All posts by CPNN Coordinator

About CPNN Coordinator

Dr David Adams is the coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the International Year for the Culture of Peace, proclaimed for the Year 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly.

USA: How Detroit’s farms and gardens are adapting to the COVID-19 crisis

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article from Planet Detroit

Patrick Crouch has been spending long days in the greenhouse over the past few weeks, seeding and growing out transplants for eventual distribution to gardens across the city.

As a program manager at Earthworks Urban Farm, Crouch sees his role taking on a new importance during the COVID-19 crisis. “If you can get people to go out to the store once a month and just stockpile staples and then they are able to get fresh produce out of their backyard, you can really limit their movement,” he says.


Photo courtesy Keep Growing Detroit

Gardening seems to be having a moment  as the crisis pushes people to find constructive ways to use their time, reduce trips to the grocery stores, and benefit from its therapeutic aspects. 

But with Governor Whitmer’s recent order  shutting down the sale of landscaping and gardening supplies in stores larger than 50,000 square feet, some are anxious about getting their gardens planted. Note: Politifact debunks  the claim that it is illegal to purchase farm and garden supplies in Michigan. 

Detroit’s farm and garden community have had to adapt to new realities — including helping their workers and customers stay safe and adjusting to an expected increased need for fresh food. They’re working hard to grow as much as possible with limited staff and doing without volunteer labor.

Crouch says other operations at the Earthworks, like selling fresh produce and giving food to the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, have had to take a back seat to transplant production. “The ability to keep people in place and…have nourishing food seems like the most impactful work we can do right now,” says Crouch.

Ashley Atkinson, co-director of Keep Growing Detroit (KGD), which runs the Garden Resource Program  that supplies more than unemployment skyrocket  at the same time food banks are seeing a huge spike in demand. 

Kristin Sokul, a spokesperson for Gleaners Community Foodbank, told Planet Detroit that the organization distributed an additional 4 million pounds of food in Southeast Michigan since the crisis began— an increase of twenty-five percent. Although Gleaners has been able to maintain the volume of food they’re providing, they’ve run out of some items and are seeing long lines  at pickups. 

Homegrown produce could help this situation. But farmers are finding they need to adjust their operations in ways that can slow progress. For example, KGD’s distributions of plants and seeds are normally communal events that take place in locations throughout the city. However, this year, they plan on transitioning to curbside pickup to minimize or eliminate contact between KGD’s staff and program participants. 

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Question for this article:

What is the relation between movements for food sovereignty and the global movement for a culture of peace?

How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

(article continued from left side of page)

Although there’s currently a waiting list for resources, Atkinson encourages people to contact KGD  if they’re looking for seeds and plants. KGD has shifted its resources and programs by moving as much of the educational part of their programming  online as possible via free webinars and Facebook live events and is doubling down on growing as much food as possible in its own farms and gardens. 

Now, with the COVID-19 crisis hitting Detroit hard  and revealing issues with local food supply-chains — like how much of it caters to restaurants and wholesalers  instead of residents — Atkinson believes the work that her organization has done can help show a way forward.

“We’ve worked for two decades to build the capacity of this community to be able to feed itself,” Atkinson says of the work KGD has done to help create food sovereignty  in the city. 

For-profit farmers also face a series of hard choices during the pandemic. Andy Chae runs Fisheye Farms  with his wife Amy Eckert in Detroit’s Core City neighborhood. They’ve had to alter how they move produce in the last month or so, from selling primarily to restaurants to taking online orders from individuals for boxes of food that include items from other growers like Brother Nature Produce , Rising Pheasant Farms and The Mushroom Factory. 

On the bright side, Chae says the crisis has increased Fisheye Farms’ visibility; they’ve gained 1,000 followers on Instagram  since the stay-at-home-order went into place in Michigan. The increased following led to the farm selling about 30 boxes of produce in two different sizes at their last weekly farm stand, according to Chae.

To decrease interactions with the public, Fisheye Farms is using a pre-sale model where payments are made online and the only interaction is picking up the produce. Chae is also using overturned pails as “social distancing buckets” to help customers maintain separation between themselves during pickups. On the back end, workers harvest with gloves and face masks and are keeping volunteers off the farm for now.

Going forward, Chae says they plan to start a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program for the season, where customers buy a share of the farm’s produce for the upcoming season and make weekly pickups. They may also team up with local restaurants to take turns selling produce, giving customers more options for when and where they can pick up food. 

Chae says that a small, highly diversified farm like his can weather the economic downturn and he’s grateful to have meaningful work, but adds, “I’m burning out a little bit already, which usually I’m burning out in August and not in April.” 

For his part, Crouch is wondering if the new emphasis on people growing more of their own food or picking it up from a neighborhood farmer will become a permanent part of the way the city’s food producers operate going forward. 

