OPINION

Every Step the EU Takes Toward Financial Unity Sows New Seeds of Its Potential Collapse

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” is a play featuring two characters waiting for a character, Godot, who never arrives. As such, it is a useful metaphor for the goings-on of the European Union (EU). Observers of the EU’s evolution in the capital of Brussels have witnessed a Godot-like experience of the promised arrival of the long-awaited resolution of the group’s dysfunction and economic malaise that never happens.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 02 August 2020

Photo: A demonstration in El Alto, Bolivia against the 2019 Bolivian coup d'etat. CC BY-SA 4.0

‘We Will Coup Whoever We Want’: Elon Musk and the Overthrow of Democracy in Bolivia

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad and Alejandro Bejarano *

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

NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) – On July 24, 2020, Tesla’s Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that a second U.S. “government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people.” Someone responded to Musk soon after, “You know what wasn’t in the best interest of people? The U.S. government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there.” Musk then wrote: “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.”

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 01 August 2020

Image source: Talent & Organization Blog for Financial Services

A New Social Class of Voluntary Workers of Social Networks

Viewpoint by Glauco Benigni*

ROME (IDN) – The hierarchical and exploitative structure of the feudal era seems to have reappeared today on the Internet of the digital era. Regardless of any constitution and workers' statute, neither politics nor trade unions are intervening. It is accepted that globalisation rhymes with ‘glebalisation’.

The scene can be described as follows.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 31 July 2020

Image source: Midas FinServe Private Limited

Even If Joe Biden Wins in a Blowout, the 'Global Economy' Is Not Coming Back

New economic imperatives are forcing nations to make a choice.

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – COVID-19 has not only presented the global economy with its greatest public health challenge in over a century, but also likely killed off the notion of America’s “unipolar moment” for good. That doesn’t mean full-on autarky or isolationism but, rather, enlightened selfishness, which allows for some limited cooperation. Donald Trump’s ongoing threats to impose additional tariffs on a range of EU exports are exacerbating this trend as the old post-World War II ties between the two regions continue to fray.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 31 July 2020

Photo: Health workers demonstrate proper handwashing to a child at a community health centre in Central Java, Indonesia. © UNICEF/Fauzan Ijazah © UNICEF/Fauzan Ijazah

"Target Women in All Aspects of Economic Recovery and Stimulus Plans in Southeast Asia"

Viewpoint by António Guterres

Following is the text of remarks by UN Secretary-General on the occasion of his latest policy brief titled The Impact of COVID-19 on South-East Asia. It examines how the eleven countries of South-East Asia are addressing the immediate impacts of COVID-19, focusing on the subregion’s socio-economic response.

NEW YORK (IDN) – As in other parts of the world, the health, economic and political impact of COVID-19 has been significant across Southeast Asia — hitting the most vulnerable the hardest.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 30 July 2020

Photo: Collage of pictures of writers, Ritesh Tandon and Manish Uprety F.R.A.S.

The Risk of Democracy Compromising Democracy

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Ritesh Tandon

Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat and Ritesh Tandon is the Republican Party candidate for the US Congress from California’s 17th District.

CALIFORNIA (IDN) – Politics makes strange bedfellows where one snores aloud and the other one turns a blind eye to it. The paradox goes beyond the marriage of convenience, and oft political parties and people involved in democratic processes tend to undermine the very process.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 July 2020

Photo: Dr Medhin Tsehaiu, who has worked with UNAIDS since 2011, and is UNAIDS Country Director based in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: UNAIDS.

HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 Require Global Solidarity

Kester Kenn Klomegah* Talks to UNAIDS Expert

MOSCOW (IDN) – For over three decades, Africa has fought HIV/AIDS and is now battling another pandemic, COVID-19, that has shattered the continent's economies. While adequate measures have been taken to halt the spread of the pandemic, Coronavirus has increased the financial burden. But HIV/AIDS experts say strengthening health institutions and commitment by political leaders (African governments) as well as development and international institutions could help to achieve adequate solutions especially in developing countries such as those in Africa.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; OPINION; 29 July 2020

Photo: Kant with friends, including Christian Jakob Kraus, Johann Georg Hamann, Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel and Karl Gottfried Hagen. Public Domain | Wikimedia Commons

What Is Morally Wrong With Discrimination? A Kantian Analysis

Viewpoint by Dr Sam Ben-Meir

Dr Sam Ben-Meir is a professor of philosophy and world religions at Mercy College in New York City.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Supreme Court decided on June 15 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. Discrimination ‘because of sex’ is unlawful. But what is it that makes discrimination morally wrong? It is useful to examine this from a Kantian standpoint because Immanuel Kant lays the foundation for recognizing the inherent dignity of every individual – and discrimination is indeed an affront to human dignity.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 29 July 2020

Photo: Bruce Blair. Credit: Matt Stanley, mattstanleyphoto.com

A Warrior for Nuclear Peace Dies But His Message Reverberates

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Bruce Blair, one of the great unsung heroes of the nuclear bomb age, died on July 19 at the age of 72. In his twenties he had been an intercontinental nuclear rocket launch officer, spending his days or nights deep down in a below-ground bunker waiting for the signal to fire and obliterate the cities and their people, the workers of all classes, pensioners and the totally innocent children of western Russia.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 28 July 2020

Photo: Iwokrama forest in Guyana. Credit: Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development.

Indigenous Communities of Guyana and Women in Togo Fight Forest Degradation

Viewpoint by P.I. Gomes*

The writer, Dr Patrick I Gomes, was Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States for five years until February 29, 2020. The 79-nation inter-regional body officially became the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) on April 5, 2020. Dr Gomes was previously Ambassador of the Republic of Guyana, to the EU in Brussels.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) – The discussion on “Income Opportunities for Women" in the Togolese Republic in West Africa, reported in IDN on July 6, provides an opportunity to share some aspects of the experiences by Indigenous women and community loggers in the Iwokrama Forest area in Guyana, where sustainable forest management and income-generating activities are being pursued.