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Die Abteilung Energie, Verkehr, Umwelt sucht ab dem 1. Oktober 2022 eine studentische Hilfskraft (w/m/div) für 9 Wochenstunden.

BRAC celebrates 50 years and has reached over nine million people living in extreme poverty through its Ultra-Poor Graduation program, which introduces a set of sequenced and holistic interventions intended to guarantee sustained financial stability. Credit: BRAC

By Naureen Hossain
New York, Jul 13 2022 (IPS)

As part of the 2022 United Nations High-Level Political Forum, BRAC, with the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations, and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Rwanda to the United Nations, hosted a side event this week to discuss development opportunities led by the Global South. The event highlighted the NGO’s achievements over the last five decades in alleviating and eradicating poverty and the interconnectedness between the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their initiatives.

As part of the 2022 United Nations High-Level Political Forum, BRAC and the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations hosted a side event this week to discuss development opportunities led by the Global South. The event highlighted the NGO’s achievements over the last five decades in alleviating and eradicating poverty and the interconnectedness between the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their initiatives.

The discussion was moderated by IPS Senior Vice Chair and Executive Director, IPS North America, Farhana Haque Rahman. Speakers included BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh, Ambassador Rabab Fatima of Bangladesh; Robert Kayinamura, Deputy Permanent Representative of Rwanda Mission to the United Nations; Deputy Chief and Senior Programme Management Officer to the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island States (UN-OHRLLS) Susanna Wolf; Oriana Bandiera, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, and Jaideep Prabhu, Director of the Center for India & Global Business, Cambridge University.

At the high-level discussion commemorating BRAC’s 50 years of eradicating poverty were BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh; Ambassador Rabab Fatima of Bangladesh and Robert Kayinamura, Deputy Permanent Representative of Rwanda Mission to the United Nations. Credit: BRAC

The event was a commemoration of BRAC’s 50th anniversary. Founded in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, BRAC began as a humanitarian relief provider after Bangladesh’s war of independence ended in 1971. The NGO has since grown in scale and operations, the only one of its size to originate from the Global South. Its programs reach over 100 million people in 11 South Asia and African countries. It aims to provide the tools and strategies for people to graduate from poverty and into more financially stable, resilient lives. Over the last five decades, BRAC has worked to address the pressing socio-economic issues of the times through holistic, solutions-based approaches that have relied on local community involvement in multiple program planning and implementation avenues.

The success of BRAC and other NGOs has also come down to the close collaboration between them and the Bangladesh government. Bangladesh has been celebrated for its economic growth and development, achieving the highest GDP globally from 2010 to 2020. The World Bank has called it a “model for poverty reduction”. This has been possible, as Ambassador Rabab Fatima stated in her opening remarks, because of the government’s “tremendous commitment to achieving the UN SDGs, especially SDG 1: No Poverty – aligning national plans and policy documents with SDG targets and goals and working in close partnership with the NGO sector and other civil society members, including BRAC”.

The forum’s discussion also deliberated on the multi-faceted approach needed for poverty eradication.

BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh noted that “critical to eradicating poverty is understanding that it is multidimensional.”

“Solutions must address not only income and livelihoods but also education, health, climate, and gender equality – the many interconnected drivers that trap people in the most extreme states of poverty, unable to escape without receiving a significant transfer of assets and tailored support…”

Saleh also remarked that BRAC’s social development and investment approach had been shaped by a “problems-driven approach, rather than a proposal-driven one” and is crucially defined by its founding and establishment in the Global South. The traditional approach to development, as designed and dictated by the Global North, has had the unintended consequence of excluding millions of people from traditional programs and market-led initiatives.

“What we’ve seen is that people in extreme poverty are being left behind in development discussions.”

Deputy Chief and Senior Programme Management Officer to UN-OHRLLS Susanna Wolf; Oriana Bandiera, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Jaideep Prabhu, Director of the Center for India & Global Business, Cambridge University. Credit: BRAC

The high-level forum also covered how BRAC’s work and, in turn, Bangladesh’s growth and success demonstrate the SDGs’ interconnectedness, particularly regarding SDG1. Most notably, SDGs 4, 5, and 17 call for equitable and inclusive quality education for all, gender equality and revitalizing global partnerships for sustainable development.

