livus

livus, 13 days ago

From the article:

Situated 150 kilometres (94 miles) south of Kolkata, media has dubbed Ghoramara the ‘sinking island’. It has lost nearly half of its area to soil erosion in the last two decades and could completely disappear within a few decades more if a solution is not found. In the decade to 2020, the population has fallen to around 4,000 from 7,000.

“We want the banks reinforced with stone boulders or rehabilitation in other places. Probably rehabilitation is the only answer,” said Patra, who once had acres of land that have now been lost to the sea.

Patra said his house was once a kilometre from the river’s edge but now stands just 150 metres away.

Way of life

Researchers say as climate change has forced a rise in sea surface temperatures, seasonal, cyclonic storms barrelling in from the Bay of Bengal have become more fierce and frequent, particularly in the last decade.

The island’s inhabitants were once predominantly dependent on agriculture, with most families farming rice and betel leaves. But cyclones in 2020 and 2021 flooded the fields with water high in saline, leaving the soil barren.

As people have migrated away from the island, especially youths, transport links with the mainland have fallen to just five ferries a day.

Patra lives alone. His wife works as a nursemaid in Kolkata, his two daughters, who are married, and his teacher son live on the mainland.

“It’s encouraging to see people in this rural area prioritising this issue (environment). It’s unfortunate that no one is listening to them,” said Sugata Hazra, the former head of the school of oceanographic studies at Jadavpur University in Kolkata.

“Cities across India are already facing drinking water scarcity. They (urban dwellers) should be more conscious of (the) environment and make it a primary issue alongside the economy and jobs.”

Some Ghoramara residents have planted mangrove saplings to try to reduce waterfront erosion, while the local administration displays notices across the island banning single-use plastic and polystyrene. A solid waste management system has been put in place.

livus, 13 days ago

From the article:

The ANC has won national elections held every five years since the landmark 1994 election, which marked the end of apartheid and the ascent of Nelson Mandela as president.

But since those heady days the ANC's support has declined because of disillusionment over issues such as high unemployment and crime, frequent power blackouts and corruption.

In the previous election in 2019, the ANC won 57.5% of the vote, with 20.8% for the DA and 10.8% for the EFF, on a turnout of 66% of registered voters, which the commission has already said is likely to be higher this time.

At provincial level, the early results showed the ANC on 35.7%, the DA on 29.6%% and the EFF on 10.8% in the key province of Gauteng, which includes the country's business capital Johannesburg and the sprawling townships of Soweto and Alexandra.

In KwaZulu-Natal, a populous eastern province where the major city of Durban is located, Zuma's MK was performing strongly, with 43.2% of the vote versus 21.7% for the ANC. KwaZulu-Natal is his home province and he is popular there.

Zuma was forced to quit as president in 2018 after a string of scandals and has since fallen out with the ANC leadership, leading him to throw his weight behind MK. The party, named after the ANC's armed wing from the apartheid era, appeared to be costing both the ANC and the EFF votes.

"MK is going to be a real player. That it tracks close to the EFF is significant because they are going after the same voters," said Dooms.

By law, the electoral commission has seven days to declare full results, but in practice it is usually faster than that. In the last election, in 2019, voting took place on a Wednesday like this year and final results came on the Saturday.

The new parliament must convene within 14 days of final results being declared and its first act must be to elect the nation's president.

This means that if the ANC is confirmed to have lost its majority there could be two weeks of intense and complex negotiations to agree on how

livus, 13 days ago

Pretty sure the UK term was BAME, but US culture is pretty pervasive.

livus, 14 days ago

DAE really want to play blitz on this board now?

livus, 14 days ago

It is pretty bad. The part where the Mossad guy "ambushed" the judge in a hotel room is blatant intimidation.

livus, 13 days ago

If you read the articles on this, the timeline makes sense. No one has to be "psychic".

• In 2015 Palestine applied to join the ICC.

• Mossad's harassment of the ICC’s chief prosecutor seems to have begun straight after that.

• Israel was already breaching international law with the settlements and flouting of the Geneva Conventions, and had been accused of war crimes in e.g. 2014.

If an entity is repeatedly accused of committing crimes it's not really some crazy conspiracy if prosecutors start taking an interest in their activities. And the more they escalate their criminal activity the more likely it is that an investigation and eventual warrant will follow.

livus, 14 days ago

That would be a really positive outcome, their commandments are pretty good.

livus, 14 days ago

Noooo not the alpacas!! They deserve better.

For real tho I'm not looking forward to pandemic 2.0.

livus, 14 days ago

Rights and sympathy are two very different things.

Seeing people you have no sympathy with as somehow not having human rights is exactly how we get to genocide.

livus, 14 days ago

I feel the same way. He's not my friend and he's not a cute kid or something. He's a genocidal war criminal.

livus, 14 days ago

Let us know what you go with!

livus, 14 days ago

We're at 8

livus, 14 days ago

the OG

Not even close.

livus, 14 days ago

No one here has been hearing about it in the news for hundreds of years tho (unless some of you are undead/vampires).

Arguably the roots of the Sudan conflict go back to the 1300s.

But in both cases the modern nation-state conflicts kicked off after the colonization of the 19th centuries, and in both cases most of us have been aware of it for decades.

livus, 14 days ago

Is it naive of me to think American news must have at least reported on the international intervention into the 2004-2005 genocide?

And the separation of Sudan into two countries in 2011? Those were both pretty big; I thought that would be why the person above was calling this an old conflict.

livus, 14 days ago

Not all armed conflicts are genocides.

livus, 14 days ago

@victorz - The "fast"/ big obvious ones are Darfur and Gaza, but there's also probably Oromia, slow genocide in West Papua, Western Sahara, Xinjiang, and I think Nagorny-Karabakh and Tigray could start up again at some point. There is obviously a genocidal component to the Tatmadaw's activities in Myanmar but right now they seem to be getting their asses kicked by the alliance which includes ethnic minority armies.

Then there are the more obscure genocides that are mostly only mentioned outside western and english-language news media, for example the ongoing slow genocide of the Baloch people in the Balochistan region.

livus, 14 days ago

Definitely. The US isn't likely to like either side given one of them is tight with Iran and the other one has dealings with Russian mercenaries.

livus, 14 days ago

Idk, I've had to deal with coronial inquiries and I can't imagine what it would be like if the Coroner was just some random person instead of, well, an actual coroner.

It seems like electing your neighbour the lawnmower guy to run your divorce court instead of letting a judge do it.