“Africa will become a graveyard for homosexuality!”
This is the rallying cry of Seyoum Antonius, president of United for Life, an NGO self-described as Christian, pro-life and backing the sanctity of marriage. He was the organizer of a national conference titled “Homosexuality and its associated social disastrous consequences” held in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa in June.
At the conference, Antonius presented his findings from a “study” that “proved” homosexuality leads to STDs, HIV and “severe psychological disorders.” His “findings” were received among wide condemnation of homosexuality from Ethiopian officials, religious leaders and civil representatives as a “western epidemic.”
Seyoum Antonius is only one of a number of reasons that Newsweek, in its recent investigative report, asserts that where life is getting better for many countries’ LGBTQ communities, “in Ethiopia, it’s getting worse.”
Prior to Antonius’s horrifying and detrimental conference, life was already bleak for Ethiopia’s LGBTQ community. Homosexuality is illegal in Ethiopia. Sentences for “homosexual activity” range on average from ten days to three years but can be as high as ten years in prison under certain circumstances.
Ethiopian daily newspaper Yenga had described homosexuality as a “rapidly growing ‘infestation’” whose “carriers” were “estimated to have reached 16,000.” Yenga also asserted that gays have an average of 75 partners a year and that their inherent promiscuity drives them to have between “seven and nine partners a day.”
Further, a 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project reveals that 97% of Ethiopians believe that homosexuality should be outlawed.
But this isn’t enough for Antonius. A representative from the Ethiopian Inter-Religious Council Against Homosexuality claimed that the council was making “promising” progress in its efforts to sway the government toward implementing the death penalty for “homosexual acts.” Antonius has been clear that he won’t give up his efforts until this happens, hence his chilling rallying cry.
Two laws in Ethiopia in essence completely bar any health centers, charities, or publications in service of Ethiopia’s LGBTQ community. One, Ethiopia’s strict anti-terrorism law, allows the government to prosecute any person who “writes, edits, prints, publishes, publicizes, [or] disseminates” statements the government considers terrorism. This translates to the police being able to search and arrest anyone they want — without a warrant.
Another pivotal law is the one that bars all charities and NGOs that receive more than 10% of their funding from abroad from engaging in activities that further human rights or promote equality.
The result of these laws, both adopted in 2009, is that the few reputable organizations doing work on human rights within Ethiopia have been either closed or coerced to wipe any mention of human rights from their mission statements.
Leslie Lefkow, Human Rights Watch’s deputy editor for the Africa division describes Ethiopia’s restrictive approach as a “two-pronged strategy that results in a climate of fear and self-censorship. The government has effectively closed off the country in terms of independent investigation. They’ve eviscerated the civil society.”
That strategy is so effective that not even major international organizations like the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria have had any success funding programs that educate men who have sex with men about HIV prevention or treat those that are inflicted with the disease.
Further, according to Amnesty International’s Claire Beston: “The U.S., U.K. and other governments give huge amounts of aid to Ethiopia while remaining tight-lipped about the extensive violations of human rights happening throughout the country.” Human Rights Watch, which used to research LGBTQ issues in Ethiopia, has found it “increasingly challenging” to do that work, given that it calls for undercover work.
Life is getting worse for the LGBTQ community, indeed.
– Kelley Calkins
Sources: Newsweek, Pink News, UNHCR, Pew Global
Photo: Rainbow Ethiopia
Food Aid in Puntland, Somalia
On November 10, a deadly cyclone raged through the region of Puntland, located in Somalia’s northeastern coast. Though the cyclone has reportedly killed up to 300 people, the death toll has not yet been verified. Many of these victims were children and elderly, both of which are more vulnerable to hypothermia and exposure. Moreover, the United Nations says as many as 30,000 people are in need of food aid.
Whole villages have been washed away by the storm, thus forcing local aid workers to struggle to reach the stranded victims due to the damaged infrastructure. Furthermore, large portions of roads have been damaged, driving aid workers to deliver food aid on foot. Many people are also missing, especially in coastal towns where fisherman and their boats have been lost at sea.
