By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Religious conflicts have escalated dramatically in recent years. Throughout the 1950-1996 periods, these conflicts constituted 33% to 47% of all conflicts. Few continents are exempt from this picture of faith-based conflict and today Nigerians are grappling with a troubling theological issue following the stoning death […]
Big Oil and Gold Miners Get The ‘Unwelcome Mat’ From African Grassroots Groups
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Oil companies and gold mines in Africa are facing increasingly fierce challenges from grassroots community organizations trying to address serious climate concerns. Shell Oil, to give an example, was hit with legal challenges as both the company and individual Board members faced opposition from Friends […]
Big Oil and Gold Miners Get The ‘Unwelcome Mat’ From African Grassroots Groups
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Oil companies and gold mines in Africa are facing increasingly fierce challenges from grassroots community organizations trying to address serious climate concerns. Shell Oil, to give an example, was hit with legal challenges as both the company and individual Board members faced opposition from Friends […]
Shipwreck Museum in Cape Verde Recalls a Dark Past
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The Republic of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) is an archipelago island nation to the west of Senegal and Mauritania, consisting of 10 volcanic islands that lie between 320 and 460 nautical miles west of Cap-Vert, the westernmost point of continental Africa. The official language is […]
Philippines: Marcos Win Exposes Weakness of Democratic Processes
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — The landslide victory in the May 9 presidential polls in the Philippines by Ferdinand Marcos jr the son of the former dictator of the same name who was forced to flee the country with his family (that includes his young son) in 1986 by a “peoples’ power” revolution throws […]
European Union Sued for Not Responding to Eritrea’s Rights Violations
By Robert Johnson BRUSSELS (IDN) — The Foundation Human Rights for Eritreans, a Netherlands based organization, has decided to sue the European Union and international bodies for failing to respond to human rights abuses by the Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and his associates. At the press conference on May 10, the Foundation’s lawyer, Emiel Jurjens […]
Rock Bottom Spending on Women’s Health in Sierra Leone
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — On its web page titled U.S. Relations with Sierra Leone, the State Department gushes with warmth and affection for the African country—once called the ‘Province of Freedom’—which remains among the world’s poorest countries, ranked 180th out of 187 countries in the United Nations’ Human Development […]
Australia’s Looming ‘Independent Day’
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — On May 21 when Australians go to the polls to elect a new government, the vast continent which was stolen from the indigenous people in 1788 and annexed to the British crown may have its ‘independent day’—not one that would declare itself a republic, but a day when ‘independent’ […]
Australia: Major Parties Fight Shy of Making Healthcare an Election Issue
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — During the months-long Covid lockdowns across Australia in 2021, the reason given was that the country’s public hospitals would be overwhelmed by the virus-infected patients, and they would not be able to cope with the situation. Thus, while the surgery scheduled was postponed, there were long queues of patients […]
Sierra Leone Teacher Activists Arrested for Demanding ‘Living Wages’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | FREETOWN (IDN) — Schoolteachers in Sierra Leone say they’ve had enough after the arrest of Mohamed Salieu Khan, interim chair of the Teachers Solidarity Movement (TSM). On April 26, he was grabbed by police outside the popular AYV TV station after speaking about the dismal plight […]