BANGKOK / PENANG, Sep 20 2022 (IPS) – Economic recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic has been uneven amidst a cautious loosening of restrictions. But even at the height of the pandemic, it was business as usual for the tobacco industry.
Tobacco companies remain profitable, making in 2022 and capitalizing on the situation by promoting and selling their lethal products while convincing governments that their industry should not be penalised during the pandemic, claiming tobacco is a good investment.
This is an industry that perpetuates an annual loss of in global health costs and lost productivity, amounting to 1.8% of the world’s GDP. 14% of all deaths globally (over 8…
Congestion in public hospitals is frequent in Latin America even without epidemics. Long waits and the need to resort to out-of-pocket spending to obtain medical assistance are common in the region. CREDIT: Courtesy of Integralatampost
CARACAS, Apr 4 2020 (IPS) – Health systems in Latin America, already falling short in their capacity to serve the population, especially the poor, are in a weak position and face serious risks when it comes to addressing …
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Mar 19 2020 (IPS) – The human factor is intimately involved in the origin, spread, and mitigation of the Coronavirus and we cannot afford to ignore that our future existence depends on compassion and cooperation. Response matters!
Some quarantined Italians might recall Giovanni Boccaccio´s The Decameron from 1353 in which people escaping the plague are secluded in a villa where they tell stories to each other. Boccaccio introduced his collection of short stories with an eyewitness account of horrifying human suffering in Florence, which in 1348 was struck by a ”pestilence” that every day ”grew in strength” while it swept relentlessly on fr…
JOHANNESBURG, May 15 2020 (IPS) – One of the planet’s – and Africa’s – deepest prejudices is being demolished by the way countries handle COVID-19.
For as long as any of us remember, everyone “knew” that “First World” countries – in effect, Western Europe and North America – were much better at providing their citizens with a good life than the poor…
Andrés Cañizález is a Venezuelan journalist and Ph.D. in Political Science
A teenage girl covers her face with her hands in front of a laptop computer, frightened by the news she reads about the pandemic. Photo: Dusko Miljanic/Unicef
CARACAS, Aug 6 2020 (IPS) – Every era brings its own buzzwords or catchphrases along with it. The term du jour is ‘pandemic’, namely ‘coronavirus’ and ‘COVID-19’; but alongside these words, speculation and forecasts over the post-pandemic world are flourishing. There is a proliferation of pieces and commentary on what our daily lives or the economy will be like once the epidemic is under control, that i…
BOGOTA, Colombia, Sep 30 2020 (IPS) – This week, Heads of State and Government from 64 countries announced one of the strongest pledges yet to reverse the loss of biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people by 2030. Advancing from powerful pledges to concrete policy and action, however, means that nature must be moved to the heart of global, national and local decision-making. It’s time for nature to be reintegrated into everything we do.
Ana María Hernández Salgar
The is an explicit declaration of a planetary emergency, driven by human actions that are degrading nature and our climate at rates and levels unprecedented in human history.
As…
MEXICO CITY, Nov 18 2020 (IPS) – As many have observed worldwide, the outcome of the US presidential elections has been, as expected full of hope and fear. Many people had the bad feeling that if Trump were to be re-elected, the uncertainty, already enormous due to the pandemic and its effects, would jeopardize the economic recovery worldwide. The triumph of Democrat Biden does not guarantee great solutions, but at the least offers a little more of transparency, certainty, and stability.
Saul Escobar Toledo
For Mexico, the result could impact in different senses: the policy towards Latin America; pressures to stop undocumented migration; and the economic and commercial ties bet…
Remote teaching in Bangladesh. Credit: BRAC
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb 19 2021 (IPS) – School closings and the varied impacts of remote learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic are a global challenge. Educators worldwide have been struggling to meet contemporary educational standards in this environment. But this challenge is followed by yet another: how to assess the readiness of students to resume in-school education when schools open. At BRAC, the international nongovernmental organization that operates 25,000 schools in Bangladesh, serving 750,000 students, we have developed an approach that could be helpful.
Schools in Bangladesh have been closed since March 2020, …
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EKITI, Nigeria, Mar 19 2021 (IPS) – The mouth is a barometer of social inequities it reflects the injustices in our society. As , an 18th century naturalist said: Show me your teeth, and I will tell you who you are . To me, as a dentist, the mouth is like a microscope that reveals more than just tooth decay. It exposes us to a world where people lack access to water, health, quality education and live…