Pastoralists have been hit the hardest since their livestock and poorly built homes and barns have been washed away. The region does not normally experience rain so the area’s infrastructure has not been built to withstand this sort of storm. In fact, some of the worst hit villages have lost 90 percent of their livestock to icy rain and flooding.
Moreover, areas infamous for pirates such as the port of Ely are some of the worst affected. This is worrisome as the 2004 Tsunami was considered one of the major triggers of the pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia where 736 people and 32 ships were held hostage.
The World Food Programme (WFP) recently arrived in Puntland and transported 340 metric tons of food including cereal and vegetable seeds to the worst affected areas of Bossaso, Banderbayla, Dongoroyo and Eyl. In total 27, 000 people have been given a month’s worth of food rations. In addition Puntland’s government sent 32 trucks of emergency supplies throughout the needed areas.
Once emergency aid has been distributed and the region is no longer in a state of disaster the WFP will begin recovery work to rebuild the infrastructure of the area. The Food-for-Assets initiative is a recovery program run by the WFP that assists communities in rebuilding their infrastructure in a way that would better withstand a future natural disaster. Moreover, community workers are paid in food rations for assisting with the development.
Further south in Middle Shabelle, flooding has devastated the town of Jowhar and surrounding areas, pushing over 10,000 people to flee their homes. Their water supplies have, furthermore, been contaminated increasing the risk of waterborne diseases, while all standing crops and livestock in the area have been destroyed or lost. The International Committee of the Red Cross has provided 25,800 people with emergency essentials such as kitchen sets, clothes and sleeping mats. They have also been able to stop flooding and repair riverbanks in five locations and distributed emergency food aid and water.
Sources: AllAfrica: Food Aid, AllAfrica: Twin Natural Disasters, Yahoo, World Food Programme, Aljazeera
Maternal Mortality in Afghanistan
In recent years, Afghan women have achieved significant social, economic, political and cultural gains that affect their quality of life. Despite these improvements, the country is still burdened with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. According to UNICEF, 1,800 women die for every 100,000 births; most of these deaths are highly preventable, making it a serious public health concern.
The most common complication resulting in the death of the mother is post-partum hemorrhaging. Most Afghan women give birth in their homes, whether by choice or because of rural location. The differences in maternal mortality rates by region reflect the lack of resources and lack of access to health facilities. Most of the rural home-births are done without the presence of a skilled birthing attendant, increasing the risk for the mother.
UNICEF estimated that only 7 percent of women who died used a birthing attendant. Another challenge Afghan women face is access to hemorrhaging preventing drugs. Inexpensive drugs that simply don’t reach parts of rural Afghanistan where it is needed the most, due to conflict or allocation complications.
Afghanistan’s shortage of midwives and antihemorrhagic drugs are not the only two factors contributing to the high mortality rate. Lack of education, political participation, social and cultural practices also play large roles.
Women forced into marriages at a young age is not uncommon. Since contraception is not widely used, women also get pregnant at very young ages. When a woman is 14 or 15, the body is usually not developed enough to naturally carry a child. Women having children at a young age is arguably the greatest biological danger for a mother and her child. High maternal mortality rates directly effect infant mortality rates. When the mother of a newborn dies, the child only has a 1 in 4 chance of surviving the first year of its life.
UNICEF and the Center for Disease Control make several recommendations aimed at improving the lives of women and reducing the maternal mortality rates: establishing health care services in rural areas that are equipped with essential drugs and able to perform cesarean sections, assisted deliveries and safe blood transfusions as necessary; increasing the number of trained birth attendants, midwives and nurses; providing education programs on recognizing pregnancy complications; and building and repairing roads to make health care facilities more easily accessible.
– Maris Brummel
Sources: New Security Beat, Huffington Post, UNICEF
Mining in Zambia and Canada
There are many aspects of sustainable development methods that are required to evaluate. In the developing world such as Zambia, few regard the issue of the environment seriously. On average, lead concentrations in children are five to 10 times the permissible United States Environmental Protection Agency levels, and can even be high enough to kill.
