A change isn't gonna come, it's here now

Just under 5 million Ethiopians could be at risk from food shortages due to drought, the UN has announced.

Government officials have contradicted this announcement, however, saying that enough food surpluses exist and are being distributed to those in need.

The Afar and Southern Somali regions are hardest hit. The government has allocated $35 million to deal with the crisis; the UN says it needs a further $195 million to sufficiently deal with the problem. The drought. an effect of El Nino, a warm ocean current, is expected to not only create food shortages, but unemployment for farmers, and local conflicts over resources.

There are reports of people having to sell their belongings to stay alive; this includes livestock, as there's not enough to feed them.

In a nation where just under half of the children are malnourished, further national damage is a terrifying prospect. Let's hope the UN And the Ethiopian government are able to work in concert to provide aid to the people who need it.

Action Against Hunger provides more information: http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/countries/africa/ethiopia

Image: Action Against Hunger

Last week the Australian Border Force announced it would launched a massive operation to perform random visa checks on immigrants throughout the city of Melbourne.

But by that afternoon, so many protesters against visa spot checking had arrived at the location of the intended press conference, it had to be cancelled. Only hours later, the entire operation was suspended.

In what became a PR disaster - only the latest for the Australian government - the government denied knowledge of the operation.

Local officials including the mayor and police minister condemned the "innapropriate characterisation" of immigrants in the wording of the press release.

So what is going on with immigration in Australia? And where does this anti-immigrant rhetoric come from?

If even the government denies responsibility - and they are best known internationally for their brutal 'Stop the Boats' policy of turning back asylum seeker boats - then has the time finally come for them to admit being ashamed?

There are many food cooperatives operating across the globe. Where the purposes and aims are largely similar – to provide a low-cost alternative to supermarket food – the conditions that make their existence possible differ from area to area. In Brandenburg, for example, there exist food co-ops who can harvest fruit and vegetables from certain farms, as there is a shortage in the workforce – some produce goes unharvested since there is no one there to gather it.

Spain has a more representative problem. Food isn’t delivered to the supermarket because it looks wrong. Knobbly potatoes, bifurcating radishes, strawberries bulging and contracting. People don’t want to eat this food – because it looks strange.

Not that food aesthetics aren’t serious – indeed, there are some deep instinctual responses we have to food that doesn’t look or smell right. However, this isn’t a case of natural aversion; this is a case of preference. Food which is edible – perfectly edible, one wishes to say – doesn’t make it to market, or is left in the ground because it doesn’t look right.

Espigoladors, based in Barcelona, have been working with farmers in North East Catalonia to harvest fruit and vegetables which would otherwise remain unharvested due to appearance, ripeness or low sales; the latter suggesting again a matter of preference.

In a region of Spain deeply affected by unemployment, and with a national economic crisis, there’s still a shock at discovering just how much food is wasted before it reaches supermarkets. “In Spain, about 7.7 million tonnes of produce – roughly 163kg per person – are thrown away each year... In its first year, Espigoladors has managed to recover about 70,000kg of produce.”

This project is only one of many that looks to provide for people with little means, using products normally designated as waste. It’s a great initiative, but highlights several areas of concern: the lack of means people are experiencing, and the kinds of market-determined waste we permit. Find out about food co-ops in your local region, volunteer and help put pressure on supermarkets to stop wastage.

Before the current conflict, Yemen was already the poorest country in the Middle East. Over 10 million people were going hungry, including 1 million acutely malnourished children. This number has increased by nearly 3 million since the conflict began reports Oxfam.

According to the NGO more than 21 million people - nearly 84% of the population - currently have no access to clean water as fuel supplies dwindle.

Violence has damaged homes, schools and even hospitals. So far, over 4,300 civilians have lost their lives and over 1.5 million people have been had to flee their homes.

Food and diesel, which is needed to pump clean water, are increasingly in short supply and their prices are rising – putting these basic necessities out of reach for ordinary families. And at a time when people desperately need them, vital supplies can't enter the country. That could prove disastrous, because Yemen relies on imports for 90 per cent of its food.

