Excluded Headlines: Myanmar hospital bombings, Libyan survivors protest ...
Stay up to date on the global news stories the US- and Eurocentric media overlooks, with journalist and author, Tamara Pearson.
In this week’s overlooked, distorted, and ignored news about the Global South:
Libyan survivors protest - Following last week’s horrific flooding on the Libyan coast, some 43,000 people have been forced to flee the city of Derna to other nearby areas, after losing their homes and/or access to basic infrastructure. Ironically, a key issue is a lack of water access. Health officials are warning of a new serious danger, as flood waters have contaminated water sources with sewage. A team of Palestinian first responders -including water search specialists- spent a week in Libya and brought 22 tonnes of food and aid. Locals are protesting for accountability and calling for an international inquiry. Source, source, source, source.
Myanmar suffers bombings, totalitarianism - Both the situation in Myanmar and the over a million Rohingya refugees are under-covered and overly simplified by the mainstream media. Often, the media reduces the situation to charity - children going hungry etc, and erases the brave resistance movements in Myanmar and the underlying, broader causes of the situation.
US oil and gas companies are financing or backing the Myanmar military coup (February 2021) regime’s ongoing war against the people of that country. That war is crippling the healthcare system, and there are numerous political prisoners. Some activists and human rights defenders have fled to Thailand. The military government has been bombing hospitals and clinics over the past month and beyond, and war victims and other medical patients are also crossing into Thailand. Activists in Myanmar/Burma and in nearby countries want the military regime to relinquish power, release political prisoners, and lift the state of emergency. Source, source, source, source, source, source, source.
310,000 Sudanese have fled to Egypt - Since the war began in Sudan in April, 310,000 people have had to flee Sudan. Another 300,000 have fled to Chad, in addition to the 580,000 Sudanese refugees that were already there. Source, source.
Water crisis in Iraq - People and farm animals are dying in central Iraq, and people are fleeing their towns due to drought and water shortages. Authorities say there is also a water management and distribution problem. Source.
More and more migrants and refugees are stranded in Mexico - Since the US switched over to Title 8 in May this year and began turning around refugees who have passed through third countries or who don’t have an appointment, the number of migrants in Mexico has increased. While Biden has boasted that undocumented and permitted crossings into the US have decreased, volunteer-run shelters in Mexico City are at 7x their capacity, with migrants sleeping in corridors, on roofs and in the streets outside. Thousands more migrants are trying to ride on cargo trains to the north, with some losing their lives or getting injured in the process. Source: myself, working with a migrant refuge.
India to reserve a third of parliamentary seats for women - While the Western-centric media’s coverage of India has focused on the row with Canada, other events are taking place in the country, including a bill to enforce something closer to gender parity in parliament. Just 15% of Indian lawmakers at the moment are women. Source.
Useful reads
Trial of Honduran ex-president reveals Washington’s protection of ‘narco-state’
Interview with 1988 Myanmar uprising veteran
North American corporations help finance Myanmar coup regime’s war on the people
Carbon Colonialism Has No Place in Liberia’s Forests
Western media is one-eyed when it comes to the Derna tragedy