Archive for ‘Market Lords’

09/05/2021

‘I Am Alive, But I Feel Like I Am Dead’: A Migrant Grieves the Drowning of 3 Children

© IOM/Olivia Headon. Migrants who survived the capsizing of a smugglers boat in the Gulf of Aden were brought ashore in Obock in Djibouti.
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“I have lost everything,” says Misrah, as she struggles to recount the most traumatic of events, witnessing the deaths of her three children.
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The 27-year-old Ethiopian woman, her husband and children – Aziza, five; Rachar, three; and Ikram, two – and at least 55 other migrants and refugees were aboard a boat controlled by smugglers crossing the Gulf of Aden from Yemen to the Horn of Africa via Djibouti, on 12 April.
08/05/2021

Birdsong, a Balm for Pandemic Anxieties, Is under Threat

Human Wrongs Watch

7 May 2021 (UNEP)* — Since the start of the pandemic a growing number of people have turned to nature – including visible and audible nature in urban settings in the form of birds and birdsong – to soothe the angst brought about by COVID-19.

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And bird watching seems to be becoming more popular. Starting in April 2020, eBird began to see a notable increase in contributions of bird observations. April 2020 eBird checklist submissions increased by 41 per cent compared to April 2019.

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08/05/2021

New Stage of Remote Warfare Further Diminishes Military Accountability

Human Wrongs Watch

By Paul Rogers*

Thousands of boots on the ground have been replaced by multiple deployments of smart bombs that stay under the radar of public debate

Fewer boots are on the ground compared with Iraq in 2007 | Mike Pryor, US Army (Copyright-free)

8 May 2021 (openDemocracy)* — In the black and white TV schedule of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Western drama series reigned supreme. One of the most popular was ‘Have Gun, Will Travel’, starring Richard Boone as a mercenary in the late 1800s.

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08/05/2021

International Food Prices Continued to Rise in April for the 11th Consecutive Month

Human Wrongs Watch

ROME (FAO)* International food commodity prices rose for the 11th consecutive month in April, with sugar leading the increase and cereals resuming their upward trend, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 6 May 2021 reported.

Photo: ©FAO

Loading sugarcane in Nigeria.

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 120.9 points in April, 1.7 percent higher than March and 30.8 percent higher than its level in the same month last year.

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08/05/2021

Interview: In Afghanistan, Buying the Scalpel for Your Own Child’s Birth

Human Wrongs Watch

The US Withdrawal, Drops in Foreign Aid, and Health Care for Women and Girls

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Zarmina, 25, holds her 15-day-old daughter, Bushra, in October 2020. She has lived in Shahrak-e-Sabz camp for two years after her family was driven out of Ghor province by fighting between government forces and the Taliban. © 2020 Lynzy Billing

6 May 2021 (Human Rights Watch)* — When the United States announced in April that it would withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, it raised concerns the move would come with cuts in development assistance.
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Yet dwindling foreign investment has already left Afghanistan’s government with too few resources to maintain its already inadequate healthcare system.
08/05/2021

‘No Time to Lose’, Impose Arms Embargo to Myanmar Military Now to Stop the ‘Massacre’ of Citizens

(UN News)* — The United Nations independent human rights expert on Myanmar on Friday [7 May 2021] called on countries that have not yet done so, to impose arms embargo on the country urgently, to stop the “massacre” of citizens across the country.

Unsplash/Zinko Hein | People holding a vigil in Yangon, Myanmar (file photo).

Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the southeast Asian nation, underscored in a statement, the need to stop the flow of weapons and so called dual-use weapons technology into the hands of forces under the command of the military junta, describing it as “literally a matter of life and death.”

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07/05/2021

The Rise of Brazil’s Neo-Pentecostal Narco-Militia

Human Wrongs Watch

By Kristina Hinz Doriam Borges, Aline Coutinho, Thiago Cury Andries*

In Rio de Janeiro, drug trafficking factions, paramilitaries and evangelical churches have united to fight a ‘holy war’ against their rivals.

Armed men in front of a football field | Ricardo Funari//BrazilPhotos/Alamy Stock Photo

6 May 2021 (openDemocracy)* — Israeli flags fly from the highest spots of the hills surrounding the Cidade Alta favela in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. Checkpoints, raised to prevent the entry of police and rival groups, display the Star of David to warn passers-by whose territory they are entering.

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07/05/2021

The Cold War Only Ends with NATO’s Defeat in the Hindu Kush

Human Wrongs Watch

By Michael von der Schulenburg*

Afghanistan is a geopolitical game changer for the West

6 May 2021 (Wall Street International)*

In the remote mountains of the Hindu Kush not only Soviet attempts to install a pro-communist regime but also Western efforts to establish a liberal democracy by force now ended in disaster
In the remote mountains of the Hindu Kush not only Soviet attempts to install a pro-communist regime but also Western efforts to establish a liberal democracy by force now ended in disaster | Image from Wall Street International.

I have always loved Afghanistan and the friendliness and hospitality of its people. I experienced Afghans not as extremists but as an extraordinarily proud, sincere and honest people who are scraping a living out of the harsh conditions of their country…

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07/05/2021

‘Urgent Steps Must Be Taken to Reduce Methane Emissions this Decade’

Washington DC, 6 May 2021 (UNEP)* A Global Methane Assessment released today by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) shows that human-caused methane emissions can be reduced by up to 45 per cent this decade.
 

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Such reductions would avoid nearly 0.3°C of global warming by 2045 and would be consistent with keeping the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (1.5˚C) within reach.

06/05/2021

2021 Global Media Competition on Labour Migration

Human Wrongs Watch

The Competition aims to recognize fair and balanced media reports that contribute to the elimination of public misperception, xenophobia and discrimination against migrant workers and highlight the positive contributions they make.

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6 May 2021 (ILO)* — This year, specific media coverage of the impact of COVID-19 on labour migration and fair recruitment, including contributions of migrant care workers, will be viewed favourably, as well as stories about migrant domestic workers to mark celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189).