'Unseen' News and Views
(Oxfam)* — Gender inequality is one of the oldest and most pervasive forms of inequality in the world. It denies women their voices, devalues their work and make women’s position unequal to men’s, from the household to the national and global levels.
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For the first time ever, youth from the frontlines of conflict have joined mediators, researchers and Government representatives at an international conference, to discuss new and innovative ways for young people to contribute to peace processes.
The First International Symposium on Youth Participation in Peace Processes concluded on Wednesday [6 March 2019] in Helsinki, Finland, with a global policy paper, according to reports, that aims to integrate their efforts, interventions and contributions towards sustaining the search for peaceful solutions to conflict.
For many young migrants in the UK, even those who have the legal right to remain in a new country, the idea of going to university is almost an impossible dream: not only are they are charged “overseas student” fees, which can be around double those of “home” students but, until recently, they were denied access to student loans, which puts up another barrier to entry.
Inequality continues to drive rights violations everywhere, but some countries have made significant progress in tackling the problem, not least in women’s rights, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday [6 March 2019].
In a more than half-hour address to the Human Rights Council, Michelle Bachelet highlighted concerns around the world, while also welcoming several firsts, such as the record number of women now serving in the United States Congress, where they make up nearly a quarter of the representation.
“I just started talking about what I was going through.”
“I opened up.”
“I’ve had psychological support.”
DAYLESFORD, Australia, 6 March 2019 — Tax havens are locations around the world where wealthy individuals, criminals and terrorists, as well as governments and government agencies (such as the CIA), banks, corporations, hedge funds, international organizations (such as the Vatican) and crime syndicates (such as the Mafia), can stash their money so that they can avoid regulation and oversight and, very often, evade tax. According to Nicholas Shaxson: ‘Tax havens are now at the heart of the global economy.’
Robert J. Burrowes
Which is why, as he explains it: ‘The term “tax haven” is a bit of a misnomer, because such places aren’t just about tax. What they sell is escape: from the laws, rules and taxes of jurisdictions elsewhere, usually with secrecy as their prime offering.’ See ‘The tax haven in the heart of Britain’.
A tax haven (or ‘secrecy jurisdiction’) then is a ‘place that seeks to attract business by offering politically stable facilities to help people or entities get around the rules, laws and regulations of jurisdictions elsewhere’. See Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World.
By David Adams | Transition to a Culture of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service*
In this blog we have often proposed that the culture of war is not sustainable and that the American empire is destined to crash for the same reasons that the Soviet empire crashed. It can be an opportunity for a transition from the culture of war to a culture of peace.
David Adams
However, the crash of the American empire may well be accompanied (caused) by a global financial crash with suffering for ordinary people, as it did for the Soviet people 30 years ago.
In a financial crash the cities are especially vulnerable. They depend on daily food deliveries to supermarkets that often come long distances by plane and truck.
It is precisely this delivery system that is at risk in a global financial crash. Not to mention industrial agriculture.
Both depend on adequate supplies of gasoline and diesel fuel for trucks, planes and tractors, and the fuel, in turn, is largely dependent on a global system of oil tankers which, in turn, depends up/on consistent financial support.
5 March 2019 (UN Women)* — A woman’s place is in her home. A woman’s place is in the workplace. In the community. On the streets and in public parks. In politics and leadership. In grocery stores, classrooms and on college campuses. A woman’s place is everywhere, and in every space, she has the right to feel safe and welcome.
Yet, according to a multi-country study from the Middle East and North Africa, between 40 and 60 per cent of women said they had ever experienced street-based sexual harassment, and in Australia, almost two out of five women (39 per cent) aged 15 and older who have been in the workforce in the last five years, have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.
Entrepreneurs and beneficiaries of Chicas en Tecnología, an Argentine organisation that encourages the participation of teenage girls in the creation of programmes and digital applications. Credit: Chicas en Tecnología
We Are On the Brink of a Disaster
What would Mahatma Gandhi say about the threat of war between India and Pakistan, which has brought the two nations and the world to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe?
Throughout the struggle for Indian independence, Gandhi was faced with the serious problem of avoiding conflict between religious groups once independence had been achieved.
He made every effort to bridge the rift between the Hindu and Muslim communities.
Gandhi believed that at their core, all religions are based on the concepts of truth, love, compassion, nonviolence and the Golden Rule. When asked whether he was a Hindu, Gandhi answered, “Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 