Senza categoria – Flesh & Blood: The Blog of Mukesh Kapila

Peace is not the absence of war

To get peace, we must first understand the causes and logic of war.

International Literacy Day: Learning is our most powerful weapon

9 September 2022 – Mukesh Kapila This article first appeared on 8th September 2022 as a TRTWorld Opinion 8th September was International Literacy Day. Millions of people worldwide still can’t read and write. We must do much better. Growing up in India, my earliest memory is of my grandmother learning to chalk her name inContinue reading “International Literacy Day: Learning is our most powerful weapon“

How the dodgy business of UNOPS is enabled from Geneva

How did the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) make the money that allowed it to construct the fraud-ridden and corruption-infested S3i enterprise? A key trail leads to Geneva – the centre of a remarkably brazen enterprise generating immoral profits.

8 billion humans by year-end: demography as destiny in a divided world

Population
Demography
India
China
Development

If the world is producing enough food for all, why is global hunger rising?

22 July 2022 – Mukesh Kapila The world is getting hungrier although we still produce enough food for everyone. Can we just blame conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the climate change crisis? In any case, the current food dilemma cannot be solved by technical fixes or charitable tinkering……. READ: Our beloved hummus is threatened asContinue reading “If the world is producing enough food for all, why is global hunger rising?”

Is health a bridge-for-peace or a tool of war?

4 July 2022 – Mukesh Kapila We have a record number of deadly and no-holds-barred conflicts raging around the world ranging from endless wars such as in Syria and Yemen, and grinding civil wars such as in Ethiopia’s Tigray and in Myanmar. As well as smouldering ones such as in Afghanistan. And, of course, new viciousContinue reading “Is health a bridge-for-peace or a tool of war?”

No time for complacency: Somalia’s unfolding catastrophe

24 June 2022 – Mukesh Kapila This article was first released in The Conversation on 21 June 2022. Somalia is on the brink of catastrophe. A recent assessment suggests that 7.7 million Somalis need emergency aid right now, a similar number to those affected by the Ethiopian famine in 1984, one of the worst humanitarian disasters in history. About one millionContinue reading “No time for complacency: Somalia’s unfolding catastrophe”

“History does not stop because we messed up”

Come what may, sooner or later, UNOPS will find that history has to be squared. It cant be brushed under the carpet.

Humanitarian instinct against humanitarian bureaucracy

26 May 2022 – Mukesh Kapila Last month, I visited Romania and the border region with Ukraine towards Odesa, in my role as Special Adviser to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), accompanying its President Hon. Gennaro Migliore and Secretary General Sergio Piazzi. PAM is an international organisation of the parliaments of theContinue reading “Humanitarian instinct against humanitarian bureaucracy”

What the UNOPS scandal teaches about multilateral vulnerabilities and reforms

25 May 2022 – Mukesh Kapila I have found over past weeks that professional circles familiar with the multilateral United Nations system tend to see or excuse its transgressions in nuanced terms. It is as if the complexity of the contexts in which the UN functions confuses their moral direction-finder. Perhaps a weary cynicism andContinue reading “What the UNOPS scandal teaches about multilateral vulnerabilities and reforms”