Afghanistan is at a “crucial moment” in its history as it marks 100 years of independence, the head of the UN Mission there said on Monday [19 August 2019], following a series of terror attacks in recent days.
UNAMA/Fardin Waezi | The scene at the Shahr-e-Dubai Wedding Hall in West Kabul on 18 August 2019, where approximately 1,000 people were gathered the night before for a wedding ceremony, when a suicide attacker detonated explosives, killing and injuring scores of civilians.
19 August 2019 — An ambitious plan has got underway to plant a band of trees across the Sahel region of Africa, to hold back desertification and combat climate change, thanks to the support of the United Nations.
It is hoped the line of vegetation will help the region’s people plant more crops and provide a secure source of food, improved health and thousands of new jobs.
Geneva, 16 August 2019 (IOM)*– In total, at least 514 people have lost their lives in the Americas in 2019, compared with 384 recorded through this point in 2018 – an increase of just over one-third.
This is the earliest point in any of the past six years that IOM’s Missing Migrants Project has reached a threshold of 500 or more deaths in the Americas.
In prior years, the 500-death mark was reached in either September (2016), October (2017, 2018) or December (2015), or, in the case of 2014, not at all, as only 495 deaths were recorded of migrants in transit in the Americas that year.
Women (67 deaths) and children (40) made up just over one-fifth of all deaths recorded in the Americas in 2019, although remains also were recovered from 137 sites where the age and gender of the deceased has yet to be determined.
MARAWI CITY, Philippines,16 August 2019 (UNFPA)* – In May 2017, 26-year-old Umme Limbona, found herself trapped inside the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City. The city had been seized by a local armed group inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
“The terrorists had barged in the hospital, and we were trapped for the rest of the night,” she told UNFPA. “They shot a police officer. We felt hopeless.”
August 2019 (Wall Street International)* — We are at the beginning of the 21st century, which means these words will be read mostly by non-people: automata or stunned crowds that no longer act as individuals, words will be chopped up, atomized and turned into search engine keywords within industrial conglomerates of cloud computing, located around the world in remote, hidden places, words will be copied millions of times by algorithms designed to send an advertisement to someone, somewhere, who accidentally identifies itself with something I say.
The work of women humanitarians makes a “huge difference” to the lives of millions of women, men and children in urgent need, the United Nations chief said in his message for World Humanitarian Day.
“Small disconnected facts, if you take note of them, have a way of becoming connected.” – Walker Percy, The Thanatos Syndrome
Edward Curtin
News headlines for July, 2, 2019 seen at a kiosk in Grand Central Station: Trump says tanks will be on display July 4th as a sign of the nation’s firepower; bombing kill dozens and hurts schoolchildren as Taliban talks resume; Israel is blamed for deadly missile strike in Syria; could a mandatory keto diet improve U.S. military performance; and Japan resumes commercial whaling.
The traveler saw these notices of strength and power and passed them by in disgust.
On the train from New York City, the advertisement on the wall with a picture of a disconsolate white guy read: “They say laughter is the best medicine. But not when it comes to ED.”
BAMAKO/DAKAR/GENEVA/NEW YORK (UNICEF)* – There has been a sharp increase in grave violations committed against children in 2019 in Mali, particularly in killing and maiming, UNICEF and child protection partners on 13 August 2019 warned.
UNICEF/UN0332638/Rose
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Preliminary data recorded by the United Nations show that more than 150 children were killed in the first half of 2019 and 75 were injured in violent attacks.
August 2019 (Wall Street International)* — What can we learn from the present ecological, economic, social crisis? I believe we need to revise some deep assumptions which are constitutive of our Western culture and through the process of globalization have become part of our world culture. We need to think in a new way, a new way that actually recovers (on a new level) a very old way.
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The circulation of money on the globe is estimated at four trillion dollars a day | Image from Wall Street International.
The word sacrifice is bandied about by both sides of the debate on climate action. Shall we unpack this loaded shuttlecock?
The Sacrifice of Isaac by Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin. | Image: LACMA, CC0
You who build these altars now To sacrifice these children, You must not do it anymore. -Leonard Cohen
15 August 2019 (openDemocracy)* — Raising the spectre of sacrifice is the all the vogue in current climate denier and delayer circles: it is representative of our current moment in time.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 