Africa

Cricket Australia says it has "no choice" but to withdraw from the three-Test tour of South Africa because of coronavirus concerns.

East African farmers own 60% of the world's camels and are cashing in on the highly nutritious milk.

The post As Army Takes Over, Fear and Uncertainty Grip Myanmar Citizens appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A mother holds her child in the Al Dhale'e Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camp in Yemen. The war in Yemen continues to ravage the country and its people, senior UN-appointed rights investigators said, in a call for an international probe into suspected war crimes, and sanctions against the perpetrators. Credit: YPN for UNOCHA

By Azza Karam
NEW YORK, Feb 2 2021 (IPS)

For more than two decades, the mantra was “PVE” (preventing violent extremism) and/or “CVE” (countering violent extremism).

Millions of dollars were spent, new NGOs and think tanks emerged, government policy papers were drafted, countless books and articles were published, large and small scale initiatives developed – indeed almost an entire industry in development and foreign policy spaces thrived.

Complete with UN resolutions and entire units inside the UN system and intergovernmental entities were created to focus on this (thinly veiled religious) violent extremism.

It would seem that PVE/CVE also delineated political positions in certain countries. Were you of the PVE or the CVE inclination? The difference between these two positions was not whether one considered violent extremism to be a – largely – religious (and let’s face it, Islamic-focused) set of features, but whether you were seeking to be politically correct about the endeavor, or just ‘call it like it is”.

Of course, all this generated multitudes of arguments, analysis and ‘alternative views’. By and large, the consensus – and certainly where multi million dollars of investment were going – appeared to be, that ‘developing a counter narrative’ was the way to go.

Horrific gang violence, atrocious drug-related violence, spiking gender-based violence, sexual violence in conflict and non-conflict settings, even domestic violence, school shootings, policy brutality, all soared. But none of that of course, is violent extremism.

In the US, throughout the 1990s, several incidents took place – Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992; Waco, Texas, in 1993; and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The sight of men carrying torches in Charlottesville and braying anti-semitic and anti-everything decent slogans, apparently was … well, clearly, freedom of speech.

While on the other hand, peaceful demonstrations against the oldest and most vile of prejudices which intersects with and informs so many other prejudices – I mean racism by the way – those we did see as worthy of brutality and force. And that brutality and force was also not violent extremism.

With all that, to many of the pundits (‘experts’, intellectuals, intelligence communities) in the ‘developed’ part of the world, none of all this qualified as violent extremism. No, violent extremism, and its kin, terrorism, were what, by and large, Muslims did.

And the Muslims, by the way, were not really a religion. In fact, maybe they were not even human. Our kind of humans, you see, don’t do violent extremism. ‘Our’ kind of humans do good, old fashioned pro-Life kind of religion, informed by wholesome [western] values which are worthy of export as part of an ongoing mission to bring light to the world.

And when some of those things turn ugly and even contravene international standards of human rights (as if those are even relevant), it does not get labelled what it is, because ‘there are good people on all sides’.

When nations turn away or intern those seeking refuge and those displaced by their own duty bearers, and when these people end up cold and without clothes in the coldest of times, or separated from their loved ones in manners reminiscent of the stories of earlier Jewish internment camps, that is not violent extremism.

When there are over two million Muslims in “reeducation camps” (because of their propensity to ‘Islamic extremism’ of course) – no, not in Nazi times back then, but right here, happening right now – that ‘reeducation’ is not called violent extremism.

Even genocide – when we dare to name it – is not violent extremism either, apparently. You see, if a powerful government commits it, it is not violent extremism. And the label of genocide is anyway facetious and disrespectful and libelous and plain wrong. Some say. When they dare to speak.

We needed to watch the Capitol of the United States of America, besieged by men with war paint on their faces, wearing animal masks, military-like fatigues, brazenly waving the flags of states which once went to war with kith and kin to defend human slavery, former (and currently serving) military and/or police officers, even women with a mission apparently willing to scale walls to enter “the people’s house” – and get shot dead by terrified, seriously understaffed security people.

We had to wait to see these macabre sights of yet another awful US reality TV show, to begin – only begin – to name it. So now that we have named it, shall we draw upon the decades’ long ‘expertise’ of NGOs, human rights actors, think tanks, governments and the industry, academia, which largely focused on the Muslim other?

All those who valiantly created “counter-narratives” to deal with this variant of the virus of violent extremism? Or are counter-narratives only something we invest in when it comes to others outside of ‘our’ kind?

And what is the counter narrative to rampant hate of the multiple, intersecting and difficult to discern forms of ‘otherness’, when divisiveness, bitterness and ignorance are normal in so many parts of the world?

