Here are
some recent editorials I wrote for The Gulf Today (Posted for my records):
Children
are supposed
to
study, not work
At a time
when they are supposed to be busy studying in schools, an estimated 152 million
children around the world are busy working to earn for their families and this
is a blot on humanity that needs to be eradicated.
According
to an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report, more than half of all
children – some 73 million – work in jobs that directly endanger their health,
safety and moral development.
A
majority of the children cited between the ages of five and 17 work in
agriculture, including farming, fishing, forestry and livestock.
The
report, “Ending child labour by 2025: A review of policies and programmes” has
indicated poverty as the main cause of child labour in agriculture, together
with limited access to quality education, inadequate agricultural technology
and access to adult labour, high hazards and risks, and traditional attitudes
towards children’s participation in agricultural activities.
There is
also a perceptible link between child labour and armed conflicts.
The
incidence of child labour in countries affected by armed conflict is 77 per
cent higher than the global average, while the incidence of hazardous work is
50 per cent higher, according to the report, which noted the use of Syrian
refugee children in the work force throughout the world.
Another
worrisome trend is that violence against children is pervasive in homes,
schools and communities.
According
to a Unicef report titled, “A Familiar Face: Violence in the lives of children
and adolescents,” about 300 million, or three-quarters, of the world’s two- to
four-year-old children experience either psychological aggression or physical
punishment, or both, by their caregivers at home.
The
reprehensible violence comes in varied forms: Babies slapped in the face; girls
and boys forced into sexual acts; adolescents murdered in their communities.
As per UN
officials, data from six countries reveals friends, classmates and partners
were among the most frequently cited perpetrators of sexual violence against
adolescent boys.
Globally,
every seven minutes, an adolescent is killed by an act of violence. In the
United States, adolescent boys from African American or black non-Hispanic
populations are almost 19 times more likely to be murdered than non-Hispanic
white adolescent boys.
Children
are inheritors of the future. They deserve a better and peaceful planet. Every
society has a major responsibility to protect children.
As
experts point out, the best options to eradicate the bane of child labour are;
boosting legal protection and inspections of work places, strengthening social
protection and investing in free, quality education.
Sharjah
books space
in
readers’ hearts
The
roaring success of the 36th edition the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF),
which attracted a record-breaking 2.38 million visitors over its 11-day run, is
an unambiguous indication that technology cannot easily erase the power of
print.
The
figure compares to 2.31 million visitors that attended last year.
To
cultivate the love for literature among people by enriching their experience of
the written word has been the mission of the event and it has been leaving a
deep imprint in the hearts of visitors.
Over the
years, the SIBF has transformed into a literary carnival. For those on
intellectual pursuit anywhere in the world, Sharjah has now embossed itself as
a must-visit destination.
The
world’s third largest book fair brought the literary world together by
featuring more than 2,600 events and ensuring the participation of 400 authors,
intellectuals and literary luminaries from as many as 64 countries.
The
Dhs206 million book sales figure represented an increase of 17% over 2016 and
was achieved in part due to the high volume of sales of children’s and foreign
books and the retail performances of new exhibitors.
Incidentally,
both footfall and book sales figures for SIBF 2017 turned out to be the highest
in the fair’s 35-year history.
The book
fair this time witnessed another interesting and surprise feature. Chaired by
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime
Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the UAE Cabinet held a special session
at the SIBF to address a selection of political and economic topics.
It is the
first time that a Cabinet held a meeting at a book fair to approve the nations
federal budget.
What
makes the fair rewarding for the visitors is the participation by a number of
renowned authors, poets, intellectuals, artists, and journalists worldwide,
beside the Arab World. This time too an impressive galaxy of prominent Arab
cultural and literary luminaries enriched the fair with their presence.
The
hashtag ‘#SIBF2017’ recorded more than 1.3 billion impressions in English and
Arabic, signaling the global stature that SIBF enjoys.
As
Chairman of Sharjah Book Authority Ahmed Al Ameri pointed out, the overwhelming
success achieved by SIBF proves that it is not just a book fair, but a great
cultural project that brings together different nationalities on the grounds of
human dialogue and discourse.
Knowledge
and reading are undoubtedly the noblest way for people to communicate with each
other.
