Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). BANGKOK (IDN) – The Pacific Island Developing State of Vanuatu has emerged as one of the region’s great success stories. Vanuatu has joined the […]
US Policing and Militarism Perpetuate Sexual Violence
Viewpoint by Olivia Pace* The original version of this article was published on Waging Nonviolence and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. PORTLAND, Oregon (IDN) – From the forces of policing to the military, these arms of the US state claim to be arbiters of justice and safety in the most superficial […]
Human Exploitation of the Biosphere Threatens Mass Extinction
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery* COPENHAGEN (IDN) – According to a recent United Nations report, more than a million species of plants and animals are currently threatened with extinction because of human activities. Rates of extinction today are as much as 1,000 times greater than the normal background rate. As the greenhouse gas emissions of […]
The Forgotten HIV/AIDS Pandemic
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the first identification of HIV/AIDS in the United States of America (USA), in 1981, approximately 76 million people have been infected with HIV, and nearly 35 million people have died of AIDS — the highest global death toll of all time — and also one of […]
Message from The Dead Borno Farmers
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA (IDN) – That the slain Borno farmers did not get military clearance is an inconvenient truth, but the real error of judgement was taking the government at its word. In his inaugural speech on May 29, […]
Time Overdue for the US to Ratify Law of The Sea Treaty
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Russia, China, Ukraine, the European Union, the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, the defence budget, climate change, Iran, Afghanistan, Poland, Hungary, India Iraq, Taiwan, Japan, Cuba are all items that have surfaced in the press as reporters ponder on the issues that President-elect Joe Biden will confront […]
A Window Opens in Business Ties Between Russia and Nigeria
Interview by Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW (IDN) – As part of efforts to connect Russia with Nigeria and to lure potential Russian investors and businesspeople to Nigeria and vice versa, a business lecture platform “Doing Business with Nigeria” has been created in November. Its primary aim is to get the Russian business community to understand […]
Joe Biden’s Dilemma on Syria
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) – If you like confusion in foreign policy take a new look at Syria, the country that has the worst civil war since the one that raged in Angola in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Syria is now a near-total wreck. Four of its historically important Christian cities […]
Black Holes Pervade the Spirit of 2020
Viewpoint by Prabir Purkayastha* NEW DELHI (IDN) – The Nobel Prize in physics for 2020 has been shared by Roger Penrose, the mathematical physicist, for his work on the theoretical basis of black holes, and astronomers Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez, who led independent teams, for verifying the existence of such a black hole at […]
Legacy of Late Ghana President: A View from Nigeria
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA (IDN) – The saying that a prophet is not appreciated at home may well be referring to former Ghanaian president, Jerry Rawlings, who died on November 12 from COVID-19 related complications, three weeks after his mother […]