For we spent decades normalizing othering. Even as we sought to deal with violence, we did so by ‘othering’ (rendering different from ‘us’) the perpetrators and the actions, even when they were us. We even othered violence itself by defining an extreme form thereof! As if violence was not bad enough.

As we sought ‘counter narratives’, we affirmed the us-versus-them world view: our narrative was, would be, better than theirs. But hate is not a narrative. Hatred is felt, it is embodied, it is lived – and it is actively justified.

Hatred feeds on othering. Othering is the fuel which makes hatred rage as the fires that consumed our earth did in 2020 – literally as well as metaphorically.

The antidote to othering, to the roots of hatred, is to recognize the power inherent in our diversity. All faiths teach that diversity is manifestations of the Divine, and/or that the Divine resides in diversity – sometimes in polar opposites (e.g. Destructor-Creator).

All faiths try to teach that power is not about institutions and boundaries. Instead, ‘power’ is to love the diversities. Yet still we persist, and our religions and our politics and our institutions persist, in the politics of othering, and defining the boundaries of us versus them.

When will we learn, that we are one and the same? What will it take?

 

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The post A Counter-Narrative? Ruminations Around Holocaust Memorial Day appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Azza Karam is the Secretary General of Religions for Peace, and Professor of Religion and Development at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

The post A Counter-Narrative? Ruminations Around Holocaust Memorial Day appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 2 2021 (IPS)

“Oh what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive”. Walter Scott’s lines, already over two centuries old, nicely sum up how pursuit of national advantage and private gain have undermined the public interest and the common good.

As known COVID-19 infections exceed 100 million internationally, with more than two million lives lost, rich countries are now quarrelling publicly over access to limited vaccine supplies. With ‘vaccine nationalism’ widespread, multilateral arrangements have not been able to address current challenges well.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Vaccine nationalism has meant that the rich and powerful come first, not only in societies, but also in the world, making a mockery of the ‘No one left behind’ slogan embraced by the international community.

Many developing countries and most of their people will have to wait for access to vaccines while the powerful and better off secure prior access regardless of need or urgency.

Vaccine nationalism and the prospect of more profits by not scaling up output to induce scarcity may thus cause more losses of both lives and livelihoods, causing economies to slow further.

TRIPS waiver blocked
The 1994 World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) greatly strengthened and extended intellectual property rights (IPRs) transnationally. It is easy to forget that strict cross-border enforcement of IPRs claims are relatively recent.

While many assume that IPRs are needed to promote research and development for technological progress, this is seriously challenged by most serious histories and historians of technology.

Perhaps more importantly, there is considerable evidence that IPRs may well have inadvertently slowed progress. More generally, IPRs have discouraged research cooperation and knowledge sharing, so essential to progress.

By enabling, and thus encouraging ‘patent trolling’ and hoarding, IPRs have effectively denied access to patented products and processes except to the highest bidders.

Public health exception
Following the pushback to the original TRIPS, boosted by Nelson Mandela after he became South African President in 1994, developing countries have secured legal access to ‘essential medicines’.

A 2001 WTO Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health affirmed the right of countries to protect public health, enable access to medicines, and issue a compulsory license (CL), even without a health emergency.

In return for developing countries extending IP protection, developed countries promised to establish manufacturing capabilities for patented processes in developing countries, and incentivise their transnational corporations (TNCs) to enable technology transfer to developing countries, especially the least developed countries (LDCs).

In 2017, the TRIPS Agreement was amended to confirm developing countries unable to domestically produce certain pharmaceuticals, could issue compulsory licenses to import patented drugs produced abroad under compulsory licensing.

But although TRIPS now allows such use of compulsory licensing, developing countries are still constrained by its complex rules, procedures and conditions as well as constant TNC threats and inducements, supported by their governments.

Hence, use of compulsory licensing by developing countries has been largely limited to several more independent middle-income countries, such as India, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, and to HIV/AIDS medicines.

TRIPS waiver
The TRIPS waiver – proposed by South Africa, India and others to the WTO – seeks temporary suspension of several TRIPS provisions on patents, design and protection of undisclosed information.

The proposed waiver seeks to greatly scale up production of and access to COVID-19 vaccines, medicines and equipment, especially in developing countries, to contain the contagion. But the Trump administration, the European Union (EU) and their allies have stubbornly blocked the waiver.

The EU claims “an [intellectual property] system is…also to ensure the publication and dissemination of research results, when otherwise they will remain secret.” It omits to acknowledge that no vaccine developer has shared research results needed to scale up vaccine output by others, including generic producers.

Vaccine nationalism rules
Although the waiver implies treating vaccine production and distribution as public goods, and the European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen has spoken about “working together” and “solidarity” for the “public good”, the EU continues to block it.

