Health & Well Being

Photo: Cover of ‘The Disaster Riskscape Across Asia-Pacific: Pathways for resilience, inclusion and empowerment’. Credit: ESCAP

Asia-Pacific Faces a Daunting Spectrum of Natural Hazards

New UN Report Warns of Huge Economic Losses

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | BANGKOK (IDN) – Vulnerable and marginalized communities are among the hardest hit by natural disasters that occurred in a relentless sequence in Asia and the Pacific in the past two years, beyond what the region had previously experienced or was able to predict. This, according to the latest report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), is “a sign of things to come in the new climate reality” where economic losses are set to quadruple.

: Devinder Kumar; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 23 August 2019

Collage of photos of Sierra Leone's octahedral diamond crystal and chromite – from Wikimedia Commons.

Diamonds Leave Sierra Leone Villagers Poor and Sick

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the first diamonds were found in the 1930s, the villagers of Kono, in the eastern region of Sierra Leone, have seen the wealth under their feet make others rich. Instead of joy, the shiny stones have left a trail of contaminated water, pockmarked mud brick houses, and countless other indignities.

Adi Kalie Bangura, a traditional healer, showed a reporter the black welts that dot his arms and legs as a result of drinking and bathing in poisoned water.

Sierra Leone is one of Africa’s leading diamond producers by value.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 August 2019

Photo: UN AIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima. Credit. UNAIDS

New UNAIDS Chief Winnie Byanyima Has an Ambitious Target

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – “The end of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is a goal that is within the world’s reach, but I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead,” says Winnie Byanyima, the new Executive Director of UNAIDS. Working with all UNAIDS partners, she will continue to speak up for the people left behind and champion human rights as the only way to end the epidemic.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, appointed Byanyima as the UNAIDS head and UN Under-Secretary-General “following a comprehensive selection process” that involved a search committee constituted by members of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board. The UNAIDS Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations made the final recommendation on the appointment to the Secretary-General.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 20 August 2019

Photo: Chinese trucks which bring goods to local markets. Credit for all photos: Bagymdat Atabaeva

Chinese Mining Company in Kyrgyzstan Suspected of Playing Havoc with Ecology

By Bagymdat Atabaeva

SOLTON SARY, Kyrgyzstan (IDN) – On August 5 about 300 villagers from Solton Sary area, about 200 km from capital Bishkek, gathered at the Chinese owned Zhong Ji mining company’s office here to protest against gold mining works, which they claimed were killing their cattle. Thus, another mining scandal has erupted in Kyrgyzstan, where most people make a living on raising livestock.

Locals claim the mining company is contaminating their soil on which the cattle and sheep graze. “We have lost about a hundred sheep last month, we are pretty sure that the meat is contaminated and cannot be used as sheep are just dying out and it’s suspicious,” a local activist and a shepherd Osmonov K told IDN.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; CENTRAL ASIA; 19 August 2019

Photo: Interethnic violence has ravaged Ituri Province in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since December 2108, generating significant population movements within the province, and towards neighbouring Uganda. Credit: UNICEF/Madjiangar

DR Congo Violence Survivors Highlight Armed Militia Brutality

By Kwame Buist

GENEVA (IDN) – Two months since hundreds of thousands of people fled violence in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN humanitarians have warned that armed militia continue to make their safe return impossible.

Briefing journalists in Geneva on August 16, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Babar Baloch said that staff had heard numerous testimonies from people whose family members had been killed in Ituri province.

Severe underfunding for aid work and insecurity involving the Hema and Lendu groups have meant that increasing numbers are vulnerable and unable even to go home to pick up essentials, he added.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 August 2019

New Initiative Helps Tackling Clean Cooking Crisis in Rwanda

By Kizito Makoye

KIGALI (IDN) – At a bustling neighbourhood, nestled on the rolling hills of Nyamirambo, southwest of the Rwandan capital city, Kigali every woman has a story to tell about a smart cooker and how it has removed hardship when someone is preparing a meal.

“It’s such a good stove, it doesn’t emit smoke, it is easy to use and saves a lot of cooking time,” says Lydia Kashozi, a resident of Nyamirambo

The 39-year-old mother of four, recently bought a 15kg gas cylinder for Rwf13,500 ($14), and is expected to pay additional Rwf 9,000 ($9.7) in the next six months to permanently own the cooker and its assortments.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 August 2019

New Ebola Drugs Show Exciting Promise With 90% Cure Rate

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Two experimental treatments are raising hopes among medical personnel that a cure for the deadly virus Ebola has been found. The antibody-based treatments will now be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced the finding together with Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research and Dr. Michael J. Ryan, director of emergency response for the World Health Organization.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 13 August 2019

South African Miners Win Compensation for Lung Diseases

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – A Johannesburg High Court has approved a pioneering 5 billion rand ($353 million) "class action" settlement on behalf of miners who contracted tuberculosis, silicosis and other chronic lung diseases through their work in the mines.

A class action, also known as a class action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member of that group.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 31 July 2019

Photo: Tea plantation in Sri Lanka. Credit: Sri Lanka government

Tea the Invigorating and Sustaining Wine of Life

Dr. K. Mulaffer

Chairman, Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (1990-1992); Chairman, Building Materials Manufacturing Corporation (1992-1994) & Project Director & Coordinator, National Equipment & Machinery Organization (1994-1995)

COLOMBO (IDN) – My American friends must understand that choosing tea is like choosing wine. And here is why? The natural flavors of teas are quintessentially different from country to country, from which height, district, season and year, it’s grown. It is the same as with Wines.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 28 July 2019

Public Good Hijacked by Tobacco Corporation for Profit

Viewpoint by Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo

The writer is Executive Director of Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).

BANGKOK (IDN) – Many corporations make money at the expense of the public interest, but the world’s largest tobacco company, Philip Morris International (PMI) has raised the bar again.

In 2017 PMI pledged US$80 million annually for 12 years toward the establishment of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW) as part of its “smoke-free future”, and claims it wants people to stop smoking.