Health & Well Being

Photo: Mass graves – such as these in northern Rio de Janeiro – have been needed to bury the dead during the pandemic. Credit: EPA-EFE

COVID-19: How Brazil Became the World's 2nd Worst Hit Country

Viewpoint by Alfredo Saad Filho*

LONDON (IDN) – The COVID-19 pandemic has stress-tested countries, economies and political systems like never before. Nowhere has the outcome been more devastating than in Brazil, arguably the country with the worst pandemic response in the world.

Brazil’s vulnerabilities are visible in the mass graves in São Paulo and Manaus. The country is competing with the USA for the largest number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases (more than one million) and the highest number of fatalities (above 50,000 – but likely to be a vast undercount). Disturbingly, there is no sign that Brazil’s cases or deaths have peaked yet.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 01 July 2020

The Middle East Reeling Under COVID-19 Impact on Livelihoods and Food Security

By Bernhard Schell

AMMAN (IDN) – Highlighting the increasingly dire situation in countries across the Middle East, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that "deep humanitarian needs will worsen and new ones will emerge if the international community doesn't factor socio-economic aftershocks into our response and protect livelihoods and food security".

: Bernhard Schell; THE WORLD; Middle East; 28 June 2020

Photo: United Nations Secretary-General Mr António Guterres and Deputy Secretary-General Ms Amina Mohammed have been emphasizing the role of media in achieving SDGs. Credit: UN Photo

The Media Can Stimulate Sustainable Development in Africa

Viewpoint by Siddharth Chatterjee

The writer is the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya. Follow Siddharth Chatterjee on twitter- @sidchat1. The following is his foreword to the annual publication, 'Striving for People, Planet and Peace'. The latest edition will be online in the next few days on SDGsforAll.net.

NAIROBI (IDN) – When 17-year-old high school student Darnella Fraizer filmed the last minutes of George Floyd’s life under the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin, she could not have imagined that her footage would reignite the explosive global question of racial inequality and the subsequent clamour for reforms in policing.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 26 June 2020

Photo: Volunteer health workers in Lagos, Nigeria, are on the streets to help distribute food. Source: DW.COM

Using Covid-19 Donations to Give Charity A Bad Name

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) – Global response to the outbreak of the Coronavirus in Africa has been remarkable, especially following fears that should the virus take hold, its impact on the continent could be catastrophic.

Twenty of the 80 beneficiaries of the $50billion announced as emergency financing facility by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are in Africa.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 June 2020

Photo: A Palestine refugee woman receives food assistance at the UNRWA Khan Younis Distribution Centre in Gaza. Credit: UNRWA | Tamer Hamam

Conference Raises $130m for UN Palestinian Refugee Agency

By Bernhard Schell

AMMAN | STOCKHOLM (IDN) – Seventy-five governments and non-governmental organisations have pledged $130 million in financial commitments to sustain the operations and services of the acutely underfunded United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). They gave the assurance at an extraordinary global meeting at the ministerial level. Sweden and Jordan hosted the online conference on June 23.

: Bernhard Schell; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 24 June 2020

A UN Day Will Address Serious Concerns of Widows Worldwide

Viewpoint by Roseline Orwa *

BONDO, Kenya (IDN) – COVID-19, the deadly pandemic that has upended our world, is also, according to a new report, “a widow-making machine”. The emerging scientific evidence that many more men than women are dying from COVID-19 shows that the coronavirus crisis is creating new widows even as global economic turbulence affects women who have been struggling with poverty, discrimination and injustice for years.

International Widows’ Day on 23 June is a reminder of the challenges faced by the world’s 258 million formidable, courageous widows and the 585 million children in their care – and the pandemic makes those challenges even greater.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 19 June 2020

Looking Beyond the COVID-19 'Pandemic of Fear'

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Perspective and proportion are everything in this Pandemic of Fear that now consumes our attention and our daily lives. With very rare exceptions the media ignores this. As I write there have been world-wide 436,005 deaths from Coronavirus. But a remarkable, barely noticed, 4,137,712 have recovered.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 16 June 2020

Image: Owned by Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, MIDROC Gold Mine Plc has operated the open-cast mine in Guji zone of the Oromia region for more than two decades. (Image courtesy of Wardell Armstrong.)

Ethiopian Gold Mine Leaves Deadly Toxic Waste Trail in Prime Minister's Home Town

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A gold mine in Ethiopia's most populous and restive region, Oromia, has been anything but a blessing. Residents claim that contamination from the mine, owned by an Ethiopia-born Saudi tycoon, has led to disastrous health problems.

Locals say chemicals used to process gold at the open-pit mine near Shakiso, 222 miles south of the capital, Addis Ababa, have polluted water streams and the air, causing humans and animals respiratory illnesses, miscarriages, birth defects and disabilities.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 14 June 2020

Photo: U.S. President Donald J. Trump addresses the general debate of the General Assembly's seventy-fourth session. 24 September 2019. United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak

Global Governance From The Perspective Of US President Trump

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Ritesh Tandon*

Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat, and Ritesh Tandon is the Republican Party Candidate for the U.S. Congress from 17th Dist. California.

CALIFORNIA (IDN) – Pursuit of Peace and Development has been cherished both by nations and the international community. The U.S. under the Trump administration, in particular, has made it a specific policy and manifested a synergy of both in the government's many decisions.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 June 2020

Photo: Some 300 drivers, including motorcycle taxi drivers, in Bangui, Central African Republic, received information about preventive measures to fight the Coronavirus. Credit: MINUSCA/Biliaminou A. Alao

COVID-19 in Africa: WHO Urges Constant Vigilance as Cases Top 200,000

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – At present, Africa has an only small fraction of more than 7.5 million COVID-19 affected people, nearly 423,000 of whom have died because of the Coronavirus worldwide. The virus has affected about 200,000 people on the 54-nation continent and killed 5,600.

"Swift and early action by African countries has helped to keep numbers low but constant vigilance is needed to stop COVID-19 from overwhelming health facilities," Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, has warned.