But after AstraZeneca and Pfizer failed to meet their contractual obligations to deliver vaccines to EU countries, the now embattled EC President has criticised the companies for not meeting their contractual obligations. She did not hesitate to emphasise that EU taxpayers and governments had paid much to accelerate vaccine development and production.

Ironically, the most feasible way forward now involves approving the TRIPS waiver at the WTO. The US and EU governments can make the badly needed breakthrough and thus do much to restore international confidence in their intentions.

With Biden announcing the US re-joining the World Health Organization (WHO), the new administration can not only lift the embargo on exports of vaccines, vital medicines and equipment, but also advocate for the TRIPS waiver, quickly winning appreciation for his commitment to multilateral leadership.

US taxpayers have already spent many billions for Trump’s Operation Warp Speed to accelerate private vaccine development and distribution. Now, both the US and EU are well placed to greatly accelerate vaccine production and distribution for the world at relatively little additional cost.

They can do so by ensuring that relevant information is quickly shared to rapidly scale up vaccine production. For example, mass vaccine production capacity remains limited internationally, but it is the Serum Institute of India, not a developed country facility, which is acknowledged as the world leader by far.

 

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Women in parts of Nigeria are being left out of their parents' inheritance, despite a law banning discrimination.

How hundreds of tonnes of food that would have gone to waste is used to feed the nation's poorest residents.

The president removes some restrictions as infections fall and one million vaccine doses arrive.

A 33% year-on-year reduction in the killing of rhino for their horns is linked to Covid-19 lockdowns.

The EU's law enforcement agency is warning about people potentially cheating travel restrictions.

Shreen Saroor

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, Feb 1 2021 (IPS)

A decade has passed since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war between the government and the LTTE, where at least 100,000 people were killed in the over three-decade long conflict. Families of victims of enforced disappearances continue to seek justice, the government is yet to end impunity and put accountability for crimes under international law and human rights violation and abuses in its transitional justice process.

In a recent United Nations Human Rights Office of The High Commissioner report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet stressed that the failure to deal with the past continues to have devastating effects on tens of thousands of families in Sri Lanka, who are still waiting for justice, reparations – and the truth about the fate of their loved ones. The report warns that the failure of Sri Lanka to address past violations has significantly “ heightened the risk of human rights violations being repeated.”

“Sri Lanka’s current trajectory sets the scene for the recurrence of the policies and practices that gave rise to grave human rights violations.” The report also flags the pattern of intensified surveillance and harassment of civil society organizations, human rights defenders and victims, and a shrinking space for independent media.

“I see the OHCHR report as something that will give more oxygen to continue our many struggles, especially for truth and justice,” says Sri Lanka based human rights activist Shreen Saroor to IPS News. The report has articulated the lack of access to justice and the need for accountability very well. It is robust on militarisation and deep securitisation of Sri Lanka and calls for rigorous vetting and demilitarization with a warning of grave consequences if failed, says Shreen.

“Michelle Bachelet’s criticism on surveillance on CSOs and shrinking space for dissent and the abuses of Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act are alarming. However in order to prevent another round of conflict, the report should emphasize more on the ongoing attacks against countries’ religious minorities,” says Shreen.

Earlier in december 2020, Muslims in Sri Lanka were outraged over the forced cremation of a 20-day-old COVID-19 victim against the family’s wishes. Sri Lanka has been flagged for ignoring the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines which permits both burial and cremations.

In a country where minorities are marginalized and discriminated against, Muslims who fall victim to COVID-19 are unjustly prevented from being laid to rest in accordance with their religious beliefs and are forcibly cremated, said Amnesty International in a statement. Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in the world which has made cremations mandatory for people who have died or are suspected of having died from COVID-19. The rights group urged the Sri Lankan Government to not forget that “ it has a duty to ensure all people in Sri Lanka are treated equitably. COVID-19 does not discriminate on grounds of ethnic, political or religious differences, and nor should the Government of Sri Lanka.”

“Many of us who have witnessed continuous minority rights violations over three decades in Sri Lanka, it is important for OHCHR to take on the issue of growing Sinhala Buddhist majoritarianism and the extreme nationalism that has been mentioned in the OHCHR report.

“It is time for OHCHR to come up with an early prevention strategy, so that another bloody war or religious violence in this country is prevented,” says Shreen.

Human Rights Watch in its recently released 93-page report, Open Wounds and Mounting Dangers: Blocking Accountability for Grave Abuses in Sri Lanka, examines the efforts by the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to thwart justice in seven prominent human rights cases.

“The Sri Lankan government’s assault on justice increases the risk of human rights abuses today and in the future,” said John Fisher, Geneva Director at Human Rights Watch. “The UN Human Rights Council should adopt a resolution at its upcoming session that demonstrates to the Rajapaksa administration that the world won’t ignore its abuses and offers hope of justice to victims’ families, the report stated.

