Presidential Address

(Between the Lines)

My fellow citizens, this is my pledge,

Words I’ll never say and you’ll never hear.

I darn well know things aren’t as they appear,

That many of you live close to the edge.

I’ll speak of making our nation healthy,

Of healing divisions, being reconciled,

A people united where none are reviled;

But really I’m just here for the wealthy.

I’ll strive to divide by colour and creed,

Talk job creation, fairness, yet facts are facts,

Profit’s best served by zero hours contracts

And work discipline is imposed by need.

As President, I will without pause or hitch,

Serve the people, stuffed and trussed, to the rich.

D. A.

You may well have not noticed but the world has just banned nuclear weapons.

An international treaty banning all nuclear weapons that has been signed by 51 countries. The treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons (TPNW) outlaws the creation, ownership and deployment of nuclear weapons by signatory states and places obligations on them to assist other victims of nuclear weapons use and testing.

There is no prospect of the world’s leading nuclear powers endorsing it. Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of Nato, said in November the treaty disregarded the realities of global security.

Kate Hudson, CND’s general secretary, called on the UK government “to cease its intransigence and engage constructively with the new treaty.”

We can be sure that the government aren’t listening. 

Recent years have seen a gradual erosion of global nuclear controls, with the 1987 intermediate nuclear forces (INF) treaty, which kept nuclear missiles off European soil, allowed to expire in 2019 amid mutual recriminations from Russia and the US.

The new strategic arms reduction treaty between the US and Russia, which limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, is due to expire on 5 February.

The new US president is very unlikely to halt the modernisation programme of its older nuclear weaponry. After all, it was not Trump but Obama who authorised the financing for the up-grading to the newer more deadly technology. 

 Inequality in access to land is increasing across the world. Experts are calling for more rules and controls on the sale of land to counteract poverty.

According to the researchers, the richest 10% of the rural population control over 60% of land assets, while the poorest 50% own just over 3%.

Fewer and fewer people around the world own land. The growing gap in land ownership and access is hitting smallholder farmers, women and indigenous and rural communities hardest, according to the Global Land Inequality Report by the International Land Coalition (ILC), which includes organizations like Oxfam and German Agro Action.The study, published at the end of 2020, compares land inequality in 17 countries using traditional census data and tenure, land quality and other indicators. It concludes that the concentration of land benefiting only a few owners. The report points to a growing interest of companies in investing in agricultural land, which it says is the main cause for land inequality.  

“Growing inequality in access to land is a driver of hunger and poverty. Earth belongs to all of us. Land must not be an object of speculation,” Marion Aberle, senior policy advisor at German Agro Action, explained. 

With the rise of corporate and financial investment, land ownership and control is becoming ever more opaque, said Ward Anseeuw, an analyst at ILC and co-author of the report

Dwindling number of Africans own land | Africa | DW | 19.01.2021

United Nations agencies, Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization are warning that more than 350 million people in the Asia-Pacific region are going hungry as the coronavirus pandemic destroys jobs and pushes food prices higher.

The report issued Wednesday by four agencies says the pandemic is making it difficult for 1.9 billion people to afford healthy diets. It follows an earlier report that forecast that in a worst case scenario that 828 million people might suffer from acute hunger because of the crisis.

The latest estimate is that nearly 688 million people globally are undernourished, more than half of them in Asia. The largest share is in South Asian countries like Afghanistan, where four in 10 people are malnourished.

The report is mostly based on data up to 2019, before the pandemic struck. But it also estimates that an additional 140 million people were likely to have fallen into extreme poverty in 2020 due to the impact of virus outbreaks and lockdowns. By the end of last year, some 265 million were estimated to be facing acute food insecurity.

A key factor is food affordability, a problem in wealthy nations like Japan as well as impoverished places like East Timor and Papua New Guinea. Across Asia, high prices for fruits, vegetables and dairy products have made it “nearly impossible” for low income families to have healthy diets, the report said. FAO data show food prices rose to their highest level in nearly six years in November. Many in the region instead end up consuming high-calorie, cheap processed foods that contribute to problems with obesity and diabetes but lack vitamins and minerals.  it is more expensive to eat a healthy diet in Thailand, Laos, and Indonesia, at about $5 per day, than it is in New Zealand and Australia, at less than $3 per day. A nutritionally adequate diet tends to cost $2 to $3 per day in most countries, rich or poor, but is more expensive in Japan and South Korea. In most countries, the cost of a nutritious diet is two to three times that for a one just sufficient to provide enough energy.