In working with millions of people living in extreme poverty, the solutions put forward by BRAC have been borne from innovation through frugality for the sake of financial viability and social and environmental impact, as Professor Jaideep Prabhu noted.

“Indeed, Bangladesh has pioneered the idea of social business… but instead of returning these profits to investors and owners, you put this wealth back into scaling your social mission and broadening your social impact.”

Prabhu also noted that this approach to business and social development had been adopted worldwide, including publicly listed companies that take responsibility for their performance’s social and environmental impact.

BRAC reached over nine million people living in extreme poverty through its Ultra-Poor Graduation program, which introduces a set of sequenced and holistic interventions intended to guarantee sustained financial stability.

Among their efforts at poverty eradication, a key factor has been to empower women through education and economic independence.

Oriana Bandiera of the London School of Economics remarked: “It is not possible to achieve SDG1 [No Poverty] without advancing economic opportunities for women and their status in society.”

Studies from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) have shown that investing in women’s economic empowerment can have a meaningful impact on social and economic development. This can be observed in Bangladesh, where it has made significant strides in reducing gender divisions, closing 72 percent of the overall gender gap, and reducing the rates of child marriages, maternal mortality, and family violence.

As was discussed in the forum, this investment in women’s economic empowerment and the long-term impact on poverty eradication can be achieved through community engagement. This has been seen in BRAC’s education programs, first pioneered in 1985. Their model for community-based education programs recruits women, men, and other members of local communities in the most vulnerable areas to provide accessible schooling for boys and girls in one-classroom settings. Today, BRAC has become one of the world’s largest education providers.

Poverty is multidimensional and solutions should not only address income and livelihoods but also education, health, climate, and gender equality, a high-level discussion moderated by IPS Senior Vice Chair and Executive Director, IPS North America, Farhana Haque Rahman heard. Credit: BRAC

BRAC demonstrated the potential for countries in the Global South to proactively lead development initiatives in the region. Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Rwanda to the UN Robert Kayinamura stated that middle-income countries should step up to corroborate and share their knowledge and lived experiences in shaping these initiatives, citing Rwanda’s growth in the development sector.

“We have tried to achieve within our means with the SDGs,” he said. “It has been partnerships, including BRAC, which has brought us to where we are.”

This sentiment and call for partnerships to achieve the SDGs was echoed by Susanna Wolf of UN-OHLLRS, who provided the perspective of international agencies.

“Strong emphasis on building resilience to various shocks from health emergencies to disasters and price shocks, which are all increasingly frequent and disproportionally affect LDCs (Least Developed Countries). To address the multidimensional nature of poverty, all partners are expected to step up their efforts. Social protection has an increasingly important role to play, and other LDCs can learn a lot from the innovative approaches spearheaded by BRAC.”

The systemic inequities that have resulted in and perpetuated extreme poverty have only come in sharper contrast in the wake of compounding global crises such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. The efforts of NGOs like BRAC and the frontline workers that continue to work through these crises to support the most vulnerable communities show their resilience. BRAC has championed people’s resilience, agency, and partnership for fifty years; may it continue for another fifty more.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Dauer des Videos : 62'

Haftungsausschluss : Die Verdolmetschung der Debatten soll die Kommunikation erleichtern, sie stellt jedoch keine authentische Aufzeichnung der Debatten dar. Authentisch sind nur die Originalfassungen der Reden bzw. ihre überprüften schriftlichen Übersetzungen.
Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2022 - EP

"No substantial information was received from Israel" on why six Palestinian NGOs should be banned over alleged terrorist links, the foreign ministries of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden said Tuesday in a joint statement. They pledged to continue funding them. The EU Commission recently also overturned a funding ban on two of the groups — Al-Haq and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

L'ONU prévient que les gouvernements doivent commencer à prendre en compte le vieillissement des populations dans leurs programmes de santé et de retraite car la population mondiale augmente de manière inégale comme en République démocratique du Congo, en Égypte, en Éthiopie, au Nigéria et en Tanzanie.

A vállalkozások esetében az új munkaerő megszerzése mindig bonyolult kiválasztási folyamattal jár. Ennek eredményeként egyre több cég dönt a munkaerő-kölcsönzés mellett, és bízza profikra azt a rendkívül időigényes feladatot.