In 2018, just before and during the ongoing session of the UNHRC, Sri Lankan authorities made several announcements to signify their commitments to pledges made in the October 2015 resolution on justice and accountability for abuses during Sri Lanka’s civil war.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksha months into his tenure in November 2019, made several changes including replacing the 19th Amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution, which was enacted to limit excessive executive power and facilitate independent institutions including the judiciary with the 20th Amendment, which consolidated power in the executive and nullified the independent commissions mainly Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commissions and Office of the Missing Persons. “Rajapaksa appointed people implicated in war crimes and other serious violations to senior administration positions,” said Shreen.

In February 2020 Sri Lanka withdrew itself from the 2019 UN resolution on post-war accountability and reconciliation, which is scheduled to be taken up in the upcoming session.

Sri Lanka’s main Tamil political parties are now urging for an international probe, and in a joint letter addressed to members of the UN Human Rights Council said, “It is now time for Member States to acknowledge that there is no scope for a domestic process that can genuinely deal with accountability in Sri Lanka.”

According to this report, Sri Lanka is in discussion with India and other countries for support to counter the Core Group’s move which could lead to targeted sanctions, asset freezes and travel bans against alleged perpetrators of grave human rights violations and abuses in the March session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The author is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi. She hosts a weekly online show called The Sania Farooqui Show where Muslim women from around the world are invited to share their views.

 

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The post Sri Lanka’s Deteriorating Human Rights Situation Raises Multiple Alarms appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Myanmar’s military has sized control of government and reportedly detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, senior members of her governing National League for Democracy (NLD) as well as human rights activists and student leaders. Courtesy: Yves Alarie on Unsplash

By Nalisha Adams
BONN, Germany, Feb 1 2021 (IPS)

Responding to reports this morning that Myanmar’s military has seized control of government in a coup on the eve of the country’s opening session of its new parliament, rights group Amnesty International said it “sends a chilling message that the military authorities will not tolerate any dissent amid today’s unfolding events”.

Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, senior members of her governing National League for Democracy (NLD) as well as human rights activists and student leaders were reportedly detained this morning, Feb. 1. The BBC reported military “was handing power to commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing because of “election fraud”” and that soldiers were “on the streets of the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, and the main city, Yangon”.

Amnesty International said in a statement today that phone lines and the internet have been cut in some areas, further stating, “the military-owned television station announced that a one-year state of emergency was being imposed under the authority of the Commander in Chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing”.

The President of the European Council Charles Michel condemned the coup in a tweet this morning.

I strongly condemn the coup in #Myanmar and call on the military to release all who have been unlawfully detained in raids across the country.

The outcome of the elections has to be respected and democratic process needs to be restored.

— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) February 1, 2021

 

As did the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

I condemn the coup and unlawful imprisonment of civilians, including Aung San Suu Kyi, in Myanmar. The vote of the people must be respected and civilian leaders released.

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 1, 2021

A statement from White House spokesperson Jen Psaki read the United States was alarmed by the reports of the coup and subsequent arrest of Suu Kyi and civilian officials. “The United States opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede Myanmar’s democratic transition, and will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed,” the statement read.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the coup and called for Suu Kyi’s release as well as that of other leaders and government officials.

Guterres expressed “grave concern regarding the declaration of the transfer of all legislative, executive and judicial powers to the military. These developments represent a serious blow to democratic reforms in Myanmar”, a statement said.

Myanmar’s Nov. 8 election, which was won by Suu Kyi’s NLD which increased its parliamentary majority — taking 396 of the 498 seats — had been disputed by the military. The Rohingya population had been excluded from participating in the vote.

Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, called it “an ominous moment for people in Myanmar”, stating it threatened “a severe worsening of military repression and impunity. The concurrent arrests of prominent political activists and human rights defenders sends a chilling message that the military authorities will not tolerate any dissent amid today’s unfolding events” he said in a statement.

“Previous military coups and crackdowns in Myanmar have seen large scale violence and extrajudicial killings by security forces. We urge the armed forces to exercise restraint, abide by international human rights and humanitarian law and for law enforcement duties to be fully resumed by the police force at the earliest opportunity,” Hah said.

Concern remains about the safety of the Rohingya, an ethnic minority in the mostly Buddhist country.

The Rohingya have long been persecuted by the military and according to an October report by Human Rights Watch, “have faced decades of systematic repression, discrimination, and violence under successive Myanmar governments”.  

According to the UN Refugee Agency, a million Rohingya refugees have fled violence in Myanmar since the 1990s. However, in August 2017 when violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

In November, The Gambia brought a case against  Myanmar to the UN’s International  Court of Justice, arguing that the mainly-Muslim Rohingya had been subjected to genocide. Suu Kyi had downplayed the allegations of genocide and serious human rights violations.

