'Unseen' News and Views
Geneva, 3 December 2020 (IOM)*–The International Organization for Migration on 3 December 2020 reported 110,669 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea during the year just ended, marking the sixth straight year that at least 100,000 arrivals were recorded on three Mediterranean Sea Routes. The total is only slightly below the 116,273 men, women and children who crossed the Mediterranean in this fashion in 2018, a decline of about five per cent.
3 January 2020 (UN News)* — The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed deep concern over the latest escalation in tension across the Gulf region, following the killing of a top Iranian General in Iraq, in an airstrike carried out by the United States.
3 January 2020 (Other News)* — In a world shaken by so many problems, it is difficult to look at 2020 and not make some kind of holistic analysis. While enormous progress has been made on many fronts, it is clear that the tide has turned and we are now entering – or have already entered – a new low point in the history of humankind..
Roberto Savio
Today, we face an unprecedented existential threat brought about by the climate crisis. According to scientists, we have until 2030 to stop climate change, after which human conditions will be under several threats.
Yet, we have just had a world conference in Madrid on climate change, which ended in nothing.
Not only that, but since the beginning of the last decade, there has been a singular change of the relations of politicians with climate.
WASHINGTON (World Bank)* — Debt in emerging and developing economies (EMDEs) climbed to a record US$55 trillion in 2018, marking an eight-year surge that has been the largest, fastest, and most broad-based in nearly five decades, according to a new World Bank Group study that urges policymakers to act promptly to strengthen their economic policies and make them less vulnerable to financial shocks.
2 January 2020 (UN News)* — At the start of the new year and new decade, the head of the United Nations health agency thanked “the brave health workers” around the globe and asked that the world do better in supporting them.
“They are doing life-saving work every day, including during holidays when the rest of us are with our loved ones at home”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), in his video message for the new year.
Dr. Naresh Jotwani
Dear NATO Member,
Much is achieved in “civilized life” by deceiving others in a calculated manner. When “others” are simple-minded people, this strategy works very well. Indeed, this is a time-tested strategy of gaining “competitive edge” in the stress-filled and never-ending chase for “the good life”.
In fact this tactic forms the very basis of “civilized life”. In a society, if everybody said what they meant, and meant what they said, the society would have to be dubbed “primitive”, would it not?
But the tactic has its limits.
1 January 2020 (UN News)* — At the dawn of the next decade, a new World Food Programme (WFP) forecast of global hunger hotspots has revealed that escalating hunger will challenge sub-Saharan Africa in the first half of 2020.
1 January 2020 (UN News)* — The world will need an additional nine million nurses and midwives to achieve the commitment of providing all people with access to health care by 2030, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
1 January 2020 (Wall Street International)* — “Security starts and relies with people” end of the story. After 10 years in IT Security, I’ve learned that security problems typically start with people, and almost nobody outside the traditional group of expertise seems to care about it.
Cybersecurity |Image from Wall Street International.30 December 2019 (UN News)* — The World Food Programme (WFP) is calling on countries to step up support to Zimbabwe, where millions of people are facing hunger brought on by prolonged drought and economic meltdown. Nearly eight million people, or roughly half the population, are not getting enough to eat, the UN agency said on Monday [30 December 2019].
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 