It has over the years left huge effects that can now be felt for many years to come. One of the most prominent environmental issues was the discovery of high levels of lead in the town of Kabwe. The Canadian oil sands provide another example of the need to make sure development is anchored by principles that are sustainable. Politicians mostly see votes and with little focus on effects of unregulated massive development such as pollution in the rivers as the case in Alberta, Canada. According to investment for this region of Canada oil companies will spend nearly $200 billion over the next decades.
In this regard it is important to know what is required to balance needs and realities of the effects on the activities of development. Sustainable development methods are plans that meet the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs (WCED, 1987:43.)
This way small economic focus approach has several unwanted side effects. For example, the solution to one problem may make another problem worse. Moreover it tends to focus on short-term benefits without monitoring long-term effects. GDP only reflects the amount of economic activity and can rise when the overall community health is being impaired.
The Alberta Oil Sands is the largest energy project on the planet, lying beneath 140,200 square kilometers of northern Alberta forest, an area almost as large as the state of Florida. With estimated $20 billion revenue coming to Canada each year from this project in Alberta, sustainable development with a broad focus is not a huge priority. Even the currently developed portion of the Oil Sands region is already experiencing severe fragmentation effects on the ecology of the boreal forest.
Remarkably one respected scientist from Canada did a report about this dilemma instead the government went on the defensive despite obvious problems in many areas. These include pollution in the Athabasca River affecting aquatic, plant, human and wildlife. This study was conducted by Dr. David Schindler a renowned academician with impressive pedigree such as the acid rain discovery. According to his report, white fish was caught in Lake Athabasca, near Fort Chipewyan, higher cancers than usual (including rare forms of cancer) in adjacent populations to the project.
It now well known that there many methods to sustain development. These are designed to measure and communicate progress towards of human endeavours across the world.
— Alan Chanda
Sources: Time 1, 2, CBC, Green Party of Canada
Photo: Wikimedia
Mining in Tibet
The Tibetan Autonomous Region, a territory of China, is a resource-rich land, ripe with large stores of copper, oil, lithium, chromite, uranium and gold.
As a result, the government of China displaces numerous Tibetans. The Central Tibetan Administration reports that around 240 mining sites have replaced once-nomadic sites. The China National Gold Group is a government-sponsored organization that owns mines in the Tibetan plateau.
The Stop Mining in Tibet movement states that local Tibetans do not benefit in any capacity from the numerous mines that have sprung up. Stop Mining in Tibet equates the process as looting and calls for its immediate termination. Canadian corporations, in collaboration with the Chinese government, exploit the mines and not only negatively affect the Tibetans in the area, but also do ecological damage to the Tibetan plateau.
Mining sites created near the continent’s largest rivers, such as the Yangtze and the Yellow, are threatened with pollution of its waters. The pollution poses such a danger that India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh may also be affected by polluted waters because they are downstream.
Historically, Tibetans limited their mining, considering the land to be sacred. Now, many of Tibet’s resources are funneled straight into the rapidly industrializing China, with very little benefit towards the pastoral Tibetan community.
Furthermore, with over 6 million nomadic Tibetans in the region, this displacement comes at a time when Tibetan refugee acceptance is in a current decline, according to the BBC.
Displacement of the pastoral communities in Tibet was alleged to have begun in the early 2000s, but recent reports have seen the phenomenon gain more ground. Further information is largely limited, as foreign reporters are restricted in their coverage by the Chinese government.
This past April, a landslide found over 80 miners trapped in the Jiama mine. The Chinese government stated that mining did not cause the landslide, but the Tibetan government in exile, operating from India, claims otherwise.
The majority of the miners found trapped were Han Chinese, with a report of only two Tibetan miners. The majority of miners are not Tibetan themselves, but rather hail from outside the Tibetan region.
With the Chinese government claiming Tibetan land for the betterment of China and a Tibetan government operating from a large distance away, pastorals are left to the whims of governmental decree. In this case, scores of their community are largely displaced. Protest movements exist – but what is a land-rich in resources is sorely lacking in human rights.
