The inexplicable rise of kidney disease in Sri Lanka’s farming communities | Health

The inexplicable rise of kidney disease in Sri Lanka’s farming communities | Health

Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka – In the sleepy, verdant village of Ambagaswewa, in the Polonnaruwa district of Sri Lanka’s North Central province, 63-year-old TMH Gamini Sunil Thennakoon’s life is peaceful for the most part. On the brink of retirement, he still spends most days out working his rice paddies but is…

‘Free at last’: When South Africa voted in democracy, kicked out apartheid | Nelson Mandela News

‘Free at last’: When South Africa voted in democracy, kicked out apartheid | Nelson Mandela News

He cast a vote. There is nothing remarkable about that. In this year alone nearly 50 percent of the world’s population will head to the polls in at least 64 countries. They may not all meet the bar of being free and fair but that is still some four billion people who will…

Jobless engineers, MBAs: The hidden army of Indian election ‘consultants’ | India Election 2024

Jobless engineers, MBAs: The hidden army of Indian election ‘consultants’ | India Election 2024

“How many tennis balls can fit in a passenger plane?” Neeraj, a young economics graduate from the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), was given 15 minutes to solve this question during his interview rounds at Nation With Namo (NwN), one of the in-house political consultancies of India’s governing Bharatiya…

Mandela’s world: A photographic retrospective of apartheid South Africa | Human Rights

Mandela’s world: A photographic retrospective of apartheid South Africa | Human Rights

Photographer Jurgen Schadeberg (1931-2020) spent most of his life documenting the struggle against apartheid. Years before his death in 2020, Schadeberg shared some of his iconic images – and the stories behind them – with Al Jazeera. On April 27, 1994, South Africa held its first multiracial democratic election, voting…

Farm suicides, anger haunt Indian villages that Modi promised hope | India Election 2024

Farm suicides, anger haunt Indian villages that Modi promised hope | India Election 2024

Yavatmal, India – Like everyone else around him, Vithal Rathod was excited for what the future held for him and their village when Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister on May 26, 2014. Just two months earlier, on March 20 that year, Modi had picked the 45-year-old farmer’s village of Dabhadi…

What happens when activists are branded ‘terrorists’ in the Philippines? | Human Rights News

What happens when activists are branded ‘terrorists’ in the Philippines? | Human Rights News

Baguio, Philippines – Inside an unlit bathroom, Windel Bolinget gently tips a pail of water over his head, careful to minimise the sound of splashing on the tiled floor. A well-known activist leader in the mountainous Cordillera region in the northern Philippines, the 49-year-old spends most of his days between…

Indian Gulf workers: The unlikely voters parties are wooing for elections | India Election 2024

Indian Gulf workers: The unlikely voters parties are wooing for elections | India Election 2024

Thiruvananthapuram, India – The hum of conversation was replaced by a crescendo of high-pitched political slogans in the packed auditorium, as Shafi Parambil took to the stage. The 41-year-old politician from the Indian National Congress launched into a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kerala state Chief Minister…

Turtles swimming to extinction in Malaysia as male hatchlings feel heat | Climate Crisis News

Turtles swimming to extinction in Malaysia as male hatchlings feel heat | Climate Crisis News

Redang Island, Malaysia – Under a full moon, a bulbous creature emerges from the South China Sea onto a quiet beach on the Malaysian island of Redang. Watched closely by a team of volunteers, the green sea turtle moves slowly up the fine white sand to the top of the…

‘Children of the Ganges’ – The mallah community of India’s Varanasi | Workers’ Rights

‘Children of the Ganges’ – The mallah community of India’s Varanasi | Workers’ Rights

Varanasi, India – “Hum paani ke jeev hain. We are creatures of water,” says 29-year-old Vishwakarma Sahni. Sahni belongs to Varanasi’s community of approximately 8,000 mallah, the boatmen whose lives are deeply intertwined with the Ganges – a river considered sacred in India and which they hold in profound reverence….