The new academic year has started this week in Mexico, but children remain at home, doing classes via the television or the internet.
Mexican Education Secretary Esteban Moctezuma says this is by far the best and the safest option for Mexico, pointing out that children in other countries have gone back to classes, and almost immediately new outbreaks have occurred.
Standing alongside Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Moctezuma says that the main educational reliance is on television, because it has more scope and range than the internet for public education. However, many private schools have gone back to the internet formula.
More than half of the country’s work force is employed in the informal economy, so they have to physically go to their jobs, often taking their younger children with them. The Education Ministry has established 160 telephone support lines, but with more than thirty million students, resources are thinly spread and sorely stretched.
President Lopez Obrador claims the virulence of the virus is now waning, yet Health Officials confirm the death toll now exceeds 60,000 victims. Testing for Covid-19 has now dropped to three people per one hundred thousand.
In June Deputy Health Minister and Covid Spokesman Hugo Lopez Gatell said that if deaths surpassed 60,000 by October it would be a catastrophe and the worst-case scenario. Now these words have come back to haunt him.
The African continent is now free from cases of wild polio, as global efforts to completely eradicate the virus continue to move in the right direction. Currently, only two countries in the world – Afghanistan and Pakistan – still report cases of polio.
On Tuesday, the Africa Regional Committee for Certification (ARCC), an independent regional body set up by the World Health Organisation (WHO), concluded that the transmission of the wild poliovirus strain has been interrupted in all 47 countries of the WHO African Region.
This certification comes after Nigeria, the last African country with polio cases, recorded no new cases for the past four consecutive years. This announcement means that five of the six WHO regions, representing 90 percent of the world’s population is polio-free.
Certification of polio eradication is done on a regional basis. A region is only eligible for certification after all countries in the area show proof of the absence of wild poliovirus for at least three consecutive years, and demonstrate a high standard of surveillance for any outbreaks.
Polio, a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease, has no cure but can be prevented by the administration of a vaccine. It is typically transmitted through contaminated water and usually affects children under five, sometimes leading to irreversible paralysis.
By 1996, more than 75,000 children across Africa were affected by polio. That same year, the late Nelson Mandela launched the “Kick Polio Out of Africa” program which mobilized health workers and organisations to put in renewed efforts to ensure a polio-free Africa.
The final efforts to eradicate polio in Africa were concentrated largely on northeastern Nigeria after an outbreak was reported in 2016. Before that, the country had gone two years without any cases identified and had even been taken off the global list of polio-endemic countries in 2015.
Leading virologist and chairman of the Nigeria Expert Review Committee on Polio Eradication and Routine Immunization, Professor Oyewole Tomori, said that the country’s journey to eradicating polio began in 1977 when the WHO adopted the Universal Child Immunization Program. The goal, he explained at a press conference on Tuesday, was to vaccinate every child in the world against measles, tetanus, whooping cough and polio by 1990. However, by that deadline, Nigeria was barely able to achieve the 80 percent target.
Tomori explained some of the challenges to achieving this global health milestone include difficulty in accessing some areas in order to reach some populations, as well as a 2003 boycott of vaccines by some states in Nigeria due to unfounded rumors that they caused infertility.
He recalled that in Kano state alone, approximately 3.7 million children went unvaccinated in 2004 due to the misinformation. The situation was further compounded by the outbreak of armed conflict in northern Nigeria which displaced millions of people. He said some of his colleagues were killed in the line of duty while trying to vaccinate children against polio.
Eradication: Looking ahead
This new certification does not mean that Africa is completely polio-free.
A vaccine-derived poliovirus – a rare mutated form of the virus – still remains in Africa with several dozen cases identified this year. Even though it is not the wild polio strain, it can still emerge among populations living in areas of low immunity.
In addition, immunization campaigns that have been effective in keeping numbers low have been significantly disrupted due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Fear over a revolutionary government surfaced again in the Philippines after an assembly in Pampanga on August 22 revived a long-running push for the establishment of a revolutionary government headed by Duterte. Citing the need to heal “all the ills of our society”, Duterte’s supporters want him to overthrow his own constitutionally mandated government, dump the Constitution and everything it stands for.
Several Catholic bishops in the Philippines have raised concern over a call for a revolutionary government by supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte, saying it will only end in “chaos” rather than improvement in the country’s situation.
Caritas Philippines director, Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Kidapawan, said that the call is not only inciting sedition, but it will, at best, ruin the government.
He warned that instead of solving the nation’s real problems, a revolutionary government will “use the Filipino people as pawns to justify vested interests”.
