OPINION

Image: The Vienna International Centre. Credit: Vienna City

A Scientist Reflects on Our Common Future

Following is the text of comments at the opening of the 2022 Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons on June 20, 2022, by John Polanyi, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986.

VIENNA (IDN) — Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, convener of the 2022 Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, has invited me today to give a brief reminiscence of the birth of our nuclear age. Unsurprisingly, given my profession, that birth date roughly coincides with mine. What my remarks will illustrate is the speed of today’s change, as well as the responsibility of scientists for it.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 20 June 2022

Image: The hybrid conference on Nuclear-Weapons-Free-Zone (NWFZs) held recently in Mongolia. Credit: Blue Banner NGO.

Mongolian Independence and its Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone

Viewpoint by Joseph Gerson

The writer is President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security and Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau.

BERLIN (IDN) — We don’t often think in terms of national independence and nuclear disarmament initiatives, but their intersection lies at the heart of Mongolia’s unique single-state nuclear-weapons-free zone.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 20 June 2022

Eritrea: North Koreans with Black Faces

Viewpoint by Daniel Haile*

COLLEGE STATION, Texas | USA (IDN) — Eritrea is a very small country in East Africa along the Red Sea. Second to North Korea, the Eritrean regime is the most isolated, secretive, and repressive authoritarian regime globally, and the last remaining Marxist state on the African continent. The Kim Jong-un of Africa, Isaias Afewerki, has been in power since Eritrea's independence de jure in 1991 and de facto in 1993. Subsequently, Eritrea is infamously known in Africa as the North Korea of Africa for a good reason.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 18 June 2022

Famine is a Policy Choice: The Afterlife of Covid, Institutional decay, and Privatization—Part 2

This is the second in a series of two articles. Click here for Part 1

COLOMBO (IDN) — What was never mentioned in connection with power cuts and soaring fuel and energy prices was the privatization of sale of the Yugadanavi power plant to an American New Fortress company in a corrupt mid-night deal in November 2021 by former US citizen President Rajapakse, before he took wing to New York to address the United Nation’s General Assembly to boast about his green energy and fertilizer policies that had bought Sri Lanka to the current disaster!

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 18 June 2022

Photo: Millions of people globally are on the brink of famine. Credit: WFP/Marwa Awad

Famine Is a Policy Choice: IMF Talks, Geopolitics and Disaster Capitalism—Part 1

Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake *

This is the first in a series of two articles.

Them belly full but we hungry
A hungry mob is an angry mob
A rain a-fall but the dirt, it tough
A pot a-cook but the food no ‘nough

A hungry man is an angry man
— Bob Marley and the Wailers

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 17 June 2022

Photo: Dr Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikhan (Credit: Global Peace Foundation) against the backdrop of Chinggis Khaan (Sükhbaatar) Square in Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city of Mongolia. Source: Hostelman ID

Second Comprehensive Study on NFWZs Is Needed

Viewpoint by Dr Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikhan

The writer is Chairman of Blue Banner NGO, Former Mongolian Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

ULAANBAATAR (IDN) — In preparation for the 10th Review Conference (Revcon) of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in August, a group NGOs met in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to exchange views and discuss the challenges and prospects of nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) regimes that are recognized as important practical regional measures of non-nuclear-weapon states (NNWSs) that contribute to non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 16 June 2022

Photo: Álvaro Alberto, Brazil's first nuclear-powered attack submarine.

The Brazilian Nuclear Submarine

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is an Ambassador, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affair, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — Last July 8 the Director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, informed the Board of Governors that Brazil had decided to start consultations on the special safeguards procedures to be applied to the nuclear materials that will be used in the country’s first nuclear-powered submarine.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 15 June 2022

Image: Nearly three-fourths of rural India Has a Mobile Connection Now Source: The Better India.

The World Is Not Going to Hell in A Handbasket

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Is the World going to hell in a handbasket? (The etymology of this goes back to Revolutionary France in the eighteenth century when guillotined heads fell into a conveniently placed basket.) No, it is not, despite Covid and despite the worldwide unsettling, brought about by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 14 June 2022

Image: F. Armstrong Photography/Shutterstock

Labour Migration and Climate Justice?

Viewpoint by Carol Farbotko, Taukiei Kitara and Olivia Dun

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

HOBART, GRIFFITH, WOLLONGONG, Australia (IDN) — Migration is a potentially adaptive response to climate change. Adaptive migration responses do not involve only permanent movement away from a climate-vulnerable site; temporary migration, when migrants may bring or send back additional funds, new knowledge, upgraded skills and other resources, can help to build resilience among communities in climate-vulnerable areas.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 14 June 2022

Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the First Eurasian Economic Forum on 26 May 2022.

Russia' Move to Reshaping the World Economy

Viewpoint by Dr Ramzy Baroud

WASHINGTON, D. C. (IDN) — Starting on May 31, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov embarked on a tour of Gulf Cooperation Council countries, where he visited Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, among others. Lavrov’s main objective of these visits is to strengthen ties between Russia and GCC nations amid a global race for geopolitical dominance.