Further to this, Human Rights Watch reported yesterday, that the Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces appear to have used cluster munition rockets in at least seven attacks in Yemen’s northwestern Hajja governorate, killing and wounding dozens of civilians. The attacks were carried out between late April and mid-July 2015.

It is critical that the government pushes for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, so that vital humanitarian assistance can be delivered to people in Yemen. Oxfam calls for action to prevent any further suffering to those who already desperately need help.

Violence between protesters and security forces escalated in western Nepal this week. The government should order an independent and impartial investigation into all protest-related deaths and ensure that security forces deployed to restore order remain disciplined and respect basic rights. Leaders on all sides of the debate over increased autonomy should refrain from further violence.

Protests in the Kailali district over provisions in the country’s draft constitution have led to the reported deaths of up to 3 protesters and 17 members of the security forces deployed to contain the protests. Unknown numbers are being treated for injuries. The protesters apparently targeted police officers, who were outnumbered.

“Nepal’s government is squarely to blame for its failure to engage with the local community and address its concerns, which led to this horrific escalation, but violent attacks on police can only be deplored,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to take immediate steps to restore order and prevent retaliation by the police.”

Large parts of Nepal have been rocked by violent protests over the last few weeks, as indigenous and disenfranchised groups took to the streets to demand that the new draft constitution address their longstanding grievances and include them in an equal and participatory democratic state. At least four protesters died in previous protests when police responded with seemingly disproportionate force, although the police contend that they were responding in self-defence. After the protests turned violent, the government responded by deploying the army across Kailali and two neighboring districts.

Saudi Arabia has executed on average one person every two days, according to a report released on Tuesday by Amnesty International reports the Guardian.

Over the last 12 months at least 175 people have been killed.

The report 'Killing in the Name of Justice' exposes the shockingly arbitrary use of the death penalty in the Saudi Arabia. According to Amnesty International the death sentence is often imposed after trials that blatantly flout international standards.

“Sentencing hundreds of people to death after deeply flawed legal proceedings is utterly shameful. The use of the death penalty is horrendous in all circumstances, and is particularly deplorable when it is arbitrarily applied after blatantly unfair trials,” said Said Boumedouha, Acting Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

The kingdom follows a strict interpretation of Islamic law and applies the death penalty to a number of crimes including murder, rape and drug smuggling. Saudi courts allow for people to be executed for adultery, apostasy and witchcraft. People can also be executed for crimes committed when they were below 18 years of age.

“Saudi Arabia’s faulty justice system facilitates judicial executions on a mass scale,” Said Boumedouha, acting director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program, said in a statement.

The kingdom is in the top five countries in the world for putting people to death. It ranked third in 2014, after China and Iran, and ahead of Iraq and the United States, according to Amnesty International figures.

If you’d heard of Heidenau before this weekend, chances are you’re either from there or you’ve seen it on your way out of Dresden. Lying 13km or so outside the state capital, the quiet Saxon town has rarely, if ever, been the centre of a national attention, let alone a national debate. Then came the weekend.

A warehouse, unused for two years, formerly a large hardware store, was to be the site of a temporary shelter for incoming asylum seekers. This item of news would be of interest itself, claimed Die Zeit, but no one has been concerned with the appropriateness of the site, nor have the plans for potentially further asylum seekers been discussed; everyone has been talking about the riots.

Since Friday evening, protestors have lined the main street of Heidenau, demonstrating against the arrival of approximately 600 asylum seekers. The first busload, thought to contain about 250 migrants arrived on Satuday morning; a parallel NPD demonstration took place in the street. Die Zeit reports that by the time the migrants had been ushered into the warehouse, behind police buses, the riots had begun.

Bottles and stones flew, as somewhere between 150 and 200 demonstrators against the stopgap asylum shelter clashed with about 170 police. The police retaliated with batons. Reuters reports that many of the demonstrators were drunk, and in the melee, many were hurt – police included, one seriously.

A counter-demonstration was also held – which is heartening – and drew up to 100 people protesting against right-wing extremism.

Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maiziere told the public broadcaster ZDF: "this is unsavoury and unworthy of our country…Everyone who thinks like that should try just for a moment to put themselves into the situation of the refugees. We will bring the full force of the law against anyone who takes such action".

Many of the asylum seekers are reportedly from Iraq and Syria. Germany has seen an increase in asylum applications this year, with over 75,000 lodged already – already more than the total number lodged in 2014.

Heidenau shouldn’t only be known for these anti-asylum riots. The NPD and other right-wing forces will attempt to capitalise on xenophobic fears as well as more neutral anxieties regarding immigration; however, it’s important to recognise that the state of Saxony is attempting to provide for asylum-seekers, albeit in a warehouse whose suitability should surely be assessed. Secondly, the counter-demonstration held to welcome the asylum seekers represents a growing trend across Germany and the Continent, especially in smaller towns, to make support for refugees and asylum seekers visible – to overcome easy hatred, simplistic notions of ethnicity and entitlement, nationalism and blood – and opt instead for strength, solidarity and kindness.

Image: © Arno Burgi / dpa

On August 21, 2013, the government of Bashar al-Assad used chemical bombs against Syrian civilians in Ghouta. Several opposition-controlled areas in the suburbs around Damascus, Syria, were struck by rockets containing the chemical agent sarin and hundreds to thousands of men, women and children died.This was the worst chemical attack for a quarter of a century, since the Halabja killings by Saddam Hussein in 1988.

After Ghouta, the world was outraged and finally paid attention to what was happening in Syria. What followed were international assessments, an UN investigation and US president

Obama said a red line had been crossed. But the international political situation has changed and the international community of states swayed to and fro whether or not to use Bashar al-Assad’s government in the fight against terrorism. And so, after two years after the killing in the Ghouta the chemical attacks against Syrian civilians continue today. The barrel bombs packed with chlorine and explosives, routinely used on Syrian neighborhoods, seem to be ignored by the international community, also one of the reasons for many Syrians to flee their country but overshadowed by the European refugee discussion. This week, over 100 civilians were killed and 500 were injured in aerial attacks on a market in Douma. Yet this time the world is completely silent.

To break this silence, organisations as the Iraqi-German association WADI and Planet Syria, a wide network that includes over a hundred Syrian civil society groups, are asking people around the world to join or organise a #ClearTheSky action to show their support for clearing Syrian skies of bombs. They exclaim the Global Day of Action on the Second Anniversary of the Chemical Attacks on Ghouta. May their voices be heard and lead to action.

Read more on fairplanet's dossier ESCAPE

Read more about the bombing
SYRIAN GOVERNMENT FORCES PERPETRATE
ALEPPO'S BARREL BOMB HOSPITAL

Photo: Planet Syria

This fall the U.N. conference on climate change in Paris (COP21) will try to make a difference: 20 years after the first conference in Berlin in 1995 it aims to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

Since 1995 the carbon dioxide emission have doubled, and the goal to turn away from fossil fuel consumption until the end of the century reminds of economist John Maynard Keynes famous saying "In the long run we are all dead", rather than a plan.

Against that background, ahead of the UN climate summit COP21, the innovation camp POC21, aims to deliver the proof of concept that a fossil-free, resource-efficient society can be built by citizen pioneers.

“We've exhaustively discussed the problems - and even solutions to - climate change and resource depletion. What we lack are new formats and fresh minds to create feasible results for the vast majority of people.” said Daniel Kruse, co-founder of POC21.

The organizers OuiShare (Paris) and Open State (Berlin) brought together around 100 citizen pioneers to join forces at Millemont Castle near Paris. During five weeks of co-making and co-living, their goal will be to prototype a new breed of open-source, sustainable products.

12 project teams - supported by international makers, designers and social innovators - will develop and document their ideas for a mainstream audience. During POC21 the participants will embrace a unique creative process complete with mentoring sessions, work sprints, reality checks, campfire chats and more.

As the great thinker, architect, inventor and activist R. Buckminster Fuller said: "Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment."

We can't wait until the end of the century. It's time to hurry up.

fairplanet will report weekly from the innovation camp POC21. POC21 is running a live magazine to provide continues updates from the camp.