Bishop Bagaforo said that rather than focusing too much on dividing the nation, Duterte must commit himself to handle the COVID pandemic more efficiently, support the private sector against recession, maximize government funds to aid education, and do better at defending human rights. The Caritas head urged Filipinos to watch out against “deceiving plots” against democracy and people’s welfare.
Betrayal of nation
Bishop Broderick Pabillo, the Apostolic Administrator of the Manila Archdiocese, agreed with Bishop Bagaforo. Describing a revolutionary government as unjust, immoral and seditious, he said such an act is a betrayal of the nation.
Archbishop Martin Jumoad of Ozamiz said the government should rather focus on the pandemic and the ongoing health crisis.
For his part, Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga said that the proposal is not only unconstitutional but an “open admittance that the present government is a total failure.”
“They want to change the government just to install the same government officials. There is no sense, void of human reason,” he said.
Recalling the bitter experiences of the people under the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos, retired Bishop Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon warned that if such a plan is “pushed through, Filipinos will get impatient and something worse might happen”.
Retired Bishop Teodoro Bacani of Novaliches denounced the supporters of a revolutionary government as “crazy”.
Other groups reject the call
According to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), which brings together all the lawyers in the country, “There is no legal, factual, practical, or moral basis for a revolutionary government under the present circumstances.” “If the president truly cares about the country he vowed to serve, he should focus on solving imminent problems and get back to real work which is piling up,” said IBP national president Domingo Egon Cayosa in a statement.
Both the Philippine National Police and the Department of National Defense have said they would not support any calls for a revolutionary government.
The League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), the formal organisation of all of the Philippines’ 81 provinces, has also rejected the idea of a revolutionary government. According to LPP president, Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., the governor of Marinduque, if the goal is to make way for a federal form of government, there are constitutional means to do so. “An adventurist attempt at a revolutionary government might give the illusion that it is the solution to the problem but it will only aggravate the problem by creating anarchy and destabilisation,” Velasco said.
From 1 September to 4 October, Christians all over the world will celebrate the Season of Creation, as well as the Day of Creation on 1 September.
As in past years, both the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and The Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE), are encouraging Member Churches in Europe to come together over the course of the month to celebrate the “richness of the Christian faith as an expression to protect our common home.
In a statement issued by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, President of CCEE, and Rev. Christian Krieger, President of CEC, Creation is described as “a gift of God for mankind and for all living beings. It is, therefore, our responsibility to protect it as good and reliable stewards, and as faithful servants of God.”
Pope Francis’s call to protect our common home
They point out that Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Si’, underlines, “the urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development.”
They also stress Pope Francis’s appeal “for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.”
The eminent theologian Jurgen Moltmann, they highlight, calls for “a discernment of the God, who is present in creation through his Holy Spirit,” a discernment that “can bring men and women to reconciliation and peace with nature.”
Ecumenical dimension
Emphasizing the ecumenical dimension to the Season of Creation, the joint statement gives thanks for the proposal of the late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1989.
Since that time, the two presidents comment, “the idea of the Season of Creation and its ecumenical spirit has been further confirmed by the European Ecumenical Assemblies organised jointly by CEC and CCEE in Basel 1989, Graz 1997 and Sibiu 2007.”
COVID-19
This year, the Season will be observed in the midst of a global pandemic.
The Coronavirus, the statement reads, has shown “more than ever that we are not isolated from each other and that conditions related to human health and well-being are fragile.”
It goes on to say that the “impact of the pandemic forces us to take seriously the need for vigilance and the need for conditions of sustainable life throughout the earth. This is even more important when considering the environmental devastation and the threat of climate change.”
Jubilee for the Earth
In conclusion, the two presidents invite Christians to celebrate the Season of Creation this year under the heading of Jubilee for the Earth. “The concept of Jubilee,” they note, “is rooted in the Bible and underlines that there must exist a just and sustainable balance between social, economic and ecological realities.”
They also underline that “the lesson from the biblical concept of jubilee points us towards the need to restore balance in the very systems of life, affirming the need for equality, justice and sustainability and confirming the need for a prophetic voice in defence of our common home.”
A year of Waste Management Plan at the Salesian Don Bosco Technologial Institute (DBTI) in Port Moresby. This is how a group of young people are responding to Pope Francis’s request to care for our common home.
Each year the Salesian Order focuses their work on a Strenna, or theme, released by the Rector Major, Fr Angel Artime. This year’s Strenna is “Good Christians, Upright Citizens”.
An article released on the website of the Episcopal Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands explains that the year of Integrated Waste Management at DBTI is motivated by Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ year, which began on 24 May. In addition, it emphasises “concrete inititives for the care of the environment as practical ways of exemplifying being upright citizens”.
