The 10 countries that produce the most wheat

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Written by northsouth

Category: Features

Published: 12 August 2022

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ROME - While more than 80 different countries produce wheat around the world, the majority of global wheat production comes from just a handful of countries, according to data from The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Here’s a look at the top 10 wheat-producing countries worldwide, based on total yield in tonnes from 2000-2020:

China, the world’s largest wheat producer, has yielded more than 2.4 billion tonnes of wheat over the last two decades, making up roughly 17% of total production from 2000-2020.

A majority of China’s wheat is used domestically to help meet the country’s rising food demand. China is the world’s largest consumer of wheat—in 2020/2021, the country accounted for approximately 19% of global wheat consumption.

The second-largest wheat-producing country is India. Over the last two decades, India has produced 12.5% of the world’s wheat. Like China, India keeps most of its wheat domestic because of significant food demand across the country.

Russia, the world’s third-largest wheat producer, is also the largest global exporter of wheat. The country exported more than $7.3 billion worth of wheat in 2021, accounting for approximately 13.1% of total wheat exports that year.

Russia-Ukraine Impact on Global Wheat Market

Because Russia and Ukraine are both significant global wheat producers, the ongoing conflict between the two countries has caused massive disruptions to the global wheat market.

The conflict has had an impact on adjacent industries as well. For instance, Russia is one of the world’s major fertilizer suppliers, and the conflict has led to a global fertilizer shortage which could lead to food shortages worldwide.

2021 Islamophobia in Review

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Written by northsouth

Category: Features

Published: 17 January 2022

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By Bridge Initiative Team, Washington DC, January 2022

WASHINGTON - Overall, 2021 demonstrated that Islamophobia remains a constant and growing threat around the globe. Anti-Muslim racism in 2021 remained ever present as hate crimes and individual attacks targeting Muslims persisted.

Across the globe, the key players of anti-Muslim racism were again states themselves, as this year witnessed increasing discriminatory legislation and policies.

China continued to deny the growing body of evidence pointing to genocide being committed against Uyghur Muslims and an international tribunal was held in the U.K. with testimony from survivors of Xinjiang’s concentration camps.

In Canada, a man killed a Muslim family of four in a horrific calculated hit-and-run, leading to Canadian Muslims demanding the government take concrete measures to tackle Islamophobic violence.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron’s government took a page from China’s book by implementing legislation aimed at constructing a state-approved Islam, resulting in widespread discrimination targeting Muslim civil society and curtailing the rights of French Muslims, especially women.

Similarly, the Austrian government took measures to intimidate and silence Austrian Muslim activists and organizations, even going so far as to publish a map detailing the locations of hundreds of mosques and associations. In the United Kingdom, the ruling Conservative party persisted in evading calls to address institutional Islamophobia within its ranks.

State hostility and prejudice towards Muslims was present across the European continent, with rulings aimed at restricting Muslim identity such as halal meat and hijab bans. In India, the country’s growing Hindu nationalist forces retained last year’s theme of conspiracy theories, claiming Indian Muslims were engaging in “love jihad,” “economic jihad,” and even “narcotics jihad.”

Additionally, there were large episodes of anti-Muslim violence in various parts of the country such as Tripura, Gurgaon, and Assam, all of which were supported by the rising Hindu nationalist voices. The year was also spent uncovering the role of social media platforms in larger campaigns of violence targeting Muslims as seen in India and Myanmar.

In the United States, the country marked twenty years since the deadly September 11th attacks and reckoned with the impacts and consequences of two decades of the War on Terror at home and abroad.

2021 demonstrated that Islamophobia remains a constant and growing threat around the globe. Anti-Muslim racism in 2021 remained ever present as hate crimes and individual attacks targeting Muslims persisted. Across the globe, the key players of anti-Muslim racism were again states themselves, as this year witnessed increasing discriminatory legislation and policies.

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United States: With the inauguration of Joe Biden as the country’s 46th president, American Muslims welcomed the new administration and celebrated as Biden reversed Trump’s Muslim Ban. While applauding the measure, many noted that a reversal would not bring back the time and lives lost as a result of the previous discriminatory measure, and called on Biden to use this moment to tackle the presence of anti-Muslim racism in society, calling for accountability and justice.

India: Throughout 2021, Indian Muslims found themselves on the receiving end of countless mob attacks and state violence as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government continued to embolden the country’s right-wing Hindu nationalist forces. Further, conspiracy theories constructing Indian Muslims as a threat to the Hindu majoritarian population gained credibility thanks to the rhetoric and actions of politicians and the government.