Last month, Jan. 23, the ICJ ruled that Myanmar must take steps to protect its minority Rohingya population. ICJ’s orders are binding against Myanmar.

But as late as last November, Amnesty International reported it had “documented a litany of serious human rights crimes in Rakhine, Chin, Kachin and northern Shan States in recent years, including  attacks killing or injuring civilians, extra-judicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and other ill-treatment, forced labour, looting and confiscation of property”.

Amnesty International’s Hah said today, “Reports of a telecommunications blackout pose a further threat to the population at such a volatile time – especially as Myanmar battles a pandemic, and as internal conflict against armed groups puts civilians at risk in several parts of the country. It is vital that full phone and internet services be resumed immediately.”

  

The post Myanmar Coup Sends ‘Chilling Message that Military won’t Tolerate Dissent’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Beirut, Lebanon; Tuesday, September 1st, 2020. Credit: Photojournalist Rahib Yassine

By Maria Aoun
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb 1 2021 (IPS)

Humankind is no stranger to the destabilizing events of 2020. The state of the global economy and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the headlines. In this ever escalating global crisis, Lebanon, has been facing what can only be described as unimaginable hardships. For the past year the country has seen challenges which have resulted in an utter state of hopelessness and rapid deterioration in mental health of many of its citizens.

The country has been facing a high rate of youth unemployment, with 55% of the Lebanese population already living under the poverty line according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Followed by an almost complete devaluation of the Lebanese currency due to ever-growing political uncertainties and national lockdowns to tackle the pandemic, Lebanon is faced with one of its worst economic crises. The aforementioned obstacles reinforced pre-existing socio-economic inequalities in the country that has taken a heavy toll on the state of mental health of the Lebanese people.

In fact, shortly after the economic collapse in July 2020, alarming reports made headlines about the double suicides that occurred on the same day, a Friday, mainly because of the financial instability that people are faced with. On 3 July, a man in his 60s stood in front of a café in the city of Hamra and shot himself in the head in broad daylight, leaving behind a copy of his clean criminal record with a message written in red that said “I am not a Kafer” meaning sinner, infidel or blasphemer, and a Lebanese flag. On that same day in Sidon, an unemployed bus driver in his late thirties took his own life.

The middle aged man also wrote “I am not a Kafer” since the act of suicide is culturally and religiously prohibited and considered a sin or taboo in both Islam and Christianity, the two predominent religions in Lebanon. In fact, some families tend to hide the real cause of death of members who have taken their own lives to avoid societal judgment.

The successive misfortunes that befell Lebanon reached a height when one of the deadliest events in its history occurred at 6.07 pm on 4 August 2020; tons of Ammonium Nitrate detonated at the Beirut port, devastating the capital within seconds and causing thousands casualties. Additionally, it is estimated that 70,000 workers have lost their jobs, and 42 percent of affected families who had chronic medical conditions reported that they could not afford continuing treatment, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

When asked about the collective mental state of the Lebanese in 2020, Mia Atoui, co-founder and board member of “Embrace”, a Lebanese NGO that works to raise awareness around mental health told IPS that “We are witnessing increased levels of depression, anxiety and PTSD as a result of all the crises”, stressing on the importance of providing mental health services to people during these difficult times.

According to the latest report created by “Embrace” titled “Post Beirut’s Blast Update”, issue no.9, two months after the Beirut blast, the national hotline for emotional support and suicide prevention received more than 2239 calls, with approximately 67% of those callers expressing emotional distress and around 28% exhibiting suicidal tendencies. Those numbers reveal the state of mental health faced by the Lebanese. “Embrace Lifeline (1564) received more than 6,100 calls to its hotline in 2020, compared to more than 2500 calls in 2019” stated Atoui. These numbers show that calls have almost tripled from the year 2019 to 2020.

Beirut, Lebanon; Tuesday, September 1st, 2020. Credit: Photojournalist Rahib Yassine

Nowadays, and five months post blast, the Lebanese are still trying to adapt to what seems to be a “new normal” by going about their daily lives, navigating a pandemic that has gone completely out of control.

Lebanese Journalist Cendrella Azar was meters away from the Beirut blast and shared with IPS her mental journey. “Physically, I am a survivor, I healed in no time. Nevertheless, mentally and emotionally, I am still bearing the consequences of the Beirut Port crime I was subjected to. Today, almost six months past the explosion, I still deal with different kinds of symptoms. While I think that I am a normal human being who overcame this traumatic event, I am hit on a daily basis with visions and thoughts. I am physically at home among my loved ones yet mentally I am stuck within the walls of Annahar Newspaper’s building where I was the moment we were hit by the third biggest non-nuclear explosion in human history” stated Azar.

