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Viewpoint by Dr Kumar Mahabir
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO (IDN) – The National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago has been strangely silent on the rowdy and relentless campaign to remove the historical statue of Christopher Columbus in the capital city of Port of Spain. I was the Vice Chairman of the Trust from 2013 to 2015.
The Trust seems to place its current Afro-centric agenda above and beyond the public and national interest.
By Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch Podcasts
NEW YORK (IDN ) – The Black Lives Matter movement has spread quickly around the world. Over the last several weeks, there have been BLM demonstrations in nearly every major city in Europe. Tens of thousands of people showed up for protests in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, and London, just to name a few. There were also many protests across Latin America, Australia – even Asian cities like Seoul and Tokyo saw Black Lives Matter protests.
So how did the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota spark an anti-racism and civil rights movement that extends far beyond the United States?
By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK (IDN) – Twenty-two United Nations senior African officials who hold the rank of Under-Secretary-General have in their "personal capacity" signed "Joint Reflections" on the last few weeks of protests at the killing of George Floyd in the hands of police, which they say in no uncertain terms have left them all "outraged at the injustice of racism that continues to be pervasive in our host country and across the world".
Viewpoint by Alice Slater
The writer serves on the Board of 'World Beyond War', and represents the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation at the United Nations.
NEW YORK (IDN) –The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) just issued its 2020 Yearbook, reporting on developments in armaments, disarmament, and international security. In light of the drumbeat of frightening news about growing hostility between the dominant nuclear-armed states vying for power, SIPRI describes a bleak outlook for arms control. It notes ongoing nuclear weapons modernization and new weapons development, space weaponization moving forward, without check or controls, and a disturbing increase in geopolitical tensions together with a rapid deterioration in practices and possibilities for cooperation and monitoring between the great powers.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) – "The United States (US) has always taken pride in calling itself the 'Land of the Free' and appointed itself to be the global cop to punish others who violate human rights. … It has poked its nose in the affairs of almost all countries, all the time presenting itself as the torch-bearer of human rights", noted India's WIONEWS TV.
In addition to the murder of African-American George Floyd by the police in broad daylight, police cars have been shown to ram into unarmed protestors.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Years of inaction over the fate of an 18-foot statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader with the Royal African Company (RAC) was decided on June 7 with the toppling of Colston’s bronze statue in Bristol, England.
The statue was pulled down by a group of protestors at a demonstration in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and George Floyd. The figure was dragged to the Bristol harbour and flung into the River Avon.
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*
COPENHAGEN (IDN) – Elimination of excessive economic inequality makes societies happier and better, underlines the incontrovertible evidence that a new freely downloadable book presents.
Going back to history, the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas during the 17th to 19th centuries. Sir Isaac Newton's rational explanations for cosmic phenomena demonstrated that reason is better than superstition.
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) – I first watched the movie in the lockdown. At the beginning, it was funny when the pair was fiddling with their entrée in the restaurant and wondering why they had both avoided each other until now.
A few minutes after they left the restaurant, trouble started. The movie, entitled “Queen & Slim,” is the love story of two black Americans drawn to each other by tragedy even before their love story began.
Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad*
This article was originally produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) – There is no need to wonder why George Floyd (age 46) was murdered in broad daylight in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020. The script of his death is written deep in the ugly drama of US history.
I Can’t Breathe 2020
Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee sat on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. After that time, George Floyd was dead. From the moment Chauvin put his body on an unarmed man, George Floyd said – eleven times – I can’t breathe.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – The murder of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis yanked from his car, shackled and suffocated to death by a police officer aided by at least three other officers, was front-page news in most of the major newspapers in the U.S. It was also covered internationally with many Africans expressing disgust and dismay over the cold-blooded police action. [Watch the video of the Minneapolis chocking an unarmed George Floyd.]
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.