But more immediately, he needs to figure out what Earthworks’ crop plan is going to look like this season, considering that the soup kitchen might not be able to process certain things without volunteers and that the farm stand may have to be run differently to keep people safe. 

“I’ve got to move from debate to action pretty soon,” Crouch says, contemplating the asparagus and greenhouse crops that will need to be harvested shortly. “I think we can hold for another couple of weeks before things really start coming on.”

North America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Grow your own: Urban farming flourishes in coronavirus lockdowns

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Rina Chandran for Thomson Reuters Foundation (reprinted by permission)

Coronavirus lockdowns are pushing more city dwellers to grow fruit and vegetables in their homes, providing a potentially lasting boost to urban farming, architects and food experts said on Tuesday [April 7].


A post office employee harvests vegetables on the rooftop garden of the postal sorting center in Paris, France, September 22, 2017. Reuters / Charles Platiau

Confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, total more than 1.3 million, with about 74,000 deaths worldwide, according to a Reuters tally.

Panic buying in some countries during the crisis has led to empty supermarket shelves and an uptick in the purchase of seeds, according to media reports.

“More people are thinking about where their food comes from, how easily it can be disrupted, and how to reduce disruptions,” said landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom, who designed Asia’s largest urban rooftop farm in Bangkok.

“People, planners and governments should all be rethinking how land is used in cities. Urban farming can improve food security and nutrition, reduce climate change impacts, and lower stress,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

More than two-thirds of the world’s population is forecast to live in cities by 2050, according to the United Nations.

(Article continued on right side of page)

Question for this article:

What is the relation between movements for food sovereignty and the global movement for a culture of peace?

How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

Urban agriculture can be crucial to feeding them, potentially producing as much as 180 million tonnes of food a year – or about 10% of the global output of pulses and vegetables, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Earth’s Future.

The coronavirus outbreak is not be the first time that concerns about food security have led to more kitchen gardens.

During World War One, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asked Americans to plant “Victory Gardens” to prevent food shortages.

The effort continued during World War Two, with vegetable gardens in backyards and schoolyards, on unused land, and even the front lawn of the White House.

In recent decades, the fast pace of urbanisation in developing countries is causing urban malnutrition, the Food and Agriculture Organization said, calling on planners to become “nutrition partners” and pay attention to food security.

Despite pressure on land to build homes and roads, there is more than enough urban land available within UK cities to meet the fruit and vegetable requirements of its population, researchers at the Institute for Sustainable Food at Britain’s University of Sheffield said in a study last month.

In tiny Singapore, one of the wealthiest nations in Asia that imports more than 90% of its food, urban farming including vertical and rooftop farms, is fast becoming popular.

The city-state, which ranks on top of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s global food security index for 2019, aims to produce 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030, by increasing the local supply of fruits, vegetables and protein from meat and fish.

On Monday, Singapore lawmaker Ang Wei Neng said that during the coronavirus outbreak, “it would be wise for us to think of how to invest in homegrown food”.

For Allan Lim, chief executive of ComCrop, a commercial urban farm in Singapore, the pandemic is a reminder that disruptions to food supplies can take place at any time.

“It has definitely sparked more interest in local produce. Urban farms can be a shock absorber during disruptions such as this,” he said.

(Thank you to Kiki Adams, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The New World Citizen Laboratory, Yali Gabon and PAYNCoP Gabon join forces to raise awareness about Covid 19

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY . .

Sent to CPNN by Jerry Bibang

As part of the fight against the covid 19 pandemic, the New World Citizen Laboratory (LCNM), Yali Gabon and PAYNCoP Gabon platforms have joined forces to raise awareness among young people about the covid 19 pandemic using comic strips.



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Question related to this article:
 
How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

(continued from left column).

The initiative supports government efforts since the start of the corona virus pandemic in our country. From the first cases of the disease, the highest authorities have declared war on this invisible enemy. Through this action, these three organizations want to make their modest contribution to this war.

The project consists in making young people aware of the myths surrounding Covid 19. “We started from an observation: several false ideas, relating to the treatment or prevention of covid 19, are conveyed by certain people” explained Dora from LCNM . “These people regularly use social networks (facebook and watsap) to disseminate their messages,” added Marcel Ebenezer.

Among these misconceptions that we call myths, there is, among others, the fact that corona does not exist in hot countries, the rainy season will wash the virus, the virus is also transmitted by mosquitoes, there is no real case in Gabon, the government is lying to us etc.
 
For Cédrick Kenfack of Yali Gabon, “the propagation of this false information constitutes an obstacle to the response against this pandemic. Reason why we thought it useful to fight against this false information by using the comic strip as a means of communication ”

In addition to the fight against fake news, the project also gives an important place to barrier gestures and useful advice to avoid the disease. A section entitled “Guide to good practice” is devoted to this effect. Each tip is illustrated with characters and explanatory texts.

