'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
Gastronomy is a cultural expression of the world’s natural and cultural diversity. On June 18, we celebrate Sustainable Gastronomy Day and acknowledge that everyone plays a role in making sustainable choices for healthy diets and a food-secure future. @ Chompoo Suriyo/ shutterstock.com
Sexual violence in conflict is a “threat to our collective security” and a “stain on our common humanity”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, on Wednesday 19 June 2019.
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Calling the scourge “a tactic of war, to terrorize people and to destabilize societies”, he underscored that its effect can echo across generations through trauma, stigma, poverty, long-term health issues and unwanted pregnancy. He urged that survivors should be heard and their needs recognized.
Straight to the point: while right and far-right politicians keep marketing their image with intensive campaigns of hatred, discrimination and stigmatisation against migrants, 200 million migrant workers worldwide will sacrifice over half a trillion dollars from their hard-earned money, to rescue 800 million members of their impoverished families. And that’s only this year 2019.
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Around 200 million migrant workers sent US$528 billion back to their families in remittance-reliant countries in 2018. Photo: ©IFAD
As resistance to antibiotics grows, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the latest stage of its campaign to fight this deadly health risk – likened by the agency to an “invisible pandemic”– with the launch of a new online tool for health professionals on Tuesday 18 June 2019.
The AWaRe portal divides antibiotics into three groups – Access, Watch and Reserve – and explains which antibiotics should be used to treat the most common and serious infections (Access), which ones should be available at all times in the healthcare system (Watch), and those that must be used sparingly or preserved and used only as a last resort (Reserve)
UN Refugee Chief calls for ‘redoubled’ solidarity as annual Global Trends report shows displacement doubled in 20 years.
Venezuelan families wade across the Tachira River to seek food and safety in Cúcuta, Colombia. © UNHCR/Vincent Tremeau
Geneva (UNHCR)* – Yet again, wars, violence and persecution have driven record numbers of people from their homes worldwide, according to the latest annual study released on 19 June 2019 by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
The yearly Global Trends report found that 70.8 million children, women and men were forcibly displaced at the close of 2018, the highest number in the organization’s almost 70-year history.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has declared war on hate speech, telling Member States on 18 June 2019, that we all need to “do better at looking out for each other”.
The modernization of nuclear forces continues
SIPRI Governing Board Chair Ambassador Jan Eliasson, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, says: ‘A key finding is that despite an overall decrease in the number of nuclear warheads in 2018, all nuclear weapon-possessing states continue to modernize their nuclear arsenals.’
There is the New Testament symbol of the Sower and the Seed. The Sower has only one type of seed, which stands for the truth or at least that aspect of the truth that is appropriate for the period. He throws some of the seeds on ill-prepared hard ground. It is quickly covered over, some eaten by birds or stamped on by people passing. Some others are thrown on slightly prepared ground, but their roots do not go deep. The seeds are dried by too much sun or drowned by too much rain. Finally, some seeds are put into well-prepared ground, take root and in turn produce more seeds that can be used elsewhere.
– We humans are at the absurd stage in our technological evolution when we seem to have abandoned our common sense. Billions are spent by governments, corporations and investors in training computer-based algorithms (i.e. computer programs) in today’s mindless rush to create so-called “artificial” intelligence, widely advertised as AI.
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Sophia the Robot speaking to UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed at UN Headquarters in 2017. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias
ROME (FAO)* – Unlocking the potential of agricultural innovations, be it simple solutions or satellite-based technologies, will help prevent a drought from turning into famine and forced displacement and to reverse desertification, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva on 17 June 2019 said.