The right-ward shift in the subcontinent also led many commentators and experts in the region to fear that Modi’s rule was leading to a decay in the world’s largest democracy as journalists critical of the government were targeted and imprisoned and counter-terror legislation was used to silence critics. In a testament to increasing state hostility, even elite actors and actresses of India’s Bollywood were not immune to the Hindu nationalist government’s assault on free speech.

China: In 2021, the world heard more personal testimonies from Uyghurs who had survived China’s network of concentration camps as a growing international movement called on countries to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. This year also involved Chinese authorities restructuring their targeting of Uyghurs, moving many prisoners to forced labor camps and institutionalizing discriminatory practices, such as removing domes from mosques, aimed at erasing Uyghur culture and identity.

Growing calls from activists and rights organizations for action from the international community also contributed to an unofficial tribunal held in the UK, which found that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is committing genocide, a conclusion made by a number of countries this year including the Canadian parliament, MPs in the UK, Dutch parliament, and the Lithuanian parliament.

China’s campaign targeting Uyghurs goes back decades and must be understood in the settler-colonial context of the region. However, following 9/11 and the introduction of the war on terror discourse, Chinese authorities adopted this rhetoric framing Uyghur Muslims as a security threat to the state and began slowly criminalizing various aspect of Uyghur culture and identity, all under the banner of tackling the “three evil forces” of separatism, extremism, and terrorism. The establishment of concentration camps, dubbed “re-education” centers by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in 2017 and the projected growth of these fortresses of torture and psychological manipulation is just one aspect of China’s wider campaign in the occupied Uyghur homeland (which Chinese authorities refer to as Xinjiang).

In 2021, the world heard more harrowing stories from survivors of China’s crackdown in the region: a project involving torture, rape, detention, indoctrination, and psychological abuse.

Europe: In 2021, Islamophobia in Europe was further institutionalized within policies and programs that effectively criminalized Muslim civil society on the continent. In France, President Emmanuel Macron introduced the anti-Separatism law restricting the rights of French Muslim citizens and essentially forcing Muslims religious leader to take an oath of loyalty. Meanwhile in Switzerland, the government approved a ban on the burqa, adding to the growing number of countries that have restricted Muslim women’s right to religious freedom.

The trend on the continent has been to construct Europe’s Muslims as both a security and cultural threat, using arguments framed under counterterrorism and secularism to justify discriminatory and harmful rhetoric and practices that have severely curtailed the basic rights of Muslims.

In a review of 2021, Austrian academic and Bridge Senior Researcher Farid Hafez described the Europe’s right-ward shift as the continent entering an age of “McCarthyism against Islam,” with government policies framing Muslim citizenry as potential threats, suspicious, and ultimately untrustworthy. With the current status quo, it appears that “guilty until proven innocent increasingly becomes authorities’ approach to Muslims,” and Hafez demonstrated this by highlighting France, Austria, and Denmark’s collective approach to fighting “political Islam.”

In neighboring France, President Emmanuel Macron solidified his presidency as one marked by state-led Islamophobia, where under his leadership the government instituted measures that stigmatized and collectively punished France’s nearly 6 million Muslims. Much like Austria, Macron’s government hinged on the “political Islam” boogeyman to justify measures that not only severely curtailed the rights of Muslims but many argued also was an attack on French secularism. In late 2020, under the guise of fighting “political Islam,” Macron gave Muslim religious leaders an ultimatum, essentially forcing Imams to sign a charter or otherwise be considered a threat and enemy to the state. In March 2021, a coalition of civil society organizations urged the European Commission to investigate France at the European Court of Justice over the charter, saying that it “violates Muslims’ right to free speech and religious freedoms.”

In 2020, Macron also introduced the anti-separtism bill, which was approved by Members of Parliament in February 2021 and adopted by the National Assembly on July 23, 2021.

French legal scholar Rim-Sarah Alouane described the bill as an “attack” on civil liberties, stating, “I see a blatant attack on freedom of association. This bill has no safeguards of potential abuse from public authorities,” and further noted that “French Muslims are paying the price of the failure of the state to prevent terrorist attacks from happening.” Further the bill also included measures aimed at increasing restrictions on Muslim women’s ability to wear the hijab, with the argument of religious neutrality used to extend the hijab ban to private companies under contract with the state.

In January 2021, a coalition of thirty-six organizations from thirteen countries submitted a twenty-eight-page document to the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), calling on the international body to “open formal infringement procedures against France’s government for entrenching Islamophobia and structural discrimination against Muslims.” The organizations alleged that under Macron’s governance, France’s recent “actions and policies in relation to Muslim communities violated international and European laws.”

