Distress calls flow out of Afghanistan as scholars fear Taliban reprisals after US military forces exit
“The situation in Afghanistan is horrifying. We need immediate assistance.” This is one of several distressing messages sent out by researchers in Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s capture of Kabul on August 15 and the evacuation of US military forces on August 31. Researchers are among those who are now especially...
English football fan opens up on how daughter’s ‘stern’ gaze changed his view of Black players
When England overcome Poland 2-0 on October 19, 2013 to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a newspaper in the host country headlined the story “The animals are coming.” It was an expression of disgust of the English raw behaviour that underlies hooliganism. The headline summed up all...
Counsellor: Some sex workers in Kenya are openly talking about their trade and it’s slowing down HIV/Aids incidence
HIV/Aids counsellor and service provider at Nyahururu Referral Hospital William Ruto has seen it all: death caused by the virus and the stigma hat comes with it is devastating. After years of waiting for patients at the hospital, Ruto opted to venture out and del with the problem before it...
From brothels with skill and confidence to create condom use awareness: tale of a prostitute in Kenya
The oldest ‘profession’ in the world is a vice that moralists preach against. Anybody involved in the flesh-pot hunger business is scorned. As the saying goes: perfection is the disease of a (puritanical) nation,” sang American R&B musician, Beyoncé. A commercial sex worker in Nyahururu town, Laikipia County, north of the...
EU-supported Malian army accused of killing more civilians than jihadist insurgents they’re fighting
Boulkessi, once a large and thriving village in central Mali, is deserted – its orange, mud-brick houses now standing empty. Malian soldiers are the only people who live there, entrenched in a fortress of sandbags on the outskirts of the village. Sent to defend Boulkessi from jihadist insurgents, they are...
Unpacking South Sudan’s food crisis as war, flooding and donor weariness persist
South Sudan is experiencing its worst food crisis since independence as seasonal flooding sets in amid an economic downturn and renewed conflict that has spiked despite a peace agreement and the formation of a unity government. Efforts to distribute food have been complicated by funding gaps in the humanitarian response,...
Endangered tongues: Why it is difficult to preserve contact languages
The fact that contact languages are not written, but passed down orally, means they can fade as younger generations move away to seek economic opportunity elsewhere, leaving traditions to elders. On the US Virgin Islands, English gradually became the language of choice and Negerhollands – a creole that originated around...
Contact languages have been with us for centuries, but it’s only recently that their fragile state has attracted interest
When groups of people who speak different languages come together, they sometimes inadvertently create a new one, combining bits of each into something everyone can use to communicate easily. Linguists call such impromptu tongues “contact languages” – and they can extend well beyond the pidgin and creole that many of...
Inside Latin America’s $500b loot: We’re not suffering from just one pandemic, we’ve others within Covid context
Transparency International estimates that an average of more than $500 billion a year is lost to corruption in the public health sector globally. Ravages wrought by coronavirus has made it even worse. Jonathan Cushing, head of global health at Transparency International said reports of corruption have increased around the world...
Latin America’s Covid millionaires: How narcotics and corruption feed the pandemic in the region
After coming down with Covid-19 in December, Vinicio Sánchez visited three health centres in a single day. At the first, a clinic in the south of Ecuadorian capital, Quito, he was told he needed oxygen but they had none left to give him. He was referred to a specialist Covid-19...
