'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
The world’s population is set to grow by 2.2 billion between now and 2050, the UN said on 17 October 2018, and more than half of that growth – 1.3 billion – is likely to be in sub-Saharan Africa, where women’s rights are hampered by limited access to healthcare and education, along with “entrenched gender discrimination”.
A state of anxiety prevails among the Palestinians, a situation that stems from two sources: the first: the escalation and acceleration of the annexation and its procedures, the growing fear of official annexation to Israel and expulsion to abroad; and the second: concern over the vague Palestinian responses to what is happening. The follow-up of the articles of Hani al-Masri, Rami Mahdawi, Khalil al-Asali and other journalists are just expressions of this concern.
Walid Salem
Yet, there are other concern expressed by Benjamin Netanyahu during a dinner at an annual religious ceremony held at his home in October 2017 that he fears Israel’s fate will be the same as the fate of the 77-year-old Hasmonean kingdom before it was removed by the Romans.
What is common between these two concerns? Where do they differ?
United Nations human rights chief Michele Bachelet said on 17 October 2018 that she was open to an independent, UN-led investigation into the fate of Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi, if joint efforts by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, fail to uncover the facts.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre | Michelle Bachelet
The High Commissioner who heads OHCHR, reiterated her call earlier in the week, for diplomatic immunity to be waived to ensure the joint investigation is effective, impartial and transparent.
Mr. Khashoggi, an influential Saudi journalist and critic, who has been living in exile in the United States in recent months and writing a column for the Washington Post newspaper, had gone to the Saudi Consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul, on 2 October, to obtain marriage papers.
Adopting a Universal Declaration on Democracy to enter into a new era in the proper way.
Federico Mayor Zaragoza
17 October 2018 (Other News)* – In San Francisco in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, United Nations was founded under the American leadership of President Roosevelt, with a Chart beginning with the following words:
“We the peoples are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”.
Today more than ever it is important to bear in mind that it is humanity as a whole that should be taken into account… Governments should come in second place, after the people…
Universal principles and values are often not complied with in the daily life of our “Global Village”.
The Prosecutor mandated to oversee the Occupied Palestinian Territory for the International Criminal Court (ICC) stated on 17 October 2018 that her office is keeping “a close eye” on the planned demolition of a Palestinian village in the West Bank by Israeli authorities, warning that, according to international law, it could constitute a “war crime”.
John Scales Avery
The Superficiality of Today’s Television
Social critic Neil Postman contrasted the futures predicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World in the foreword of his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. He wrote:
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”
Congolese nationals forced back across the border to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after being expelled from neighbouring Angola, “are returning to a desperate situation,” a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson said on 16 October 2018.
Conflict diamonds and climate change: Cooperate, don’t compete over natural resources urges Guterres.
The struggle over natural resources often lies at the heart of violent conflicts, fuelling strife in many parts of the world, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on 16 October 2018, urging governments and everyone with a stake in valuable resources, to think hard about how they are managed and exploited.
16 October 2018 – The top United Nations human rights official has called on Saudi Arabia and Turkey to “reveal everything they know” about the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.
