The Good, the Bad and In Between

After the recent launch of our topical newsletter, we welcome you to
FairPlanet’s new roundup, where we highlight the good, the bad and the what’s going on with a touch of ground base insights.

From a VR tool to help eliminate bias in classrooms and the global celebration of IWD, crisis-torn Venezuela and the brave Ghanaian women fishmongers, the past week has kept us on our toes.

We’re here to shed some light on what concerned and impressed us, and project some hope for the time ahead.

Clorama Dorvilias, Co-Founder of Debias VR

The good

Fewer people live in poverty

While there are many aspects of our world that are still far from equality, more people than ever are living above the poverty line.

population-by-per-capita-household-consumption

Chart courtesy of OurWorldinData.org

The bad

Warmest February on record

Caroline Lucas, the U.K.'s Green Party leader, said in a public statement that the warm weather we are currently experiencing is a direct result of extreme climate change.

And if you, like us, were taking in this Northern hemisphere’s winter-summer – or the droughts, storms and floods in the Southern hemisphere – with a pinch of fear, then good on you.

We should not be sunbathing in February nor burying next season's harvest where people needed it the most.

So each week we pick a project, petition or people whose work we support – like local communities worldwide fighting for equality and climate justice.

Support local communities worldwide in their fight for equality and climate justice

by Yair Oded

Grassroots International connect US volunteers and groups with communities across the world who grapple with poverty and climate injustice.

Support

Meanwhile

	The brave path of the Ghanaian fishmongers by Kwabena Adu Koranteng Over the years, Women have played a great role in Ghana’s fisheries sector by contributing the socio-economic development of the West African Country. Read

	VR game seeks to promote racial and gender equality by Yair Oded Debias VR developed a game which encourages educators to identify and abandon their racial and gender-based biases in the classroom. Read

	Happy International Women's Day by Gurmeet Singh March 8 is International Women's Day. Happy day to all women and women-identifying people out there. And much power to you all. Read

Country Focus

Venezuela

Officially titled the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the South American country spans both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic ocean and has its part of the deep Amazon jungle. Sharing its border with four countries, Guyana, Brazil and Columbia, Venezuela is known for its former socialist ruler Hugo Chavez – and is facing a deep national and humanitarian crisis under its disputed president Nicolás Maduro.

Possessing the world's largest oil reserves, Venezuela like many other oil-rich countries seems to be 'oil-cursed'. According to political scientist Michael Ross oil states are 50 percent more likely to be authoritarian than are non-oil states, and between 1980 and 2013, oil-producing autocracies were four times less likely to transition to democracy than non-oil-producing countries.

All stories about Venezuela

May we introduce

Pablo Pérez Álvarez

Our correspondent Pablo works also as a reporter and copy editor with the international news agencies AFP, EFE and ANSA across the U.K., Italy, Mexico, Colombia and Uruguay. Pablo covers international affairs and human rights issues for FairPlanet from Latin America.

Pablo, what drives your work as a journalist?

I always look for stories that allow me to give a voice to those who face the abuses of political and economic powers, allowing them to tell their stories and expose their version of the events. Although I like to present all the angles of a story, I also try to tell them in the simplest way possible, because I think that’s the best way to grasping the complex problems that concern all of us.

Follow Pablo Perez Alvar on Twitter: @PabloPerezAlvar

All stories by Pablo Pérez Álvarez

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