Archive for ‘Asia’

27/12/2020

Speech of David Choquehuanca

Human Wrongs Watch

Choquehuanca with Morales when he was Minister of External Affairs. Photo: Communidad Andina.

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27/12/2020

The Mask of Democracy

Human Wrongs Watch

By Kristian Laubjerg*

Democracy provides cover for continued exploitation by a handful of oligarchs

25 December 2020  | Wall Street International*
Freedom as pursuit of happiness
Freedom as pursuit of happiness | Image from Wall Street International.

Our own (USA) government, in alliance with the big corporations and banks,
has created an empire that brings servitude, misery,
and death to millions of people.

(John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, New York, Plume, 2004).

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26/12/2020

The Planet’s Problem from Hell: Samantha Power

Human Wrongs Watch

By Ann Garrison | Black Agenda Report – TRANSCEND Media Service

As head of USAID, Power will be in perfect position to wield foreign aid as a cudgel for beating foreign heads of state till they bow to US empire.

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Just when it seemed that Joe Biden’s coming administration couldn’t be more of a horror show, Axios reported  that he’s likely to appoint another monster from the deep, violent know-it-all Samantha Power, to head the US Agency for International Development (USAID). I rescheduled my piece on contact tracing’s potential to further empower the surveillance state for next year’s first Black Agenda Report and instead updated my 2015 piece “Samantha Power: Africa’s Problem from Hell.”

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26/12/2020

Biden’s Cabinet Selections: What’s at Stake?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Marc Pilisuk – TRANSCEND Media Service*

Many of the democratic voters who helped sweep Biden into office are concerned with what will happen during his tenure. The concerns break down into whether Biden who has long been a player in policies that have contributed to inequality, favored a corporate and banking sector and engaged in costly militarism will be significantly changed.

Marc_Pilisuk-e1540479989919

Marc Pilisuk

It is possible that the Biden appointees, and Biden himself will recognize that the past accommodations to neoliberalism have failed in their goals of improving human well being.

It is possible also that they will recognize that widespread public belief in government ability to handle such problems leads many people open to the blaming and excesses of a Trump administration. Appealing as the stability of sane and experienced administration may be, if it fails to address the disillusionment that led to Trump, it will be short lived.

In examining several of Biden’s picks, it is important to view their past records as potential predictors of what they will do, but not as absolute indicators for times are different and some may change. They are easily rated on competence and experience. But how do they rate in the vision needed to transform a culture of death and despair to a culture of life?

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26/12/2020

Make #NotWasting Food a Personal Resolution

How you can avoid food waste no matter the holiday

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Food isn’t the only thing that is wasted when it goes uneaten. All of the resources, money and labour that go into making it are also lost. ©Nito/shutterstock.com

24 December 2020 (FAO)* — All over the world, holidays mean the return of certain specialties: Olivier salad for New Year’s in Russia, Red bean porridge for solstice in Korea, Haleem for Ramadan in India and the Middle East, Mince pies for Christmas in England, Pogača bread for Orthodox Easter, Banana cakes for Lunar New Year in Vietnam.

Whatever the holiday is and wherever in the world it is celebrated, there is usually a type of special food that goes along with it.

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26/12/2020

Indigenous Leaders Want Traditional Knowledge to Be Centrepiece of New Global Biodiversity Framework

Human Wrongs Watch

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Once omitted from biodiversity treaty negotiations, indigenous people now have a say in a landmark global framework expected to be signed by 190 countries

Kalinago-Dominica-IPS-1024x683Members of Dominica’s Kalinago community, the largest indigenous group in the Eastern Caribbean, on a tour with government officials at a recent event in the Kalinago Territory. Courtesy: Alison Kentish

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 23 2020 (IPS)* – The picturesque Mahuat River in Dominica is one of 8 communities that make up the Kalinago Territory – a 3,700-acre area on the Caribbean island’s east coast that is home to the Kalinago people, the largest indigenous group in the Eastern Caribbean.

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25/12/2020

State Terrorism

Human Wrongs Watch

The use of force on the international stage

Demonstrations by the relatives of the Desaparecidos
Demonstrations by the relatives of the Desaparecidos | Image from Wall Street International.

23 December 2020 — (Wall Street International)* — Is it legitimate for States to use violence to frighten or rightfully kill political enemies or opponents, under the justification of national security?

In times of war, as happened during World War II, all forms of struggle were used, starting with the elimination of millions of human beings in the Nazi concentration camps in several European countries. Mainly Jews, but also communists, patriots, gypsies, homosexuals or the disabled.

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25/12/2020

Universal Protection against the Worst Forms of Child Labour

Human Wrongs Watch

Geneva, 23 December 2020 (ILO)* — In 2020, for the first time in the ILO’s history, an International Labour Standard achieved universal ratification, with acceptance by all 187 Member States. Universal ratification of ILO Convention No. 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999) means that all children now have legal protection against the worst forms of child labour.

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The landmark achievement comes at a significant moment, because the United Nations has designated 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. Vera Paquete-Perdigao answers some key questions on child labour and the Convention.

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25/12/2020

The Virus that Shut Down the World: The Yawning Gulf between Rich and Poor

UN Women/Fahad Kaizer | A health worker distributes hygiene supplies to a family in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Over the past 12 months, COVID-19 has deepened those inequalities, a view highlighted in February, by the UN’s labour-focused agency, ILO, which declared that the two billion people working in the informal sector were particularly exposed.
25/12/2020

2020 Closes a Decade of Exceptional Heat – World Meteorological Organization

24 December 2020 (WMO)*As 2020 draws to an end, it closes the warmest decade (2011-2020) on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This year remains on track to be one of the three warmest on record, and may even rival 2016 as the warmest on record. The six warmest years have all been since 2015.
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