 Disruptions and job losses due to the pandemic are preventing families from getting enough to eat in many places. That’s evident in the long lines seen at food banks even in the United States.

In India, broken supply chains and transport problems, especially during pandemic lockdowns, have prevented surplus grain stocks from reaching all those in need. Day laborers and migrants are the most vulnerable, despite a massive public distribution system that entitles 75% of the rural population and half of those living in cities to subsidized food grains.

The cost of long-term deprivation is seen in higher rates of death and illness. Tens of millions of children suffer from wasting or stunting, failing to grow well and unable to achieve their full potential. The report said that five of the 45 countries requiring food assistance were in South, Southeast or East Asia. They include Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea and Myanmar.

UN: Pandemic, surging food prices leave many in Asia hungry (apnews.com)

 A new regulator will be established with powers to ban the use of dangerous building materials, following evidence at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry that manufacturers covered up safety issues. They have also ordered a review of product testing because of “abuses” in the testing system.

Yet one more report on the poisoned air we daily breathe

The WHO estimates air pollution kills more than 7 million people each year and is one of the leading causes of sickness and absence from work globally. Cities, with their crowded streets and high energy use, are hotspots for illness and disease linked to air pollution.

The WHO recommends that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) not exceed 10 milligrams per cubic metre of air, averaged annually. For nitrous oxide (NO2), the threshold not to be exceeded is 40mg/m3. 

A study, published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal, estimated the premature death burden due to these two pollutants in nearly 1,000 cities across Europe. It found that reducing PM2.5 and NO2 to safe WHO levels could prevent 51,213 premature deaths each year. Nearly 125,000 deaths annually could be saved if air pollution levels were reduced to the lowest recorded in the study, its authors said.

Mark Nieuwenhuijsen of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) said the research “proves that many cities are still not doing enough to tackle air pollution”.

“Levels above WHO guidelines are leading to unnecessary deaths,” he said. 

On average, 84% of the population in cities studied were exposed to PM2.5 levels above the WHO guideline. Nine per cent were exposed to higher-than-recommended NO2 levels, the study found.

NO2 levels in Madrid, for example, responsible for 7% of annual deaths there. Cities in the Po Valley region of northern Italy, Poland, and the Czech Republic were the highest in mortality burden, with the Italian cities of Brescia, Bergamo and Vicenza all within the top five for PM2.5 concentrations. 

Sasha Khomenko, co-author of the study from ISGlobal, said it was important to implement local emissions reductions measures in light of the high variability in mortality linked to poor air.

“We need an urgent change from private motorised traffic to public and active transportation (and) a reduction of emissions from industry, airports and ports,” she said.

Limiting air pollution ‘could prevent 50,000 deaths in Europe’ | Air pollution | The Guardian

 A new report by the World Economic Forum (WEF)Global Risks Report has revealed mass unemployment, digital inequality and prolonged economic stagnation as some of the risks that could pose a danger in the next two years.

“Job losses, a widening digital divide, disrupted social interactions, and abrupt shifts in markets could lead to dire consequences and lost opportunities for large parts of the global population,” said the report. “The ramifications — in the form of social unrest, political fragmentation and geopolitical tensions — will shape the effectiveness of our responses to the other key threats of the next decade: cyberattacks, weapons of mass destruction and, most notably, climate change.”

“Hard-fought societal wins could be obliterated if the current generation lacks adequate pathways to future opportunities — and loses faith in today’s economic and political institutions,” the report warned.

 “Climate action failure” and “extreme weather” identified as most likely long-term risks for the third straight year.

“The biggest long-term risk remains a failure to act on climate change. There is no vaccine against climate risks, so post-pandemic recovery plans must focus on growth aligning with sustainability agendas to build back better,” said Peter Giger from the Zurich Insurance Group.

 There had been ample debate and warning prior to the release of effective vaccines for Covi-19 yet nothing of substance was resolved about the problem facing the undeveloped and developing nations access to a vaccine.