A folyamatos fejlődés nagy energiákat emészt fel

Egy vállalat fejlődésének velejárója, hogy folyton új erőforrásra van szüksége. Nincs ez másként a humán erőforrással sem. A sokasodó feladatok miatt mindig újabb és újabb szakemberekre van szükség, akik megfelelő módon képesek ellátni a feladataikat. Az alkalmas jelöltek felkutatása nagyon nagy terhet ró a HR-osztályra, akik a felgyülemlett feladataikat képtelenek tökéletesen ellátni. 

A WHC munkaerő-kölcsönzés szolgáltatása által ezzel a kellemetlenséggel nem kell tovább számolniuk a cégeknek! A szolgáltató átvállalja ezt a feladatot és profi módon kivitelezi, így a munkatársak ideje és energiája felszabadulhat. A legtöbb esetben a meglévő kölcsönözhető állományból néhány napon belül új munkaerőhöz juthatunk. 

Miben segíthet a munkaerő-kölcsönzés?

A munkaerő-kölcsönzés alapvetően a toborzási és kiválasztási folyamattól, valamint a felesleges adminisztrációtól kíméli meg a céget. Alapesetben már a toborzás szervezése is nagyon sok időt emészt fel, hiszen a meghirdetett pozícióra általában rengeteg pályázat érkezik, amit mind át kell olvasni. 

Ezután következik a jelöltek körének szűkítése, ez az a folyamat, amikor a szakemberek kiválogatják azokat a jelölteket, akik alkalmasak a meghirdetett állásra. Az interjúvázlat és a beszélgetés lebonyolítása szintén nagyon hosszadalmas tud lenni, nem is beszélve a szakmai interjúról, amibe már az adott terület kompetens kollégáit is érdemes bevonni. Sok vállalat van, akik különböző tesztek kitöltésével próbálnak meggyőződni arról, hogy a jelölt megfelelő. 

A kiválasztást majd egy ajánlattétel követi, és ha mind a két fél elégedett, meg is kezdődhet a közös munka. 

A munkaerő-kölcsönzés ennél jóval egyszerűbb, csak a szolgáltatóval kell kapcsolatba lennünk, aki munkaerőt biztosít a cég számára. 

Sok előnnyel jár a munka kiszervezése

A szervezetek egyre gyakrabban folyamodnak a feladatok kiszervezéséhez, legyen szó munkaerő-kölcsönzésről vagy bármilyen más adminisztratív teendőről. Azok a munkák, amelyek nem igényelnek fizikai jelenlétet, kiválóan alkalmasak arra, hogy egy másik cég végezze el őket. Gondoljunk csak a különböző megbízotti feladatokra, akár a környezetvédelem, akár a könyvelés területén! 

A kiszervezéssel felszabadult időt a vállalat alkalmazottai sokkal fontosabb feladatok megoldására fordíthatják. Kivitelezhetőbbé válik a meghatározott célok elérése, illetve a kollégák jóllétének biztosítása, ami a humánerőforrás-osztály igazi feladata. Nem elhanyagolható az sem, hogy felesleges terhek alól felszabadult dolgozók sokkal stresszmentesebbek, motiváltabbak lesznek a munkájukban.

 

The post Munkaerő-kölcsönzéssel lesz könnyebb a cégek élete appeared first on .

Germany will end purchases of Russian coal on 1 August and quit Russian oil on 31 December, German state secretary Jörg Kukies said in Sydney.

Turquie : Osman Kavala condamné à la prison à vie
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In the context of the H2020 project DEMOTEC, rewatch this EURACTIV Virtual Conference to learn about the opportunities and challenges participatory budgeting offers to strengthen democracy in European cities.

Bekövetkezett az, amire legutóbb húsz éve, 2002 őszén volt példa: 1:1-ben váltották az eurót és a dollárt hajnalban - hívta fel a figyelmet a Telex.

Mumtaza Bano (centre), is ploughing the field along with other women in her village in south Kashmir. Farmers in the region have experienced a heat wave which has turned much of the area, known for lush green hills, into a dry wasteland. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

By Umar Manzoor Shah
Srinagar, Indian Kashmir, Jul 13 2022 (IPS)

The soaring temperatures this year in India’s northern state of Kashmir are proving calamitous for the region’s farming community.  The place, otherwise known for its emerald streams, lush green hills, and ice sheets, is reeling under heat attributed to climate change this year. The heat wave of such intensity has left most of the water canals dead and dry, plunging the already conflict-torn region into a frightening agrarian crisis.

