'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
Indian labourers have been denied pay, food and accommodation. Now, some are demanding their rights
11 April 2021 (Wall Street International)*— All of us alive on the planet today are part of the most significant transition in centuries, whether we know it or not, whether it has touched us lightly or heavily and whether we choose to be or not. Not since the Industrial Revolution has such a total and radical social upheaval occurred.
As with most major cultural shifts, this one follows a technological innovation of which we are all aware and that is the invention of the Internet along with its ready accessibility on a handheld ubiquitous device.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made us refocus on the actions we can take to keep healthy. Maintaining a healthy diet, for example, plays a central role in our overall health and immune systems. ©FAO/Maxim Zmeyev
10 April 2021 (FAO)* — If there was ever a time that made us pay attention to our health, it has been this one of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year has also made that clear that not everything in the world of health is under our control. However, many of us are lucky enough to have a say in one important element and that is what we eat.
9 April 2021 (FAO)* — Jumla beans. Black, red and yellow spotted, cultivated by hand in one of the most remote districts of Nepal’s mountains.
Despite their great nutritional value and environmentally friendly production, jumla beans threaten to be replaced by other crops because mountain producers cannot make a decent income from them.
Sentiments in Bolivia for and against the coup d’etat of November 2019 are predictably along class lines. Those from more affluent sections felt that the socialist policies of the government of President Evo Morales (which was in power from 2006 to 2019) were eating into their authority.
Bolivia coup-appointed president Jeanine Anez. November 2019 VOA News -YouTube
But these sections could not oust Morales at the ballot box because his policies of redistribution were wildly popular among the mass of the population.
9 April 2021 (Wall Street International)* — In 1986 on returning for my first 3-week visit to China, I wrote an article, “China: Key Player in a New World Game” in The Futurist, December 1986. I had been invited by China’s State Council at the recommendation of my good friends, Alvin and Heidi Toffler, best-selling authors of Future Shock (1970), who both had, and still, have a big following in China.
A new report, published on 14 Mar 2021 in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ journal Ambio, points out that humanity is hurtling towards destruction unless we have the collective wisdom to change course quickly. Here is a link to the article:
John Scales Avery
The Ambio article was written as part of the preparation of a meeting of Nobel Prize winners to discuss the state of the planet. The virtual meeting will be held on April 26-28, 2021.
We Must Achieve a Steady-State Economic System
A steady-state economic system is necessary because neither population growth nor economic growth can continue indefinitely on a finite earth. No one can maintain that exponential industrial growth is sustainable in the long run except by refusing to look more than a short distance into the future.
(UN News)* — The vast majority of COVID-19 vaccines administered have so far gone to wealthy nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) on 9 April 2021 reported.
Although more than 700 million vaccine doses have been administered globally, richer countries have received more than 87 per cent, and low-income countries just 0.2 per cent.
(Greenpeace International)* — The meat and dairy industries in Europe have a problem. More and more people do not want their steaks, their minced meat and their chicken wings.
Slowly but surely meat consumption is decreasing, and the industry is desperate to find a way to reverse this trend.
As thousands flee non-state armed groups attacks in northern Mozambique, urgent resources are needed to support them and the communities hosting them. | Español | Français
Adelino Alberto and his family who fled an attack claimed by non-state armed groups on the town of Palma are seen at a transit centre in Pemba, Mozambique.
© REUTERS/Emidio Jozine
