OPINION

Photo: Now we are chasing behind oxygen to save lives; next would be chasing behind precious freshwater for survival. South America's Amazon River. CC BY-SA 2.0

If Lessons Are Not Learned, Eternal Abnormality the New Normal?

Viewpoint by Jayasri Priyalal *

SINGAPORE (IDN) — The new normal has become a famous phrase with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This new normal could become an eternal abnormality if lessons learned about inequality in the globalized world economy exposed by the COVID-19 are not recognized and acted upon.

Today, people feel frustrated about adjusting to the health crisis's eternal uncertainties with looming confusions and contradictions between the normality of the past and not the usual present.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 11 June 2021

Photo credit: A faith-based legal advocacy organization, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International showing Dalits.

Mounting Atrocities Against Dalits Across India

India is witnessing a worrying decline in the social status of the Dalits, coupled with an economic decline. This makes the marginalised groups even more vulnerable.

Viewpoint by Dr Ram Puniyani

This article is the 13th in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is a former professor of biomedical engineering and former senior medical officer affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (now Mumbai) and meanwhile a social activist and commentator.

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; South Asia; 11 June 2021

Photo: UN Headquarters in New York. Credit: Wiki Commons/Neptuul (CC)

No Bold Actions Yet to Stop the Flows of Dirty Money

Viewpoint by Maíra Martini *

NEW YORK (IDN) — Governments gathered for the first-ever UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) against corruption June 2-4, 2021. This could have been an opportunity for the more and the less advanced economies to come to the table and discuss bold improvements to the current international anti-corruption framework and architecture. It fell short.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 June 2021

Photo: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. Credit: CGTN Africa.

What Twitter Ban Teaches the World About Nigeria

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — The Nigerian government thinks Twitter is the greatest source of its misery. After straining at the leash for months, it couldn’t resist swatting the microblogging platform with a ban last week. But what does the ban mean, really?

It means that about 40 million users in Nigeria who are mostly young people would be unable to access the service through local service providers.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 June 2021

Photo: The writer who just turned 80. Source: www.jonathanpowerjournalist.com

'Maintaining A Sense of Hope' In A Time of Corona

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — There’s hardly a person alive who doesn’t know that the Third World continents of Africa, Asia and Latin America are having a desperate struggle fighting the Coronavirus. At a time when the richer countries are winning the fight against the virus many Third World countries—like Brazil, India and South Africa—are overwhelmed by it.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 10 June 2021

Photo: Dr. Kakha Shengelia, President of IAUP and Caucasus University.

The Role of Academia and Universities in Fostering Awareness of SDGs

Viewpoint by Dr. Kakha Shengelia

The writer is President of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) and President of Caucasus University (CU). The following is the text of Dr Kakha's Foreword to Striving for People, Planet and Peace, 2021 Joint Media Project Report of the Non-Profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as flagship agency in partnership with Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

TBILISI, Georgia (IDN) — It was in the year 2015 when the world convened and defined 17 concrete objectives to achieve till 2030 that would improve everyone’s lot around the globe. Touching on every aspect of human existence, from social inequalities to the planet we live on.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 09 June 2021

Photo: UNICEF Teachers and students were able to return to school in Lao Cai, Vietnam, in May 2020. Credit: UNICEF

Make People’s Vaccine Top Priority to Fight a Mutating Virus

Viewpoint by Nicolas J. S. Davies*

PORTLAND | USA (IDN) — A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that worries about the COVID pandemic in the United States are at their lowest level since it began. Only half of Americans are either “very worried” (15%) or “somewhat worried” (35%) about the virus, while the other half are “not very worried” (30%) or “not worried at all” (20%).

But the news from around the world makes it clear that this pandemic is far from over, and a story from Vietnam highlights the nature of the danger.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 08 June 2021

Photo: Before and after image of the effects of three years of ecosystem restoration in Tanzania. Using bund-digging, the water level in the soil has been restored to regrow trees and grass (Just Diggit: 2018-2021) Source: UN Environment Programme.

Avenues of Action: UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) — The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, 2021-2030 began on June 5. An ecosystem is an interaction between people, plants, animals and their surroundings. The UN Environment Programme and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization are the lead UN agencies for this Decade. However, the Decade aims to become a broad-based global movement in which many can play a role.

: Rene Wadlow; OPINION; 06 June 2021

Photo: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali apparently asked Eritrea dictator Isaias Afewerki to launch a second offensive in Tigray with the aim of destroying the TPLF. Source: lndro.it

Afwerki’s Regime in Eritrea Has Been a Malign Influence in The Horn of Africa

Viewpoint by Daniel Haile*

COLLEGE STATION, Texas | USA (IDN) — The Ethiopian government claims the conflict in Tigray is a law enforcement operation, but that is incorrect; it is a war involving the Ethiopian government, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the malign foreign influence of the Eritrean regime. The Eritrean regime in Asmara will be the only victor from the Ethiopian civil war.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 05 June 2021

Addressing IUU Fishing in The Interest of Blue Economy and Caribbean SIDS

Viewpoint by P.I. Gomes

Dr P.I. Gomes is former Secretary-General of the Organisation of African, the Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS was previously ACP Group of States).

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) — Illegal, Unreported & Unregulated (IUU) fishing continues to have serious negative effects on the management of marine ecosystems across the Oceans of our world, as a whole; but the practice of IUU is devastating lives and livelihoods of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), particularly in the much admired and turquoise tourist havens of the Caribbean Sea.