Healthy oceans: keeping Asia and the Pacific afloat Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana The writer is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP. BANGKOK (IDN) – Memories of idyllic beaches and sonorous waves may seem far away while we remain at home. Yet, we need not look far to appreciate the enduring history […]
COVID-19: Should Economy Have Priority Over Migrant Workers’ Health?
Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) – Many critics have described labour migration as the 21st-century slave trade and Covid-19 crisis has exposed this stark reality. Eastern European migrant labour in Europe. Unpaid construction workers on the brink of starvation in the Middle East. Hundreds of South Asian dormitory locked down migrant labourers infected with […]
Greece Extends COVID-19 Lockdown at Refugee Camps
Viewpoint by Eva Cossé, Human Rights Watch The writer is Western Europe researcher, works on issues related to discrimination, migration, asylum and minority rights, with a focus on Greece. This article first appeared on Human Rights Watch, and is being reproduced with the author’s permission. LONDON | ATHENS (IDN) – The Greek government has begun […]
Tale of a Machiavellian US in the Middle East
The US Has to Work with Russia, Not Against It Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – The war in Syria has dropped out of the news, like almost everything else, in a time when the Coronavirus seems to dominate all discourse and reporting. But the regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to strangle its […]
Non-Aligned Movement Aligned Against COVID-19
By Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sr Lanka President The following is the text of the Sri Lankan President’s address on May 4 to the online summit meeting of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) under the theme “United Against COVID-19”: COLOMBO (IDN) – I am pleased to be participating at this Summit, in support of global solidarity, unity […]
25 Years After the Indefinite Extension of The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: A Field of Broken Promises and Shattered Visions
By Tariq Rauf* VIENNA (IDN) – “I long ago took to heart the words of Omar Bradley, spoken virtually a half century ago, when he observed, having seen the aftermath of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus: ‘We live in an age of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We live in a world that […]
Beware of Weaponizing COVID-19
Viewpoint by Jayasri Priyalal SINGAPORE (IDN) – Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD) were something that USA and UK coalition forces were trying to find in the armouries of Saddam Hussain in Iraq in March 2003. Anglo-Saxon media was painting the fears of death, destruction and sufferings to humankind unless those weapons were destroyed – justifying […]
Do Not Abuse Science for Corona Politics
Viewpoint by Cees Jan Hamelink* This article was originally published on Other News, a vehicle for “voices against the tide” and is being reproduced with thanks. AMSTERDAM (IDN) – As a scientist it is of course gratifying for me to hear that government policy on Covid-19 takes science seriously. And it is gratifying when press […]
After the Pandemic, Will We Return to Business as Usual?
Viewpoint by Francesc Badia I Dalmases* This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News BARCELONA (IDN) – Meteorologists have warned that this year is on track to become the hottest since records began. The climate crisis […]
Pandemics: Lessons Looking Back from 2050 – Part 2
Viewpoint by Fritjof Capra and Hazel Henderson* This article was originally published on Other News, a vehicle for “voices against the tide” and is being reproduced with thanks. Please click here for Part 1. Berkeley | JACKSONVILLE (IDN) – When the coronavirus struck in 2020, the human responses were at first chaotic and insufficient, but […]