'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — Celebrating what would have been Nelson Mandela’s 102nd birthday on 21 July 2021, the UN deputy chief hailed the man who led the struggle that ended the racist apartheid system in his native South Africa as exemplifying “courage, compassion and an unwavering commitment to social justice and equality”.
Tanitoluwa Adewumi and his family fled violence in Nigeria and ended up in a homeless shelter in New York, where he learned the game that changed their lives. | Español
Tanitoluwa (Tani) Adewumi and his family fled violence in Nigeria. They are now living as asylum seekers in the United States while Tani continues his chess career. © UNHCR/Ashley Le
20 July 2021 (UNHCR)* — Tanitoluwa Adewumi and his family fled their native Nigeria in 2017, after jihadist group Boko Haram ordered his father, Kayode, to produce posters for their network at his print shop. Kayode refused and knew the family would be in danger if they stayed.
I am writing this opinion essay today in my quality as the Convenor of Nobel Laureates and Leaders for Children, supporting the Fair Share to End Child Labour campaign.
My friend and colleague Kailash Satyarthi (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2014) is an extraordinary man, very much in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi.
Upon completion of his university studies at age 20 and as he was readying himself to wed his childhood sweetheart Sumedha, rather than starting a career as an electric engineer, Kailash sat down with his soon-to-be wife, told her, I want to help free children from slavery.
NEW YORK, 19 July 2021(UNICEF)* – “As the official COVID-19 death toll around the world passed 4 million earlier this month, UNICEF is increasingly concerned for children left without one or both parents.
UNICEF/UNI394756/DejonghChildren working at a mine site in Burkina Faso
– With Henrietta Fore’s decision last week to step down as UNICEF Executive Director, her successor is most likely to be another American since that post has been held– uninterruptedly — by US nationals for almost 74 years, an unprecedented all-time record for a high-ranking job in the UN system.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore meets with students at the Roberto Suazo Córdoba School, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Credit: UNICEF/Bindra
20 July 2021 (WMO)* — Amazonia hosts the Earth’s largest tropical forests and has been shown to be an important carbon sink. This carbon sink seems to be in decline, however, as a result of factors such as deforestation and climate change, according to a new paper published in Nature.
The study was led by Lucia Gatti, Group Leader, Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research /Center of Earth System Science and a member of the steering committee for the Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System spearheaded by WMO.
Its main river inflows had been muffled by dams and many feared water levels were poised to drop by two-thirds, causing the lake to cleave into two smaller bodies of water. It was, one report said, an African “Aral Sea disaster in the making” – where only 10 per cent remains of the original sea.
– In June, the Department of Homeland Security made a critical announcement. For the first time in U.S. history, more than 15 national and local agencies and civilian organizations conducted a simultaneous major binational operation to find missing children inside and outside the United States.
Rosi Orozco
They called it “Operation Lost Souls”. Its objective was to find girls and boys who were missing and possibly deceived or kidnapped by sexual exploitation gangs.
The secret operation lasted a week. And the result announced by Special Agent Erik Breitzke surprised even the organizers: 24 minors were recovered and, among them, three were located in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Technology is the answer! But what is the question?
London’s great smog of 1952 which led to thousands of deaths from inhaling coal smoke on which Britain relied for electricity | Image from Wall Street International.
July 2021 (Wall Street International)* — In the 19th and 20th centuries most, new technologies were equated with our societies’ progress. We loved electricity, automobiles, airplanes, telephones, radio, television, the Internet and space exploration.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 