By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 25 March 2024 (IDN)— The award-winning movie “Oppenheimer”, based on the life of Robert Oppenheimer, credited with having helped the creation of the atomic bomb, has once again turned the spotlight on the longstanding campaign for nuclear disarmament—and the deaths and devastation caused by one of the world’s most destructive […]
Life on an American Campus: From a Hoodlum to a Dean
By Thalif Deen NEW YORK | 29 February 2024 (IDN) — The crisis in Gaza has triggered a negative fallout on some of the prestigious Ivy League universities in the US, including Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, where philanthropists who doled out multi-million-dollar donations are now threatening to reduce or cut off funding […]
Nigeria: Battling with a Serious Cost-of-Living Crisis
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA | 15 February 2024 (IDN) — I was going through some old files in my closet the other day when I saw some documents and receipts that absolutely cracked me up. Among the browning, time-worn papers was the […]
Is the USA Heading Towards the Dictatorship of a Minority?
By Jan Servaes MIAMI | 23 January 2024 (IDN) — It increasingly looks like Donald Trump will win while American democracy is faltering. This is what Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt contend in their new book “Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point”. In “Tyranny of the Minority,” […]
South Africa Grieves Death of Celebrated Writer of ‘Sarafina!’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 1 January 2024 (IDN) — Members of the theatre world, the arts community and followers worldwide are lamenting the death of Mbongeni Ngema—playwright, composer, lyricist, director and musician—who died in a head-on collision in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape. The celebrated playwright who brought the liberation […]
Two African Films Make It to the ‘Oscars So White’ Awards
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 25 December 2023 (IDN) — There’s a burgeoning industry of great African films, but you’ll be lucky to see any of them at the Oscars. “I’m sure the majority of the world doesn’t even know we make movies,” commented Likarion Wainaina, the 35-year-old writer-director of Supa […]
Famed Congolese Guitarist Lokassa Ya Mbongo Has Found His Rest
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 18 December 2023 (IDN) — The legendary musician, whose real name is Denis Kasiya Lokassa, has died at age 77 after battling diabetes and complications from a mild stroke he suffered in 2020. He was one of DR Congo’s best rhythm guitarists, but spent most of […]
Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World
A Book Review by W. D. Lakshman The writer is Professor Emeritus, University of Colombo Asoka Bandarage| Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World: Colonial and Neoliberal Origins – Ecological and Collective Alternatives. De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences. Vol 30. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. 2023 9 November 2023 (IDN) — Asoka Bandarage is known […]
African Fashion Bursting with Opportunities, UNESCO Says
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 7 November 2023 (IDN) — If you thought UNESCO was just about dusty old artifacts, think again. UNESCO, which stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, was created in 1945 “to build peace through international cooperation as the only way to build bridges between […]
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the ‘Non-Complexity’ of the Middle East War
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 7 November 2023 (IDN) — As political theorists, activists, politicians, and others struggle with ways to understand the current war in the Middle East, clarity came to the prize-winning author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates on his return from a 10-day tour of Israel and Palestine. He […]