Viewpoint by Dr Ram Puniyani This article is the 12th in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is a former professor of biomedical engineering and former senior medical officer affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (now Mumbai). NEW DELHI […]
Emerging QUAD Appears to Be A Threat To APEC
Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — With the elevation of the QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) grouping to a head of state summit on March 12, it is opportune to ask what would happen to APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) that has been losing its shine in recent years. Australia and Japan have been the […]
The ICC Is Now an Important Weapon to End War and Crimes Against Humanity
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Uphill work, outlawing war crimes. The arrest in London of the former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, accused of inflicting widespread torture, was a bolt from the blue. Not even the most well-informed human rights supporters considered it a possibility. It can be said with near certainty that […]
Asia-Pacific Needs Transformative Change Towards a Sustainable Future
Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana The writer is United Nations-Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP). BANGKOK (IDN) — The COVID-19 crisis poses an unprecedented threat to development in the Asia-Pacific region that could reverse much of the hard-earned progress made in recent years. The […]
Profit Hungry Modi Government Ready to Risk Famine in India
Viewpoint by Justin Podur* This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. TORONTO (IDN) — India’s right-wing government has been deploying all the modern tools of repression against a historic farmers’ protest. Much is at stake. For the people of India, their agricultural system is about to get far more […]
Detoxracy: The Current Challenge to Democracy in America
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl* QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — Detoxification is essential to human life. Every cell of the human body must routinely detoxify. From the cellular level, these toxins are transported to our organs of elimination—the kidney and liver, to be processed and expelled. Organizations, institutions and governments also become toxic and must purge these […]
“Britain Alone” Tells the Story of Inflated Ambition
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Philip Stephens of the Financial Times writes in the opening page of his new book, “Britain Alone” *: “The alarm was sounded by a distinguished British scientist, Sir Henry Tizard. Tizard had served during the war as a special emissary to Washington for Winston Churchill. His task […]
Human Civilisation on a Collision Course with the Laws of Ecology
Viewpoint by Tom Pegram and Julia Kreienkamp* LONDON (IDN) — As governments around the world roll out COVID-19 vaccine programmes and seek to kickstart their economies back to life, recovery seems to be within reach. However, hard questions must not be sidestepped. How did this pandemic happen? And how resilient are we to future global […]
Gaelic Helping Preserve Scotland’s Marine Environment
Viewpoint by Magnus Course and Alastair Cole* EDINBURGH | NEWCASTLE (IDN) — Regulations brought in following the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union have delayed the export of live shellfish to Europe, causing entire lorry loads of lobsters and langoustines to expire in Scotland’s ports. Fishing is a relatively small part of the UK’s […]
Little-Known Energy Treaty a Climate Threat
Viewpoint by Fabian Flues, Cecilia Olivet and Pia Eberhardt* LONDON (IDN) — On February 4, the German energy giant RWE announced it was suing the government of the Netherlands. The crime? Proposing to phase out coal from the country’s electricity mix. The company, which is Europe’s biggest emitter of carbon, is demanding 1.4 billion euros […]