Left: German Ambassador to Singapore Ulrich Sante and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan at the official opening of the German European School Singapore on Sept 13, 2018. Dr Sante says he will be leaving Singapore with a heavy heart but also a treasure trove of good memories. PHOTO: GERMAN EUROPEAN SCHOOL SINGAPORE

SINGAPORE, Jun 15 2020 – The departing German envoy in Singapore, Ambassador Ulrich Sante, in a recent published article in the Straits Times shared some of his thoughts with the readership including on the impact on the community of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Among other things he has noted that it has implanted in us what in German is called Lebensangst, literally meaning ‘fear of life’ but in a broader sense, the loss of trust in resilience, and coldness. He has impassionedly argued: “We need to regain trust in each other again, to sho…

Jul 13 2020 (IPS) – Europe, like the rest of the world, faces an extended crisis. An element of social distancing—mandatory or voluntary—will be with us for as long as this pandemic persists. This, coupled with continued supply chain disruptions and other problems, is prolonging an already difficult situation. Based on released last month, we now expect real GDP in the EU to contract by 9.3 percent in 2020 and then grow by 5.7 percent in 2021, returning to its 2019 level only in 2022. If an effective treatment or vaccine for COVID 19 is found, the recovery could be faster—but the opposite would hold true if there are large new waves of infection.

Some European countries will face a tougher recovery path than others. Several went into the crisis with entrenched product and labor market rigidities holding back their growth potential. Others depend on indus…

275 World Leaders Letter to G20, IMF, World Bank, Regional Development Banks and Governments

Credit: UNICEF Mali / Dicko

NEW YORK, Aug 18 2020 (IPS) – We write to call for urgent action to address the global education emergency triggered by COVID-19. With over 1 billion children still out of school because of the lockdown, there is now a real and present danger that the public health crisis will create a COVID generation who lose out on schooling and whose opportunities are permanently damaged. While the more fortunate have had access to alternatives, the world’s poorest children have been locked out of learning, denied internet access, and with the loss of free school meals once a lifeline for 300 million boys and girls hunger has grown.

An immediate concern, as we bring the lockdown to an end, is the fate of an estimated 30 mil…

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

NEW YORK, Oct 9 2020 (IPS) – Out of global crises spring opportunities for change. In crisis, change is not an option. It is a necessity. And, as Plato famously noted: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Education Cannot Wait () is an invention that sprang out of crisis and was borne of necessity.

Yasmine Sherif

Education Cannot Wait was conceived as a direct response to the lack of financial resources and crisis-sensitive approaches needed to address the learning crisis for 75 million vulnerable children and adolescents impacted by armed conflicts, forced displacement and climate-induced disasters. Today, three years into its operations, the growing number of already crisis-affected children and youth are now doubly hit by another crisis, COVID-19, while under the threat of being hit again by the glob…

Black Lives Matter protest in London May 31. Credit: Tara Carey / Equality Now

Nov 20 2020 (IPS) – I’m part of a that has been following more than 800 Black American families for almost 25 years. We found that people who had reported experiencing high levels of racial discrimination when they were young teenagers than those who hadn’t. This elevated depression, in turn, showed up in their blood samples, which revealed accelerated aging on a cellular level.

Our research is not the first to show than other racial or ethnic groups. The experience of constant and accumulating stress due to racism throughout an individual’s lifetime can wear and tear down the body – literally “getting under the skin” to affect health.

Black Americans live sicker lives and die younger than other racial or ethnic groups. The experience of constant and ac…

Contamination of rivers and streams by mine waste in the vicinity of the Panguna copper mine in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. Credit: Catherine Wilson

CANBERRA, Australia, Jan 4 2021 (IPS) – Local communities in the vicinity of the abandoned Panguna copper mine, have taken decisive action to hold the global mining multinational, Rio Tinto, accountable for alleged environmental and human rights violations during the mine’s operations between 1972 and 1989.

The mine operated in the mountains of central Bougainville in Papua New Guinea until 1989.

The complaint by 156 residents was lodged with the Australian Government in September by and subsequently accepted in November, paving the way for a non-judicial mediation process.

“We and the communities we are working with have now entered …

KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Feb 9 2021 (IPS) – Refusal to temporarily suspend several World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property (IP) provisions to enable much faster and broader progress in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic should be grounds for International Criminal Court prosecution for genocide.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Making life-saving vaccines, medicines and equipment available, freely or affordably, has been crucial for containing the spread of many infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV-AIDS, polio and smallpox.

Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine, insisted that it remain patent free. Asked who owned the patent 65 years ago, he , “The people I would say. There is no patent. You might as well ask, could you patent the sun?”

Intellectual property induced scarcity
However, cross-border enforcement of intellectual property …

Zwein during one of the 2019 protests in Beirut. Credit: Victoria El-Khoury Zwein

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Mar 12 2021 (IPS) – The fight for equality around the globe has taken a few steps forward in some countries which provides a glimmer of hope for future generations for increased female participation and representation. However, that particular fight is taking new shapes and forms in multiple corners of the world, where women are still persecuted, silenced, threatened, killed, harassed, and stripped off their basic human rights on a daily basis. The question today is, when will the world become a safer place for women and girls?

While the degree of severity is uneven in countries, Lebanese women and girls struggle each day on multiple fronts. While many Civil Society organizations (CSOs) and United Nations agencies work on Sustainable Development Goal (S…

The writer is Spokesperson and Head of Communications at Unitaid*, hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO)

 
The WHO says Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable. WHO recommends protection for all people at risk of malaria with effective malaria vector control. Two forms of vector control – insecticide-treated mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying – are effective in a wide range of circumstances.

Distribution of mosquito nets in Kadiolo, region of Sikasso, Mali June 2020. Credit: PSI, A US based NGO. The UN commemorates World Malaria Day on Sunday April 25.

GENEVA, Apr 23 2021 (IPS) – Despite its 229 million cases and 409,000 deaths in 2019, malaria is an overlooked epidemic. The emergence o…