The article, written by Fr Ariel Macatangay SDB, DBTI treasurer, explains that the council, focusing on Laudato Si’, is “proposing attitudes to be developed each month”. The points of emphasis for the months of June, July and August are the three terms commonly used to designate practical care for the environment: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Waste Management at DBTI
There is a need for integrated Waste Management for DBTI, writes Fr Macatangay. Despite the numerous efforts focused on waste collections, such as the buying of willie-bins, weekly rubbish collection and selling of scrap metal “we are not sure if our rubbish is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way” and wish that all our waste be properly disposed of, with “our ultimate goal” being “Zero Waste”, he says.
In order to achieve this goal, Fr Macatangay calls for interested volunteers among both students and staff.
“In the meanwhile, efforts at recycling different types of waste are intensifying”, continues the article.
These initiatives at waste management take place even while the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. As of the moment, much of the effort in waste management is exerted by the student and staff residents. Soon, we hope to involve more and more people until every member of the educative pastoral community becomes aware and contributes responsibly for sustainable management of waste.
The future of Papua New Guinea
Finally, Fr Macatangay writes that as in other parts of the world, young people become protagnists of initiatives and concrete actions for the care and preservation of the environment. “We hope that our youths at DBTI and eventually of our locality can sustain their efforts at integrated waste management and contribute in making Papua New Guinea the Paradise of the Pacific”.
Launching his latest policy brief, on tourism, Secretary-General António Guterres, pointed out that the industry “employs one-in-every-ten people on Earth and provides livelihoods to hundreds of millions more”.
Strong data from the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) shows that 100 to 120 million direct tourism jobs are at risk. And the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) forecasts a loss of 1.5 to 2.8 per cent of global GDP.
Describing tourism as an opportunity to experience the world’s cultural and natural riches, bringing people closer to each other and highlighting our common humanity, Mr. Guterres said: “One might say that tourism is itself one of the wonders of the world”.
Among other things, the brief finds that, due to the unprecedented shutdown of global travel and trade, tourism may be the sector worst affected by the coronavirus. “It has been so painful to see how tourism has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic”, the UN chief reflected.
Moreover, there are secondary impacts, such as increase in poaching, as people search for other sources of income. In the first five months of this year, international tourist arrivals have fallen by more than half and around $320 billion in tourism exports were lost, according to the top UN official.
“Many are in the informal economy or in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which employ a high proportion of women and young people”, Mr. Guterres continued.
As for women, rural communities, indigenous peoples and many other historically marginalized populations, “tourism has been a vehicle for integration, empowerment and generating income”, he added.
Conservation pillar
Tourism is also a key pillar for the conservation of natural and cultural heritage.
“The fall in revenues has led to increased poaching and habitat destruction in and around protected areas, and the closure of many World Heritage Sites has deprived communities of vital livelihoods”, informed the UN chief.
Rebuilding
The Secretary-General underscored the importance of rebuilding the tourism sector in a way that is “safe, equitable and climate friendly”.
Noting that transport-related greenhouse gas emissions could “rebound sharply if recovery is not aligned with climate goals”, he stressed that sustainable and responsible travel is imperative to support the millions that depend on tourism for their livelihoods.
Key areas
Mr. Guterres outlined five priority areas to aid recovery and re-establish an industry that is safe for host communities, workers and travellers.
His first task is to mitigate the socio-economic impacts of the crisis – particularly women’s employment and economic security. Secondly, he suggests building resilience across the entire tourism sector.
Maximizing technology throughout the industry, including by promoting innovation and investing in digital skills, is his third priority. His fourth point is to promote sustainability and green growth in managing the shift towards a resilient, carbon-neutral tourism sector. And finally, he flags that partnerships must be fostered to responsibly ease and lift travel restrictions in a coordinated manner to restart and transform tourism towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Let us ensure tourism regains its position as a provider of decent jobs, stable incomes and the protection of our cultural and natural heritage”, concluded the Secretary-General.
Stronger together
In addition to these priorities, UNWTO underscored that continued coordination and cooperation at every level is critical. Emphasizing the guiding principle of “stronger together”, UNWTO’s leadership has warned against the short and long-term consequences of Governments taking unilateral decisions.
“The situation is changing every day”, said UNWTO chief Zurab Pololikashvili. “It is impossible today to make a forecast for the next year”.
Nuts and bolts
While UNWTO too the lead in drafting the brief, 13 other UN agencies, funds or programmes have contributed, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Women and the UNCTAD.
Among other things, it found that, due to the unprecedented shutdown of global travel and trade, tourism may be the sector worst affected by COVID-19.
