By Shastri Ramachandran NEW DELHI (IDN) — Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar are all contested sites with both Beijing and New Delhi competing for influence in these countries. There can be no denying the geopolitics involved in bilateral relations in the region. Time was when most of the South […]
Zimbabwean Novelist’s New Book – ‘A Brilliant Postcolonial Fable’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Zimbabwean novelist NoViolet Bulawayo is one of six finalists for the Booker Prize, the renowned British literary award, with a post-colonial fable resembling the home city that provides half of her pen name; the other half, NoViolet, links the Ndebele word for “with” to the […]
South African Diamond Mine Dam Collapses, Killing Three and Injuring 40
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A mine wall at the former De Beers diamond mine in South Africa’s Free State Province collapsed on September 10-11, killing at least three people and injuring another 40. Nine houses were swept away in a flash flood, according to the Bloomberg news service. The […]
Queen Elizabeth’s Death Stirs Mixed Emotions in Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The passing of Queen Elizabeth II has not gone unremarked in Africa, where local television and radio stations interrupted normal broadcasting in order to relay events happening in the United Kingdom. Across the world, nations are paying tribute to the 96-year-old monarch. US President Joe […]
UN Agency Slates Clean-up of Nigeria’s Most Polluted Region
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — There were high hopes for a one-billion-dollar clean-up of Nigeria’s most polluted region of Ogoniland in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, the third largest mangrove ecosystem in the world when it got off the ground in 2019. It would address the greasy rainbow sheen over the […]
South Africa’s Nature Preserve Saved from Risky Oil Drilling
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN) — Energy giant Shell Global suffered a major setback in its fight for prospecting rights, overstepping the needs of rural communities seeking to protect whales and other marine life and keeping their coastline safe from oil spills and other dangers. A panel of South […]
Russian Mercenaries May Have Also Killed Hundreds of Africans
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The Wagner Group, a Kremlin-affiliated private military contractor, is playing a central role in the rising levels of violence against civilians across Africa, especially in the Central African Republic and Mali, according to records newly seen by The New York Times. The Wagner Group, which […]
Japan Doubles Down on Defending The Post-War Order
By Sheila A Smith The writer, Sheila A. Smith, is John E. Merow, Senior Fellow for Asia Pacific Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — Japan has gone all-in with the Western response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The strategic consequences for Tokyo are considerable. Japan’s long-running efforts to conclude a […]
Tigray: After the Calm, A Possible Storm
Viewpoint by René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens GENEVA (IDN) — On August 26, 2022, there was the bombing by Ethiopian federal troops of a primary school in Mekelle—the capital city of the Tigray province, which had a population of about 500,000 before the fighting began. It is not clear if the attack brings […]
Growing Anger Over Soaring Prices in South Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN) — “We cannot breathe, comrades. We cannot breathe when today it costs more than $277 to buy food for a family of just four people. No!” That was Moalusi Tumane, a schoolteacher in Palm Ridge, east of Johannesburg, speaking to some 1,000 workers who […]