2 September 2019 (WMO)* — Average sea surface and land temperatures across large parts of the world are forecast to be above normal in September-November, despite the expected absence of a full-blown El Niño event, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
El Niño and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a naturally occurring phenomenon involving fluctuating ocean temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific coupled with changes in the atmosphere: It is associated with hazards such as heavy rains, floods and drought in different parts of the world.
1 September 2019 (UNHCR)* — UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi today [1 September 2019] expressed his concern over the publication of a National Register of Citizens (NRC) that may put large numbers of people in India’s north-eastern state of Assam at risk of becoming stateless.
Women in the region are earning 17 per cent less than men per hour, on average, and while an increasing number of women are entering the labour force, their treatment is still far from equal, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report. | español | français
LIMA, 27 August 2019 (ILO)* – Persistent gender gaps and lack of progress in achieving gender equality at work, requires countries in Latin American and the Caribbean to adopt a series of transformative measures, according to a new ILO Thematic Labour Overview Report.
India excluded 1.9 million from citizenship dividing families who have submitted the same documents to prove they are living in India before Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.
Indian rendered 1.9 million people from northeastern state of Assam stateless. | Photo: Reuters (Photo fromteleSUR).
1 September 2019 (teleSUR)* — Nearly 2 million people have been left off a list of citizens released Saturday [31 August 2019] in India’s northeastern state of Assam, after a mammoth years-long exercise to remove so-called illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.
30 August 2019 (IGWIA)* — “Monkey”, “pig”, “dog” – these words were shouted at a group of West Papuan students, who had been arrested and later released due to lack of evidence. They were accused of burning the Indonesian flag. This is the latest development in a more than 60-year struggle for the independence of West Papua.
Massive protests are currently taking place in West Papua, and news of victims on both sides has reached the media. A local indigenous organisation condemns the racist remarks and general stigmatisation of indigenous peoples in West Papua.
Thousands of people in West Papua have gone to the streets protesting against Indonesia’s government, and against the racism, they encounter in Indonesian society.
August 2019 (Wall Street International* — The core value of Chinese traditional culture is the concept of harmony (Hexie, 和谐). Harmony is, in fact, a complete ideological system that consists of not only values but also a philosophy with its own world outlook. To be more specific, harmony includes principles such as the Tai Chi (Taiji, 太极) philosophy and the yin-yang dialectics that help people understand the origins of human beings and the evolution of society.
Based on these principles, ancient Chinese sages and philosophers established this ideological system that sought to attain a harmonious equilibrium in the world.
August 2019 (Wall Street International)* — Men who have been thought of as philosophers and scientists have generated and perpetuated the myth that men and women are essentially different. Supposedly, men understand how to build and work with systems, while women are better empathizers. Many believe that males and females can be easily differentiated based on their intelligence, aggressiveness, mechanical skills, spatial visualization, empathy, agreeableness, communication skills and other characteristics1,2
Both sex and gender can affect brain and behavior, either independently or in interaction | Image from Wall Street International.
Plundering nature is the norm within our legal and economic systems. Our survival depends on charting a new course.
Image: Victor Moriyama/DPA/PA Images (Posted here from openDemocracy)
30 August 2019 (openDemocracy)* — As has now been widely reported, the Amazon rainforest is on fire due to a mixture of fires started for land clearance and the effects of climate change.
27 August 2019 (teleSUR)* — The point is this – if we do not know how to put pressure on the right actors who have been connected to destroying the Amazon, then our efforts will be for naught.
Amazon burning: Brazil reports record forest fires.TV | Photo: GLOBO/Reuters (Posted here fromteleSUREnglish).
Most of the reporting on the fires raging in the Amazon try to identify the guilty parties.
SAO PAULO, Brazil, Aug 29 2019 (IPS)* –– The crisis of regional and multilateral institutions goes hand in hand with the international rise of right-wing populism. In the US, the UK, Russia, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, the Philippines and Brazil, we are experiencing the rise of right-wing populist politicians who throw headline-grabbing barbs at global compromises and the negotiating processes of supranational institutions such as the UN.