The Frankfurt Book Fair is taking registrations for people who will be attending the fair virtually, including publishers, literary agents, and other members of the publishing community. While no schedule of events has yet been announced, the organizers clarified some of the details surrounding how virtual exhibitors, including agents and rights representatives, will be able to participate in the upcoming fair and various opportunities for them to present their work.
Key to this will be the Exhibitor Catalog, which will serve as a focal point for the exhibitor or attendees presence. Each exhibitor will have the ability to create a profile that will include a logo, link to their company’s website, social media buttons, and further information. A one page document, such as a rights guide or company presentation, can be made available here as well. The catalog is expected to go live online by mid-September.
Exhibitors and participants will also be able to list and promote their own physical, digital or hybrid events, either public or private, in a dedicated calendar of events. The calendar, which is also expected to go live by mid-September, will be searchable.
The new Frankfurt Rights platform will serve a digital online catalog of rights available at the fair. Each digital exhibitor, including agents and rights holders,will be allowed a free company profile, where they can upload their rights guides, title information, rights availability, and previews of titles available to international participants after request. This platform is expected to go live by the end of September.
Many publishers, agents and rights holders are well into the process of setting up their own meetings independent of the fair and its various platforms. Unfortunately, without the physical fair to serve as a focal point, the prospect of organizing virtual meetings with vast time differences across the world has proven daunting, with the concern that meetings might last over several weeks.
Riky Stock, v-p of the Frankfurt Book Fair in New York and the individual responsible for overseeing the Literary Agents Center, said that some agents are looking at experimenting with new ways to pitch titles. Among these ideas is to host a single pitch session webinar for numerous people at one time. This format, which was also employed earlier in the year at Bologna, allows the company pitching to reach a wide group all at once. The group might include existing clients and new prospects and help the pitching company reach those who are both high and low priority at the same time.
Cecilia de la Campa, executive director of global licensing and domestic partnerships for Writers House, pivoted to hosting a pitch webinar during Bologna quickly after the in-person fair was cancelled in March. She said that shifting to a webinar format is an effort to make the best out of a challenging and situation and is no replacement for in-person meetings. Nevertheless, she said, “There’s a ton of opportunity with the webinar format: more industry professionals can tune in digitally than would otherwise attend the fair, such as marketing and junior editorial staff from international publishers, film and TV contacts; the recording can be saved/accessed afterwards; we can reach publishers with whom we don’t yet have major business; and we can announce any exciting new deals/sales on the spot to everyone at once.”
She added, “Hopefully, with enough rights teams scheduling webinars, rather than 200+ individual digital meetings stretched over 2 months because of the time-zone constraints, we can all avoid being burnt out! And perhaps we’ll be able to recreate that ‘feeling’ of the fair, with the big presentations and hot projects condensed around the actual week of the book fair.”
At present, fair organizers are planning for a hybrid fair comprised of both virtual and in-person events, though few members from the North American publishing community are expected to make the trip to Germany.
Vladimir Voronkov, Head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, said the global coronavirus crisis underscored the challenges involved in eliminating terrorism, as he presented the UN Security Council with the latest report on ISIL’s impact on international peace and security.
“This pandemic environment raises several strategic and practical challenges for counter-terrorism, which we discussed during the Virtual Counter-Terrorism Week organized by my Office last month,” he told Council members during video-teleconference briefing.
Since the start of this year, the threat has grown in conflict zones, as seen by the regrouping and increased activity of ISIL and some of its affiliates in Iraq and Syria, he explained.
In non-conflict areas, the threat seems to have decreased in the short term, with COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions apparently lowering the risk of attacks.
However, “opportunistic propaganda efforts” by ISIL could be fuelling an ongoing trend of attacks by individuals and small groups, he said.
Unclear, he added, is how the pandemic is affecting ISIL’s recruitment and fundraising efforts, or whether there is a change in strategic direction under its new leader, Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla. His predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed during a US military operation in Syria in 2019.
Putting a spotlight on regional developments, Mr. Voronkov said that ISIL continues to consolidate its position in some parts of the Middle East previously under its control, “operating increasingly confidently and openly”.
More than 10,000 ISIL fighters are estimated to be active in Iraq and Syria, moving freely in small cells between the two countries, he said, adding that 2020 has seen a “significant increase” in ISIL attacks in both States compared to 2019.
COVID-19 and suspected terrorists
The COVID-19 crisis has further complicated the already dire and unsustainable situation of several thousand people – especially women and children – with suspected links to ISIL. Some countries are still repatriating children, but there has been only limited progress on overcoming legal, political and practical hurdles to repatriation, he said.