– Miles Abadilla
Sources: BBC 1, 2, Central Tibetan Administration, The Economist, Stop Mining Tibet
Photo: Asia News
Ethiopia’s War Against its LGBTQ Citizens
“Africa will become a graveyard for homosexuality!”
This is the rallying cry of Seyoum Antonius, president of United for Life, an NGO self-described as Christian, pro-life and backing the sanctity of marriage. He was the organizer of a national conference titled “Homosexuality and its associated social disastrous consequences” held in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa in June.
At the conference, Antonius presented his findings from a “study” that “proved” homosexuality leads to STDs, HIV and “severe psychological disorders.” His “findings” were received among wide condemnation of homosexuality from Ethiopian officials, religious leaders and civil representatives as a “western epidemic.”
Seyoum Antonius is only one of a number of reasons that Newsweek, in its recent investigative report, asserts that where life is getting better for many countries’ LGBTQ communities, “in Ethiopia, it’s getting worse.”
Prior to Antonius’s horrifying and detrimental conference, life was already bleak for Ethiopia’s LGBTQ community. Homosexuality is illegal in Ethiopia. Sentences for “homosexual activity” range on average from ten days to three years but can be as high as ten years in prison under certain circumstances.
Ethiopian daily newspaper Yenga had described homosexuality as a “rapidly growing ‘infestation’” whose “carriers” were “estimated to have reached 16,000.” Yenga also asserted that gays have an average of 75 partners a year and that their inherent promiscuity drives them to have between “seven and nine partners a day.”
Further, a 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project reveals that 97% of Ethiopians believe that homosexuality should be outlawed.
But this isn’t enough for Antonius. A representative from the Ethiopian Inter-Religious Council Against Homosexuality claimed that the council was making “promising” progress in its efforts to sway the government toward implementing the death penalty for “homosexual acts.” Antonius has been clear that he won’t give up his efforts until this happens, hence his chilling rallying cry.
Two laws in Ethiopia in essence completely bar any health centers, charities, or publications in service of Ethiopia’s LGBTQ community. One, Ethiopia’s strict anti-terrorism law, allows the government to prosecute any person who “writes, edits, prints, publishes, publicizes, [or] disseminates” statements the government considers terrorism. This translates to the police being able to search and arrest anyone they want — without a warrant.
Another pivotal law is the one that bars all charities and NGOs that receive more than 10% of their funding from abroad from engaging in activities that further human rights or promote equality.
The result of these laws, both adopted in 2009, is that the few reputable organizations doing work on human rights within Ethiopia have been either closed or coerced to wipe any mention of human rights from their mission statements.
Leslie Lefkow, Human Rights Watch’s deputy editor for the Africa division describes Ethiopia’s restrictive approach as a “two-pronged strategy that results in a climate of fear and self-censorship. The government has effectively closed off the country in terms of independent investigation. They’ve eviscerated the civil society.”
That strategy is so effective that not even major international organizations like the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria have had any success funding programs that educate men who have sex with men about HIV prevention or treat those that are inflicted with the disease.
Further, according to Amnesty International’s Claire Beston: “The U.S., U.K. and other governments give huge amounts of aid to Ethiopia while remaining tight-lipped about the extensive violations of human rights happening throughout the country.” Human Rights Watch, which used to research LGBTQ issues in Ethiopia, has found it “increasingly challenging” to do that work, given that it calls for undercover work.
Life is getting worse for the LGBTQ community, indeed.
– Kelley Calkins
Sources: Newsweek, Pink News, UNHCR, Pew Global
Photo: Rainbow Ethiopia
3 Footballers Who Care About Global Poverty
Here are three footballers who care about global poverty:
1. Lionel Messi: Argentine Footballer Lionel Messi became UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2011. Messi concentrates on areas dealing mostly with children’s rights. In Nov. of 2013, Messi held a campaign with UNICEF to celebrate his son turning 1. “Last November I received the best gift ever: the birth of my son Thiago. For his first birthday, help me to help all boys and girls have equal opportunities to live, grow, and develop”. The campaign helped raise awareness for children who are in need of life’s basic needs: food, water shelter, and love. Also, in 2007, Messi started the Leo Messi Foundation to help children gain access to health and education. This foundation assists children in Spain gain access to treatment, transportation and hospital costs.
