Category Archives: Viva!

Adele’s ’25’ Sales Grow to Over 3 Million in U.S.

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There is slightly more than one day left in the sales tracking week to be tabulated. How high will ’25’ go?

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Environmental journalism in an increasingly hostile climate

As Paris prepares to host the COP 21 Climate Change Conference, Reporters Without Borders is today releasing a report entitled “Hostile climate for environmental journalists” that examines the often tragic difficulties for reporters covering environmental issues.

With the environment now recognized as a major challenge for humankind, Reporters Without Borders believes that particular attention should be paid to the journalists who take greats risk to investigate sensitive, environment-related subjects.

The report highlights a steady deterioration in the situation for environmental reporters, who are increasingly exposed to many kinds of pressure, threats and violence.

The violence against these women and men who investigate in the field, often alone, has reached an unprecedented level in 2015,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “In the COP 21 era, we need to realize that the highly sensitive nature of this subject only too often causes grave problems for those trying to shed light on pollution and other forms of environmental degradation. Their meticulous but dangerous work of gathering and disseminating information is nonetheless vital if we are to achieve the badly needed increase in awareness of the dangers threatening our planet.

Ten environmental journalists have been murdered since 2010, according to the tally kept by Reporters Without Borders. In the past five years, almost all (90 percent) of these murders have been in South Asia (India) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Philippines and Indonesia). Two Indian reporters, Jagendra Singh and Sandeep Kothari, were killed in 2015.

Some journalists are threatened, attacked or jailed because of their reporting. At least six Peruvian journalists reported being harassed and roughed up in the spring of 2015. In Uzbekistan, freelance journalist Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov has languished in prison for the past seven years. All of these journalists investigated sensitive environmental subjects such as illegal logging, mining or pollution.

Some governments resort to censorship whenever they are blamed for environmental problems. When “Under The Dome,” an online documentary about air pollution in Beijing, went viral in March, the Chinese Communist Party quickly had it removed from websites. In Ecuador, draconian legislation prevents journalists from covering oil drilling in the Yasuni National Park, where the biological diversity is internationally recognized. In Canada, the government gagged federal scientists to prevent them talking to journalists about the drawbacks of extracting oil from tar sands.

Some environmental journalists report receiving friendly approaches from companies that are involved in projects likely to endanger the environment and resort to anything to help improve their image. Reporters in Democratic Republic of Congo said they were bribed by a British company with a concession to explore for oil in Virunga National Park that wanted to buy their silence. Canadian reporter Stephen Leahy was offered money by a Canadian mining company to stop investigating its activities.

In response to all these obstacles, more and more environmental journalists are banding together in associations that aim above all to improve the quality of their reporting but also give them the opportunity to collaborate and to be better equipped and protected when they venture into the field.

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AMERICA/COSTA RICA – Cuban immigrants blocked at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua: “a humanitarian issue”

San José de Costa Rica – As part of the ordinary meeting of the “Secretariado Episcopal de América Central “, which takes place in November from 23 to 27 in San José de Costa Rica with the slogan “A single network, a single region”, the Bishops of Central America met with the President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis, to address the plight of Cuban immigrants. More than 3,000 Cubans in fact, during their journey to the United States, have been blocked for over a week at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, as Nicaragua does not allow them entry into the country, not even for transit.
The Government of Costa Rica and the Bishops of SEDAC agreed in defining this situation “a humanitarian issue”, demanding therefore a “humanitarian solution” and expecting some decision is taken during the meeting of the Prime Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Central America, which is taking place in El Salvador.
According to information sent to Fides, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, pointed out that this problem is not only for this country, but of the entire Central American region, and dialogue is the only way to find a solution.
The agenda of the meeting scheduled by SEDAC will analyze the social and ecclesial life of each Central American country. In addition to the Bishops there will also be Family, Youth, Vocations, social pastoral and social communications Commissions.

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | My Heart Hurts

My heart hurts

Because I am not

Treated like a human

My heart hurts

Because I have no voice

In who I marry

I am accused of being unworthy

Lies about me spread

I am stoned, beaten, burned

This is not just the story

Of Farkhunda in Kabul

Rukhshana in Ghor

This is the story of thousands

Of women in Afghanistan

Their government does not listen or help

But I am rising

My powerful voice is louder

I write the truth with my golden pen

My heart hurts and I am poo

rI stay in the dark corner

Of my house and cry

By Sharifa

Source: Afghan Women’s Writing Project | My Heart Hurts