Category: OPINION

Viewpoint by Martin Khor*

GENEVA (IDN | South Centre) – Debt worldwide has grown to unprecedentedly high levels and has to be brought down to prevent another financial crisis. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) at its annual meeting in Washington October 7-9 highlighted this.

Other problems facing the global economy include the stagnation in world trade, a decline in commodity prices, and the reversal of capital flows to developing countries.

A recently-released United Nations report has analysed the situation as a third phase in the global crisis that began with the United States in 2008, then spread in a second wave to Europe, and is now moving on to the developing countries.

Viewpoint by Sugeeswara Senadhira*

COLOMBO (IDN) – The Indian way of sabotaging the fragile regional cooperation in order to express hostility towards a neighbour due to a bilateral issue is causing concern to the friends of South Asian regional cooperation.

India, not for the first time, ensured that the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit in Islamabad would become a non-event. In the early 1990s India took similar actions to sabotage Dhaka and Colombo SAARC Summits.

On those two occasions what New Delhi did was to get a dependable South Asian friend – Bhutan – to announce its inability to attend the Summit, thus leading to the cancellation of the event as the SAARC Charter is specific on consensus of all seven, now eight, Member States.

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In the middle of September Pakistani militants moved across the “line of control” that separates Pakistan-controlled Kashmir from the Indian-controlled part. The two countries have been at loggerheads about the title to this gorgeously beautiful state, now bereft of tourism and much income, since independence.

In recent years guerrilla activity has died away and most observers thought that the Pakistani army was seriously clamping down on its own sponsored guerrillas. The indications were that the government truly wanted rapprochement with India. And India too with Pakistan.

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Africa up or down? After 10 years of quite remarkable growth across the continent most countries are experiencing a downturn, with average growth nearer 3.75% than 5% as before.

Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country with its largest economy, was at one time growing year after year at 7+%. Now it looks like it’s heading for recession and a growth rate pointing to zero. It has been hit by a six-fold whammy – oil prices sharply down, the effects of the great recession in the industrialised countries, the Chinese economy slowing, bad economic and foreign exchange policies under the relatively new president, Muhammadu Buhari, increased corruption under his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, and the war against Boko Haram in the far north.

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – In the aftermath of the Ukrainian crisis in March 2014, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia that have led to unintended consequences.

Crimea re-joined Russia following a referendum in which more than 96 percent of Russian speaking residents of Crimea voted to declare independence based on “the right of nations to self-determination” that is stipulated in Article 1 of the UN Charter.

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The many world leaders who gathered in Jerusalem on September 30 for the funeral of Shimon Peres, the former president of Israel, are safely ensconced back home. They will not bother much to think about Israel again until the next Palestinian uprising. But the Israelis will continue to only think about themselves.

The Israelis are obsessed with themselves, with their history, with the present time and with their destiny. Every nation has some of this but Israeli navel gazing is something else. At this level of intensity it makes compromise difficult and condemns Israel to political paranoia and limitless inflexibility.

Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona

The writer is former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York.

COLOMBO (IDN) – Sri Lanka’s relations with the US go back a long way and have encompassed many different areas of interest. These have mostly enriched the relationship. In recent times, the bilateral relationship has undergone considerable stress.

As to whether Sri Lanka occupied the central attention of US foreign policy makers to any significant degree in the past, or even at present, can be the subject of a useful discussion, perhaps after a few glasses of good Californian wine. But for Sri Lanka, the US has been a vital foreign policy concern, especially in the recent past.

Viewpoint by David Hall and Leonard Eiger

David Hall, of Lopez Island, and Leonard Eiger, of North Bend, are active members of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action and Physicians for Social Responsibility.

SEATTLE (IDN | The Seattle Times) – Have you seen the Seattle bus ads? They read: “20 miles west of Seattle is the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the U.S.”

In light of recent media attention on who should have their finger on the nuclear button, this statement seems to beg the question: With so many nuclear weapons, what would happen should the president order their use?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The last war in the Western hemisphere came to an end on September 26 with the signing of the formal peace treaty between Colombia and the FARC rebels, a conflict that has raged on and off for 50 years.

Fortunately, the cities have been spared overt destruction – it was the army and individuals who were targeted. In Syria, even though the war has lasted only 5 years, in some cities, such as Aleppo, the bombing and fighting have wrought almost total destruction.

Is the world going to hell in a handbag? If one looks at Colombia the answer is “no”. Moreover, Latin America has long been the most peaceful of all continents. Only East Asia rivals it. Africa after decades of civil wars, at one time being the most violent of all the continents, is increasingly peaceful.

Viewpoint by Amina Mohamed and Siddharth Chatterjee

September 21 is the International Day of Peace. Ambassador Amina Mohamed (@AMB_A_Mohammed ), the Cabinet Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Siddharth Chatterjee (@sidchat1), the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya look into particular relevance of the Day for Kenya – its present and future.

NAIROBI (IDN) – Kenya has the largest number of jobless youth in East Africa, putting a strain on the economy’s growth and also threatening peace and security when hopeless youth gravitate towards violent extremist groups.