The journalist pointed out the daily stress that citizens are subjected to amidst the new wave of the global pandemic that brutally hit Lebanon. “We transformed into a traumatized nation, suffering from a collective trauma, and bearing so many invisible wounds and scars. We are currently in a national state of shock” declared Azar.

With positive cases of Covid-19 multiplying due to relaxing of governmental restrictions, Lebanon is now seeing a saturation in ICU beds and is heading towards disaster including yet another full lockdown. “The impact of Covid on mental health is a very significant and serious one. People are in a constant state of fear with worry and anxiety; many are losing their loved ones, which is also causing a lot of people to be in grief” explained the mental health expert Atoui. In fact, Lebanon is seeing thousands of new contaminations per day with the peak being 6154 registered cases on 16 January 2021, coupled with an exponential death toll, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Mental health hit a low point in Lebanon in the year 2020 with a grey cloud over the country overstaying its welcome. However, Atoui explained that suicides have not increased this year, “most probably because of the Covid crisis and Beirut blast; usually when there are big disasters at a national level we do not witness an increase in suicides, especially after the Beirut blast where there was a lot of social solidarity…” she said. “…However if the crises continues in 2021 we may witness an increase in suicide rates. Currently the rate of suicide in Lebanon is on average 1 person every 2.1 days” stated Atoui.

Atoui mentioned how important it was to assist people mentally during those trying times yet the current skyrocketing prices have made mental health services inaccessible with therapists charging outrageous figures per therapy session. Atoui told IPS that “Even when it [the cost of therapy] was 150,000 LBP (approximately $ 100 at the time), it was not affordable by most people. Now [after the currency devaluation] it has become a luxury. Since Embrace opened its clinic in August 2020, we have provided 690 consultations and we already have a long waiting list”.

A few days into the new year, a middle-aged man set his car on fire in Beirut and attempted to burn himself alive; bystanders rushed to stop him. On 25 January this year, violent anti-lockdown protests erupted in Tripoli, one of the poorest cities in Lebanon. Met by police brutality, the protesters denounced the absence of a sustainable governmental plan and a lockdown that is worsening their economic situation everyday.

 

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The post A Grey Cloud Over Lebanon: Mental Health Burdens appeared first on Inter Press Service.

UN staff in Geneva protesting proposed pay cuts. Credit: ILO Staff Union

By Isabel Garcia-Gill
GENEVA, Feb 1 2021 (IPS)

For the staff of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2021 is likely to be even more difficult than 2020, with job cuts, forced departures, transfers to Istanbul or The Hague, restructuring and too many rumours.

In Geneva, the plan to relocate part of the teams to Istanbul has caused turmoil and incomprehension and has been the cause of many sick leaves over the last twelve months. This deep unease is the result of a serious lack of transparency in internal communication on the future of staff and is also due to the stress linked to the Coronavirus.

2021 will not give more respite

The relocation project announced by Mark Lowcock, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, plans to move 23 professional posts (P3 to P5) from Geneva to Istanbul, 5 from New York to The Hague and 8 to other countries (some posts have already been relocated from Geneva to The Hague).

However, no date could be set for the signature of the agreement with the Turkish Government or the move to Istanbul during the year 2020. The OCHA Press Office did not answer many questions about the relocation plan. It merely pointed out that OCHA will gradually resort to offshoring in order to reduce its costs and conduct its headquarters activities more efficiently.

Unfortunately, OCHA staff did not receive any internal information by email or post regarding the date of installation in Istanbul. Yet, on his Twitter account, Mark Lowcock said on January 22, 2021: “It was a pleasure to meet yesterday in Turkey at the United Nations headquarters for the signing of the UNOCHA agreement. Many thanks to Ambassador Sinirlioglu “.

Fear in the gut

“I have dedicated more than 20 years to humanitarian affairs in the field and at headquarters. And the head of human resources in Geneva gave me an ultimatum: either I accept the transfer or she will put my post directly up for competition in Istanbul,” says a staff member who does not want her name to be mentioned. “People are afraid of retaliation from management”.

For many OCHA officials, the current restructuring is not very coherent. They also fear that Geneva’s central role in the humanitarian community will be jeopardized if important coordination functions are relocated.

“We are struggling to make sense of all this restructuring”, says one interviewee. Several OCHA staff members also said that Mr. Lowcock, a former chartered accountant and Director of Finance at the UK Department for International Development (DFID), seems insensitive to the staff human situation.

Opacity of figures

“There is talk of substantial savings, but we don’t know how much money we’re talking about,” regrets a father who is prepared to leave Geneva in 2021 if necessary. He has calculated the salary he would earn in Turkey, 15% less than in Geneva.

