Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Far From Home During a Pandemic Upasana Khadka Nepali workers in Qatar who have been quarantined in a camp that has been closed off for two weeks say that aside from concerns about jobs and health, they are now also worried about their families back home. That anxiety increased after the government announced a weeklong nationwide ... MORE > >

East Asian Lessons for Controlling Covid-19 Nazihah Muhamad Noor and Jomo Kwame Sundaram By the third week of March 2020, the number of Covid-19 deaths in Italy had overtaken the number of deaths in China. Authorities all over the world are restricting the movements of their populations as part of efforts to control the spread of Covid-19. For the time being, more and more ... MORE > >

Is It Time to Postpone the 2020 Climate Summit? Felix Dodds and Michael Strauss With the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the planet and the governments of both wealthy and poorer nations overwhelmed by the demands of managing a response, the scheduling of this year’s critical UN Climate Summit is suddenly in doubt. COP26 (formally, the 26th annual Conference of the Parties of ... MORE > >

What does U.N. Secretary General’s Call for Ceasefire Mean for Countries in Conflict? Samira Sadeque Conflict experts are concerned the the global ceasefire called for by the United Nations amid the coronavirus outbreak may not work and could lead to a rise in violence. Coronavirus or COVID-19 continues spreading, having passed 400,000 cases globally and claiming more than 17,000 deaths. ... MORE > >

TB, HIV and COVID-19: Urgent Questions as Three Epidemics Collide Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV pose a significant burden on South Africa’s health system. There’s a close relationship between the two. About 60% of TB patients are also HIV-positive. The novel coronavirus (Sars-CoV-2) is likely to be of particular concern for communities with high rates of TB and ... MORE > >

Why Empowering National Human Rights Institutions Helps on the Quest for Healthy Earth? Claudia Ituarte-Lima We are living in a critical time. As we face existential environmental challenges from climate crises to the mass extinction of species, it is difficult sometimes to see solutions and new ideas. This is why we all need to celebrate and give visibility to creative and courageous efforts of people ... MORE > >

Health Workers Are the Frontline Soldiers Against Covid-19. Let’s Protect Them Mutahi Kagwe and Siddharth Chatterjee Many soldiers have seen first-hand the horrors of war and, terrifying though it often was, they knew who they were fighting, and could recognise their enemy. The COVID 19 or the new Corona Virus is different. In this virus we have an enemy which is invisible and sometimes deadly, and the task ... MORE > >

Stronger UN Leadership Needed to Cope with Coronavirus Threat Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is hard to predict as events are still unfolding, and estimates vary dramatically. UNCTAD estimates lost output in the order of US$1 trillion, just over a third of Bloomberg’s expectation of US$2.7 trillion in losses. The OECD expects ... MORE > >

White Supremacists, Yellow Peril & “Chinese Virus” Add to a Volatile Political Mix Thalif Deen When US President Donald Trump repeatedly characterized the fast-spreading COVID-19 as a “Chinese virus” last week, it prompted some white supremacists to resurrect an age old ethnic slur against Chinese and East Asians: the “Yellow Peril” which, in a bygone era, was touted as a xenophobic threat ... MORE > >

Fisherfolk Fix Both Food and Climate by Closing Fishing Grounds Kanis Dursin Samsul sounded very happy last Monday (Mar. 16) when recounting his experience of catching crabs worth more than $60 in a single day. “I hauled over 12 kilograms of crabs on that day, which I sold to local traders,” Samsul told IPS during a phone interview from Sungai Nibung, a fishing ... MORE > >

Fighting Coronavirus: It’s Time to Invest in Universal Public Health Isabel Ortiz and Thomas Stubbs Austerity policies pushed by international financial institutions have weakened public health systems, despite current financial support packages, condemning many people to die. As health systems of East Asia, Europe, and the Americas buckle under the strain of coronavirus, developing ... MORE > >