“The idea was also to pool our skills and resources for a common goal in a collective intelligence approach. This is why the project brought together several organizations. Each contributed according to their resources. One wrote the texts, the other coordinated and the design was done by another, “said Jerry Bibang, PAYNCoP Gabon Coordinator.

(click here for the original version in French)

Africa, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

English bulletin May 1, 2020

. CHARTING THE WAY FORWARD .

In the month since we wrote in our bulletin that “the medical and economic crisis associated with the coronavirus can be seen as an opportunity as well as a calamity,” many analysts have taken this position and proposed how we can move forward. This includes proposals regarding all aspects of the culture of peace:

Disarmament and Security: Three former Royal Navy Commaders of the United Kingdom sent a letter to parliament saying that the 2 billion pounds a year spent on nuclear submarines cannot be justified and the money should be used for health care. The activist David Swanson in the United States proposes that the American Department of Defense should be converted from military operations and should work for universal financial and medical security. Reacting to the latest American threat of war, that against Venezuela, it is said that “the US should fight COVID, not Venezuela” and that “President Trump has no business deploying US military assets threatening Venezuela.”

Readers will recall that last month we published similar calls from the International Peace Bureau and the Peace Pledge Union to convert military budgets to money for health care, and the call by UN Secretary-General for a global ceasefire.

Solidarity: Around the world, people have responded to the crisis with actions of local solidarity to care for those who are vulnerable to the pandemic. A good example comes to us from the youth of Gabon who are providing water stations for the people living in poor areas. As expressed by the organization Tamara, in Portugal “the crisis represents a great opportunity, in addition to all its challenges: now, we have the opportunity to join forces worldwide to achieve a shared goal, develop social cohesion, set up decentralized structures, a solidarity economy – a genuine reboot”

Democratic participation: The Moroccan professor Abdelmoughit Benmassoud Tredano states that the economic crisis has only just begun. He repeats the call for solidarity: “at the individual, group and national level, individualism is outdated and solidarity is needed instead.” “This certainly implies rethinking the organization of the world on all levels . . . the organization of the world by regional groups must be adopted because no single state can stand alone, unless it is an entire continent.” According to the Council of Europe, Iin many countries, the lead is being taken by cities rather than the state. They provide the example of Raseborg in Finland.

Women’s equality: Nazra Feminist Studies of Egypt proposes that we adopt the feminist values “such as joining forces in times of fear, loss and build, collective responsibility and action towards our survival, international cooperation and collectiveness in order to understand and identify ways to overcome this crisis.”

In the short term sustainable development has been set back by the pandemic, but according to the World Economic Forum, “now is the time to start redirecting the $5.2 trillion  spent on fossil-fuel subsidies every year toward green infrastructure, reforestation, and investments in a more circular, shared, regenerative, low-carbon economy.”

Education for peace: In a recent webinar by he International Institute on Peace Education  and Global Campaign for Peace Education, educators from the USA, Austria, Puerto Rico, South Africa, China, Nigeria, Philippines, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and South Korea shared how they are responding to the pandemic and associated systemic violence and injustices.

“How human rights can help protect us from COVID-19″ is the title of an article from Amnesty International, stressing the need to protect the human rights to health, access to information, employment, housing, water, sanitation and freedom from discrimination.

Free flow of information. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the global crisis has pushed us further into a digital world. There has been a leap in teleworking and online conferencing, but only 20% of the population in the least developed countries use the internet, so the world needs a coordinated multilateral response to deal with the challenge of digitalization.

Of course, the eight aspects of the culture of peace are all inter-related and need to be addressed in coordination. This is seen in the following analyses.

Mazin Qumsiyeh sends us a global call from Palestine Action for the Planet which calls for democratization of the United Nations, reorganization of development priorities, drastic reduction in military spending, defense of democratic participation, global solidarity and restoration of ecological balance (“We humans must recognize ourselves as part of nature and live in harmony with it”).

William Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and professor of history, gives us seven suggestions “to change America” [and, we may add, “to change the world”]. The first is to reduce military spending and the next two are to reduce the 800 US military bases around the world and to abandon the plan for waging two major foreign wars at the same time. He calls for a Works Progress Administration to rebuild America’s infrastructure and reinvigorate our culture (like that of President Roosevelt during the depression). He calls for “an end to fear-mongering and warmongering, and to recognize as true heros not warriors and sports stars, but rather those who are on the frontlines against the coronavirus. And “finally, we must extend our love to encompass nature, our planet.”

Nobel Peace Laureat Mairead Maguire reminds us that “If this virus has done anything, it has reminded us that we are only human and very vulnerable; we need each other to survive and thrive.  If anything, this virus hopefully will cement the opinion that we are All One, brothers and sisters; what affects one affects all. . . . Government policies of sanctions, militarism, nuclear weapons and war must be radically replaced by government policies that put their citizen’s health – both physical and mental – on top of the political agenda. . . . Capitalism does not work, the system is broken, and we are all challenged to build a system of real democracy that works for everyone.

