OPINION

Photo: Johannesburg, the largest and wealthiest city in South Africa. Source: Africa Facts.

Africa Can Still Be on the Top

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Africa is suffering a double whammy after many years of success. The Coronavirus, while not taking down great numbers of people like in Europe, Asia and the Americas, has had a severe impact by curbing its exports in the face of the formers’ severe economic depression.

For example, flowers grown in Kenya and Ethiopia have been particularly hit. Kenya’s flower industry employs up to 70,00 people. Ethiopia’s horticulture provides 180,00 jobs. Kenya’s overnight exports of cut flowers to Europe have been worth almost 770,000 US dollars a year, up from 134 million in 2000. Now sales are on their way to rock-bottom.

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 May 2020

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Namaste Trump rally in Ahmedabad, India on 24 February 2020. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks).

India Pivots to The United States to Balance China

Viewpoint by C Raja Mohan

The writer is Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at The National University of Singapore. This article first appeared on EastAsiaForum on 19 May 2020. A longer version is available in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Middle Power Game’, Vol. 12 No. 1.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – At a time when much of Asia is reconciling itself to the regional dominance of China and increasing political distance from the United States, India is going the other way — moving into an ever-closer partnership with the United States and making a more intensive effort to balance China in the Indo-Pacific.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 May 2020

COVID-19: How the U.S. Ignored the Chinese and WHO Warnings

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad*

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

KOLKATA‎, India (IDN) – On March 20, just after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on March 11, the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) sent a cable to U.S. State Department instructing officials how they should speak about China and the novel coronavirus, according to the Daily Beast, which obtained the cable.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 May 2020

Photo: In July of 1971, Premier Zhou Enlai met with Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor to U.S. President, who was on a secret mission to China. Both sides made a public announcement that the U.S. President Richard Nixon would be invited to visit China soon. Credit: china.org.cn

China Abandons the Strategy of Persuasion and Compromise

Viewpoint by Vijay Gokhale

This article by a former Foreign Secretary of India and a former Ambassador to China first appeared on The Hindu on 20 March 2020. It is republished because of an insider's view of the changing nature of China's diplomacy characterised by unilateralism and a one-size-fits-all approach. "China, post-COVID-19, will be operating in a very different external environment."

TORONTO (IDN) – If U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt believed that if you “speak softly and carry a big stick: you will go far”, half a century later and many thousands of miles away, another man practised it. His name was Zhou Enlai.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 24 May 2020

Photo: Every five years since it entered into force in 1970, the states parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have held a conference to review its operation and to come to agreement on detailed language assessing the treaty’s various provisions. Credit: Dean Calma CC: BY-SA

NPT's 50th Anniversary Encourages 17 Signatories To Remind Five Nuclear-Weapons States of Their Commitments

By UN Bureau

NEW YORK (IDN) – The upcoming 2020 Review Conference of a landmark international treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, presents "a timely opportunity for the States Parties to undertake a comprehensive review and assessment" of its current status, says the Joint Communiqué issued on May 19 by 17 States Party to the NPT.

A total of 191 States have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States – USA; Russia, China, Britain and France – which entered into force in 1970. More countries have ratified the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, which analysts perceive as a testament to the Treaty's significance.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 24 May 2020

Image: Virus on a decreasing curve. Source: www.hec.edu/en

COVID Crisis Has Shone A Spotlight on Long-Festering Inequality

The Future Is Wide Open

Viewpoint by Nathan Gardels, The World Post

The author is WorldPost co-founder and editor in chief. This article appeared first on THEWORLDPOST* on 23 May 2020 and is being republished in view of its forward-looking approach.

BERLIN (IDN) – The first real-time global pandemic has so broken the inertia of old ways that the future has rarely seemed so open. The slate is nearly wiped clean. The decisions we take now are thus immensely consequential because they will shape the times to come for the rest of the century and beyond.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 May 2020

Photo: UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa Ms. Bience Gawanas. Source: OSAA Website.

COVID-19: Strong Global Partnerships Key To Bolstering Africa's Response

Viewpoint by Bience Gawanas

The author is UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, OSAA. The following is the text of the statement by Ms. Gawanas from the OSAA website*.

NEW YORK (IDN) – If there ever was a time for full-scale global solidarity and cooperation to fight for health rights that time is now because no one country would ever be able to prevent or fully control the COVID-19 pandemic on its own. We are faced with an unprecedented situation brought about by the emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19, the biggest public health emergency of our time.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 22 May 2020

Image: Collage of flags of Australia and China from Wikipedia Commons.

COVID-19 Revives Racism Against Asian-Australians and Threatens Relations with China

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – Australia is entering what observers here say could be a deep recession, the first in almost 30 years. It was the rise of China that helped this sparsely populated vast continent to avoid a recession for the past three decades, the most extended period of economic growth in Australian history.

Rather than being thankful to China, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne in a local TV interview on April 19 called for an "independent" inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan expressing concerns about transparency from China on the issue.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 21 May 2020

Photo: The Madagascar president drinking COVID Organics (CVO), an organic herbal beverage, he claims could pre vent or cure the virus.

Racial Prejudice in Quest of Cure for COVID-19 Pandemic?

Madagascar President Proposes Use of Herbal Tea

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) – In the fight against COVID-19, the war between biology and economics has just expanded to the nationalist front, spilling over with the ferociousness of a zero-sum game.

Madagascar President, Andry Rajoelina, believes that the reason why the world is not giving his country’s miracle herbal formula the accolade it deserves is because of its African origin.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 20 May 2020

COVID-19 Pandemic Provides Opportunity to Revive the Oceans

Sustainable Actions Will Stimulate Fisheries and Tourism

Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona

The author is Former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, Former Chair of the UNGA Sixth Committee and the Former Co-Chair of the UN Ad Hoc Committee on BBNJ.

COLOMBO (IDN) – The well-being of oceans in the Asia-Pacific region is edging closer to a tipping point due to the unprecedented pace of marine pollution, overfishing and climate change in recent years. However, a new report released May 13 by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) suggests that "the temporary shutdown of activities as well as reduced human mobility and resource demands due to the COVID-19 pandemic may provide marine environments the much-needed breathing space for them to recover".