Perturbed and dismayed, Ghulam Mohammad Mir is trying to sow a paddy crop on his two-acre plot in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal area. Mir says his months of hard work would probably get wasted as the land has almost turned barren due to scorching heat and water scarcity.

“We are witnessing the temperatures spiking as high as 37 degrees Celsius. Such heat wave was otherwise alien to Kashmir. You can see the land looks barren, and if we sow any crop here, we fear it would turn into dry, dead twigs in the coming days. The scenes are scary to imagine. There is little water accumulated by the rain left in the fields,” Mir told IPS.

Ghulam Mohammad Mir is sowing a paddy crop on his two-acre land located in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal area. Mir says his months of hard work will probably get wasted as the land has almost turned barren in the unrelenting heat. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

The farmer, who is in his late 50s, says he has been in paddy cultivation since childhood but has never seen the drying of the land with such intensity.  Mir says the water canals were never as dry as they are today, and in the first three months after spring – from March to June, there was no rainfall, and then it rained heavily for four days, suddenly plummeting the temperatures to mere 15 degrees Celsius.

“And then, the mercury surged again, and within a mere one week, the temperatures surged to almost 37 degrees. Where will we get water to irrigate our fields now? The paddy will burn amid such scorching heat. This is disastrous to the core,” Mir said.

According to the research titled ‘Climate Change Projection in Kashmir Valley’ conducted by the region’s agriculture university, the states of Jammu and Kashmir are impacted by climate change. The state, claims the research, is expected to have a surge in the number of rainy days by 2030.

“Similarly, the annual temperature is likely to increase in the next century compared to the base period of 1970. An increasing trend in annual maximum and minimum temperature, as well as precipitation, has also been predicted for the region under Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES).”

Over the years, the valley has experienced irregular precipitation patterns. In the first five months of 2022, Kashmir saw a 38 percent decrease in rainfall, according to data from the Meteorological Department (MeT) in Srinagar. The data reveals that the Kashmir valley has experienced a significant lack of pre-monsoon precipitation over the years. From March 1 to May 31, 2022, the region got 99.5 mm of rain, a 70 percent down from the average. Comparably, between March and May of each of the following years—2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021—there was a deficit of 16, 28, 35, and 26%, respectively.

Mohammad Iqbal Choudhary, the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Kashmir, told IPS that most irrigation canals have turned dry in Kashmir. As a result, the majority of paddy fields have been left uncultivated.

Dr Arshid Jahangir, who teaches Environmental Studies at the University of Kashmir, said climate models indicate a pretty bleak outlook for the region.

In the future, Jahangir says extreme events will happen more frequently in the Himalayas, which includes Kashmir.

“The Kashmir region has had numerous extreme weather occurrences in the last ten years, including floods, frequent cloudbursts, heat waves, droughts, landslides, and early snowfalls. In Kashmir’s climate history, such occurrences were never typical. These extreme events won’t just keep happening; their frequency will also rise. Aside from the financial losses, everyone’s lives are in danger as a result of this,” he said.

For farmers like Mir, if the situation doesn’t improve, they will have no choice but to abandon farming forever.

“You see, our children do not want to do this work. They ask, ‘what is the fun of toiling so hard only to get losses in the end?’ We could sell this land off and do some other business,” Mir said.

Most Kashmiris are farmers, using various techniques adapted to the region’s environment. Rice is planted in May and harvested in September. The main summer crops are maize, sorghum, millet, pulses, tobacco, and cotton, and the main spring crop is barley.

In south Kashmir’s Pulwama area, Mumtaza Bano was busy ploughing her two-acre land with her husband. However, Bano seems pessimistic about having a profitable yield this year.

“The soil looks hard, and it is tough to plough it through. It is July, and we are without any irrigation facility here. The canals are running dry, and so are our hopes of a good yield. This entire village is considering abandoning farming now and doing some other work. It is just a waste of time now,” Bano said.

Kashmir’s renowned earth scientist Professor Shakil Ahmad Ramsoo, told IPS that action at the global level is needed to resolve the crises prevalent across the Himalayan region.