Another Nobel Peace Laureate, Mikhail Gorbachev, calls for a “radical rethinking of international politics . . . Is it not clear by now that wars and the arms race cannot solve today’s global problems? War is a defeat, a failure of politics! . . . We need to demilitarize world affairs, international politics and political thinking and reallocate funds from military purposes to the purposes serving human security. We need to rethink the very concept of security. Above all else, security should mean providing food, water, which is already in short supply, a clean environment and, as top priority, caring for people’s health.”

Finally, here at CPNN, we are providing additional tools and proposals in our blog to chart the way forward, to take advantage of the crisis to reform the world’s governance structure and make the transition from the culture of war to a culture of peace.

WOMEN’S EQUALITY



From Nazra for Feminist Studies (Egypt): A Letter of Solidarity; Together, We Stand in Solidarity..To Build

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION



Coronavirus reveals need to bridge the digital divide

HUMAN RIGHTS




Amnesty International: How human rights can help protect us from COVID-19

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION



Covid-19: A new organization of the world is essential (Moroccan university professor)
          

EDUCATION FOR PEACE



Peace Education and the Pandemic: Global Perspectives (video now available)

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT



Could COVID-19 give rise to a greener global future?

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY


PAYNCoP Gabon and Engineers Without Borders join forces to fight COVID 19

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY



Threatening Military Intervention in Venezuela During a Pandemic?
Uncategorized

Threatening Military Intervention in Venezuela During a Pandemic?

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Medea Benjamin and Leonardo Flores in Common Dreams (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License)

Unbeknownst to most Americans—and as we are grapple with this terrifying pandemic—the Trump administration is currently carrying out the largest military operation in Latin America in 30 years, and has made it clear that alleged Venezuelan “narco-terrorism” is the target. It’s worth noting that the last deployment of similar size took place at the time of the 1989 U.S. military intervention in Panama to remove General Manuel Noriega. 


Littoral combat ship USS Detroit off the coast of Venezuela. (Photo: US Navy/DoD)

President Trump announced the deployment at the beginning of an April 1 COVID-19 press conference.  According to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, “included in this force package are Navy destroyers and littoral combat ships, Coast Guard Cutters, P.A. patrol aircraft, and elements of an Army security force assistance brigade.” General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that there are “thousands of sailors, Coast Guardsman, soldiers, airmen, Marines involved in this operation.”

The announcement came a week after U.S. Attorney General William Barr unsealed an indictment against President Nicolás Maduro and 13 other current or former Venezuelan officials. The officials were accused of “narco-terrorism” and millions of dollars in cash rewards were offered for information leading to their capture, including a $15 million reward for Maduro.

In their remarks during the press conference, Trump administration officials made it clear that the main target of this massive military mission is, in the words of Esper, “the illegitimate Maduro regime in Venezuela” that relies “on the profits derived from the sale of narcotics to maintain its oppressive hold on power.” National Security Advisor Robert O’Brian said “we will continue to execute our maximum pressure policy to counter the Maduro regime’s malign activities, including drug trafficking.” 

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Question related to this article:
 
US war against Venezuela: How can it be prevented?

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With cities in Venezuela under lockdown and the country struggling to address a looming public health crisis and yet another economic shock, it is clear that the Trump administration sees a new opportunity to exercise “maximum pressure” to try to achieve regime change. President Trump has been threatening military intervention since 2017, and this massive deployment of naval assets in the vicinity of Venezuela takes the U.S. one step closer to an armed attack.  William Brownfield, former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela and one of the architects of the strategy to undermine the Venezuelan government, called the deployment “the application of [Trump’s] military option.”

According to Foreign Policy, the U.S. Defense Department opposed deploying such a great quantity of military assets to the Caribbean, especially at a time when the U.S. military is having to confront the spread of Covid-19 (as witnessed recently aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt). According to a former senior government official, Trump’s decision to deploy these assets over the objections of DOD commanders was driven entirely by “politics.”

 A senior official at the Pentagon told Newsweek  that “the premise of the operation is a surge against drug trafficking—but when have you ever heard of using that type of force for drugs? (…) The underlying purpose is to pressurize the Maduro regime.” This pressure could come in the form of the U.S. Navy boarding and seizing Venezuelan oil tankers, according to a senior Maduro government official. This is a valid worry, as the Pentagon has claimed—without offering any evidence—that drugs are trafficked “using naval vessels from Venezuela to Cuba.” Given the U.S. government’s targeting and sanction of ships that transport oil from Cuba to Venezuela, it hardly beggars belief that Venezuelan oil tankers could be boarded by the U.S. military.

As a recent report  by the Washington Office on Latin America reveals, the U.S. government’s own data has shown that only a small fraction of Colombian cocaine shipments pass through Venezuela on their way to the U.S. According to this data, six times more cocaine transited through Guatemala than Venezuela in 2018. 

