More than four million Ukrainians have fled their homes after the Russian offensive began in their country in February. Nhial Deng writes in Al Jazeera that day after day, we see tragic images on our screens from the war.
But one aspect is unfamiliar – refugees being welcomes by border guards of neighbouring countries, politicians promising help, and people hosting homeless Ukrainians. Deng writes that he welcomes these moves, but cannot help but wonder, “Where were these world leaders, corporations and universities when armed invaders attacked and burned my village just 11 years ago? Where were the people of goodwill offering for me to stay with them instead of being stuck in a refugee camp for a decade?”
Deng writes that the war in Sudan stole his family’s future, and points out that according to the UN, a number much larger than the entire population of Ukraine has been displaced from their homes across the world.
Read more here.
It’s 2022, so why there are no women in Formula 1?
In July 2014, Susie Wolff was the first woman to take part in a Formula 1 grand prix weekend in 22 years, but only in the practice sessions. Wolff retired in 2015, saying she felt she had gone as far as she could in F1.
Only five women have ever entered an F1 race, writes Hazel Southwell in Motorsport. She points out that the barriers women face in entering the sport have not really changed over the years. Very few little girls get into karting, talent scouts overlook girls, etc.
All the endless obstacles aside, she writes, “For female drivers, every one of them has the ballast-like weight on them, in the car, of proving just not themselves but their whole gender is fit to compete.”
Read more here.
MNREGA and caste discrimination in Punjab
Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, every rural Indian household is entitled to get 100 days of paid work a year at around Rs 260 a day. But an investigation by Jigyasa Mishra for Article 14 shows that in Punjab, women, especially Dalits, are underpaid.
Experts say that a full 100 days of employment is rarely given, and that favouritism from the sarpanch is “common in most parts of the state”.
One worker calculated she got around Rs 180 a day for the 80 days she worked, but that she could not question the village sarpanch about not receiving her due since he could skip employing her altogether.
Getting work is also tougher for those from Scheduled Castes. “Dalits often do not get work as agricultural labourers also,” one worker told Mishra.
Read more here.
A manifesto to do away with fossil fuels
The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change came out April 4. It says what most expected it to say – that the time to act is now, and if we don’t, the very existence of humans will be threatened.
But what the report also does is provide clear alternatives to fossil fuels, writes Simon Lewis in The Guardian. It clearly indicates that the US and Europe have been the world’s largest polluters through the use of fossil fuels, and notes how far governments have come from the commitments they made in the Paris agreement in 2015.
It also unabashedly says that corporations and governments are organising opposition to climate action.
“A path still exists to halve emissions by 2030 and get to net zero by 2050, which will probably meet the 1.5C goal,” he writes. “It is a hopeful message. The task now is to make it real.”
Read more here.
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