OPINION

Photo: Transporting new migrant workers to Doha, Qatar. Source: tellmemoreblogger.com

COVID-19: Should Economy Have Priority Over Migrant Workers' Health?

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – Many critics have described labour migration as the 21st-century slave trade and Covid-19 crisis has exposed this stark reality. Eastern European migrant labour in Europe. Unpaid construction workers on the brink of starvation in the Middle East. Hundreds of South Asian dormitory locked down migrant labourers infected with Covid-19 in Singapore. Global economy’s lack of compassion for the migrant workers that drives its engines is very much in display today.

Speaking on Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, Thulsi Narayanasamy, head of labour rights at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) argued that the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the structural inequalities that face migrant workers all over the world.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 13 May 2020

Photo: A detention camp for immigrants and asylum seekers in Greece. Source. Human Rights Watch.

Greece Extends COVID-19 Lockdown at Refugee Camps

Viewpoint by Eva Cossé, Human Rights Watch

The writer is Western Europe researcher, works on issues related to discrimination, migration, asylum and minority rights, with a focus on Greece. This article first appeared on Human Rights Watch, and is being reproduced with the author's permission.

LONDON | ATHENS (IDN) – The Greek government has begun easing lockdown measures, given the country’s success in keeping Covid-19 under control. Starting last week, people could leave their homes without authorization, most shops have re-opened, and older students have returned to the classroom.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 12 May 2020

Photo: President Richard Nixon met with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on October 8, 1973, in Washington in the Oval Office of the White House and said that the U.S. intended to make every effort to bring an end to the fighting in the Middle East. Nixon did not detail the Administration’s position to be put forward in the UN Security Council on that day but said that the US would not make a grandstand play. (UPI Photo/Files)

Tale of a Machiavellian US in the Middle East

The US Has to Work with Russia, Not Against It

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – The war in Syria has dropped out of the news, like almost everything else, in a time when the Coronavirus seems to dominate all discourse and reporting. But the regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to strangle its own country. The Russians continue to bomb on his behalf, terrifying civilians and hospitals. The Americans work semi-clandestinely to undermine both the regime and its Russian backers.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 12 May 2020

Image credit: Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN in New York.

Non-Aligned Movement Aligned Against COVID-19

By Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sr Lanka President

The following is the text of the Sri Lankan President's address on May 4 to the online summit meeting of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) under the theme "United Against COVID-19":

COLOMBO (IDN) – I am pleased to be participating at this Summit, in support of global solidarity, unity and renewed multi-lateral cooperation in overcoming COVID-19.

Sri Lanka firmly believes that this Summit will serve as an important platform for the NAM Member States to support collective global action in combating this deadly virus and sharing best practices and lessons learnt.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 May 2020

Photo: Opening of the Review and Extension Conference of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 17 April 1995. Seated on the podium from left to right: UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali; President of the Conference, Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala (Sri Lanka); Secretary-General of the Conference, Prvoslav Davinić. Credit: UN Photo by Evan Schneider # 68537.

25 Years After the Indefinite Extension of The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: A Field of Broken Promises and Shattered Visions

By Tariq Rauf*

VIENNA (IDN) – "I long ago took to heart the words of Omar Bradley, spoken virtually a half century ago, when he observed, having seen the aftermath of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus: 'We live in an age of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We live in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We've unlocked the mysteries of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living'."

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 11 May 2020

Image: Collage of images of biomasks and COVID-19 with graphics from Internet.

Beware of Weaponizing COVID-19

Viewpoint by Jayasri Priyalal

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD) were something that USA and UK coalition forces were trying to find in the armouries of Saddam Hussain in Iraq in March 2003. Anglo-Saxon media was painting the fears of death, destruction and sufferings to humankind unless those weapons were destroyed – justifying the illegal invasion of the allied forces into a sovereign Iraq, violating all international laws and order.

They found neither any evidence of WMD nor chemical weapons for justifying the invasion. Will the COVID-19 too, become an invisible WMD with the ongoing global pandemic which has locked down nearly the entire world economy?

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 May 2020

Photo: Demonstrators filled the sidewalk and part of 10th Street in Sacramento during the "Operation Gridlock" stay-at-home protest at the Capitol Monday, April 20, 2020. Photo by Andrew Nixon, CapRadi

Do Not Abuse Science for Corona Politics

Viewpoint by Cees Jan Hamelink*

This article was originally published on Other News, a vehicle for "voices against the tide" and is being reproduced with thanks.

AMSTERDAM (IDN) – As a scientist it is of course gratifying for me to hear that government policy on Covid-19 takes science seriously. And it is gratifying when press conferences of the prime minister and other authorities refer to scientific research. However, if it is not immediately mentioned by whom these studies were carried out and by whom they were critically assessed, I, as a scientist, become restless.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 May 2020

After the Pandemic, Will We Return to Business as Usual?

Viewpoint by Francesc Badia I Dalmases*

This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News

BARCELONA (IDN) – Meteorologists have warned that this year is on track to become the hottest since records began. The climate crisis continues, whose medium-term consequences will be devastating, without being controlled. And meanwhile, all of us are looking with uncertainty at the future that awaits us, and the daily Covid-19 lockdown news leave us dreaming of returning to a lost normality.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 08 May 2020

Image credit: The World In 2050 [The Real Future Of Earth], YouTube

Pandemics: Lessons Looking Back from 2050 – Part 2

Viewpoint by Fritjof Capra and Hazel Henderson*

This article was originally published on Other News, a vehicle for "voices against the tide" and is being reproduced with thanks. Please click here for Part 1.

Berkeley | JACKSONVILLE (IDN) – When the coronavirus struck in 2020, the human responses were at first chaotic and insufficient, but soon became increasingly coherent and even dramatically different. Global trade shrunk to only transporting rare goods, shifting to trading information. Instead of shipping cakes, cookies and biscuits around the planet, we shipped their recipes and all the other recipes for creating plant-based foods and beverages; and locally we installed green technologies: solar, wind, geothermal energy sources, LED lighting, electric vehicles, boats, and even aircraft.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 08 May 2020

Photo credit: Paul Saad/African Arguments

COVID-19: An Open Letter from African Intellectuals to Africa’s Leaders

100 leading academics and writers call on leaders to govern with compassion and see the crisis as a chance for a radical change of direction. The following is the full text of the letter, being reproduced courtesy of African Arguments under a Creative Commons Licence 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

LONDON (IDN) – The threats that are hanging over the African continent with regards to the spread of COVID-19 demand our individual and collective attention. The situation is critical. Yet this is not about mitigating another “African” humanitarian crisis but to diffuse the potentially damaging effects of a virus that has shaken the global order and put under question the bases of our living-together.