“Global climate change is a reality. There would be extended dry spells interspersed with high-intensity, long-duration downpours. There is a trend when we look over the past 30 to 50 years. Snowfall in the winter is currently below average. The autumn is becoming dryer. The rainy spring is drying up. This is why the crisis needs global attention so that we can mitigate it,” Ramsoo said.
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Immanuel Nour devait retrouver, durant une semaine, sa communauté de coursiers à Bruxelles. Le séjour n’a duré qu’un jour et demi.

Bírósághoz fordul a Twitter, miután Elon Musk után úgy döntött, mégsem akarja megvenni a techcéget. A Twitter szerint Musk tönkreteszi a vállalatot azzal, hogy aláírt egy megállapodást, majd meggondolta magát.

Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.
                                                    Michel de Montaigne

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Jul 13 2022 (IPS)

During the beginning of the pandemic, people wanted to learn more about COVID-19. Enclosed in their homes they watched with fear and fascination how the pandemic swept over the world, while comparing numbers of affected people and the death-toll in different countries. Watching COVID’s rampage became a kind of horror show. However, already after a few months with death-tolls rising and isolation not being over anytime soon, psychological fatigue set in. Judging from media coverage it now appears as if the pandemic finally is over, which is far from being the case.

A similar phenomenon seems to arise in relation to the war in Ukraine. Media coverage is decreasing, even if Russian troops are advancing while towns and villages continue to crumble under their heavy bombardment. The Ukrainian war came as a shock. Without provocation an independent nation was invaded by a military super-power. However, soon general interest was fading and the war in Ukraine is in the minds of many gradually being transformed into a “traditional” war. Affected by declining endurance and lack of commitment, as well as an audience-adapted media, people have a tendency to “normalise” protracted human suffering.

Relatively safe and comfortable, media audience is now returning to previous internet surfing and TV channel zapping, searching for entertainment and celebrity gossip. The U.S. author Norman Mailer often repeated his view of the “Western World” as a place where people out of convenience and inertia tend to gloss over all complexity, avoiding questions that take more than ten seconds to answer. To form an opinion, they require tangible and upsetting events, while more in-depth analyses tend to bore them.

Superficiality and lack of analysis are evident in emotionally charged and polarizing postings prevailing on social media networks, where propaganda and shallow information are delivered to millions of consumers, distracting them from important issues, while strengthening hatred and bigotry, eroding social trust, undermining serious journalism, fostering doubts about science and furthermore serving as covert surveillance of lives and opinions of individuals acceding the global web.

Young people tend to have significantly better computer skills than older newspaper- and book readers and are accordingly by elders accused of spending too much time within a digital world. Nevertheless, I assume most internet users, no matter their age, have a tendency to enter a limited, personal niche of specific information. Their approach to source criticism is to visit sites they are familiar with, judging such information to be more trustworthy than the one offered by other news outlets.

Social media might make sense of life, though the problem is that they generally deal with other people’s views and lives, seldom with our own. However, this cannot be exclusively blamed on social media. After all, young and old are alike when it comes to assessing an incessant avalanche of information. It is a common human trait that few of us have the time, courage, or interest, to dig deep into our own mind in search of whom we actually are, as well as the origin of our ideas and opinions. Something that might influence a reluctance to take decisions on our own, and if we do so – take responsibility and stand by them.

Nevertheless, there are a few brave women and men who are able to do just that. An example – in 1983, a Soviet duty officer, Stanislav Petrov, did on the early warning system detect intercontinental, nuclear missiles entering Soviet air space. He was supposed to report this to his superiors, who without doubt would have launched a nuclear counter-attack. However, Petrov used his personal reasoning and experience. The radar had only detected five missiles and there was no indication of the U.S. considering a nuclear onslaught. If it really was a nuclear attack, why use only five missiles and not stage an “all-out assault”? Petrov assumed a system failure was more likely than an actual nuclear attack. He decided not to alert anyone and thus saved the world.

With this example in mind, let me return to COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. Social networks are excellent tools for acquiring knowledge, though at the same time they nurture tribalism and intolerance, spreading damaging beliefs by convincing people to support a common, but bad cause, while avoiding personal, well-thought-out positions. Shared beliefs are the glue of community. In a bewildering and often hostile environment we are in need of a fixed place/position. A sense of belonging makes us feel safe and protected. We are herd animals and some of us consider the defence of rigid and shared beliefs as a matter of life or death, convictions that have to be kept alive and guarded from change, far beyond fact and reason.

