1 Arab youth joblessness at 30% (Dawn) “The
unemployment rate among Arab youth until the age of 30 years exceeds 30 per
cent,” the director general of the Arab Labour Organisation Ahmad Mohammed
Luqman said. “Unrest and a lack of investments have boosted the number of
jobless”. He said many graduates fail to find employment because their
specialisations are not needed by private sector.
He said unemployment in the Arab world hit 17pc last
year, “three times higher than the global average,” adding that it appeared that
jobless numbers will rise this year and the next.
2 Mediterranean is sea of sorrows for migrants (San
Francisco Chronicle) Migrants seeking a better life in Europe have died by the
thousands in the Mediterranean Sea in recent years while fleeing poverty and
bloodshed in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The ill-documented toll rose again Sunday as
rescuers searched for an estimated 700 passengers from a capsized boat north of
Libya. Authorities count only those bodies found in the sea, on shore, or
aboard boats where migrants can die of thirst or exposure. Survivors often tell
of fellow passengers who lost their lives at sea, but the bodies are never
found.
Here is a list of the deadliest migrant boat events,
based on bodies recovered or survivor accounts: Christmas 1996: 300 believed
drowned in the waters between Malta and Sicily. June 20, 2003: 50 corpses
found, 160 migrants missing, 41 survivors in a shipwreck off Tunisia. May 6,
2011: Boat carrying more than 600 migrants is shipwrecked off Libyan coast.
Hundreds reported missing. June 2, 2011: At least 270 missing from boat with
700 aboard sinks off Tunisian coast.
Oct. 3, 2013: 366 people die, 155 survive after
shipwreck off Lampedusa. Sept. 10, 2014: Some 500 Syrians, Palestinians,
Egyptians and Sudanese drown after their boat is rammed by another boat of
human traffickers off Malta. Sept. 14, 2014: Libyan navy reports 26 rescued
from a boat carrying 250 migrants off Libyan coast. About 200 missing and
presumed dead.
Feb. 8-9, 2015: At least 29 die and 300 people
reported missing after four boats become waterlogged in the frigid sea after
leaving Libya. April 12, 2015: Nine confirmed dead after boat capsizes off
Libya. Some of the 144 survivors tell aid workers that about 400 aboard
drowned.
3 When idle hands destroy in South Africa
(Johannesburg Times) Oliver Tambo once said: "A nation that does not cater
for its youth is doomed for failure." And so it is with our country.
This week's xenophobic attacks in KwaZulu-Natal and
parts of Gauteng have substantiated what Tambo asserted decades ago. It is evident
that the youth are not catered for in the post-apartheid South Africa.
The high rate of unemployment and the severe skills
shortage means the youth are vulnerable and easily led astray. It is
unfortunate that they direct their anger at the wrong people and loot the shops
of foreigners.
It is equally devastating to realise that there is
no political will to change the status quo. It is vital to address unemployment
and the dissatisfaction it causes before that anger explodes with even greater
violence.
No comments:
Post a Comment