Category: OPINION

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The great flaw in ex-president Barack Obama’s record was his policy towards Russia. Going against everything he had said and written about before he became president, one action after another antagonised the Russians.

His early proclamation that he wanted Georgia and Ukraine in NATO, his de facto coalition of convenience for a crucial couple of days with the anti-democratic, anti-Russian, neo-fascist, demonstrators in Ukraine, the further expansion of NATO, despite an earlier promise not to, made by President H.W. Bush, to the Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his inability to cooperate with the Russians and Iranians over Syria.

Excerpts From Speech at World Economic Forum

Following are detailed excerpts from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s historic 45-minute speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18, 2017 in which he calls for a world free of all nuclear weapons, and a global governance system based on equality among countries. The full text appeared on https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2017

Xi’s mission apparently is to make China great by following the advice of Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese author of the legendary Art of War: “Superior strategies avoid conflict. They overcome hurdles without attacking these and quickly appropriate what is foreign to them. They are totally open towards everything under the heavens.”

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – When President Barack Obama leaves office will the world be better or worse than eight years ago? Taking the big picture, so often obscured by the wars and uprisings that dominate the front page, more often than not he has resisted the foreign-policy establishment, most importantly in Syria, which makes a fetish of “credibility”.

Obama has argued that “dropping bombs on someone to prove that you are willing to drop bombs on someone is just about the worst reason to use force”.

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – Donald Trump calls the so-called ‘liberal media’ the “bad guys” and since he was elected President two months ago – in fact even before that with the Brexit vote in June 2016 – the “Liberals” in the West have been chest-beating complaining about misleading social media messages to unfairness of the electoral systems as their preferred candidates or platforms are defeated by grassroots voter revolts.

It is interesting that the ‘liberal’ media has made such a big issue of Trump having lost the popular vote but winning the Presidency, without looking at how the so-called Westminster system of democracy, which many former British colonies have inherited, often reflects such results as it is grounded on an electorate based first-past-the-post system not dissimilar to the U.S. Electoral College system.

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – President Barack Obama steps down at the age of 55. He will probably live, given his healthy lifestyle, until he’s over 90. So what on earth is he going to do for the next 40 years? Run for King of England? He would probably win, as he is much more popular in Europe than he ever was at home.

Realistically we don’t know and right now probably he doesn’t. But of one thing we can be sure of as he writes his second autobiography in his very special prose he will be critically re-evaluating every decision and policy change he made. This is an honest man if on a few occasions he failed to be. And we, the jury, try to be, if sometimes we fail too.

By The Nation (Thailand)*

BANGKOK (IDN-INPS) – Ban Ki-moon ended (on December 31) his decade as Secretary-General of the United Nations amid praise from many quarters, but this was mere diplomacy. Astute witnesses to his two terms in office know that, given the chance to stop wars, forge peace and foster international fraternity, to make the world safer and more equitable to all, he accomplished precious little.

His primary goal on taking office at the beginning of 2007 was to bring lasting peace to the Middle East. In this too he failed. Ban’s achievements in the area of environmental protection, specifically the Paris Protocol on climate change, allow him a legacy that is mixed at best.

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The West African state of the Congo has always been taking one step forward, two steps back. This goes back to the days when Congo became independent from Belgian rule in 1960.

Now we see it again. There were supposed to be elections at the end of last year. But President Joseph Kabila has clung to power. After months of negotiations led by the Catholic bishops a deal has been agreed on December 31. If Kabila is given one more year in office then he will call elections in a year’s time.

By Dr. Patrick I. Gomes, ACP Secretary-General

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – Presidents and Prime Ministers of 79 Member States of the African, Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) Group, the ACP Council of Ministers, Senior Officials, Continental and Regional organisations, development partners, civil society and private sector organisations deserve the ACP’s Secretariat’s deep appreciation for having contributed so significantly to the main achievements of the ACP Family in 2016.

By Ramesh Jaura

We don’t want to look back … just recall that we faced numerous obstacles when we re-launched IDN-InDepthNews at the beginning of 2016 under the umbrella of the International Press Syndicate (INPS), formerly Globalom Media, established in March 2009.

As we move forward in 2017, we are very grateful to our colleagues around the world – Phil Harris, Shastri Ramachandran, A.D. McKenzie, Neena Bhadrari, Kalinga Seneviratne, Katsuhiro Asagiri, Jacques Couvas, Fabiola Ortiz, Justus Wanzala, Jeffrey Moyo, Kizito Makoye Shigela, Stella Paul, Lowana Veal, Vesna Peric Zimonjic and Lisa Vives of Global Information Network, to name just a few.

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – What you see depends on where you sit. There are the pessimists who see President-elect Donald Trump who said in his tweet about the need to engage in a new arms race. There are the optimists, sitting on the other side of the room, who believe the kind words uttered by President Vladimir Putin and Trump to each other mean that there well could be a new agreement on reducing their nuclear armories. 2017 will be a lot better than 2016.

When I wrote my history of Amnesty International (“Like Water on Stone”, Penguin, 2002) I was struck both by the staff and activists how positive they were, despite dealing with some of the worst horrors in the world.