NEWSBRIEFS

Ghana Starts with Cocoa to End Neocolonial Trading Ties

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — At a state visit to Switzerland last year, Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo put his cards on the table. The second-largest cocoa producer would no longer ship the raw material to Switzerland if by doing so, it would trap the country in poverty for the next century.

Ghana and the Ivory Coast supply 70% of the cocoa beans, but most of the value in a chocolate bar is generated in Europe and North America. The global chocolate industry is worth over US$150 billion. West African economies receive less than US$6 billion.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 08 June 2021

Photo: TB Joshua. Source: fullview.co.za

Nigerian Preacher's Sudden Death Stuns Scores of His Followers

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — “Time for everything—time to come here for prayer and time to return home after the service.”

With those words, Nigerian preacher TB Joshua, one of Africa's most influential televangelists, ended his final sermon on Emmanuel TV, the broadcast arm of his megachurch. His death was marked by over 300,000 followers on Facebook within 24 hours of his passing on June 5. He was 57.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 June 2021

Photo: Timorese health staff carrying out swab tests for covid-19 in Dili. Image: Tatoli News.

Timor Government May Punish Public Officials Who Refuse Covid Vaccination

By Antonio Sampaio

The writer is the bureau chief of Lusa News Agency in Dili, the capital and largest city of East Timor. This report first appeared on the website of Lusa News Agency and was carried by our partner on May 27, 2021. It is being republished with permission.

DILL (IDN | APR) — The Timor-Leste government may apply disciplinary action to public officials doing face-to-face work who refuse to take the vaccine while maintaining that vaccination against covid-19 is not mandatory.

: Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 03 June 2021

Collage: Pictures of the DR Congo volcano, Nigerian anti-Jihadist military brass and filmmaker Ladebo. Sources: Internet

Volcano Forces the Congolese to Flee—Anti-Jihadist Military Brass Die in A Plane Crash—Filmmaker Ladebo Passes Away

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — While thousands in Congo flee to Rwanda because of an erupting volcano, anti-jihadist military brass have died in a Nigerian plane crash, and Ladi Ladebo, early film collaborator with Ossie Davis, has passed away.

An erupting mountain of fiery red flames from one of the world’s most active and dangerous volcanoes shook residents of the city of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, sparking a panicked exodus by thousands to neighbouring Rwanda.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 May 2021

Image: A NASA image of the Earth. Public Domain.

Rich Countries, Are You Listening? Pay Up the Climate Debt Owed to Global South!

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A number of African activists were listening in at President Joe Biden’s major climate summit on April 22 at which 40 world leaders were invited. Among the listeners was Kumi Naidoo, special adviser for the Green Economy Coalition’s Social Contract Initiative and Dipti Bhatnagar of Friends of the Earth International.

Naidoo, former head of Amnesty International and Greenpeace, claimed that foot dragging, particularly on the part of the United States, not only with Trump but with previous administrations, has left the world basically at one minute to midnight in terms of the climate crisis.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 24 April 2021

Photo: Older adults are amongst the first Peruvians to receive COVID-19 vaccines at a vaccination site in Lima, Peru. © UNICEF/Jose Vilca

COVAX Programme — US Decision to Lift Sanctions Against ICC — Four Peacekeepers Killed

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN | UN News) — The UN-backed COVAX scheme aims to get two billion vaccine doses into the arms of around a quarter of the population of poorer countries by the end of 2021. Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the United States decision to lift sanctions and visa restrictions against officials with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Furthermore. he has strongly condemned a deadly attack on April 2 against peacekeepers serving with the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA.

: Radwan Jakeem; UN INSIDER; 05 April 2021

Photo: The UN joins landmarks around the world by turning off the lights at its New York headquarters in observance of Earth Jour (file). Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Make Peace with Nature — India's COVID-19 Vaccines for UN Helmets — UNDP Preparing for Disaster in Nepal

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — Earth Hour, India's donation of 200,000 vaccines to protect UN blue helmets against the coronavirus, and the UN is scaling up its efforts to help Nepal, which faces numerous natural threats, are some of the notable events in the last days.

On March 27, the world began to ripple to darkness as countries globally dimmed their lights at 8:30 pm local time for Earth Hour—an event that, according to the UN, encourages individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights, for one hour.

: Radwan Jakeem; UN INSIDER; 28 March 2021

Photo: Two Red Cross workers racing to revive the child at the port of Arguineguín in Spain's Gran Canaria island. Source: El Pais | Ángel Medina G. / EFE

Toddler's Death Highlights Perils of Crossing the Atlantic

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The sight of refugees clinging to leaking boats, barely floating in frigid waters, or worse, washing up lifelessly on sandy shores, almost fails to shock after these images repeat over and over, year after year.

But consciences were re-awakened when a two-year toddler from Mali was seen lifted from a sinking vessel packed with refugees. A team of Red Cross nurses worked frantically to resuscitate the girl who had suffered cardiac arrest. They hoped for a miracle. It never came.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 22 March 2021

Photo: Nawal el Saadawi, Tahrir, April 2012. CC BY 2.0

Egyptian Feminist Writer, Activist and Physician Dies

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Over the course of a lifetime spent fighting for women’s rights and equality, Nawal El Saadawi inspired generations of women even while she faced threats against her life and imprisonment.

Aged 89, she died on March 21 in a Cairo hospital after a long illness.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Middle East; 22 March 2021

Photo: Security forces stand outside a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, on January 14, 2021. Source: The African Report.

Ugandan Election Rights Violations Elicit Threat of European Union Sanctions

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | BRUSSELS (IDN) — As Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni bore down on rights groups and the opposition, the European Union (EU) Parliament responded with the threat of sanctions against Ugandan individuals and organizations they hold responsible for abuses during the recent general election.

Museveni apparently sparked the EU backlash when he instructed the Ministry of Finance, in a letter dated January 1, to suspend the activities of the Democratic Governance Facility, a basket fund of European countries that bankroll most Ugandan civil society organizations that work on governance, rights and related themes.