Many critics noted that these actions were being taken by the government to play on the ongoing culture wars, and to silence any group or individual who called out the government’s Islamophobia, by linking anyone on the left with “‘Islamism,’ the eternal bogeyman in French society.”

The measures aimed at dismantling French Muslim civil society remained in force as a French court confirmed the dissolution of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), a leading anti-discrimination group that tracked Islamophobia in the country. Adding to this, in 2021 the government shut down a Muslim publishing house. In October 2021, Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin announced the government would close 7 more mosques and associations in the country by the end of the year, and stated that since Macron had taken office, “some 13 associations have been closed along with 92 of the 2,500 mosques in the country.” Under the pretense of tackling “radicalization” and “political Islam,” the French government has taken measures to dismantle Muslim civil society and strike fear in the French Muslim community.

Experts, commentators, and writers all noted how the current political climate in France involved a surge in the far-right and an overall massive shift right-ward in the country. Given the upcoming 2022 presidential elections, it appears that candidates in the running to lead the country are attempting to outdo each other when it comes to blatant anti-Muslim bigotry.

In 2021, Europe continued on a right-ward path as anti-Muslim racism became the norm in media, politics, and society. While some political leaders dragged their feet in addressing the issue of Islamophobia, many others openly incorporated dangerous and discriminatory anti-Muslim rhetoric into their agenda.

Canada: In July of 2021, Mustafa Farooq of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) made a chilling observation: “The reality is that Canada has suffered more mass killings motivated by Islamophobia in the last five years than any other country in the G7. This cannot be allowed to continue.” Farooq’s comments came a little over a month after a deadly targeted hit-and-run in London, Ontario that killed four members of a Canadian Muslim family, with the sole survivor being a 9-year-old boy. The incident sent shockwaves across the country, and Canadian Muslims called on the government to take greater action against rising anti-Muslim hatred in the country beginning with tackling bigoted rhetoric and support for discriminatory policies amongst those in power.

2021 Year in Review: Celebrating UN values in action

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Written by northsouth

Category: Features

Published: 01 January 2022

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THE UNITED NATIONS - Conflict, health crises and the climate emergency may have dominated headlines this year but, behind the scenes, countless unsung heroes were working tirelessly to put the values of the UN into action. Here are some of the inspiring personal stories we featured on our UN News pages during 2021.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continued into a second year, many of the exceptional people we featured in 2021 were, unsurprisingly, health workers putting themselves at considerable personal risk to ensure members of their communities survived the pandemic.

‘We pray to God to save us from famine’

These risks are compounded in conflict zones where workers continue to provide health services against great odds.
In Yemen, Asia El-Sayeed Ali and her family had to flee their home in Aden and move in with relatives. Today, she works at a health clinic supported by the World Food Programme (WFP), where she cares for children, and their mothers, suffering from malnutrition.

“When a mother brings in a child suffering from malnutrition, I provide nutrition treatment, and advise her to bring them back the following week”, says Ms. El-Sayeed Ali. “When she returns, and I see the child has gained weight, and is looking healthier with filled out cheeks, I feel relieved.

“I love working in the clinic. My heart aches when I see children crying from pain or hunger, but I can make a positive difference, helping the mothers, and put a smile on the face of the children.”

Staying to help the Afghan people

In Afghanistan, following the take-over by the Taliban, Dr Khali Ahmadi* told UN News in an exclusive interview from the Afghan capital Kabul in August, that he and other healthcare workers are continuing to work despite the lack of security and ongoing instability in the country and called on the international community to carry on supporting Afghanistan.

Dr. Ahmadi was in Kabul to provide health care for the thousands of people who had streamed into the city to escape fighting. “Our workday is very long and hard”, he told us. “I start at around 7am and can sometimes work until midnight which means, as a team, we can treat up to 500 people a day.

Sometimes, the security situation means I will stay at home. If there are reports of gunfire or other disturbances as well as roadblocks, the team members decide is too dangerous to work. It can be very tense on the streets.”

‘I thought about my own children’

Throughout the year, UN News spoke to many other people choosing to work in countries where the security risk is high. Among them was Fezeh Rezaye, a 26-year-old mother of two, and a member of a 19-strong, all-female demining team, honoured in April for their efforts to rid the Afghan province of Afghanistan of mines.

