THE WORLD – Page 184 – IDN-InDepthNews

Africa2016-12-082023-07-10

Mining Deepening South Africa’s Climate Change Crisis

By Jeffrey Moyo

JOHANNESBURG (ACP-IDN) – Mariette Lieferink has been dubbed South Africa’s climate change hero and she is prominently featured as the country’s leading environmental activist in South African media.

Now, moved by the heavy contribution of the country’s mines to climate change, Lieferink, who heads the Federation for a Sustainable Development (FSE), is working flat out to clean up the hugely polluted mining areas of Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, which is also one of the world’s 50 largest urban areas.

According to Lieferink, climate change is a potential disaster, poised to trigger the ‘toxic time bomb’ left by over 120 years of mining, particularly across Johannesburg, which is also South Africa’s industrial hub.

Asia-Pacific2016-12-022023-07-10

An Island Where World’s First Cultured Pearls Were Created

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – To adorn the necks of all women in the world with pearls: this was the “humble ambition” of Kokichi Mikimoto, who died in September 1954 at the age of 96, says Noboru Shibahara, Manager of the Mikimoto Pearl Island, as we stand in front of a bronze statue of the man after whom Japan’s famous island is named.

Mikimoto was fully aware that “in order to realize his ambition, peace and trusted relations among nations have to exist based on democratic principles as advocated by Yukio Ozaki”, adds Shibahara.

Also remembered with his pseudonym ‘Gakudo’, Ozaki served in the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet for 63 years (1890–1953), and is still revered as the “God of constitutional politics” and the “Father of the Japanese Constitutional Democracy”.

Asia-Pacific2016-12-012023-07-10

A Japanese NGO Keeps Yuki Ozaki’s Spirit Alive

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

ISE | TOKYO (IDN) – Takako Doi is a warm-hearted, youthful and dynamic woman in her late sixties wedded to the cause of promoting educational and exchange programmes to foster international cooperation and friendship. She is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, and her mind, ears and eyes are open to the global community.

Doi is President of Gakudo Kofu, a not-for-profit organisation (NPO) launched in 2006 and tasked since 2010 with administration of the historic Ozaki Gakudo Memorial House supported by the Ise City, known as the ‘Holy City’ because it hosts Ise Jingu, the Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine complex centered on two main shrines, Naikū and Gekū, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Read in Japanese

Africa2016-12-012023-07-10

Morocco Hosts the World’s largest Solar Plant

By Fabíola Ortiz

MARRAKECH (IDN) – The ambitious Moroccan plan for harnessing heat coming from the sun in the Sahara desert and turning it into electricity has drawn international attention, also during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22), held in Marrakesh, between November 7-18.

Two hundred kilometres Northeast drive from the COP22 venue lies the 450 hectares Noor solar complex. When it starts fully operating in 2018, it will power over one million households and curb 760,000 tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions.

Africa2016-11-282023-07-10

African Livestock Experts Focus on Climate-Resilient Fodder

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Demand for milk and livestock products in Kenya is growing fast and has already outstripped supply in some parts of the country. One of the results is that many smallholder farmers are venturing into rearing dairy cattle and, to some extent, dairy goats.

One of these farmers is Emily Mukwambo, who keeps six dairy cows in her three and half acre farm in Busia County, western Kenya. However as Emily and thousands of other small-scale farmers embrace dairy farming, it is emerging that climate change is affecting the availability of fodder and forage leading to farmers failing to meet the nutritional needs of their livestock. Compounded by the lack of information some farmers have about these needs, milk production is being affected, leading to diminished incomes.

Asia-Pacific2016-11-272023-07-10

Malaysian Buddhist Monk Empowers Education of Muslim Children

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 12th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

KUALA LUMPUR (IDN | Lotus News Features) – A grand Chinese temple on the hills of central Kuala Lumpur overlooking the Malaysian capital was the site of a unique event on November 27 where a Sri Lankan born Buddhist monk’s vision to empower the education of poor Malaysian children, most of them Muslims, was taking place without the glare of any television cameras or the national media.

Asia-Pacific2016-11-272023-07-10

It’s Not Just About Demonetisation of 500 and 1000 Bank Notes

By Satya Sagar*

NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) – The abrupt demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes by the Narendra Modi regime is a drastic move that is staggering in its scale, ambition and repercussions. The only other figures in modern history one can think of, devious or stupid enough to attempt something similar, are the likes of Marcos, Suharto, Idi Amin and Pol Pot.

For all its audacity however, the decision could go down also as the grandest of blunders made by anyone in Indian political history. Poorly planned and implemented it is likely to prove disastrous not only for the country’s economy but – ironically enough – for the BJP’s own electoral fortunes.

Africa2016-11-252023-07-10

Mobile Phones Help Tanzania, Ghana Register Births

By Kizito Makoye Shigela

LUNYANYWI, Tanzania (ACP-IDN) – At a remote ward in Tanzania’s southern highlands, the entire village has gathered to celebrate the birth of a new member of their community.

Antonia Kisena (38) and her husband Moses (45) smile broadly as they welcome a baby boy they have named Anold. “My husband always wished to get a baby boy this time around, thank God it happened just like that,” says Kisena happily.

In most rural communities like this, the birth of a baby boy is a cause for celebration, because it is seen as a blessing to the community. Every time a baby boy is born, the villagers – young and old – must come together to welcome him by singing and performing traditional rituals. “It’s our tradition, you cannot simply get away from it,” says Kisena.

Asia-Pacific2016-11-242023-07-10

Nepal Youths Make Sexual Health Services More Accessible

By Stella Paul

KATHMANDU (IDN) – 21-year old Pabitra Bhattarai is a shy young woman with a soft voice and a ready smile. But, ask her about sexual health services and the shyness vanishes in an instant as she speaks passionately of how youths of her country must have rights to such services.

“Our country runs on the shoulders of young people. So, we can’t risk having a country full of young people with HIV. We must have full access to sexual and reproductive health services (SRHR),” she says, suddenly sounding far more mature than her age.

Africa2016-11-152023-07-10

Morocco Hosts Africa’s Coordinating Office on Desertification

MARRAKECH (IDN) – Morocco has agreed to host the Africa Regional coordination Unit of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) with a view to providing the Bonn-based secretariat with vital support services that the Parties to the Convention need to effectively implement the Convention in Africa.

The announcement to this effect was made on November 14 by Abdeladim Lhafi, Morocco’s High Commissioner for Water and Forests and the Fight against Desertification and Commissioner of the 22nd session of Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Conference (COP22), from November 7 to 18 in Marrakech.