'Unseen' News and Views
20 May 2021 (United Nations)* — Cultural events cancelled, cultural institutions closed, community cultural practices suspended, empty UNESCO World Heritage sites, heightened risk of looting of cultural sites and poaching at natural sites, artists unable to make ends meet and the cultural tourism sector greatly affected…
20 May 2021 (FAO)* — The origins of tea stretch back more than 5 000 years, but its contributions to health, culture and socioeconomic development are still as relevant today.
Tea is currently grown in very localized areas, and supports over 13 million people, including smallholder farmers and their households, who depend on the tea sector for their livelihoods.
International Tea Day [21 May] is an opportunity to celebrate the cultural heritage, health benefits and economic importance of tea, while working to make its production sustainable “from field to cup” ensuring its benefits for people, cultures and the environment continue for generations.
– Millions of people are expected to die due to delayed and unaffordable access to COVID-19 tests, treatment, personal protective equipment and vaccines. Urgent cooperation is desperately needed to save lives and livelihoods for all.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Vaccine apartheid
Thus far, rich countries have bought up most available vaccine supplies.
By mid-April, rich countries had received more than 87 percent of the more than 700 million vaccine doses dispensed worldwide, while poor countries had received only 0.2 percent.
A quarter of the former’s population had been vaccinated compared to one in 500 of the latter’s!
By mid-May, less than a twelfth of the world’s population had been vaccinated, with ten rich countries getting four-fifths of all vaccines.
The Pfizer vaccine is mainly reaching the world’s rich.
18 May 2021 (United Nations)* — Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly under threat from human activities.
Pollination is, however, a fundamental process for the survival of our ecosystems.
Nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend, entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land.
Not only do pollinators contribute directly to food security, but they are key to conserving biodiversity.
The film school Rohingya refugee Faruque Mohammed co-founded is now delivering COVID information to refugee settlements in Cox’s Bazar.
Faruque Mohammed in Kutupalong camp, Cox’s Bazar. Faruque founded Omar’s Film School with his brother in early 2020.© Mohammed Kasim
In Belfast, N Ireland, this afternoon hundreds of young people walked to support the people of Gaza and protest the barbaric actions of the Israeli military that continue with air strikes, bombing and killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire
The youngsters also condemned the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli occupation forces wounding hundreds of Muslim worshipers.
These violations add to the myriad Israeli crimes against the Palestinians over decades.
Israel is an Apartheid State that continues with a policy of Ethnic Cleansing of the Palestinian people.
These latest barbaric cruel actions by the Israeli Defense Forces are another breach of international law that must be condemned and stopped immediately.
Ta’iz, Yemen (IOM)* – Deciding to leave their home was a difficult call for Aisha and Tawfiq, but two years ago, out of fear for their lives, the couple fled their farm in Ta’iz, Yemen.
Escalated hostilities in the Gaza Strip have resulted in heavy casualties and large-scale displacement. More than 50 children have been killed in the current crisis in the Middle East, a senior UN official, said May 15. Credit: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
And it is more so in the current fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, described as a “Middle East carnage” where children are among the civilians killed in airstrikes. The fighting is largely a battle of weapons: sophisticated US-supplied state-of-the-art fighter planes vs home-made rockets and mortars.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 