Meanwhile,” the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the already dire humanitarian and socio-economic situation” Secretary-General António Guterres said at a meeting online last November, marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Patients arrive at a health centre in Gaza. Credit: UNRWA
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 7 2021 (IPS)* – If the coronavirus is not deemed a biological weapon, is the heavily-publicized Covid-19 vaccine in danger of being weaponized when over 159,000 Palestinians who have tested positive in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are being denied treatment during a deadly pandemic?
The London-based human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) says Israel’s vaccine roll-out plan excludes the nearly 5 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Israeli military occupation.
‘Lockdown’ was declared by Collins Dictionary as the Word of the Year for 2020.
Looking back, the world will remember 2020 as the year that disrupted our present-day lives: most of us were locked up for months and doing everything from home, unable to see and be with friends and loved ones, when everyone wore masks, scrubbed our hands with soap or alcohol, and practiced social distancing. Many felt worried and anxious about the uncertainties that came with lockdown living.
But amidst a raging pandemic, humanity was not spared from a much bigger threat. While some were feeling safe and secure in their homes, thousands of people were fighting for their survival against a raging climate.
As a child, she received emergency nutritional support from the World Food Programme where she is now a monitor helping Burundian refugees
Liberee Kayumba’s traumatic experience during the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda inspired her to make a difference in the lives of others. Photo: WFP/Jonathan Eng
Liberee Kayumba, a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, has seen the horrors of war first-hand. She was only 12 years old when she lost her parents and brothers in the genocide – a trauma that was further compounded by the immediate risk of starvation.
6 January 2021 (WMO)* — The record-breaking 2020 Antarctic ozone hole finally closed at the end of December after an exceptional season due to naturally occurring meteorological conditions and the continued presence of ozone depleting substances in the atmosphere.
Oh, Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz. My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends. So, oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz. Janis Joplin, 1970
James Dean accident.
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jan 6 2021 (IPS)* – COVID-19 has made several of us aware of the frailty of our bodies, the certainty of death and how valuable health, companionship and compassion are. Such insights are not uncommon in poor societies where a person’s main and perhaps only asset is her/his body and what s/he is able to do with her/his hands.
However, wealthy and privileged people are surrounded by, dependent on, and even integrated with an ever more sophisticated technology, which increasingly, for better or worse, is separating us from what human existence has been for thousands of years.
Once technology has made its entry into the human sphere; from fire and wheels, to printing presses, trains, radio, aircraft, TV, the Intranet, sophisticated weaponry and … cars, everyone’s life, even unprivileged ones, has changed to an extent that it is difficult to fathom. For example, cars were invented as an effective and comfortable means of transport, but they soon became so much more.
5 January 2021 (Wall Street International)* — Here are some quotations from a December 2, 2020 article by Justin Rowlatt entitled Humans waging suicidal war on nature – UN chief Antonio Guterres:
Humanity is waging what he describes as a suicidal war on the natural world.
Nature always strikes back, and is doing so with gathering force and fury, he told a BBC special event on the environment.
(UN News)* — The World Bank Group on Tuesday [5 January 2021] issued a guarded growth forecast for the global economy this year, saying that a four per cent overall expansion was likely, although the recovery will likely be a “subdued” one.
World Bank/Paul Salazar | Shopping during the coronavirus pandemic: greater population growth in regions such as Latin America, will require more productive and sustainable agriculture.
Policy makers must move decisively, according to January’s Global Economic Prospects, and although it is already growing again following the 4.3 per cent contraction of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused “a heavy toll of deaths and illness, plunged millions into poverty, and may depress economic activity and incomes for a prolonged period”, said a press release issued by the World Bank – a key financial institution within the United Nations system.
5 January 2021 (FAO)* — Meal after meal. Day after day. It’s easy to get into routines with food and forget about the variety of fruits, vegetables, grains and other foods that exist, with all the different nutritional benefits that they offer.
If that sounds familiar, then FAO is here to help. Drawing on our experiences from around the world, we’ve consulted with local cooks, chefs and families to put together some fascinating and useful cookbooks.
5 January 2021 (Wall Street International)* — We are unknown to most Americans. But some notables – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s former wife Kerry Kennedy, Congressman Joe Kennedy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine, Paul Simon, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Samantha Power, actor Oscar Isaac, Susan Robeson (granddaughter of opera singer Paul Robeson) have visited us. Oscar Isac even played me in a film partly shot here.
Conversations with leading experts in childhood love, adversity and mental health.
UNICEF/UN0312248/Sokol | 04 January 2021
Why is love so important in childhood?
4 January 2021 — In this ground-breaking new series by UNICEF, Laura Mucha – author, poet and children’s advocate – interviews some of the world’s leading experts to find out.
The series sets out to cover how adversity impacts us as children and the adults we become, what we can do to protect and improve young people’s mental health, and why safe and loving relationships are so vital for children’s health, development and wellbeing throughout life.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 