Safe water and access to proper sanitation are essential to eradicate poverty, build peaceful societies and ensure that no one is left behind on the path towards sustainable development, according to the 2019 UN World Water Development Report, launched on Tuesday [19 March 2019] in Geneva.*
UN Environment/ Hannah McNeish | Before a UN Environment-supported rainwater harvesting project was set up at Kingani secondary school in the coastal town of Bagamoyo, the drinking water used to be so salty that students would complain of headaches, stomach aches and ulcers.
March 16, 2018 — Twenty-three-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer that was preparing to demolish a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip in 2003.
Corrie has since become an icon of global solidarity with the people of Palestine. | Photo from Middle East Monitor
Corrie has since become an icon of global solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Born on 10 April 1979 in Olympia, Washington, Corrie dedicated her life to defending Palestinian rights. In 2003, she went to the Gaza Strip as a member of the International Solidarity Movement.
Do you know anyone who genuinely loves their job, greeting each new work day with focused energy and joyful anticipation? Do you know others who dread going to work, can’t wait for the weekend and cringe at the sound of the alarm clock on Monday morning?
Marilyn Langlois
What is it that makes work enjoyable and rewarding for some, while for others it is a torment? And why are so many people unemployed or underemployed, living under the constant stress of not knowing how they will manage from day to day?
Ten key components to job satisfaction include:
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You like what you do.
Your work is fairly compensated, acknowledged and appreciated by others.
You have some say in shaping the parameters of your work either directly on the job or via union participation.
18 March 2019 (Norwegian Refugee Council)* — Three years after the EU-Turkey statement, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) calls for European countries to take their share of responsibility for handling refugees, and not leave it to overstretched Turkey and Greece.
Refugees arriving to Lesvos in Greece before the EU-Turkey statement. Photo: Tiril Skarstein/NRC“Three years after the EU-Turkey statement was agreed, Europe is neither providing sufficient support to refugees in Syria’s neighbouring countries, nor giving people necessary protection within its borders,” said Edouard Rodier, Director of NRC Europe.
18 March 2019 (Wall Street International)* — In commenting on the new status of Chinese President Xi as president for life, President Trump quipped: “And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.” (March 3, 2018). What Trump may have considered to be a joke could instead prove to be a lapsus révélateur. It is not absolutely certain that Trump was joking about becoming president for life.
18 March 2019 — This week in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, over one thousand people, including high level government delegations and representatives from the private sector and civil society, will gather for the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, or BAPA+40.*
Human Rights Council-appointed investigators urged Israel on Monday [18 March 2019] to revise its military rules of engagement, shortly before the one-year anniversary of the start of mass demonstrations at the country’s border fence with Gaza, that have left hundreds of Palestinians dead and thousands more injured.
UNifeed Video | Protesters walking towards the Gaza separation fence, bordering Israel.The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory presented its findings in Geneva on 28 February, 2019.
Speaking in Geneva, Santiago Canton, Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, explained what the panel knew about the Israeli Defence Force’s relevant military protocols with regard to demonstrators.
18 March 2019 (UN Women)* — “Almost 20 years since the adoption of resolution 1325, we don’t just need to be at the peace table. It’s time to redesign the table,” said Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, Chair of Board of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, speaking at a side event on 15 March at the 63rd session on the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Nasima Omari, representing the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, speaks at the side event “The Road to 2020: Accelerating Action on Women, Peace and Security”. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
Chelsea Manning, who bravely exposed atrocities committed by the U.S. military, is again imprisoned in a U.S. jail. On International Women’s Day, March 8, 2019, she was incarcerated in the Alexandria, VA federal detention center for refusing to testify in front of a secretive Grand Jury.
Kathy Kelly
Her imprisonment can extend through the term of the Grand Jury, possibly 18 months, and the U.S. courts could allow formation of future Grand Juries, potentially jailing her again.
Chelsea Manning has already paid an extraordinarily high price for educating the U.S. public about atrocities committed in the wars of choice the U.S. waged in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chelsea Manning was a U.S. Army soldier and former U.S. intelligence analyst.
She already testified, in court, how she downloaded and disseminated government documents revealing classified information she believed represented possible war crimes.
The destruction unleashed by Cyclone Idai on Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, continues to claim lives and displace thousands, in what the UN’s top disaster risk reduction official called on Monday [18 March 2019] “the worst extreme weather event to occur so far this year”.
UN Mozambique | Aerial view of Mozambique affected by floods due to the tropical cyclone Idai
