'Unseen' News and Views
Credit: UNAMA. UN Missions.org
The Wall Street Journal has an article out titled “U.S. Aims to Thwart China’s Plan for Atlantic Base in Africa“, subtitled “An American delegation wants to convince Equatorial Guinea against giving Beijing a launchpad in waters the U.S. considers its backyard.”
The article quotes the former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy saying “We’d really, really not like to see a Chinese facility” on the Atlantic, and discusses “American concern about China’s global expansionism and its pursuit of a permanent military presence on waters the U.S. considers home turf.”
Mayan indigenous communities in eastern Guatemala are waging an ongoing struggle for the defense of their lands and resources, in the face of encroachment by mining, power and oil corporations. These struggles have resulted in protests on behalf of the affected communities and against the Guatemalan government’s repression of activists and indigenous inhabitants, and have now reached the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. CREDIT: Courtesy of Raúl Ico Pacham/FB
Vijay Prashad
On January 21, 2022, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach attended a talk in New Delhi, India, organized by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses. Schönbach was speaking as the chief of Germany’s navy during his visit to the institute.
“What he really wants is respect,” Schönbach said, referring to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “And my god, giving someone respect is low cost; even no cost.”Furthermore, Schönbach said that in his opinion, “It is easy to even give him the respect he really demands and probably also deserves.”
(UN News)* — UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi urged on Monday [21 February 2022] for greater protection for refugees and asylum-seekers in Europe.
War would be in no-one’s interests. How often have we heard that, in the current Ukraine crisis? But there is one obvious exception.
Jake Lynch
‘Defence industries’ are perennial winners in such situations and – whatever the outcome of the standoff involving thousands of Russian troops at the border – arms dealers will be circling for opportunities to profit.
Stability is no good, from their perspective, if it engenders too great a sense of security. “Actual shooting wars are needed” from time to time, as Ismael Hossein-Zadeh puts it, “not only to draw down stockpiles… but also to display the wonders of what they produce”.
Being able to stamp the brochure for a new weapons system with the words, ‘battle-tested’ is the ultimate marketing ploy. In between open hostilities, however, a period of raised tensions will do nicely.
– A recent Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) study shows the largest farms cultivate a high and increasing share of agricultural land in much of the world.
Vikas Rawal
Farm size concentration
World Agricultural Census data for 129 countries show about 40% of the world’s farmland is operated by farms over 1000 hectares (ha) in size. About 70% is operated by the top 1% of farms, all bigger than 50 ha each.
A rising share of farmland is in larger farms. But farm sizes in developed and developing countries seem quite different.
Farms smaller than 5 ha accounted for 63% of land in low and lower middle-income countries. But such farms covered only 8% of farmland in upper middle and high-income countries.
The “share of farmland farmed on the largest holdings has increased in … several European countries (France, Germany and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) and in the United States of America.”
Conflict in January 2022 highlights the geostrategic relevance of this region
15 February 2022 (Wall Street International)* — At the beginning of the year, Kazakhstan was suddenly catapulted into the focus of international attention. What actually happened, how was the reaction, and what are the consequences of the current events for neighboring states? A stocktake.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 