Daily Archives: November 12, 2015

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Climate Change Bites Kenyan Tea Farmers

InterPress Service
By Diana Omondi

Alice Muthoni picking tea in Makomboki, central Kenya. @DW/D. Omondi
Alice Muthoni picking tea in Makomboki, central Kenya. @DW/D. Omondi

NAIROBI, Nov 11 2015 (IPS) – You wouldn’t typically expect heavy rainfall and frost in East Africa. But the Earth’s climate is changing – and this is affecting one of the world’s largest tea-producing regions, in central Kenya.

For Joseph Mwangi and his wife, picking tea early in the morning has become more difficult lately. “We have been experiencing frost on the leaves,” Mwangi says. “This makes it hard to work, because the frost stings our hands,” he added.

Mwangi and his wife Alice Muthoni earn their living as tea-pickers in Makomboki, central Kenya. Due to the frost, they have had to start picking tea leaves two hours later. But this presents new problems to the couple. Continue reading Climate Change Bites Kenyan Tea Farmers →

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Appeals Court Upholds Delay Of Obama’s Executive Action On Immigration

The Huffington Post

The ruling continues to block the DAPA program, aimed at helping parents of children born in the U.S. and permanent residents.

Cristian Farias
Legal Affairs Reporter, The Huffington Post

A federal appeals court on Monday agreed to keep on hold President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration — nearly a year after he announced it as a backstop measure to Congress’ failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

The divided, 124-page ruling deals a blow to the administration’s Deferred Action for Parental Accountability program, known as DAPA, and there may be just enough time for a formal appeal to the Supreme Court to be resolved ahead of the 2016 election.

In ruling against the government, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit largely agreed with a lower court judge, who in February issued a “nationwide injunction” that effectively stopped DAPA from taking effect, and concurred that Texas and other states that sued the president over the program had legal “standing” to challenge its constitutionality in federal court. Continue reading Appeals Court Upholds Delay Of Obama’s Executive Action On Immigration →

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Twenty Years On, Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Legacy Echoes from the Grassroots to the United Nations

Common Dreams

The man who led a popular revolt against Big Oil’s destruction in Nigeria remains a figure lionized by activists all over the world

by Godwin Ojo

In Nigeria and around the world, Ken Saro Wiwa's memory lives on. (Photo: Luka Tomac/Friends of the Earth International)
In Nigeria and around the world, Ken Saro Wiwa’s memory lives on. (Photo: Luka Tomac/Friends of the Earth International)

LAGOS, Nigeria – Ken Saro-Wiwa belonged to that rare but wonderful category of poet-writer turned non-violent resistance leader. And like too many non-violent resistance leaders, he was executed by the people whose interests he challenged. November 10th is the twentieth anniversary of his execution in his motherland, Nigeria.

Known on the international stage for his David-and-Goliath struggle with oil giant Shell, Ken Saro-Wiwa remains a figure lionized by activists all over the world, who see his example as a great victory for people power over formidable transnational corporate giants. His legacy also moves and inspires a growing movement of civil society activists who are lobbying the UN and national governments to create a binding treaty to regulate the conduct of transnational corporations with respect to human rights. Continue reading Twenty Years On, Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Legacy Echoes from the Grassroots to the United Nations →