Venezuela is battling COVID-19 within its own borders, as we are doing here at home. The country is also experiencing a deep economic crisis and facing severe shortages of medical supplies, a situation that has been compounded by U.S. unilateral economic sanctions.  President Trump has no business deploying U.S. military assets against Venezuela, a country that in no shape or form represents a threat to the security of the United States, especially not now when a pandemic is raging around the world and in our own country.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Latin America, North America,

Amnesty International: How human rights can help protect us from COVID-19

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article from Amnesty International

The way governments decide to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic will impact the human rights of millions of people.

Amnesty International is closely monitoring government responses to the crisis. These are extraordinary times, but it’s important to remember that human rights law still applies. Indeed, it will help us get through this together.

Here’s a quick look at how human rights can help protect us, and what the obligations of governments are in relation to the pandemic.

The right to health

Most governments have ratified at least one human rights treaty which requires them to guarantee the right to health. Among other things, this means they have an obligation to take all steps necessary for the prevention, treatment and control of diseases.

In the context of a spreading epidemic, this means ensuring that preventive care, goods and services are available to everybody.

In Hong Kong, one of the first places to be hit by COVID-19, a local NGO noted that nearly 70% of low-income families could not afford to buy the protective equipment the government was recommending, including masks and disinfectant. If states are endorsing the use of such items, they must ensure that everyone can access them.

Access to information

This is a key aspect of the right to health, but we have already seen governments ignoring it.

In December 2019, doctors in Wuhan, China, where the virus was first reported, shared with colleagues their fears about patients with respiratory symptoms. They were immediately silenced and reprimanded by the local authorities for “spreading rumours”.

Meanwhile, in the region of Jammu and Kashmir, authorities have ordered the continued restriction of internet services, despite a growing number of cases. This makes it extremely difficult for people to access vital information about the prevalence and spread of the virus, as well as how to protect themselves.

Everybody has the right to be informed of the threat COVID-19 poses to their health, the measures to mitigate risks, and information about ongoing response efforts. The failure to guarantee this undermines the public health response and puts everyone’s health at risk.

Rights to and at work

People in precarious forms of labour are being disproportionately affected by the pandemic, which is already starting to have a massive impact on people and the economy. Migrant workers, people who work in the “gig” economy, and people in the informal sector are more likely to see their rights to and at work adversely impacted, as a result of COVID-19 and the measures to control it.

(Article continued in right column.)

(Click here for the French version of this article or click here for the Spanish version.)

Question related to this article:

How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

(Article continued from left column.)

Governments must ensure that everyone has access to social security – including sick pay, health care and parental leave – where they are unable to work because of the virus. These measures are also essential to help people stick to the public health measures states put in place.

Health workers are at the frontline of this pandemic, continuing to deliver services despite the personal risks to them and their families, and governments must protect them. This includes providing suitable, good quality personal protective equipment, information, training and psycho-social support to all response staff. People in other jobs, including prison staff, are also at higher risk of exposure, and should be protected.

Disproportionate impact on certain groups

Anyone can get COVID-19, but certain groups appear to be at greater risk of severe illness and death. This includes older people and people with pre-existing medical conditions. It’s also likely that other marginalized groups, including people living in poverty, people with disabilities and people in detention, including migrants and asylum seekers, will face additional challenges in protecting themselves and accessing treatment.

In designing responses to COVID-19, states must ensure that the needs and experiences of specific groups are fully addressed.

Rights to housing, water and sanitation

For people who are homeless or living in informal settlements, self- isolation, social distancing, and other protective measures are extremely difficult if not impossible to stick to.

The COVID-19 crisis has shone a spotlight on the importance of the rights to adequate housing, water and sanitation. These rights are critical for protecting oneself from the virus, for stopping its spread and also recovering from it. 

At a minimum, governments should ensure that people who are homeless, including children in street situations, are provided with emergency accommodation where they can protect and isolate themselves. Governments must also put in place measures to make sure no one is made increasingly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of a lack of housing – for example by being evicted if they can’t pay rent or mortgage.

Governments must also urgently put in place adequate, affordable and safe water and sanitation facilities that are accessible to everyone who is homeless or living in inadequate housing.

Stigma and discrimination

According to media reports, people from Wuhan have faced widespread discrimination and harassment in China. This includes being rejected from hotels or barricaded in their own flats, and having their personal information leaked online.

There have also been widespread reports of anti-Chinese or anti-Asian xenophobia in other countries, including US President Trump repeatedly calling COVID-19 a “Chinese virus”. In London, a student from Singapore was badly beaten up in a racially aggravated attack. There is no excuse for racism or discrimination. Governments around the world must take a zero-tolerance approach to the racist targeting of all people.

Meanwhile President Trump has used the pandemic to justify racist and discriminatory policies, and is reportedly planning a blanket ban on asylum-seekers crossing from Mexico.

