To reclaim ‘soil justice’ Diné Nation in US taxed junk food and used proceeds to fund community wellness
In 2014, Denisa Livingston, a Navajo tribal member, public health expert and organiser with Diné Community Advocacy Alliance (DCAA) and other members of her organisation successfully lobbied the Navajo tribal government to pass the Healthy Diné Nation Act, which imposed a two per cent tax on junk food – the...
From soil justice to social justice: How neglected Indigenous communities in US are using land to fight racism
A half-hour drive south of Gallup, New Mexico, the elevation rises and the sprawling desert turns to a hilly, mint green landscape covered in piñon trees and fields of wild sage – staple plants in Navajo traditional medicine and spirituality. Unlike many Native American tribes forced to resettle permanently in...
How Ethiopian rebels’ scepticism in government’s truce is killing innocent civilians in Tigray region
The response to the conflict in Ethiopia’s Afar region is constrained by a lack of funding and the limited presence of aid organisations, which are stretched across three conflict-hit northern regions where more than nine million people need assistance, relief organisations say. The need remains highest in Tigray, where no...
How Ethiopian rebels’ scepticism in government’s truce is killing innocent civilians
The response to the conflict in Ethiopia’s Afar region is constrained by a lack of funding and the limited presence of aid organisations, which are stretched across three conflict-hit northern regions where more than nine million people need assistance, relief organisations say. The need remains highest in Tigray, where no...
My brothers and sisters are dying: Inside the killing fields in Ethiopia’s Afar Triangle region
There is only one referral hospital in Ethiopia’s north-eastern Afar region, and its doctors are overwhelmed. Patients have been arriving with bullet wounds and blast injuries in recent weeks. A lack of beds means many end up on bare mattresses on the ground. “We don’t know who died and who...
Billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of huge stake in Twitter has ratcheted up hopes and fears over free speech
Elon Musk is one of the tech sector’s most inscrutable individuals – as evidenced by his recent decision to become Twitter’s largest shareholder. On Tuesday, four weeks after he bought a 9.2 per cent stake in the social networking platform through the purchase of nearly 73.5 million shares at a...
Theatre of hybrid warfare: Why Africa is rapidly gaining reputation as new ‘Wild West’ of the world
Africa is rapidly becoming a theatre for hybrid threats. Allegations of state-backed information campaigns designed to ramp up divisions in Mali and cyber-attacks on humanitarian relief organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are examples. The use of drones as weapons in the Horn of Africa,...
Dogs of War: Mercenaries cited as major threat to Africa’s regions rich with natural resources
The use of Private Military Companies (PMCs) is now on the increase in Africa, with countries or regions with the vast treasures of natural resources. The use of PMCs is complicated from a legal standpoint. Put simply, if PMC employees are not used as combatants, then they are by definition...
How rich nations are switching from diplomacy to mercenary use to entrench economic, political dominance in Africa
In Frederick Forsyth’s 1974 novel, The Dogs of War, a band of mercenaries slips into a small, fictional African nation at the direction of a Western tycoon bent on deposing the nation’s dictator to exploit valuable platinum. The novel, and the 1980 movie based upon it, tells a violent tale...
Beauty, brains and holiness: Pageantries have roots in Christianity, remind the living of wholeness of humanity
As a country, Kenya has had its fair share of fetching lasses who ran away with beauty pageants on national and international runways. Beautiful women like the late Gaudencia Aura and Khadija Adams, easily come to mind when we talk about pageantry. Service to mankind, though, remains a remote subject,...
