DAYLESFORD, Australia, 28 January 2020 — As we approach the 72nd anniversary of the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi on 30 January 1948, it is worth reflecting on one simple fact that he did not realize.
Robert J. Burrowes,
His efforts to teach humanity that conflict, including violent conflict, could be resolved without violence were based on one fundamentally flawed assumption: that at least some humans were interested in, and committed to, seeking out and using nonviolent strategies for dealing with conflict in each and every context.
Unfortunately, as his own experience taught him and he showed clear signs of realizing towards the end of his life, the fundamental truth is that humans love violence and it is this love of violence that will ensure the extinction of Homo sapiens in the near term absent a profound response that shows no sign of emerging yet. See ‘Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? A Report on the State of Planet Earth’.
27 January 2020 (UN News)* — A surge in violence in the central Sahel region in Africa means nearly five million children will need humanitarian assistance this year, up from 4.3 million, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.
UN OCHA/Giles Clarke | Boys play in a waterhole near the town of Kaya in northern Burkina Faso.
The agency reported that children have been attacked, abducted or recruited into armed groups due to the spike in armed conflict and insecurity in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
Since the start of the year alone, more than 670,000 children across the region have been forced to flee their homes.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 27 2020 (IPS)* – Donald Trump, the vociferously unpredictable US president, has long chastised China for seeking “unfair” advantage over trade and tariffs, violating intellectual property rights and “manipulating” the country’s currency to its advantage.
Credit: SIPRI
But while this blatant political rhetoric has continued ever since Trump assumed office in 2017, the Chinese have steadily built a massive military arsenal — and joined the world’s major players in arms production and arms exports.
26 January 2020 (Wall Street International)* — I would like to announce the publication of a book1, which reviews the lives and thoughts of some of the women and men who have addressed the crucial problems of ecology and sustainability that we are currently facing. I have tried to let them speak to us in their own words.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 24 2020 (IPS)* – The UN’s ongoing cash crisis, which has virtually destabilized the Organization’s day-to-day operations, has also undermined the human rights mandate of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC).
A meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Credit: UN / Jean-Marc Ferré
Aligning inclusive, quality education with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was centre-stage on Friday 24 January 2020[], as the President of the UN General Assembly held a high-level interactive meeting for the International Day of Education. (*).
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe | Young women return home after classes in the town of Bol in Chad.
“The education sector is wrestling with mammoth challenges worldwide”, said Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, in his message for the day.
Castillo, who participates in the World Encounter Against Imperialism, remarked that there is a systematic massacre occurring in his country.
Demonstrators take part in a protest against the government of Colombia’s President Ivan Duque, in Bogota, Colombia, January 21, 2020. | Photo: Reuters (Photo posted here fromteleSUR).
23 January 2020 (teleSUR)* — Colombia’s Indigenous people are outraged at the death of more than 20 social leaders inside South American country, the counselor of the Indigenous Youth of Colombia , Eliel Castillo, said this week.
The start of the New Year finds the world facing four looming threats to human progress: surging geopolitical tensions, the climate crisis, global mistrust and the downsides of technology, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday [22 January 2020]. (*).
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Secretary-General António Guterres (left) briefs the General Assembly meeting on his Priorities for 2020 and the Work of the Organization.
(UN News)*— Recent heightened tensions in the Middle East underscore the critical need for dialogue and diplomacy in the region, the UN’s Political Affairs chief told the Security Council on Tuesday [21 January 2020].
World Bank/Natalia Cieslik | Children walk on road in Gaza, where the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) maintain food assistance to over one million Palestine refugees.
Rosemary DiCarlo was briefing ambassadors on developments related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as recent protests in Lebanon, against the backdrop of the crisis sparked by the killing of a top Iranian general by the United States earlier this month.