Such an outright asylum ban would go against the government’s domestic and international legal obligations, and would serve only to demonize people seeking safety. A similar 2018 ban was swiftly declared unlawful by every court to have considered it.

Furthermore, during a public health crisis, governments must act to protect the health of all people and ensure everyone’s access to care and safety, free from discrimination. This includes people on the move, regardless of their immigration status.

The only way the world can fight this outbreak is through solidarity and cooperation across borders. COVID-19 should unite, not divide us.

(Thank you to the Good News Agency for calling this article to our attention.)

global, HUMAN RIGHTS

United Nations: Debt-laden countries at risk, as financial markets screech to a halt

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article from United Nations News

Economists and finance experts are warning that countries with “high” or “distressed” public debt levels are at risk of severe economic shocks amid the COVID-19 pandemic and calling for restructuring plans based on the principle of solidarity.


A girl in Timor-Leste shows the online platform she will use to study while her school is closed, due to the new coronavirus pandemic. ©UNICEF/Bernardino Soares

Since the start of the pandemic, financial institutions including the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – along with UN entities, regional organizations and country groups such as the G20 – have been examining the tools available to stabilize markets, prevent job losses and preserve hard-fought development gains.

At a joint high-level meeting of the IMF and the World Bank on Mobilizing with Africa on Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres commended the bodies’ swift actions to support member countries, while emphasizing that more work will be needed.

“We know this virus will spread like wildfire and there are no firewalls,” he said.  “Alleviating crushing debt is absolutely crucial.”

The UN chief noted that in Africa, households and businesses were suffering liquidity challenges even before the virus gained a toehold on the continent.  As countries work to prevent millions from plunging into poverty, already unacceptable levels of inequalities are growing, fragility is increasing and commodity prices are declining.

Debt and pandemic: a ‘perfect storm’

The current health and economic emergencies sparked by COVID-19 have emerged against the backdrop of high indebtedness for many developing nations – including middle-income countries – around the globe.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, public external debt in many developing countries has spiked. Low interest rates and high liquidity boosted many countries’ access to commercial lending. By January 2020, the debt of 44 per cent of least developed and other low-income developing countries was already considered at high risk or in distress. 

(Article continued in the right side of the page)

Question for this article:

Can UN agencies help eradicate poverty in the world?

How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

(Article continued from the left side of the page)

The COVID-19-induced contraction is having disastrous consequences. Global financial markets are coming to a standstill as investors race to pull funds out of emerging-markets and other high-risk sec­tors.  The pandemic is straining national budgets as countries struggle to meet health needs, respond to rising unemployment and support their economies.

UN experts warn that Africa may be in its first recession in 25 years, while Latin America and the Caribbean is facing the worst recession in its history. Similar decelerations are being seen in Asia and the Arab Region.

Shaping proactive responses

Against that backdrop, the UN is advocating for a comprehensive COVID-19 response package amounting to a double-digit percentage of global GDP.

It is also urging international financial institutions to do everything possible to prevent a devastating debt crisis with disorderly defaults, stressing that debt relief must play a central role in the global response to the pandemic.

Speaking at the joint IMF/World Bank meeting, the Secretary-General welcomed initial steps by the G20, including the suspension of debt service payments for all International Development Association nations. 

He also called for more resources for the IMF – including through the issuance of special drawing rights – as well as enhanced support for the World Bank and other global financial institutions and bilateral mechanisms.

Three-phase plan to tackle debt

The Organization has put forward a three-step strategy aimed at preventing heavily indebted countries from suffering the worst impacts of the COVID-19 emergency.

First, it calls for an across-the-board “debt standstill” for developing countries with no access to financial markets.  Second, it requests more comprehensive options for debt sustainability with instruments, such as debt swaps, and a debt mechanism for the Sustainable Development Goals.

Third, the plan calls for tackling structural issues in the international debt architecture, to prevent defaults.

The framework is built on a foundation of shared responsibility among debtors and creditors, as well as the understanding that debt restructuring should be timely, orderly, effective, fair and negotiated in good faith. 

“In all our efforts, we must focus on the most vulnerable and ensuring that the rights of all people are protected,” the UN Chief said.

(Thank you to Phyllis Kotite, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations,

Could COVID-19 give rise to a greener global future?

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article from the World Economic Forum (reprinted according to terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Unported License “CCPL”)

The COVID-19 coronavirus has forced entire countries into lockdown mode, terrified citizens around the world, and triggered a financial-market meltdown. The pandemic demands a forceful, immediate response. But in managing the crisis, governments also must look to the long term. One prominent policy blueprint with a deep time horizon is the European Commission’s European Green Deal, which offers several ways to support the communities and businesses most at risk from the current crisis.


The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that human societies are capable of transforming themselves more or less overnight.
Image: REUTERS/Muyu Xu
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COVID-19 reflects a broader trend: more planetary crises are coming. If we muddle through each new crisis while maintaining the same economic model that got us here, future shocks will eventually exceed the capacity of governments, financial institutions, and corporate crisis managers to respond. Indeed, the “coronacrisis” has already done so.