Take the anti-vax movement. Due to strong beliefs in vaccines’ harmfulness people are willing to put their own lives, as well as those of others, in danger and even losing jobs and friends. This in spite of a global, scientific consensus that vaccines are safe and beneficent.

Anti-vaxers might be influenced by a lack of scientific knowledge, mistrust of public authorities, insufficient confidence in health care providers, general complacency, and/or misguiding religious/ideological beliefs. Fundamentalist Christians may believe that vaccinations are instigated by the Beast and a overture to the Apocalypse. Adherents to the Waldorf Movement can apply the founder’s opinion that their children’s spirits benefit from being “tempered in the fires of a good inflammation”, while Salafists might consider vaccination campaigns as a means of Infidels to pacify the zeal of the Righteous.

Delusions are fuelled by more than a thousand web sites spreading anti-vaccine misinformation, as well as a host of books and articles clogging social media with misinformation, hindering serious information to reach people already deceived by fake news.

Vaccination campaigns have eradicated smallpox, which once killed as many as one in seven children in Europe alone. With the exception of Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan they made polio disappear from earth. Half a million children were in 2000 dying from measles, ten years later these deaths were down by eighty percent, akin to similar reductions in mortality from diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and bacterial meningitis.

There is a wealth of scientific proof that opposing vaccination campaigns has negative effects. An example – starting around 2008, Somali immigrants in Minneapolis were targeted by organized meetings warning for a “vaccine-autism link”, eight years later the Somali community was in the throes of a serious measles outbreak. The same happened in 2019, when the Orthodox Jewish community in New York was targeted by a campaign comparing vaccines to the Holocaust.

There is no link between vaccines and autism. In 1998, British scientist Andrew Wakefield published, in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, research results suggesting that measles-, mumps-, and rubella vaccines caused behavioural regression and developmental disorders in children. Even if Wakefield’s findings could not be reproduced and proven right, vaccination rates began to drop. After finding that research results had been falsified, The Lancet retracted Wakefield’s article. However, by then the vaccine-autism connection had gone viral on the web. Eventually, Wakefield was barred from practising medicine in the UK and it was found that his research had been funded by lawyers engaged by parents in lawsuits against vaccine-producing companies.

Even if there is no link between vaccines and autism, there is definitely one between plagues and war. The deadly influenza pandemic in 1918 was propelled by troop movements and population shifts. Typhus follows almost every war. Armed conflicts cause malnutrition, poor pest control, sanitation problems, soil and water contamination, and destruction of medical facilities, while vaccination and other mass-treatment programmes falter, or cease.

The current, armed conflict in Yemen has caused the largest cholera outbreak in history, while the disease was absent from this country before the war. Wars in Syria and Iraq led to a resurgence of measles and polio, and the same is occurring in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has severely damaged the health care infrastructure, preventing citizens from receiving medical help. Specialist services are disrupted – HIV treatment and tuberculosis control are impacted. COVID-19 is spreading, as physical distancing are difficult to maintain in underground shelters, while vaccination efforts have been disrupted. They were already low before the invasion, with only 35 percent of Ukraine residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The war has also halted a Government roll-out of polio vaccination.

Considering the intimate connection between war and epidemics, a holding on to the harmfulness of vaccine campaigns, or a justification of wars of aggression, appear to be both absurd and harmful. We need to learn to discern the “full picture”, to compare and listen to different voices/various
opinions and thus avoid to be entrenched in fake and harmful convictions.

Instead of being lured into bigotry, we ought to finally understand that everything is connected, not the least misinformation, war, and disease. This means we have to make a joint effort to refrain from spreading and clinging to fake news and instead try to save our planet from the actual perils threatening it. There is only one Earth and no spare.

Main source: Hotez, Peter J. (2021) Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti Science. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.
                                                    Michel de Montaigne

Heatwaves in Europe are worsening, with records being broken at an alarming rate. While multiple factors drive extreme weather, it’s increasingly hard to separate these outlier events from the pattern of our shifting climate.

