All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Exploring the beauty of the Saharan Blues

Saharan Blues, a term in which the word ‘blues’ is doing a lot of work. There is no place on Earth quite as befitting of the blues as the North African region of the Sahara. It is a stretch of land where the first adjective to come to mind is ravaged; ravaged by the blistering sun, increasing climate-driven desertification, colonialism, then post-colonial disorder, socio-economic divides, political unrest, and many more horrors that I will leave out for fear of only creating further despair. However, as always, where despair resides, the tonic of music follows, and the great cultural boon of life has certainly not deserted the Saharan people.  Source: Exploring the beauty of the Saharan Blues

EU, Italy stop AstraZeneca vaccine exports to Australia

Not good – everyone suffers from vaccine nationalism…

A shipment of a quarter million #AstraZeneca vaccines destined for #Australia has been blocked from leaving the #EuropeanUnion in the first use of an export control system instituted by the bloc to make sure big pharma companies would respect their contracts.

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More COVAX COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments Arrive in Africa & SE Asia | UNICEF USA

The list of countries receiving shipments of COVID-19 vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility continues to grow, as planes filled with lifesaving vaccines touched down in Angola, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Gambia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Sudan in recent days. More than 20 countries are expected to receive hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses by the end of the week.

The arrival of these initial vaccines — intended for health care and frontline workers and other high-risk individuals — marks the much-anticipated beginning of the end of the pandemic.

The deliveries are part of the COVAX initiative’s unprecedented global effort to provide 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to low- and lower-middle-income countries by the end of 2021. COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), with UNICEF as a key implementing partner, leading on procurement and supply.

Source: More COVAX COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments Arrive in Africa & SE Asia | UNICEF USA

Northern Ireland loyalists pull support for Good Friday peace deal | News | DW | 04.03.2021 (Translation:Boris blows Brexit for Northern Ireland)

Loyalist paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland were on Thursday reported to have told London they are temporarily withdrawing support for the 1998 peace agreement, often called the Good Friday Agreement.

The decision was taken amid concerns over the UK’s Brexit deal with the European Union, Northern Irish newspaper the Belfast Telegraph reported.

A letter from an umbrella body representing loyalist groups said its opposition was because of the Northern Irish Protocol  — part of the Brexit divorce deal. They oppose the additional checks and paperwork for goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland — implemented to prevent the need for a hard border on the island of Ireland

Source: Northern Ireland loyalists pull support for Good Friday peace deal | News | DW | 04.03.2021

Myanmar protesters determined to defy military with grassroots protest | Asia| An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 03.03.2021

People have been barricading themselves in their neighborhoods. Esther Ze Naw, a Kachin Peace Network peace activist, shared instructions on Facebook on how to make Molotov cocktails. “Now you guys might realize why these bastards deserve this,” she wrote. Cape Diamond, a Yangon-based journalist who has been closely covering the street protests in the city, tweeted: “I’ve been speaking/interviewing people on the street (at least ten persons a day) every day since the first day of the protests. They’ll have the common answer at the end of the conversation; ‘We will fight till the end. The revolution must succeed.'”

Source: Myanmar protesters determined to defy military with grassroots protest | Asia| An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 03.03.2021

Afghan women journalists and human rights activists are being forced into hiding

A wave of violence against female journalists and human rights activists is rocking Afghanistan. As the government seems unable to protect them from attacks, many are hoping for support from the international community.

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A wave of violence against female journalists and human rights activists is rocking Afghanistan. As the government seems unable to protect them from attacks, many are hoping for support from the international community.

Germany says AstraZeneca vaccine OK for over-65’s after all

German health authorities have approved AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine for people aged 65 and older, going back on their earlier verdict. Initially they had argued it was not effective enough for the elderly.

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German health authorities have approved AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine for people aged 65 and older, going back on their earlier verdict. Initially they had argued it was not effective enough for the elderly.

Stacey Abrams on American Idealism and American Betrayal

Abrams helped win major Democratic victories in Georgia, the right is retaliating and it’s getting personal. But Abrams says she doesn’t mind; it’s all about the long game.

Abrams helped win major Democratic victories in Georgia, the right is retaliating and it’s getting personal. But Abrams says she doesn’t mind; it’s all about the long game.

In Myanmar Protests, Women Are on the Front Lines – The New York Times

An undated photograph that Ms. Kyal Sin, whose English name was Angel, posted on Instagram in 2019. Ma Kyal Sin loved taekwondo, spicy food and a good red lipstick. She adopted the English name Angel, and her father hugged her goodbye when she went out on the streets of Mandalay, in central Myanmar, to join the crowds peacefully protesting the recent seizure of power by the military.

The black T-shirt that Ms. Kyal Sin wore to the protest on Wednesday carried a simple message: “Everything will be OK.”

In the afternoon, Ms. Kyal Sin, 18, was shot in the head by the security forces, who killed at least 30 people nationwide in the single bloodiest day since the Feb. 1 coup, according to the United Nations.

Doctors at a hospital in Yangon, Myanmar, protested days after the military coup last month.