Sources: Save the Children, UNICEF 1, 2, 2, Wikipedia 1, 2, 3, Digital Journal
Social Determinants of Health
When most people think about the health of individuals, communities, and populations they think of access to healthcare. People in developing countries have a definite lack of access to doctors, nurses, drugs, and the latest medical technologies. It is important to remember that the conditions people are born into also have a significant and lasting affect on their health. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of power and resources both globally and locally. These factors are known as the “Social Determinants of Health”
The social determinants of health are the social, economic, and political factors that shape the health of individuals, communities, and nations. Social determinants of health include both environmental resources such as housing, income and income distribution, unemployment, early life, education, and food insecurity. They also include gender, ethnicity, class, and race.
The social determinants of health are responsible for health inequities. Health inequities are the large discrepancies in health status seen between countries and within countries. Wealthier countries in the developed world have much lower rates of infant mortality. The infant mortality rate is the number of infants who die before they reach age one, per 1000 births in any year.
The World Bank reports that Sweden, Norway, and Japan have an infant mortality rate of only two in 2012. The US is three times higher at six deaths per 1000 live births. Unfortunately, in many countries in sub Saharan Africa approximately 10% of children die before their first birthday. The infant mortality rate in Sierra Leone was 117 in 2012.
Another factor used to measure the health of nations that is largely impacted by the social determinants of health is life expectancy at birth. Countries in sub Saharan Africa fare the worst; Sierra Leone has a life expectancy of 45 years and Mozambique has a life expectancy of 49 years. High-income countries fare much better; Japan and Switzerland have average life expectancies of 83. The United States has an average life expectancy of 79 years. Inequality within a country also has a large impact on the overall health of a nation. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of inequality in the world. This is why the US does not fare as well as other developed countries in infant mortality rates and life expectancy.
Health inequities are considered to be unfair and avoidable. It is widely considered that health inequities could be abolished with improved social policies and programs and great income iquality. At the World Conference on the Social Determinants of Health in 2011 the WHO developed five action areas for improving health equity:
1. Adopt improved governance for health and development
2. Promote participation in policy making and implantation
3. Further reorient the health sector towards promoting health and reducing health inequities
4. Strengthen global governance and collaboration
5. Monitor progress and increase accountability
– Lisa Toole
Sources: The World Bank, WHO, CDC, NCBI
Madonna Champions Art for Freedom
Founded in September 2013, Art For Freedom is the result of a partnership between global superstar Madonna and VICE Media. The completely digital organization aims to increase awareness of human rights violations around the world through artwork.
Each month, artists are invited to submit their original creations in response to the question, “What does freedom mean to you?” The organization then chooses a winning entry, whose creator is offered a $10,000 donation to the charity of their choice.
In addition to naming monthly winners, Art For Freedom also posts daily winners on its website. The inspirational submissions are displayed on the organization’s home page and can be accessed at any time through its interactive calendar.
Recently, Madonna named illusionist David Blaine as a guest curator for the organization’s December contest. Blaine’s duties will consist of reviewing entries and choosing which pieces will be displayed on the organization’s website.
Past celebrity curators included notables such as Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. For the month of November, Madonna herself hosted a live exhibit on Tumblr to showcase submissions.
Despite its recent start, the organization has quickly gained a following. Notable submissions for the December 2013 contest have included videos and photographs referencing numerous social problems including bullying, transgender issues, religious intolerance, racial intolerance, and other forms of prejudice.
The organization’s website currently features entries from around the world. The last two weeks have seen submissions from France, Bulgaria, Australia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, New Jersey, California, and New Hampshire.
Entries can be from a variety of mediums including film, music, photography, and poetry. Those interested in the organization’s monthly contest may upload original creations on the Art For Freedom website or by uploading the works to social media with the tag #artforfreedom.
