By Kalinga Seneviratne BANGKOK, Thailand | 4 Dec 2025(IDN)– Saudi Arabia and Russia have signed an agreement on the sidelines of the Saudi-Russian Investment and Business Forum, held in Riyadh on the 1st December, on a mutual visa exemption for citizens of both countries, that could help to accelerate the Islamic kingdom’s fledgling tourist industry. […]
Sri Lanka: The Beautiful, Besieged Island
By Dr. Asoka Bandarage* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 31 August 2025 (IDN) — In July 2025, the influential global travel website Big 7 named Sri Lanka the “most beautiful island in the world,” stating that the “teardrop-shaped island off the southern coast of India has it all—golden beaches, terraced tea plantations, timeworn temples, colonial towns, […]
Protecting Human Heritage: Sri Lanka’s Buddhist Culture
By Dr. Asoka Bandarage* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 24 July 2025 (IDN) — We live in a time of accelerated militarism, environmental devastation, and deepening social collapse. Amid these crises, the destruction of our shared global heritage — humanity’s historical, spiritual, and artistic legacy — receives an astounding lack of attention. As we enter the […]
Russia’s Real Power Is Not Weapons, It’s Culture
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 16 July 2025 (IDN) — Observers say that what drives President Vladimir Putin is to make Russia respected. However, perhaps Putin overestimates the extent of Russia’s existing power. He has overlooked which trumpets to blow — it is not his “hang tough” militaristic policies in international affairs, especially vis-à-vis […]
The rediscovery of America from within
By Jan Servaes MIAMI | 10 July 2025 (IDN) — In 2019, The New York Times published “The 1619 Project” by Nikole Hannah-Jones. Four centuries after African captives arrived on the Virginia coast, this project reshaped America’s origin story, centering on slavery and the contributions of African Americans. An updated version appeared in 2021 and […]
The ‘Latino’ Does Not Exist
By Jan Servaes MIAMI | 26 June 2025 (IDN) — Before, during, and since the 2024 U.S. presidential election, approximately 15 percent of the American voting-age population—the so-called Latinos or Hispanics—has remained in the public eye. According to some observers, they played an important role in the election of Trump, despite his “vile remarks” about […]
Waiting for an African Pope
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. ABUJA, Nigeria | 27 April 2025 (IDN) — It’s nothing to laugh off, however tempting. If the movies imitate life, we may not be as far away from an African pope. It happened in The Conclave, […]
The End of Democracy?
By Jan Servaes* BRUSSELS | 24 April 2025 (IDN) — The Trump administration is rapidly destroying American democracy. In previous contributions, based on the writings of Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, we have already warned about this. Recently, professors Jennifer McCoy (of Georgia State University), Rachel Beatty Riedl and Kenneth Roberts (of Cornell […]
When Are You Going to Get a Proper Job?
By Azu Ishiekwene* ABUJA, Nigeria | 4 April 2025 (IDN) — He didn’t say when his father asked him, but I wonder what the old man must think in his grave. Jonathan Power is now 83 and arguably one of Europe’s most widely published columnists. He was a young freelance journalist when his father asked […]
The Impact of Afrikaner Identity and Apartheid Ideology
By Jan Servaes BRUSSELS | 3 April 2025 (IDN) — Although the names of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, or other (South African) ‘tech billionaires’ are not mentioned anywhere in Eric Louw’s “Afrikaner Identity: From Anticolonial Struggle Through Hegemonic Nationalism to Disempowered Minority,” this book offers an excellent introduction to understanding the ideology and some of […]