26 October 2020 (UNEP)* — Resting against its open boot, surrounded by fresh pumpkins, sweet potatoes and other vegetables, a smiling Mwangi, 34, explained how it has transformed his life. Thanks to this unlikely saviour, he is now a trader, shopkeeper and entrepreneur.
Photo: UNEP/Duncan Moore / 26 Oct 2020
“I have changed to a career as a businessman. I use my car to sell foodstuffs. I go to the village, buy food and then I come here and sell it,” he said, gesturing around a market in Nairobi.
25 October 2020 (UN News)* — In what leading campaigners are describing as “a new chapter for nuclear disarmament”, the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will now come into force on 22 January, after Honduras became the 50th Member State to ratify on Saturday [25 October 2020].
US Government | An atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the United States at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, on 1 November 1952.
NEW YORK and SUSSEX, Oct 16 2020 (IPS)* – This week the world’s Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors meet virtually at the 2020 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and decide on the fate of the world. | En español
Isabel Ortiz
This year’s gathering is particularly important, given that the world is confronting an unprecedented crisis. Governments are struggling to finance emergency care and urgent socioeconomic support to cope with the COVID19 pandemic.
While these short-term expenditures are necessary, countries need more than intensive care units, respirators, tests and emergency support. Governments must continue to invest in long-term public health, universal social protection floors, employment-generating activities and other sustainable development goals.
At what is arguably the most important time in human history, with Homo Sapiens confronted by an enormous range of violent challenges that threaten our very survival, the only question of any genuine importance is this:
Can we craft and implement a strategy to end the violence, particularly in each and all of its extinction-threatening dimensions, to ensure that humanity has a chance to thrive on planet Earth indefinitely into the future? But few are asking that question.
(United Nations)* — In a world characterized by an unprecedented level of economic development, technological means and financial resources, that millions of persons are living in extreme poverty is a moral outrage.
Poverty is not solely an economic issue, but rather a multidimensional phenomenon that encompasses a lack of both income and the basic capabilities to live in dignity.
Addressing poverty eradication last week, just ahead of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17, UN chief António Guterres warned that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are falling “disproportionately on the most vulnerable: people living in poverty, the working poor, women and children, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups”.
Twelve-year-old boy in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, sorts through hazardous plastic waste without any protection, working to support his family amidst the coronavirus lockdown. Credit: UNICEF/Parvez Ahmad
11 October 2020 (Wall Street International)* — This series of articles will discuss the basic differences between human and computer intelligence, a particularly important distinction today, flooded as we are with predictions that artificial intelligence and robots will soon surpass human abilities. What is true and what is fiction in the conflicting stories we hear about this subject?
Historical facts do not repeat themselves, but they can rhyme, like the verses of a long poem.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro greets people during the 198th anniversary celebration of the country’s Independence Day in Brasilia, Brazil, on September 7, 2020 / Lucio Tavora /PA Images
7 October 2020 (openDemocracy)* — Historical facts do not repeat themselves, but they can rhyme, like the verses of a long poem. I heard this phrase from my friend Sidney Chalhoub, a prestigious historian and professor at Harvard University.
New York, 10 October 2020 (UNFPA)* – On 11 October, organizations and activists around the world will mark the International Day of the Girl Child, shining a spotlight on the rights, needs, vulnerabilities, contributions and future potential of girls everywhere.
The theme for the day is “My Voice, Our Equal Future” because girls’ voices are seldom heard – not in the halls of governments, nor in homes or classrooms.
But what do we learn when we finally listen to girls?
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Oct 7 2020 (IPS)* – The 26th of September, the Lebanese prime minister Mustapha Adib stepped down after less than a month on his post. The president, Michael Auon, stated: ”Lebanon will be going to Hell if a new government is not formed soon.” The question is if his nation is not there already.
A horrifying image of the state of the nation was provided on the 4th of August when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, stored in a dockside hangar, blew up in an explosion killing more than 190 people, injuring 6,500 and damaging thousands of buildings.