On the one hand, there are plans to cut six general service posts (G4 to G7) in order to recruit locally in Turkey, and on the other hand, the plan is to leave a large number of D1 and D2 director posts in Geneva. Where is the logic?

Last October, for example, a D1 was dismissed and received severance pay equivalent to one year’s salary, even though his post had already been filled in Geneva.

Precarious employment

Prisca Chaoui, Executive Secretary of the UNOG Staff Coordinating Board, is concerned about the willingness to relocate administrative posts and transform professional posts in Geneva into temporary jobs under the pretext of making OCHA staff more mobile.

This trend of job insecurity is not new. Another professional woman has had the hard experience of it. She has been working in the UN system, at headquarters and in the field, for about 15 years and was recruited on a fixed-term contract in Geneva.

After a few years at the headquarter, her post was recently abolished and she had to accept a temporary position.

However, Lowcock recently stated: “OCHA will work to strengthen women’s leadership in the humanitarian sector (…) In the face of increasingly demanding and dangerous situations (…) the staffing strategy places particular emphasis on the safety, health and well-being of its employees”.

The union is outraged

On the side of the Staff Coordinating Council, the observation is severe: “It is unfortunate to note that OCHA, in this plan, is totally failing in its duty of care towards its staff. In resettlement decisions, staff do not occupy the central place that they should have for a humanitarian entity such as OCHA”.

Lowcock responded in writing to the union’s remarks, saying that OCHA management, including himself, had held several meetings with OCHA staff representatives and the UN union in New York and Geneva in 2019 and 2020.

“While we understand the need for staff mobility, we believe that decisions must be people-centered first and foremost. Instead, OCHA’s leadership has succeeded in taking the human dimension out of the term ‘humanitarian’,” concludes Prisca Chaoui.

 

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The post UN Humanitarian Staff in Geneva Experience Anxiety, Job Insecurity & Fear of Tomorrow appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Isabel Garcia-Gill is a journalist who has worked for daily newspapers, radio broadcasts and weekly magazines in Geneva (Switzerland) and a correspondent based in Rome and Rabat. She has also worked for UNOCHA as well is for the IPCC as Senior Communication Officer. Isabel has published and travelled extensively on professional assignments. She has a very deep knowledge of Latin America. She holds a Master’s degree in Political Sciences from the University of Geneva and in Journalism from Lausanne.

The post UN Humanitarian Staff in Geneva Experience Anxiety, Job Insecurity & Fear of Tomorrow appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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This projected desalination plant in Los Cabos, whose construction received final approval in October 2020, will have a capacity to purify 250 litres of water per second and its cost will exceed 55 million dollars, according to figures from the Baja California Sur state government. CREDIT: Government of Baja California Sur

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Jan 31 2021 (IPS)

Mexico is seeking to mitigate water shortages in part of its extensive territory by resorting to seawater, through the expansion of desalination plants. But this solution has exorbitant costs and significant environmental impacts.

Among the advantages of these water treatment plants, Gabriela Muñoz, a researcher at the public university El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, highlighted the expansion of water sources and the production of water for human consumption.

But in her conversation with IPS, she also underlined the disadvantages of these plants, such as high energy requirements, aggravated if the energy comes from fossil sources; high costs; and the generation of brine and wastewater."Before considering desalination, measures such as water saving, investment in green infrastructure, rainwater harvesting and the reuse of treated water should be a priority. We must also compare the costs of building desalination plants versus alternatives.” -- Gabriela Muñoz

To illustrate the costs: one of the desalination plants authorised in 2014 by the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) in the northern state of Baja California cost some 35 million dollars to process 250 litres per second (l/s). Another plant with the same capacity, given final approval in October 2020 in the neighbouring state of Baja California Sur, will require an investment of more than 55 million dollars.

In Mexico “there are no regulations regarding how to dispose of the brine. The most common thing to do is to dump it on the beach. We have to be careful how we handle the brine because of the toxicity to ecosystems. Nor is there installed capacity to treat all the wastewater. For specific areas, desalination should not be the first option,” said Muñoz from the northern border city of Tijuana.

Between 2012 and 2020, environmental authorities authorised at least 120 desalination facilities, rejected six applications and another five are under evaluation, according to data obtained by IPS through public information requests. Most of the new projects are located in three states with acute water shortages: the northwestern states of Baja California and Baja California Sur, and the southeastern state of Quintana Roo.

However, in Mexico, where more than 400 such plants operate, there has been no research on their ecological effects, as corroborated by IPS, with the exception of the study “Desalination of water”, published in 2000 by the government’s Mexican Water Institute.

One basic desalination technique is thermal distillation, in which seawater is heated until it evaporates, the vapor condenses to form freshwater, and the remaining liquid is discarded as concentrated brine.

