Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In the Western world there is a constant debate about democracy. In the U.S. the Democrats charge quite correctly that the House’s constituencies are gerrymandered against them. Then there’s the insoluble issue of the Senate’s anti-democratic bias where its numbers are tilted against the Democrats by the […]
Of Cockroaches and Humans
Viewpoint by Roberto Savio The writer is publisher of Other News, a vehicle for “voices against the tide”, and founder of IPS–Inter Press Service News Agency. This article is being reproduced courtesy of Other News with the writer’s permission. He can be contacted at utopia@robertosavio.info and his articles and comments can be read on Facebook […]
Africa – Realising The Promise of the Demographic Dividend
Viewpoint by Graça Machel The author, who writes this piece following the recent publication of the Africa Report on Child Wellbeing and the African Child-Friendliness Index, is the widow of Nelson Mandela and former First Lady of both South Africa and Mozambique. She is Chair of the International Board of Trustees of the African Child […]
EU Should Speak Against the Ill-Treatment of Eritreans
Viewpoint by Chief Fortune Charumbira The author is from Vice President of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), and President of the Chief Council in his home country Zimbabwe He gave an opening speech to the Conference titled ‘We the People: Peace in the Horn & the Safety and Future of the Eritrean People’ 12-14 December […]
Why Green New Deal Advocates Must Address Militarism
Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Alice Slater* Where is the call for the New Peace Deal that would free up hundreds of billions from the overblown military budget to invest in green infrastructure? ask the authors of this article that first appeared on Common Dreams on 12 December 2018. NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – In the […]
UK’s May Should Announce a New Referendum Immediately
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The whole debate about Brexit has had a weird quality about it from beginning to end. Prime Minister Theresa May voted in the referendum two and half years ago to remain in the European Union but then as a quid pro quo for being made prime minister […]
Civil and Political Rights are Also Indivisible Human Rights
Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE (IDN) – When European gunboats went across the world, Christian missionaries who wanted to “civilize” the people – to whom the Bible was an unknown entity – accompanied the colonizers. Today, when U.S. or NATO missiles rain on countries, Western human rights organisations and their activists follow them, with their […]
Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change Threaten Human Survival
John Avery interviews David Krieger COPENHAGEN | SANTA BARBARA, CA (IDN) – One of the five “M’s” can trigger a nuclear war any time: malice, madness, mistake, miscalculation and manipulation. “Of these five, only malice is subject to possibly being prevented by nuclear deterrence and of this there is no certainty. But nuclear deterrence (threat […]
Silk Road: A Debt ‘Trap’ or an Opportunity for the West Joining China to Assist Developing Countries?
By Dr. Palitha Kohona The author is former Foreign Secretary and former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations. COLOMBO (IDN) – “Any conflict between the U.S. and China, including a trade war, would do irreparable damage to both, not to mention the rest of the world. However, the two giants have a unique opportunity […]
It is High Time for the U.S. and Russia to Get Off the Treadmill to Catastrophe
Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball The author is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. He wrote this editorial for the December issue of Arms Control Today. WASHINGTON, DC (IDN-INPS) – Earlier this year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “[t]he Cold War is back…but with a difference. The mechanisms and the safeguards to manage […]