'Unseen' News and Views
26 February 2019 (Wall Street International)* — Several words have become quite popular when describing healthy foods. There are natural foods, superfoods, functional foods, herbal medicines and nutraceuticals. They have no scientific, regulatory or legal definition.
This should not be too surprising since even the term ‘food’ has many different definitions in different cultures. Some things that are thought to be foods in some cultures are considered sinful or even deadly poisons in others.
The aim of this article is to show how a superfood cult has emerged that tries to increase sales, while misleading the public 1.
‘When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it – always.’ M.K. Gandhi
23 February 2019 (Wall Street International)* – As we remember Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October, the Mahatma’s 149th birthday and the International Day of Nonviolence, there is plenty of room for despair.
Never before has the Earth and its many inhabitants been under siege as they are now, more than 100 years after Gandhi started warning us of the predicament in which we are embroiled and presenting his strategy for addressing it before it spiraled out of control.
People’s rights are under fire “in many parts of the globe,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Human Rights Council on Monday [25 February 2019], before insisting that he was not “losing hope”, thanks to the progress made by powerful grassroots movements for social justice.
Addressing the Geneva-based forum on the opening day of its 40th session, Mr. Guterres underlined the Council’s key role as the “epicentre” for dialogue and cooperation on all human rights issues: civil, political, economic, social and cultural.
The UK Government is “under an obligation” to end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago “as rapidly as possible” the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial body of the UN, stated in an Advisory Opinion released on Monday [25 February 2019]. The Opinion calls the continued administration of the archipelago “unlawful,” and “a wrongful act.”
The Chagos Islands were retained by the United Kingdom during negotiations over independence for the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, which came to fruition in 1968. The islands have since been used for defence purposes by the UK and the United States, which established a military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
Paying tribute to reporters around the world who “put their lives on the line” to tell important stories, UN chief António Guterres lamented on Monday [25 February 2019] that freedom of the press was increasingly “shrinking” worldwide, and called on decision-makers to better protect journalists and media workers.
“We’ve come a long way towards realizing freedom of expression, and other fundamental freedoms. The right to access to information is entrenched in law in over a hundred countries,” said Secretary-General Guterres during the event, which marked the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Association of UN Correspondents (ACANU).
Four years of “mind-boggling violence” in Yemen “has not spared a single child”, a top UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) official said on Monday [25 February 2019], on the eve of a pledging conference in Geneva to help alleviate the suffering of millions across the country.
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“In Yemen today, nearly 1.2 million children continue to live in 31 active conflict zones including Hudaydah, Taizz, Hajjah and Sa’da – in areas witnessing heavy, war-related violence”, said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Sexual violence in conflict – and the stigma that survivors often face – must be addressed urgently, UN chief António Guterres said on Monday [25 February 2019], in a joint appeal for more funding and international action, together with the head of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer.
Describing how he was “frequently horrified” by the first-hand accounts of survivors in his previous role as head of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Mr. Guterres said that only last year, Rohingya refugees who had fled into Bangladesh spoke of the mass gang-rape of women and girls in their homes, before they fled northern Myanamar.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 