Die Weltwirtschaft steuert in Richtung ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit. Aufgrund einer immer stringenteren umwelt- und klimapolitischen Regulierung setzen sich neue nachhaltige Techno­logien und Geschäftsmodelle durch. Diese wiederum verändern Wettbewerbs­bedingungen und Standortvorteile. Kluge Strukturpolitik antizipiert solche Veränderungen; sie lenkt und fördert die heimische Wirtschaft dahingehend, dass sie frühzeitig die Chancen dieses Strukturwandels nutzt. Das gilt auch für die Wirtschafts- und Beschäftigungsförderung in der Entwicklungs­zusammenarbeit. Mit einer Fokussierung auf ökologische Strukturpolitik als Entwicklungsmotor könnte die deutsche Entwicklungszusammenarbeit ihr in Teilbereichen – z. B. Förderung erneuerbarer Energien, Ökostandards in Lieferketten – bereits angelegtes besonderes Profil weiter ausbauen. Im vorliegenden Impulspapier schlagen wir sieben Themen vor, die in Zukunft ein stärkeres Gewicht bekommen sollten. Diese reichen von der Gestaltung wirtschafts­politischer Rahmenbedingungen (z. B. öko-sozialer Fiskalreformen) bis hin zur Nutzung spezi­fischer neuer Marktpotenziale in Bereichen wie nachhaltiger Stadtentwicklung, Bio­ökonomie und grünem Wasserstoff. Allen Themen ist gemeinsam, dass hier ein beschäftigungswirksamer Struktur­wandel sowie klima- und umweltpolitische Ziele synergetisch miteinander verknüpft werden.

Die Weltwirtschaft steuert in Richtung ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit. Aufgrund einer immer stringenteren umwelt- und klimapolitischen Regulierung setzen sich neue nachhaltige Techno­logien und Geschäftsmodelle durch. Diese wiederum verändern Wettbewerbs­bedingungen und Standortvorteile. Kluge Strukturpolitik antizipiert solche Veränderungen; sie lenkt und fördert die heimische Wirtschaft dahingehend, dass sie frühzeitig die Chancen dieses Strukturwandels nutzt. Das gilt auch für die Wirtschafts- und Beschäftigungsförderung in der Entwicklungs­zusammenarbeit. Mit einer Fokussierung auf ökologische Strukturpolitik als Entwicklungsmotor könnte die deutsche Entwicklungszusammenarbeit ihr in Teilbereichen – z. B. Förderung erneuerbarer Energien, Ökostandards in Lieferketten – bereits angelegtes besonderes Profil weiter ausbauen. Im vorliegenden Impulspapier schlagen wir sieben Themen vor, die in Zukunft ein stärkeres Gewicht bekommen sollten. Diese reichen von der Gestaltung wirtschafts­politischer Rahmenbedingungen (z. B. öko-sozialer Fiskalreformen) bis hin zur Nutzung spezi­fischer neuer Marktpotenziale in Bereichen wie nachhaltiger Stadtentwicklung, Bio­ökonomie und grünem Wasserstoff. Allen Themen ist gemeinsam, dass hier ein beschäftigungswirksamer Struktur­wandel sowie klima- und umweltpolitische Ziele synergetisch miteinander verknüpft werden.

Die Weltwirtschaft steuert in Richtung ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit. Aufgrund einer immer stringenteren umwelt- und klimapolitischen Regulierung setzen sich neue nachhaltige Techno­logien und Geschäftsmodelle durch. Diese wiederum verändern Wettbewerbs­bedingungen und Standortvorteile. Kluge Strukturpolitik antizipiert solche Veränderungen; sie lenkt und fördert die heimische Wirtschaft dahingehend, dass sie frühzeitig die Chancen dieses Strukturwandels nutzt. Das gilt auch für die Wirtschafts- und Beschäftigungsförderung in der Entwicklungs­zusammenarbeit. Mit einer Fokussierung auf ökologische Strukturpolitik als Entwicklungsmotor könnte die deutsche Entwicklungszusammenarbeit ihr in Teilbereichen – z. B. Förderung erneuerbarer Energien, Ökostandards in Lieferketten – bereits angelegtes besonderes Profil weiter ausbauen. Im vorliegenden Impulspapier schlagen wir sieben Themen vor, die in Zukunft ein stärkeres Gewicht bekommen sollten. Diese reichen von der Gestaltung wirtschafts­politischer Rahmenbedingungen (z. B. öko-sozialer Fiskalreformen) bis hin zur Nutzung spezi­fischer neuer Marktpotenziale in Bereichen wie nachhaltiger Stadtentwicklung, Bio­ökonomie und grünem Wasserstoff. Allen Themen ist gemeinsam, dass hier ein beschäftigungswirksamer Struktur­wandel sowie klima- und umweltpolitische Ziele synergetisch miteinander verknüpft werden.

