By Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE (IDN) – The landslide victory of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP – Sri Lanka Peoples’ Front) led by the Rajapaksa brothers throws a challenge to so-called “liberals” everywhere whose ideology may not be in sync when a huge portion of the electorate vote for a “strong” government rather than a […]
Embedded in Beirut: A Communion with Ancestors
Recollections by a Nigerian journalist who toured Lebanon two years ago By Louis Odion *The writer, Fellow of Nigerian Guild of Editors, is the Senior Technical Assistant on Media to President Muhammadu Buhari. ABUJA (IDN) – Many wished they were allowed to capture the moment with the camera, but the literary amazon from Borno beheld […]
South Africa Struggles To Contain Exploding Rate of Coronavirus Infections
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – South Africa, with a population of about 58 million, has the fifth-highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. It has become the country with the highest number of infections on the continent. Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize […]
Bronx Zoo Issues Apology for Displaying African Man In Cage
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – ‘Black Lives Matter’ can take credit for the scores of apologies from around the world for racist statues, discriminatory corporate policies and now from the Bronx Zoo for its cruel and racist display of an African man in a cage in 1906. “In the name […]
Zimbabwe To Pay White Farmers for Lands Taken Under Mugabe
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – “The compensation of land is a settled issue, and we are not revisiting it.” Those were the words of government spokesman Nick Mangwana defending a $3.5 billion agreement to compensate white farmers whose properties were confiscated by the Mugabe regime to be redistributed to the […]
Tanzania’s Ex-President and Peacemaker Mkapa Dies of Malaria
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – Flags are being flown at half-mast for the former Tanzanian president, Benjamin William Mkapa, who passed away on July 24 after a bout of malaria. He was 81. He died in the early hours of July 24 while receiving treatment at […]
Australia’s COVID-19 Second Wave Blamed on Insecure Jobs
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) – As a serious second wave of COVID-19 with higher daily rates of infections than in March has infected Australia, where some five million people in Melbourne are under lockdown, the Premier of the worst affected Victoria State, Daniel Andrews, has blamed the situation on insecure jobs. Andrews told a […]
Building a Definition of Development
Viewpoint by Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir The writer is a sociologist and President of the High Atlas Foundation, a U.S.-Moroccan non-for-profit organization dedicated to sustainable development in Morocco. MARRAKECH (IDN) – The idea of development itself, its definition, and even the method we use for defining it, would be a good place to begin toward discovering […]
After Downing Statues, Africans Turn to Change at Home
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Africa has been pulling down statues for years – from Cecil Rhodes at the University of Cape Town to Britain’s Queen Victoria in Kenya, to King Leopold of Belgium in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, change is moving ahead in Sudan, Gabon and other […]
Africa’s Largest Hydro Dam Held Hostage as Horn of Africa Countries Wage ‘Water War’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Three neighbouring countries locked in a bitter dispute over rights to the precious waters of the Nile River may provide a preview of water wars around the world as global temperatures rise and droughts leave populations with insufficient water to drink or for farms. The […]