“I had known several people from my village who have been injured or killed by mines in Bamyan” she recounted. “Even our landlord lost his leg in a landmine accident. But it was the death of seven children, all from the same family in our village, that really affected me.

“They had been together in the mountains when they were all killed by a mine explosion. I thought about my own children, that this could have happened to them.”

I have to be on my A-game’

For the soldiers, or ‘blue helmets’, who are part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali - for some years now, the most dangerous UN posting in the world - every patrol could be their last.

Trooper Jack Drake, a young soldier from the UK, is a driver with a military reconnaissance team tasked with protecting civilians in trouble spots in northeastern Mali. “I really have to focus on picking the best route for the vehicle and knowing when to put my foot down to avoid getting stuck”, he explained.

“Mali is a dangerous place right now, so I really have to be on my A-game on patrol. It’s important to recognize any threats and stay switched on the whole time. You rely on the other members of your crew to stay safe.”

‘Peacekeeping is a human enterprise’

Since being deployed in the Darfur region of Sudan in 2019, Kenyan Military Gender Advisor, Major Steplyne Nyaboga, has worked diligently to promote the rights of women and girls, organizing campaigns and workshops for staff and civil society activists.

In recognition of the excellence of her work, the UN awarded Major Nyaboga with the 2020 UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. “Peacekeeping is a human enterprise”, she responded. “Placing women and girls at the centre of our efforts and concerns, will help us better protect civilians and build a more sustainable peace”.

Major Nyaboga took charge of gender education for other military peacekeepers during her deployment, training nearly 95 per cent of UNAMID’s military contingent by December of last year. She also advised the force on how to better identify the needs of vulnerable men, women, boys and girls, and improve the way the peacekeepers protected them.

Championing the Earth

In the year that the postponed COP26 in Glasgow, the most important UN climate conference since Paris in 2015, finally took place following a pandemic-related postponement, the climate crisis and the work of grassroots activists gained added attention.
From August until the end of October, the UN featured 10 young activists, engineers, and entrepreneurs, showing how we can all make a positive change, in our hit podcast series, No Denying It.

The change-makers include Nzambi Matee, a Kenyan entrepreneur who makes sustainable low-cost construction materials made of recycled plastic waste and sand. Her company, Gjenge Makers, has financially empowered over 112 individuals, through the supply and pre-processing stages of the production process.

Greek activist Lefteris Arapakis founded the first fishing school in his country, and has convinced fishermen to haul in plastic from the ocean. In this episode of No Denying It, Mr. Arapakis explains that he founded the school after hearing from his fisherman father that, despite Greece’s economic crisis, there was a lack of labour for fishing boats.

Thanks to the school’s initiatives, fish stocks and the ecosystem are recovering, plastic waste has been returned to the circular economy, and fishermen in his community have an added source of income.

Many of the activists featured in No Denying It have been identified as Young Champions of the Earth by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which announced its latest Champions in December.

This year’s cohort, all women, include Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, who was honoured for being a powerful voice from the global south, arguing for a sustainable world and consistently raising the alarm about the vulnerability of Small Island Developing States.

The fight for rights

Human rights of all kinds continued to come under attack in 2021, and many brave individuals fought back to protect them.
UN News shone a light on the 30-year struggle of Brazilian activist Joenia Wapixana to secure land rights for the country’s indigenous population in Brazil.

In 2018, at the end of a long campaign, financed at the grassroots level by crowdfunding, she became the first indigenous woman elected to Brazil’s federal parliament and was awarded the UN Human Rights Prize

In a special interview, Ms. Wapixana called for more resources for the fight against institutionalized discrimination. “Society needs to understand that discrimination against the indigenous has always existed in Brazil”, she explained.

“I believe that when a person has suffered racial discrimination, or is suffering from racism, it is necessary to protect them with the fullest extent of the law. Report the incident, even if nothing comes of it. It is important for us to create a record of this phase that we are going through.”

‘Poverty is both the cause and the consequence of disability’

Eddie Ndopu, an award-winning disability activist from South Africa, lives with spinal muscular atrophy, and faces many dailychallenges. Now in his late 20s, Mr. Ndopu says that his parents were told at his birth that he would not live beyond the age of five.

Mr. Ndopu told the UN that he has overcome his barriers to travel the world advocating for others with disabilities. “Poverty is both the cause and the consequence of disability, and the overwhelming majority of people with disabilities live in poverty, he says in an interview, taken from an episode of the UN’s Awake at Night podcast.

“I think we don't talk about disability because we insist on perfection. And I think disability reminds people that actually, imperfection is more intrinsic to all of us than perfection.”