It comes after Sir Mo Farah revealed he was trafficked to the UK as a child.

Az orosz erők kedden ismét támadták Ukrajna második legnépesebb városát, a keleti országrészben lévő Harkivot, délen pedig Mikolajivot, ahol civilek is áldozatul estek – közölték az érintett megyék kormányzói.

Vitalij Kim, Mikolajiv megye kormányzója közölte, hogy a régió központját ért orosz támadás következtében legalább tizenketten sérültek meg. Szavai szerint a lövedékek két egészégügyi intézményt és több lakóházat találtak el a városban.

Oleh Szinyehubov, Harkiv megye kormányzója arról tájékoztatott, hogy a megyeszékhely ipari övezetét érték találatok. Helyi források legalább 15 becsapódásról számoltak be, az egyik után komoly tűz keletkezett. Áldozatokról egyelőre nem érkezett jelentés.

Közben a katasztrófavédelmi szolgálat közölte, hogy 38-ra nőt a Csasziv Jar elleni vasárnapi orosz támadás halálos áldozatainak száma. A Donyeck megyei településen egy ötszintes lakóházat ért találat. Az elhunytak között van egy kilenc év körüli kisfiú. A romok alól eddig kilenc sérültet mentettek ki élve. Pavlo Kirilenko Donyeck megyei kormányzó tájékoztatása szerint mostanáig a romok mintegy hetven százalékát takarították el. A katasztrófavédelem délutáni közleménye szerint eddig több mint négyszáz tonna megsemmisült házelemet takarítottak el, illetve és szedtek szét, de a munkálatok még tartanak.

Az ukrán katonai hírszerzés közölte, hogy öt ukrán foglyot – egy katonát egy rendőrt és három civilt – mentettek ki “különleges művelettel” orosz fogságból, az ország déli részén orosz megszállás alá került Herszon megyéből. A kiszabadított foglyok egyikének súlyos harci sebesülései vannak. A kiszabadító műveletről több részletet nem hoztak nyilvánosságra.

Ivan Fedorov, az oroszok által elfoglalt Melitopol polgármestere arról adott hírt, hogy a Zaporizzsja megyében lévő város mellett, Mirne faluban kigyulladt az orosz erők egyik bázisa. A polgármester elmondása szerint ez az a bázis, ahová az oroszok katonai felszereléseiket áthelyezték, miután egy héttel ezelőtt az ukrán fegyveres erők pusztító csapásokat mértek a melitopoli repülőtér melletti orosz támaszpontra. A RIA Melitopol helyi orosz nyelvű hírportál azt írta hogy helybeliek Mirne falu közelében körülbelül 25 robbanást hallottak, és magas füstoszlop szállt fel a területről.

Ezt megelőzően az ukrán fegyveres erők keddre virradó éjjel megtámadták az Ukrán Biztonsági Szolgálat (SZBU) oroszok által elfoglalt épületét Enerhodarban. A város ad otthont a szintén orosz megszállás alá került zaporizzsjai atomerőmű dolgozóinak. Az ukrajnai atomerőműveket működtető Enerhoatom állami vállalat közlése szerint a támadást az ukrán hadsereg drónokkal hajtotta végre, és eltalálták az épületet. Az Ukrajinszka Pravda hírportál a RIA Novosztyi orosz hírportál jelentése alapján azt írta, hogy az ukrán drónok két aknát dobtak egy épületre a zaporizzsjai atomerőmű közelében, de senki sem sérült meg. Az orosz hírportál által közölt fotókon az látható, hogy megsérült az épület teteje és kitörtek az ablakai.

Az ukrán fegyveres erők déli parancsnoksága megerősítette, hogy megsemmisítették az oroszok egyik lőszerraktárát a Herszon megyei Nova Kahovkában. A jelentés szerint az ukrán rakéta- és tüzérségi egységek sikeres műveletének következtében az orosz erők 52 katonát, egy 152 milliméter kaliberű tarackot és hát darab páncélozott és más járművet, valamint lőszereket veszítettek.

 

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