“The global threat from ISIL is likely to increase if the international community fails to meet this challenge,” Mr. Voronkov warned, calling for decisive action from Member States on humanitarian, human rights and security grounds.
Turning to Africa, he described Islamic State in West Africa Province and its 3,500 members as a “major focus of ISIL global propaganda” as it reinforces its links with Islamic State in the Greater Sahara – “the most dangerous group in the tri-border area of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger”.
While ISIL has only a few hundred fighters in Libya, it is exploiting tensions between ethnic groups and represents a portent threat capable of broader regional impact, he said, adding that ISIL could potentially expand its activities if the conflict in the North Africa nation escalates.
In Europe, the main threat comes from Internet-driven homegrown terrorist radicalization, he said. Acute concerns surround the release of prisoners with terrorist background and connections, while the rise of right-wing violent extremism means that intelligence services in some European countries are shifting their priorities away from ISIL.
Looking towards Asia, he said that ISIL’s affiliate in Afghanistan, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan, remains capable of high-profile attacks – despite territorial losses and the arrest of its leaders – as it seeks to use the country to spread its influence across the region and to attract fighters who oppose the peace agreement between the Taliban and the United States.
“As a female traditional leader, my aim is to be a role model within my chiefdom. I want to ensure that we collectively challenge social and traditional norms and practices that negatively affect our women and girls”, said Kawaza, chieftainess of the Chewa people.
Leading more than 650 villages with some 100,000 inhabitants, she is one of many traditional and community leaders throughout Eastern Province who are contesting these dangerous practices.
“Many girls are forced to drop out of school in order to undergo initiation rites”, which often include inaccurate information about sexual and reproductive health, the chieftainess noted.
And in some cases, young people are encouraged to “practice” sexual activity that can lead to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, as well as unintended pregnancy.
“[I] instructed the traditional counsellors who conduct the initiation rites to revise the curriculum to focus only on progressive topics and cultural practices that promote respect for human rights” Chieftainess Kawaza said.
“I have also issued a directive for all traditional ceremonies to take place only during school holidays”.
The Chieftainess has seen a transformation in perceptions around these practices, and not just in Zambia. Similar efforts are helping to change beliefs and practices all around the world, a new publication shows.
It also highlights common steps that can be applied to changing all kinds of discriminatory norms to achieve gender equality.
A recipe for change
“The second element is discussion, value deliberation and education. It can take place in girls’ schools, among parents groups, through television and radio, or in open spaces,” said Nafissatou Diop, UNFPA’s chief of gender and human rights, who spearheaded the new publication. “Diverse forces and ideas and positions need to be confronted and need to come together in that discussion”.
The key, experts say, is empowering community members to deliberate on how their practices relate to their own deeply held values. And this leads to transformation.
The steps – the identification of a harmful norm, advocacy by prominent individuals, the exchange of experiences and perspectives within the community, and finally calls for change – can arise organically or be applied deliberately, the new publication notes.
Stemming female circumcisions
The approach has successfully driven collective action around the world, reaching millions.
“One of the successful interventions has been the public declarations of the abandonment of female genital mutilation”, said Lacina Zerbo, who works for UNFPA in Burkina Faso. “More than four million people have publicly abandoned FGM”.
Supported by the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of FGM, similar efforts have reached more than 34 million people in 16 countries and have led to a raft of new laws and policies.
The process, Mr. Zerbo said, depends on “creating trust between community members and influencers or decision-makers”.
‘Influencers are key’
“Influencers are key to transforming norms”, said Ms. Diop.
She maintained that they can be traditional, religious or political leaders, depending on the context.
Discussing together
Community members should be encouraged to listen to and reflect on new ideas.
“The second element is discussion, value deliberation and education. It can take place in girls’ schools, among parents groups, through television and radio, or in open spaces,” Ms. Diop said. “Diverse forces and ideas and positions need to be confronted and need to come together in that discussion”.
Marketplace of ideas
Abandoning detrimental norms is a normal part of progress.
Ms. Diop pointed out that “from foot binding to different types of gender violence”, over the last few centuries communities have gradually and collectively halted discriminatory social standards.
Virtual world
Recently, with digital platforms and social media, new ideas are never more than a click away and marginalized voices around the world are being amplified.
“With social media, people are able to galvanize and activate change in any part of the world, especially among those battling discriminatory norms,” said Ms. Diop, emphasizing the importance of empowering marginalized groups raise their voices.
“Social media has given communities, and youth, in particular, the power of unity to drive collective change. And this is what we need: collective behaviour to make changes that make the world a more equal place”, she concluded.
UNFPA
Changing harmful social norms makes a difference for women and girls around the world.
