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Political vaccines and symbolic bread

March 30, 2022

Topics: Rising bread prices in Egypt impact the poor -- Why politicizing vaccines doesn't help to end the COVID pandemic -- The plight of foreign interns in Japan -- How ice cream turned an unemployed fashion designer in Soweto into a happy man

https://p.dw.com/p/49EPG

Egypt's bread prices soaring

The war in Ukraine is having huge repercussions around the world. Like many countries in North Africa, Egypt usually imports large amounts of wheat from Russia and Ukraine. Since that's not possible now, imports from other countries are now needed, at higher prices, which also impacts on the bread price. 

Bread is so important here that in Egyptian Arabic, bread is called "aish", which literally means life. Egyptians eat more bread per capita than in any other country in the world. The government purchases grain for a vast subsidized bread program. Being able to provide affordable bread is a major concern for Egyptian politicians, especially since rising prices have led to huge protests in the past. 

Report: Anne Allmelling/ presenter: Shabnam Surita

 

Covid vaccine politization hampers solutions

If you want to travel right now, you need a valid COVID vaccine certificate almost everywhere you go. However, the rules vary in different regions of the world. And not all vaccines are accepted everywhere. The European Union for instance only accepts a few vaccines. Some countries for instance no longer accept the Astra Zeneca vaccination.

And Chinese vaccines don't meet entry requirements in many parts of the world, even though they are recommended and globally distributed through the World Health Organization's Covax Initiative.

While they are all based on science, the vaccines made in different countries are becoming politicized - which hampers the global effort to fight the pandemic.   

Report: Kathrin Hondl/ presenter: Ineke Mules 


Japan intern abuse

An internship programm that was originally  intended as a kind of development aid has again raised concern in Japan. 20 years ago, Japan launched a program for technical interns from economically weak countries. The goal was to give young people skills that could be helpful once they returned to their home countries.

Since then, however, there have been many reports on foreign interns being mistreated and exploited - in many companies, they serve Japanese companies as cheap labor. Recently a video of a Vietnamese intern being abused caused an uproar. 

Report: Kathrin Erdmann/ presenter: Elliot Douglas   

Soweto Ice Cream Café 

He studied fashion design at uni, but when the pandemic hit, Thando Makhubu from Soweto was unable to do any more photo shoots since the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. Because of the pandemic, South Africa's already high unemployment rate increased even further - and Makhubu's skills as a designer were not in demand in the crisis. 

But then he saw an ice cream image on a webpage and came up with the new idea to setting up an ice cream café in Soweto. Now even provides jobs for others.

Report: Jana Genth /presenter: Neil King


 

Anke Rasper
Anke Rasper Anke is a senior editor with DW's environment team.
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