Archive for ‘Latin America & Caribbean’

03/06/2021

Global Food Prices Rose in May at Their Fastest Monthly Rate in over Ten Years

Human Wrongs Watch

ROME (FAO)* – Global food prices rose in May at their fastest monthly rate in more than a decade, even as world cereal production is on course to reach a new record high, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 3 June 2021 reported.

Photo: ©UN/Aleksandar Dimishkovski

Maize growing in North Macedonia.

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 127.1 points in May, 4.8 percent higher than in April and 39.7 percent higher than in May 2020.

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03/06/2021

Climate Change Fans Spread of Pests and Threats Plants and Crops

Human Wrongs Watch

Pests destroy up to 40 percent of global crops and cost $220 billion of losses

Photo: ©FAO/Edward Ogolla

Maize damaged by fall armyworm.

Rome (FAO)* – Due to the impact of climate change, plant pests that ravage economically important crops are becoming more destructive and posing an increasing threat to food security and the environment, finds a scientific review released on 2 June 2021.

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03/06/2021

Countries Must Deliver on Their Commitment to Restore One Billion Hectares of Land – About the Size of China

03/06/2021

‘Simply No Scenario’ Where Humanity Can Survive on an Ocean-Free Planet

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — The world must harness “clear, transformative and actionable solutions” to address the ocean crisis, the President of the UN General Assembly on 1 June 2021 said, opening a meeting to generate momentum towards the 2022 UN Ocean Conference, when public health safety measures allow.

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UNCTAD | Coastal and marine ecosystems provide food, livelihoods, and coastal protection to more than a billion people worldwide.
“Simply speaking, our relationship with our planet’s ocean must change”, Assembly President Volkan Bozkir told a high-level thematic debate on the ocean and Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14): Life Below Water.
31/05/2021

The King Is Dead. Long Live the People!

Human Wrongs Watch

How to hide a democracy that is not one

We must decide together where the center lies
We must decide together where the center lies | Image from WalStreet International.

May 2021 (Wall Street International)*The notion of political parties in the non-United States existing along a neat and orderly linear continuum from left to right (or right to left depending on your predilection I suppose) is yet another American fantasy about ourselves, outdated at best and madly simplistic at worst.

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31/05/2021

Appreciate All Parents Throughout the World

A Bangladesh family.

Dressed in his firefighter uniform, Mohammad Jahirul Islam, 28, carries his daughter, Jisha, 3, to the daycare center she attends at the garment factory, where he and his wife (right) work in Narayangonj, outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 2018. PHOTO:© UNICEF/UN0292180/Sokol

31 May 2021 (United Nations)* — Since the 1980s, the important role of the family has increasingly come to the attention of the international community. The General Assembly adopted a number of resolutions and proclaimed the International Year of the Family and the International Day of Families.

Emphasizing the critical role of parents in the rearing of children, the Global Day of Parents recognizes that the family has the primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection of children.

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31/05/2021

More than 100 Reasons to Quit Tobacco

Human Wrongs Watch

31 May 2021 (WHO)* — Tobacco causes 8 million deaths every year. When evidence was released this year that smokers were more likely to develop severe disease with COVID-19 compared to non-smokers, it triggered millions of smokers to want to quit tobacco.

tobacco-control-cigarette-tips

Quitting can be challenging, especially with the added social and economic stress that have come as a result of the pandemic, but there are a lot of reasons to quit.

The benefits of quitting tobacco are almost immediate:

  • After just 20 minutes of quitting smoking, your heart rate drops.
  • Within 12 hours, the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
  • Within 2-12 weeks, your circulation improves and lung function increases.
  • Within 1-9 months, coughing and shortness of breath decrease.
  • Within 5-15 years, your stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker.

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30/05/2021

The UK’s Immigration Plans Are a Gift to Criminal Gangs, Traffickers and Exploiters

Human Wrongs Watch

By Zoe Gardner*

Home secretary Priti Patel seems set on returning public opinion on migration to pre-2016 levels

Priti Patel has accused those who disagree with her stance on immigration of ‘seeking to sow dissent’ | PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

28 May 2021 (openDemocracy)* — On Monday 24 May, home secretary Priti Patel laid out the next steps in her department’s plan to ‘overhaul’ the UK immigration system. It followed proposals earlier this year to rip up the UK’s refugee protection principles.

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30/05/2021

Chile: The Paths of the Left

Human Wrongs Watch

The political scenario before the presidential elections

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The millions who voted for the plebiscite demanding a new Constitution also want a new country and a new way of doing politics
The millions who voted for the plebiscite demanding a new Constitution also want a new country and a new way of doing politics | Image from Wall Street International.

25 MaY 2021 — (Wall Street International)* — On November 21, Chileans shall vote in the first round of the presidential elections. If there is no winner with 50+1% of the votes, there will be a runoff election between the first two majorities on December 19, from which the future president will emerge.

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30/05/2021

How Billionaire Foundations Fund NGOs to Advance US Foreign Policy Goals

Human Wrongs Watch

By Rick Sterling – TRANSCEND Media Service*

A Case Study from Nicaragua

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US foreign policy is increasingly promoted by billionaire funded foundations. The neoliberal era has created individuals with incredible wealth and through “philanthropy”, they flex their influence and feel good at the same time.

While these philanthropists can be liberal on some issues, they universally support U.S. foreign policy and the “free market”.

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