The Club of Rome issued a similar warning in its famous 1972 report, The Limits to Growth, and again in Beyond the Limits, a 1992 book by the lead author of that earlier report, Donella Meadows. As Meadows warned back then, humanity’s future will be defined not by a single emergency but by many separate yet related crises stemming from our failure to live sustainably. By using the Earth’s resources faster than they can be restored, and by releasing wastes and pollutants faster than they can be absorbed, we have long been setting ourselves up for disaster.

On one planet, all species, countries, and geopolitical issues are ultimately interconnected. We are witnessing how the outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China can wreak havoc on the entire world. Like COVID-19, climate change, biodiversity loss, and financial collapses do not observe national or even physical borders. These problems can be managed only through collective action that starts long before they become full-blown crises.

The coronavirus pandemic is a wake-up call  to stop exceeding the planet’s limits. After all, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change all make pandemics more likely. Deforestation drives wild animals closer to human populations, increasing the likelihood that zoonotic viruses like SARS-CoV-2  will make the cross-species leap. Likewise, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns  that global warming will likely accelerate the emergence of new viruses.

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Question for this article:
 
Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

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Governments that succeed in containing epidemics all tacitly follow the same mantra: “Follow the science and prepare for the future.” But we can do much better. Rather than simply reacting to disasters, we can use the science to design economies that will mitigate the threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pandemics. We must start investing in what matters, by laying the foundation for a green, circular economy that is anchored in nature-based solutions and geared toward the public good.

The COVID-19 crisis shows us that it is possible to make transformational changes overnight. We have suddenly entered a different world with a different economy. Governments are rushing to protect their citizens medically and economically in the short term. But there is also a strong business case for using this crisis to usher in global systemic change.

For example, there is no good reason not to be phasing out fossil fuels and deploying renewable energy technologies, most of which are now globally available  and already cheaper than fossil fuels in many cases. With the recent oil-price plunge, perverse fossil-fuel subsidies can and should be eliminated, as the G7 and many European countries have pledged  to do by 2025.

Shifting from industrial to regenerative agriculture also is immediately feasible, and would allow us to sequester carbon  in the soil at a rate that is sufficient to reverse the climate crisis. Moreover, doing so would turn a profit, enhance economic and environmental resilience, create jobs, and improve wellbeing in both rural and urban communities.

Regenerative agriculture features prominently in many of the new economic models that are now being explored by city governments around the world – all of which are based on the principle of living within our planetary boundaries. As one of us (Raworth) argues in advancing her idea of “Doughnut Economics,” the goal should be to create a “safe and just operating space for all of humanity.” In other words, we must work within the planet’s natural limits (the outer boundary of the doughnut) while also ensuring that marginalized communities do not fall behind (into the doughnut hole).

For policymakers responding to the current crisis, the goal should be to support citizens’ livelihoods by investing in renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. Now is the time to start redirecting the $5.2 trillion  spent on fossil-fuel subsidies every year toward green infrastructure, reforestation, and investments in a more circular, shared, regenerative, low-carbon economy.

Humans are resilient and entrepreneurial. We are perfectly capable of beginning again. If we learn from our failings, we can build a brighter future than the one that is currently in store for us. Let us embrace this moment of upheaval as an opportunity to start investing in resilience, shared prosperity, wellbeing, and planetary health. We have long since exceeded our natural limits; it is time to try something new.
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(Editor’s note: For a more pessimistic view, see Unfortunately, Coronavirus Is Bad News For Ecology In The Long Term.)

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Peace Education and the Pandemic: Global Perspectives (video now available)

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article from the Global Campaign for Peace Education

On April 13, 2020, the International Institute on Peace Education  and Global Campaign for Peace Education hosted a zoom webinar on “Peace Education and the Pandemic: Global Perspectives.”  More than 550 people from 72 different countries registered for the event, which was also live-streamed on Facebook. A dozen acclaimed peace educators from around the world shared unique perspectives on the systemic violence and injustices COVID-19 has revealed and how they are using peace education to respond to these and other critical issues. [Editor’s note: The dozen educators came from USA, Austria, Puerto Rico, South Africa, China, Nigeria, Philippines, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and South Korea. A list with their bios, and topics can be found here].

Video of Webinar

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Question for this article:

How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

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The webinar explored two broad agendas.  First, it presented an opportunity to hear how peace educators around the world are responding in the moment. How are peace educators facilitating the much-needed learning required for self-care, resilience, and adaptation to a changing reality?  How are we adapting pedagogically to online learning spaces such as zoom (and what new social injustices have these rapid transitions revealed related to educational inequity)?  How are we keeping safe physical distance while maintaining social connections?  How are we navigating the trauma, anxiety, and fear caused by a pandemic that exposes our somatic vulnerability, as well as the vulnerability of our social, political and economic systems?

