible for one-quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

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22/09/2021

Take ‘Decisive Action Now’ to Avoid Climate Catastrophe