OPINION

Photo: Biden at his presidential kickoff rally in Philadelphia, May 2019. CC BY 2.0

President Joe Biden Marks the Start of a New Era in the US

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – President Joe Biden is more peacenik than war-monger. Compared with all recent previous presidents, apart from Jimmy Carter, he has been a dove. But be warned. When Barack Obama became president he forswore “more dumb wars” yet he got involved in more than any of them did. We had mistakenly believed him because of his vote in the Senate against the Second Iraq War.

Nevertheless, Obama, with Biden’s support, did resist a big push by Congress, the military and most of the media to send troops into Syria and he did try hard to get troops pulled out of Iraq. Biden supported Obama in his decision to negotiate with Iran a deal to put into cold storage its plan to enrich uranium to the point where it could be used to make a nuclear bomb.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 19 January 2021

Photo: The infographic reveals for the first time that the U.S. is now operating in 40 percent of the world’s nations. Credit: Smithsonian Magazine

Insurrection and the Racist Underpinnings of US Exceptionalism

Viewpoint by Ravi Arvind Palat

The writer is a professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton

NEW YORK (IDN) – Several commentators have underlined the sharp contrast between law enforcement responses to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by mobs unleashed by President Trump on January 6, 2021, and to the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer. Despite two months of warnings that the president was mobilizing his supporters to reverse his election loss, the police and National Guard appeared to be caught off-guard, unlike the massive mobilization of law enforcement agencies against those calling for racial justice.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 January 2021

Photo credit: Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC), Cape Town

Time to Dispense with the Rhetoric of Decolonisation

Viewpoint by Themrise Khan*

KARACHI (IDN) – While preparing to speak at an online discussion on decolonising the aid sector, I searched Google Translate for a corresponding word for 'decolonisation’ in my native language of Urdu. I couldn’t find one. In many other languages, from Arabic to Spanish, only a loanword exists. It’s just one example of how the discussion on decolonisation rarely centres the colonised.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 18 January 2021

Photo: Crowd of Trump supporters marching on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, ultimately leading the building being breached and several deaths. C BY-SA 4.0

Behind January 6 Insurrection: America Is an Oligarchy, Not A Functioning Democracy

Viewpoint by Albena Azmanova and Marshall Auerback *

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK | BRUSSELS (IDN) – While the majority of Americans deplored the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, it was troubling to see a YouGov poll indicating that 1 in 5 voters approved of the assault. Their attitudes were buttressed by a significant number of House and Senate Republicans who have egged on the matter by continuing to call into question the legitimacy of last November’s election result. This is a sign that the rot in the American political system goes deep.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 17 January 2021

Photo: Johnson holding his first cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, 25 July 2019. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

'Fine Words Butter No Parsnips' — Behind Boris Johnson’s So-Called Liberalism

Viewpoint by Sam Fowles*

LONDON (IDN) – The UK has left the EU and plunged into a third lockdown (the latter some two weeks after doing so was recommended by the government’s medical advisers), while, in the US, right-wing terrorists stormed the Capitol.

Strangely, all three provoked responses along the lines of “Boris Johnson is a liberal”. For Robert Tombs, writing in The Telegraph, the chief benefit of Brexit is a “reinvigorated democracy”. For Robert Peston, Johnson’s repeated ignoring of scientific advice is due to “a political philosophy… that he will not restrict our liberties unless there is an overwhelming reason to do so.” For James Forsyth in The Times, "Johnson is not Trump's Transatlantic twin".

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 15 January 2021

Photo: Looking upward from the Fifth Avenue Trump Tower (New York City) entrance. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Politicisation of “White Victimhood” Nothing New to Trump’s Presidency

Viewpoint by Lee Bebout*

TEMPE, Arizona (IDN) – Despite failed lawsuits, recounts and formal confirmation that President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump and his supporters continue to maintain that the election was rigged and that he and the American people are victims of massive voter fraud.

This politicisation of victimhood is nothing new to the Trump presidency.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 14 January 2021

Photo: President Buhari with U.S. counterpart Trump at Oval Office on April 30, 2018. Credit: Information Nigeria.

How Will Africa Remember Donald Trump? Here Is How.

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

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

ABUJA (IDN) – US President Donald Trump may have lost re-election but he would be escorted out of the White House on January 19 night with a special prize: Africa’s worst friend in modern times.

Not that it matters one way or the other to Trump. We can only hope that after four years of spite, insults and hostilities, he might yet, in a fleeting moment of sanity, ask himself whether going out of his way to annoy or denigrate the continent was worth all the trouble.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 14 January 2021

Photo: In Aksum, Tigray region of Ethiopia. Credit: Rod Waddington.

As A Tigrayan, My Bond with Ethiopia Feels Beyond Repair

Viewpoint by Temesgen Kahsay

The author is an Assistant Professor at the Norwegian School of Leadership and Theology. The following appeared first in 'African Arguments' on January 12, 2021.

OSLO (IDN) – We’re told the war is not with ordinary Tigrayans. Yet as thousands suffer and our compatriots remain silent, that’s how it feels.

As a child growing up in the then Ethiopian city of Asmara in the 1980s, my parents used to ask me what I wanted to be when I was older. My answer was always that I either wanted to be a fighter pilot or army general. The reason was simple. My father was a soldier in the Ethiopian army under the Derg regime and I too wanted to kill the nation’s “enemies”.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 January 2021

Whither the G20 in a World of Declining Multilateralism: Part 2

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN | OtherNews) – A decision on the debt issue is now expected from the next G20 Summit in Rome, in November. But before that, the Global Health Summit called by the G20 together with the EU in May will be the occasion to verify what will happen with vaccines.

However, in the same month, Portugal has called the very important Social Summit of the European Union. Portugal has taken the much more substantial chairmanship of the EU, and this is a very positive contribution to a positive 2021. Portugal is today probably the most civilised country of Europe, a place of tolerance, harmony and civic engagement, much like Sweden in the ‘80s. And it is the only credible country on the issue of immigration.

: Roberto Savio; OPINION; 13 January 2021

Whither the G20 in a World of Declining Multilateralism: Part 1

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN | OtherNews) – For 2021, Italy has been given chairmanship of the Group of 20, which brings together the world’s 20 most important countries. On paper, they represent 60 percent of the world’s population and 80 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

While the shaky Italian government will somehow perform this task (in the general indifference of the political system), the fact remains that this apparently prestigious position is in fact very deceiving: the G20 is now a very weak institution that brings no kudos to the rotating chairman.