The webinar also presented an opportunity to collectively rethink urgent future agendas for peace education.  This global pandemic has brought into sharp focus many of the concerns, possibilities, and challenges that peace education has been pursuing for decades. Presenters shared critical perspectives and developed clear connections between COVID-19 and “other pandemics” including war, poverty, patriarchy, and nationalism.  All presenters explored the role of peace education in addressing these issues.  Most importantly, most addressed how peace education might prepare citizens with the knowledge, capacities, and skills to envision, design, a build preferred social, political, and economic systems.

Watch the video of the webinar here.

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Coronavirus reveals need to bridge the digital divide

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

The global crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has pushed us further into a digital world, and changes in behaviour are likely to have lasting effects when the economy starts to pick up. But not everyone is ready to embrace a more digitized existence.

A new analysis from UNCTAD  maps the changing digital landscape since the last major global calamity, the 2008/09 financial crisis. It looks at how a digitally enabled world is working for some, but not all equally.

According to the analysis, the coronavirus crisis has accelerated the uptake of digital solutions, tools, and services, speeding up the global transition towards a digital economy.

However, it has also exposed the wide chasm between the connected and the unconnected, revealing just how far behind many are on digital uptake.  
 
“Inequalities in digital readiness hamper the ability of large parts of the world to take advantage of technologies that help us cope with the coronavirus pandemic by staying at home,” said UNCTAD’s technology and logistics director, Shamika Sirimanne.

“This situation has significant development implications that cannot be ignored. We need to ensure that we do not leave those who are less digitally equipped even further behind in a post-coronavirus world.”

The power of digital revealed

The analysis provides snapshots of how technology is being used as a critical tool in maintaining business and life continuity.

Measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic have seen more businesses and governments move their operations and services online to limit physical interaction to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Digital platforms are also thriving as consumers seek entertainment, shopping opportunities and new ways of connecting during the crisis.

“There are incredible positives emerging that show the potential of a digitally transformed world,” notes Ms. Sirimanne.

Digitalization is allowing telemedicine, telework and online education to proliferate. It is also generating more data on the expansion of the virus and helping information exchanges for research.

There has been a leap in teleworking and online conferencing, amplifying the demand for online conferencing software such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, Cisco’s Webex and Zoom, the analysis says.

According to Microsoft, the number of people using its software for online collaboration climbed nearly 40% in a week.

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Question related to this article:

Is Internet freedom a basic human right?

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In China, the use of digital work applications from WeChat, Tencent and Ding took off at the end of January when lockdown measures started to take effect.

Other benefits include using artificial intelligence to help find a cure and a significant shift to e-commerce, benefitting small and big businesses alike.

However not all technology companies are profiting and there are some serious consequences of the rush to online platforms. These include mounting security and privacy concerns, according to UNCTAD.

The downside and the digital divide

The fast-paced shift towards digitalization is likely to strengthen the market positions of a few mega-digital platforms, the analysis finds.

This finding echoes the conclusions drawn in UNCTAD’s 2019 Digital Economy Report, which pointed out that the world’s top seven digital platforms already accounted for two-thirds of the value of digital platforms globally in 2017.

They have benefitted from network effects and from their ability to extract, control and analyse data, then transform it into digital intelligence that can be monetized.

“This situation will now be amplified as more people come or are forced online due to the coronavirus crisis,” said Torbjörn Fredriksson, UNCTAD’s digital economy head. “Those that do not have access are at risk of being left further behind as digital transformation accelerates, especially those in least developed countries.”

The least developed countries (LDCs) are the most vulnerable to the human and economic consequences of the pandemic, and they also lag farthest behind in digital readiness.

Only one in five people in LDCs use the Internet, and in most developing countries, well below 5% of the population currently buy goods or services online.

Lack of Internet access at home also limits connectivity, cramping, for example, the possibilities for students to be connected if schools are closed. “The education gap may also expand in developing countries, compounding inequalities,” said Sirimanne.

Low broadband quality hampers the ability to use teleconferencing tools. Mobile data costs also remain expensive across the developing world.

A development opportunity?

The coronavirus pandemic’s ability to show fractures can, hopefully, be turned into an opportunity, said Ms. Sirimanne. “More developing countries are exploring e-commerce and other digital solutions that can help build local resilience to future shocks,” she said.

The main policy takeaway from the analysis is that much more attention should be given to bridging existing and emerging digital divides to allow more countries to take advantage of digitalization.

New policies and regulations are needed to ensure a fair distribution of the gains from digital disruptions.

“If left unaddressed, the yawning gap between under-connected and hyper-digitalized countries will widen, thereby exacerbating existing inequalities,” she added.

“As with the coronavirus crisis and other development challenges, the world will need a coordinated multilateral response to deal with the challenge of digitalization.”

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