Endless
plight of
stateless
millions
Discrimination,
exclusion and persecution are stark realities for many of the world’s stateless
minorities and the never-ending suffering endured by the persecuted Rohingya
Muslims is just one glaring example of that.
Distressingly, an estimated 10 million people
worldwide are stateless, including three million officially, a status that
deprives them of an identity, rights, and often jobs, as indicated by a special report, “This Is Our
Home: Stateless minorities and their search for citizenship,” released by the
United Nations.
As the
report clearly notes, more than 75 per cent of the world’s known stateless
populations belong to minority groups.
Muslim Rohingyas in Buddhist-majority Myanmar form
the world's biggest stateless minority, with some 600,000 having fled violence
and repression since late August and taken refuge in Bangladesh.
Other
stateless groups — many of whom have lived for generations in their homelands —
include many Syrian Kurds, the Karana of Madagascar, Roma in the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Pemba of Kenya.
It’s not
that all’s lost.
Some
30,000 stateless people in Thailand have acquired nationality since 2012 and
the Makonde, a community of 4,000, became Kenya’s 43rd officially recognised
tribe last year. But that’s hardly enough. More action needs to be initiated on
these lines.
According
to Melanie Khanna, head of UNHCR's
statelessness section, the world is seeing reductions in Thailand, in central
Asia, in Russia, in Western Africa. But the numbers are not nearly as
substantial as they would need to be for us to end statelessness by 2024.
The worst
affected are children. Stateless young people are denied the opportunity to
receive school qualifications, go to university and find a decent job. Their
lack of nationality often sentences them and their families and communities to
remain impoverished and marginalised for generations.
One young
woman in Asia earlier told UNHCR researchers that she had been unable to take
up job offers as a teacher because she was stateless and could only find work
in a local shop.
Statelessness
can exacerbate the exclusion that minorities already face, further limiting
their access to education, health care, legal employment, freedom of movement,
development opportunities and the right to vote.
Their protracted
marginalisation could build resentment, increase fear and even lead to
displacement.
The
international community should ensure equal nationality rights for all. States
must act now and they must act decisively to end statelessness, as UN officials
point out.
Dire
need to step up
climate
action
Scientists
have warned that time is running out on our
ability to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius, let alone 1.5 C, and
the world better wake up to this serious challenge.
A don’t-care attitude will affect each and every
individual on the planet.
Corinne Le Quere, Director of the Tyndall Centre
for climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia and lead author of
a major study detailing the findings, has stated that carbon dioxide emissions
that drive global warming, flat since 2014, are set to rise two per cent this
year, dashing hopes they had peaked.
Global CO2 emissions from human activities are
estimated at 41 billion tonnes for 2017.
Earth is overheating due to the burning of oil, gas
and especially coal to power the global economy. Deforestation also plays a
critical role.
This year's increase was mostly spurred by a 3.5
per cent jump in Chinese carbon pollution. Declines in the United States (0.4
per cent) and Europe (0.2 per cent) were smaller than previous years, while
India, the No.3 carbon polluting nation, went up 2 per cent.
Amy Luers, climate policy advisor to former US
president Barack Obama and executive director of Future Earth, is absolutely
right in asserting that the news about emissions rising after a three-year
hiatus is a giant leap backward for humankind.
Even heritage sites are not spared.
According to the International Union for
Conservation of Nature, which released a report at UN climate talks in Bonn,
climate change imperils one in four natural World Heritage sites, including
coral reefs, glaciers, and wetlands — nearly double the number from just three
years ago.
The number of sites at risk has actually grown to
62 from 35 in 2014, when one in seven were listed.
Worryingly, among the ecosystems most threatened by
global warming are coral reefs, which bleach as oceans heat up, and glaciers,
which melt.
Both the
Artic and Antarctica are warming twice as fast as the rest of the world.
The implication is that efforts at reducing emissions of
heat-trapping gases have so far been vastly insufficient. The global economy is not shifting quickly enough
from fossil fuels to low or zero-carbon energy.
There is
a dire need to accelerate climate action as well as raise ambition to do more.
Gen Next deserves a greener planet. Depriving them
of cleaner oxygen would only reflect greed, apathy and selfishness on the part
of the present generation.
