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Environment

Climate Action Is a Matter of Global Justice

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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Reparations—a system of redress for egregious injustices—are not a foreign idea imposed from the outside on the United States. On the contrary, the U.S. has given lands to Native Americans, paid $1.5 billion to Japanese Americans interned in the U.S. during World War II, and helped Jews receive reparations for the Holocaust, including making various investments over time. But the U.S. has yet to compensate descendants of Black Americans enslaved for their labour nor has it atoned for the lost equity from segregated housing, transportation and business policy. And no one will forget that American slavery was particularly brutal. Calls for justice are now resounding ever more loudly in the U.S. and around the world. European countries which benefited greatly from wealth stolen in the colonial era are struggling to respond. While several are taking initial steps to return some of what was seized, much more needs to be done. One country that has managed to dodge financial restitution is Germany. Last year, Europe’s biggest economy offered just over $1 billion over 30 years for what Berlin said “from today’s perspective, would be called genocide” of indigenous communities. Much of the stolen wealth is in art and artefacts. More than 90 per cent of the most prominent sub-Saharan African pieces of art are currently outside of the continent, writes Rokhaya Diallo in the Washington Post. To keep such pieces of art on French soil, she noted, France made them untransferable. Pressure from African countries made France acknowledge the unfairness, passing a law to return cultural goods to Benin and Senegal. Madagascar was given back the crown of Queen Ranavalona III, one of the most precious symbols of Malagasy national pride. Last but not least, more than a century after the horrendous genocide perpetrated in Namibia that killed 80 per cent of the Herero and 50 per cent of the Nama population, Germany started a discussion with the Namibian government in 2015 to “heal the wounds” caused by the historical cruelty. A token amount was promised to the Namibian people, after years of activism from Namibian and Black German organizations. But the declaration failed to mention “reparations” or “compensation,” and Germany avoided any direct discussion with the Herero and the Nama. Parliamentarian Inna Hengari called this “insulting.” While Namibian President Hage Geingob’s government accepted the offer, parliament did not, calling it insufficient. The deal is now on hold. “That deal was never about us,” said Nandi Mazeingo, chair of the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation. “You kill 80 percent of a community and offer a billion dollars spread over 30 years?” Germany, he said, must talk to communities directly. According to the Namibia Statistics Agency, white farmers own 70 per cent of commercial farmland, while “previously disadvantaged” groups own 16 per cent. “Land is what made (Germans) rich,” Mbakumua Hengari told the Financial Times. “For the Herero and Nama, it was the start of trans-generational impoverishment.” Meanwhile, Uganda has been ordered to pay the Democratic Republic of Congo $325 million for the occupation and plundering of its Eastern province more than 20 years ago—the largest reparation award by an international court for gross violations of human rights and for violations of international humanitarian law. [IDN-InDepthNews – 02 May 2022] Image source: Global Information Network
africa

German Deal with Namibian President on Hold Because Herero and Nama Were Left Out

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Toward A Nuclear Free World
Newsletter (Beyond Nuclear Non-proliferation)

ニュースレター「核不拡散を超えて」2022年４月号

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SDGs for All
Newsletters (SDGs for All)

SDGs for All ニュースレター2022年4月号

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Image source: Meer
Politics

The Ukraine Conflict Is Leading to the Suicide of Reason

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Image credit: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Agriculture

Ukraine War Could Drive Millions Elsewhere into Starvation

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Image credit: United Nations
Development&Aid

UN’s Goal of Poverty & Hunger Eradication by 2030 is “Highly Unlikely, if not Impossible”

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Photo: The Judges of the International Criminal Court and eminent guests at the opening of the ICC judicial year 2020 on 23 January 2020 at the seat of the Court in The Hague ©ICC-CP
Crime&Justice

Is The US Poised to Sign Up as Member of The International Criminal Court?

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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Fellowships to 180 exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form were announced on April 7 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Chosen from a rigorous application and peer review process out of almost 2500 applicants, the successful applicants were chosen on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise. This year, Maaza Mengiste (born 1974), the sole Black African woman. captured the highly selective prize. A writer, her novels include Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (2010) and The Shadow King (2019), which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze is the story of a family struggling to survive the tumultuous and bloody years of the Ethiopian Revolution. She discusses her travails—finishing the book over 10 years—with Femi Oke on Al Jazeera’s “The Stream.” The story challenges traditional tropes of women as victims in conflict. Much of the story is inspired by Mengiste’s personal history. Her second novel, The Shadow King (2019), is set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, shining a light on the women soldiers not usually credited in African history. Mengiste was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but left the country at the age of four when her family fled the Ethiopian Revolution. She spent the rest of her childhood in Nigeria, Kenya, and the United States. She later studied in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar and earned an MFA degree in creative writing from New York University. Mengiste has also been involved in human rights work. She serves on the advisory board of Warscapes, an independent online magazine that highlights current conflicts across the world and is affiliated with the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Words Without Borders. Alongside Edwidge Danticat and Mona Eltahawy, Mengiste contributed a section to Richard E. Robbins’s 2013 documentary film Girl Rising on girls’ education around the world for 10×10 Films, with narration by Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Alicia Keys, and Cate Blanchett. Mengiste is currently a Professor of English at Wesleyan University. Previously, she taught in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Queens College, City University of New York, and in the Creative Writing program at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. Since its establishment, the Foundation has granted nearly $400 million in Fellowships to over 18,000 individuals. Among this year’s other winners were four male African writers, and 11 African-American women. [IDN-InDepthNews – 13 April 2022] Photo: Maaza Mengiste. Credit: World Literature Today
africa

African Woman Writer Scoops Major Fellowship Prize

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Photo: Celebrating International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Credit: UN
africa

UN Chief Joins Rwandese to Denounce ‘Deliberate, Systematic’ Use of Genocide

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