– Jasmine D. Smith
Sources: Art for Freedom, Madonna.com
Photo: Blouin Art Info
Drones Impact on Mental Health in Pakistan
The United States has waged a drone campaign in Pakistan since the early 2000’s. The Waziristan region in northern Pakistan has been a specific target due to the major presence of the Taliban in the area. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London released a report indicating that drone strikes carried out by the U.S. have killed 3,581 people since 2004. That number includes 884 civilians and 197 children. Unsurprisingly, this has led to a rise in mental health issues.
The Huffington Post reported a story of a man who lost nine friends and relatives in one attack in 2009. While Mohammed Fahim was in another room, a drone hit his house, killing everyone else instantly. Fahim insists that his family had no ties to Islamist militancy, but instead that this was an attack that went astray.
Residents in Waziristan complain of living in a constant fear of drones, specifically citing the buzzing sound they emit when they fly overhead. This fear is leading to a rise in depression, anxiety, and in some cases psychotic episodes. Doctor Muktar ul-Haq is the head of psychiatry at a government hospital in the city of Peshawar. He told a story of a man who had a full blown psychotic episode after he found a SIM card outside of his house. A common rumor in Pakistan is that SIM cards emit signals to drones, guiding their attack. Haq said when the man was admitted he was “aggressive and paranoid.”
The social problems that plague Pakistan, such as poverty, Taliban violence, and unemployment, contribute to the rise in depression and anxiety. With all of these other problems, mental health falls to the bottom of the list. There are no official statistics about the rise in mental health issues, but some psychiatrists treating people in the region estimate that rates psychological illnesses have risen three fold.
– Colleen Eckvahl
Sources: Huffington Post, The Atlantic
Photo: CS Monitor
10 Shocking Statistics on Gender-based Violence
In the words of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki moon, “Violence against women continues to persist as one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world. It is a threat to all women, and an obstacle to all our efforts for development, peace, and gender equality in all societies.”
In fact, violence kills more women between the ages of 15 and 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.
The recent 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, kicked off November 25 on the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, served to confront this global pandemic. Here are ten of countless statistics that illustrate the importance of such, and continued, efforts.
1. In the 24 developing countries studied in a recent survey, a combined total of only 7% of survivors of gender-based violence, including physical and sexual acts, formally reported their attacks to police, medical or social services.
2. In India, less than 1% of survivors reported gender-based violence to formal sources. The highest rate of reporting uncovered in the survey was in Colombia where 26% of women formally reported the violence they faced. This still means that three out of four Colombian women never report the violence they’ve faced.
3. In the same 24 developing countries, the surveyors explored whether women told their friends, family members or neighbors about their attacks and found that the rates of this “informal reporting” ranged from 15% in Honduras to 60% in Ukraine. Thus, in most of the countries, the majority of women told no one of their attacks.
4. In Papua New Guinea, 59.1% of men admit to forcing an unwilling intimate partner into having sex. Forty percent of men admit to having raped a stranger.
5. According to the UN, there were 15,654 cases of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2012. However, the country is noted to chronically underreport gender-based violence figures. A study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that more than 1,100 women were raped every day in 2006 and that more than 400,000 women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 were raped within a 12-month time frame.
6. A third of all survivors of sexual violence in the DRC are between the ages of 12 and 17. Reports from the UN indicate that 82% of all survivors had not finished primary school.
7. A study by Johns Hopkins that surveyed women across 25 African countries found that a high proportion of women believed that wife-beating was justified in at least one of five different hypothetical scenarios. The percentage of women who adhered to this view ranged from 18 in Swaziland to 87 in Guinea.
8. A South African women is killed by an intimate partner every 6 hours.
9. An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women throughout the world have experienced female genital mutilation. More than three million African girls face the risk of the practice every year.
10. Eighty percent of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked annually are women and girls. Seventy-nine percent of them are trafficked for sexual exploitation.
– Kelley Calkins
Sources: End Violence Against Women, UNFP, Al Jazeera, UN News Center, NCBI, Say No to Violence, Women Under Seige
Photo: Gabriela USA