Another is reverse osmosis, in which water is filtered and then pumped at high pressure through thin membranes that only allow the liquid to pass through and retain the salt.

Global context

In 2019, the study “The State of Desalination and Brine Production: A Global Outlook”, produced by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, based in Ontario, Canada, warned of the growing generation of brine and its serious effects on the environment. The process of extracting brine, it estimated, accumulated a total of 142 million cubic metres (m3) of waste worldwide that year.

There are 18,214 desalination plants around the world, with an installed capacity of 89 million m3 per day, serving more than 300 million people, according to the latest data from the International Desalination Association. For every litre of water desalinated, a litre of brine is produced.

These plants are part of a trend towards the introduction of this technology in areas facing the threat of water stress or scarcity.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (C) visited Los Cabos, on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula at the northwestern tip of Mexico, in August, where he confirmed the construction of the larger of two new desalination plants in the state of Baja California Sur. Mexico already has 400 seawater treatment plants, but experts warn about the excessive costs and environmental impacts. CREDIT: Government of Baja California Sur

Water availability in Mexico

Mexico, Latin America’s second largest economy, has an area of 1.96 million square kilometres, 67 percent of which is arid and semi-arid land.

According to CONAGUA, water availability varies widely in this country of 129 million people, as it is scarce in the north and abundant in the south.

Of every 100 litres of rainfall, 72 return to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, 22 run off into rivers and streams, and six feed 653 aquifers, of which 108 were overexploited, 32 had saline soils or brackish water, and 18 had seawater infiltration due to rising sea levels and seepage into the water table.

Although Mexico had a low national water stress level in 2017 – 19.5 percent – its risk of water stress is high, according to the Aqueduct platform, developed by the Aqueduct Alliance, made up of governments, companies and foundations.

In fact, Mexico is the second most water-stressed country in the Americas, after Chile. Water stress could be a problem by 2040 from the centre to the north of the country.

Meanwhile, the extreme northwest presents a medium-high risk of aquifer depletion and practically the entire Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea present a medium-high risk of drought, precisely where most of the desalination plants are located.

Aqueduct takes into account 13 indicators of water stress, such as groundwater availability and depletion.

In the last five months, drought has worsened in Mexico – the third worst record of the century – a consequence of the climate crisis, according to data from the National Meteorological Service.

In Mexico water use is intense, reflected in its water footprint – the impact of human activities on water – of 1,978 m3/person per year, compared to a global average of 1,385.

As a result, national and regional authorities have set their sights on seawater, given that Mexico is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and there are a total of 150 municipalities with a coastline, out of a total of 2,466, according to the National Policy on Mexico’s Seas and Coasts.

This screenshot from a video by the Baja California Sur government in northwestern Mexico shows the site of the new desalination plant to be built in Los Cabos, next to the sea, including details of the different processes used to make the water from the Pacific Ocean fit for human consumption. CREDIT: IPS

Scalable model

This year, Héctor Aviña, an academic at the Engineering Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, plans to scale up his prototype geothermal-powered desalination plant in the city of Los Cabos, located in Baja California Sur, some 1,650 kilometres northwest of Mexico City.

“I don’t know if it is the best option because of brine generation and well exploitation, but it is a good alternative. Many areas are already experiencing water stress. In those places, desalination and beach wells can help aquifers recover,” Aviña told IPS from Mexico City.

The 500,000 dollar plan consists of upgrading a pilot plant from the current capacity of four m3 per day to 40 m3 and, if possible, to 400 m3, in an initiative to be developed with the state-owned Mexican Centre for Innovation in Geothermal Energy.

The project will take advantage of nearby hot water wells to obtain water and geothermal energy.

With this technology, the cost per m3 of water ranges from 0.8 to 1.3 dollars, compared to 0.6 to 1.00 dollars using reverse osmosis.

The National Infrastructure Investment Agreement, signed between the federal government and members of the business community in November 2020, includes the foundations for four desalination plants in Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sonora, with an investment of 643 million dollars and a capacity of 650 l/s.

But Muñoz suggested that before turning to desalination, poor irrigation practices, leaks and aging infrastructure should be addressed.

“Before considering desalination, measures such as water saving, investment in green infrastructure, rainwater harvesting and the reuse of treated water should be a priority. We must also compare the costs of building desalination plants versus alternatives,” she said.

In 2014 Aviña designed a reverse osmosis model equipped with solar panels and batteries, which has competitive costs.

“In other areas, the source of energy must be reviewed. Mexico is going to have water problems, it is a situation that we will have to live with. If we study it well, if we manage it well, desalination is a good alternative,” he argued.

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The post Making Seawater Potable in Mexico Has High Costs and Environmental Impacts appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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