Viewpoint by Alex Broadbent and Benjamin T.H. Smart* JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Suppose you had the choice between two health policies, A and B. Policy A would result in the death of a lot of elderly people. Policy B would result in the death of a lot of children, especially infants. Which would you choose? Right […]
The Power of The Black Vote in The US Election
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – According to the New York Times, President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is investing more money and resources in an attempt to attract African-American voters than any previous Republican presidential campaign. The Trump camp believe that with eight months of continuous advertising coupled with the opening of field […]
COVID-19 in Sri Lanka and South Asia: Need for a Rational Policy Response
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (1882-1945). Viewpoint by Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* The writer is a cultural anthropologist with research expertise in international political economy, peace, and development studies in South and South East Asia. COLOMBO (IDN) – COVID 19 is […]
Colombia’s Conflict Victims Await 16 ‘Seats for Peace’ in Congress
Viewpoint by Hobeth Martinez Carrillo* LONDON (IDN) – Four years after the UN-monitored peace agreement that was intended to end more than five decades of civil war in Colombia, the communities that suffered most during the armed conflict may finally be gaining places at the political table. The members of the UN Security Council welcomed […]
The World’s Response to COVID-19 Has Slashed CO2 Emissions
Viewpoint by Simone Abram* DURHAM, UK (IDN) – How do you respond to a crisis? It’s obvious that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been dramatically different to anything provoked by repeated scientific warnings about climate change. The many organisations that declared climate emergencies throughout 2019 and 2020 have so far enacted nothing like […]
COVID-19: Resources Needed for Gender and Social Inclusion
Women Front and Centre Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director. NEW YORK (IDN) – One thing is clear about the COVID-19 pandemic, as stock markets tumble, schools and universities close, people stockpile supplies and home becomes a different and crowded space: this is not just a health issue. It is […]
How to Think Positively about Isolation during Coronavirus Lockdown
Viewpoint by Silvia Panizza* PIEDMONT, Italy (IDN) – “They say when trouble comes, close ranks.” So begins Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea. When the new coronavirus started spreading in Europe, my first impulse was to travel home, to Italy, to be with my family. Lesson number one learned from the virus: you remember what […]
Bernie Sanders Pushes Democratic Party to the Left
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Is Bernie Sanders still in with a chance? It is a slim one, but in these primary elections one never knows. There have been a number of surprising upsets. Even if Joe Biden comes out on top and has to face Donald Trump for the presidency the […]
The Largest US-Led Military Exercise in Europe Continues Despite COVID-19
Viewpoint by Jan Oberg*, The Transnational Foundation, TFF. LUND, Sweden (IDN) -– Defender Europe 20 is a huge, basically US military exercise, on European soil between February and May this year. It has already started. In the midst of a closed-down coronavirus Europe. And it is war-preparing, not peace- or confidence-building. The diagram above from […]
International Cooperation Vital to Defying the Consequences of Coronavirus
Viewpoint by Beate Trankmann*, UNDP Resident Representative in China BEIJING (IDN) – Since its outbreak, the effects of the coronavirus have been felt in countries across the world. With around 110,000 confirmed cases of COVID19 and over 4,000 deaths as of March 10, this epidemic has put public health systems and emergency services under immense pressure. […]