โHe once reminded us: โWe know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.โ
He was not making a geopolitical argument. He was making a moral one.
Today Gaza confronts this Assembly with the same question that apartheid once posed to the world. Does international law apply equally to everyone?
If the answer depends on geography...
If it depends on alliances...
If it depends on military strengthโฆ
If it depends of raceโฆ
If it depends on religionโฆ
Then it is no longer law. It is power. And its opposite is oppression.
Mandela knew war. He understood violence. But he also understood that the systematic erosion of human dignity can never become the price of political expediencyโ- @RediTlhabi
Between 1961 and 1971, during Operation Ranch Hand, the United States sprayed more than 80 million liters of herbicides over South Vietnam. Agent Orange accounted for about 61% of the total.
Unable to defeat the Viet Cong in the dense jungle, the U.S. sought to strip away forest cover and destroy crops that sustained rural communities.
An estimated 4.8 million Vietnamese were directly exposed to Agent Orange and its highly toxic dioxin contaminant.
The consequences continue today. Millions of Vietnamese โ including children and grandchildren of those exposed โ have suffered cancers, birth defects such as spina bifida, neurological disorders, liver disease, and other serious health conditions linked to dioxin exposure.
Dioxin can persist in soil and water for decades, leaving former hotspots such as Da Nang and Bien Hoa contaminated long after the war ended.
More than half a century later, the legacy of Agent Orange remains one of the darkest chapters of the Vietnam War โ a humanitarian tragedy whose victims are still living with its consequences.
The theory was simple: introduce Independent Power Producers (IPPs), create competition, and electricity prices would fall.
The reality has been very different.
Since the introduction of the IPP programme, South Africans have endured repeated above-inflation electricity tariff increases. Fact!
Households and businesses are paying far more for electricity today than they did before the market was opened to IPPs. Fact!
If competition was supposed to make electricity cheaper, where are the lower prices?
The answer is obvious. Electricity is not a normal consumer market. IPPs sell power when conditions allow, but Eskom must maintain the transmission grid, provide dispatchable backup when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining, and guarantee supply 24 hours a day. Consumers ultimately pay for both systems.
That is not a competitive market. It is the socialisation of risk and the privatisation of profit.
Strategic infrastructure such as electricity should be publicly owned and operated in the national interest.
Essential services, particularly in a developing state like South Africa, exist to guarantee affordable, reliable power for everyone, not to create guaranteed returns for private investors.
Captain Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso ๐ง๐ซ responds to US threat of arresting and eliminating him with possible invasion of the country. "We either agree to fight for our country or we remain slaves foreverโ.- Captain Ibrahim Traorรฉ.
Top 25 Friendliest Countries in the World ๐ซ
1. ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa
2. ๐ฌ๐ท Greece
3. ๐ญ๐ท Croatia
4. ๐ฒ๐ฝ Mexico
5. ๐ธ๐ช Sweden
6. ๐ฆ๐บ Australia
7. ๐จ๐ฆ Canada
8. ๐ฉ๐ช Germany
9. ๐ช๐ช Estonia
10. ๐ง๐ช Belgium
11. ๐ช๐ธ Spain
12. ๐จ๐ฟ Czech Republic
13. ๐ฎ๐น Italy
14. ๐ฏ๐ต Japan
15. ๐บ๐ธ United States
16. ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands
17. ๐ต๐น Portugal
18. ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom
19. ๐ต๐ฑ Poland
20. ๐จ๐ญ Switzerland
21. ๐ฆ๐น Austria
22. ๐ซ๐ท France
23. ๐ฎ๐ช Ireland
24. ๐ญ๐บ Hungary
25. ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland
Source: Remitly, as of last updated till 2024.
Statement issued by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC):
โโ
"The continued international silence and the American evasion in pressuring the relevant parties to halt the criminal aggression against Lebanon have led to the collapse of all understandings and efforts undertaken in this regard.
In light of this deliberate inaction and the ongoing Zionist aggression against Lebanon, we declare ourselves no longer bound by any commitment or agreement related to the opening of maritime routes or any other understandings that were conditional upon the cessation of the aggression.
We announce the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz to navigation linked to the Zionist entity and its supporters until further notice, considering this measure to be an exercise of our legitimate right to defend our regional security and in support of the resistance and oppressed peoples confronting the Zionist war machine.
Any attempt to violate this decision will be met with firmness, and we hold the Zionist entity, and behind it the US administration, fully responsible for any consequences resulting from the continued aggression and the disregard of legitimate demands to bring it to an end."