By HMGS Palihakkara* COLOMBO | 4 June 2024 (IDN) — May 27 marked the first year since we lost that voice of reason and warmth—our dear friend and respected senior colleague, Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala. The person as well as the persona of JD, as we used to call him fondly, meant many things to most […]
Still a Few More Chapters to be Written Before Guantánamo Disappears
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 4 June 2024 (IDN) — “Guantánamo has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the law”. Did you say that? Did I? No. It was the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, speaking in June 2014. How come that the most powerful […]
Accusing Israel of Genocide is Factually Wrong
By Alon Ben-Meir* The Israel-Hamas war, which was precipitated by Hamas’ savage attack on Israel, has tragically inflicted massive death and destruction on the Palestinians in Gaza. Although Israel’s retaliation is deemed disproportionate to the number of Israelis slaughtered by Hamas, Israel’s onslaught on Gaza should not be sinisterly classified as an act of genocide […]
Netanyahu Must Abandon Blind Ideology and Face Reality
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains elusive about the endgame in Gaza but time is closing in on him. He has a solemn obligation to tell his fellow citizens what will be the fate of Gaza once the war is over and what his plans are for a solution to […]
Biden Should Stop Gambling with Nuclear Armageddon
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author’s permission. Each of the last five presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, have brought us closer to the brink. We desperately need leaders with a knack for peace who can steer the nation, and the world, toward a […]
Trump Does Not Know Leadership
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 28 May 2024 (IDN) — Donald Trump is the antithesis of leadership. Walking into the cauldron of the Middle East and denouncing Iran when it had just almost at the same moment re-elected as president a man who presided over the deal that de-fanged his country’s nuclear program and […]
Wealth of Nations and the Poverty of Theory: Debt Restructuring as Rocket Science
By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* COLOMBO | 26 May 2024 (IDN) — Calls for divestment from BlackRock and other International Sovereign Bonds (ISB), have echoed across Columbia, Yale and many non-Ivy League universities in the United States recently. BlackRock is heavily invested in weapons companies fueling a genocidal war in Palestine. However, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), […]
One Year of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President of Nigeria
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA | 26 May 2024 (IDN) — It wasn’t five months after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took office when folks started asking, how far? In middle class and elite social circles in Nigeria, that question, or its variant—how market?—is […]
Economic Recolonisation Bill Tabled in Sri Lanka Parliament
By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka* COLOMBO | 25 May 2023 (IDN) — A bill named the ‘Economic Transformation Bill’ (ETB) was tabled in parliament this month by President Ranil Wickremesinghe while the country is debating whether Parliamentary or Presidential elections should be held first. Both are due within the next 12 months. In Parliament in August […]
Vesak at the United Nations: Still not a UN Holiday?
By Dr Palitha Kohona (Former) Ambassador of Sri Lanka to China and (former) Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, COLOMBO | 25 May 2024 (IDN) — Sri Lanka celebrated the Vesak day 2024 last week with much pomp and ceremony in historic Matale where the Buddha’s teachings were first formally […]