OPINION

Photo: The fruit tree nursery management by the Takherkhourt Women’s Cooperative in the Marrakech region of Morocco (High Atlas Foundation), 2021

People’s Participation Decides the World’s Environment

Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Meir

The writer is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and president of the High Atlas Foundation

MARRAKECH (IDN) — Recognizing this week’s World Environment Day reminds us of the evolution of the concept of sustainable development since the phrase was coined in a 1987 United Nations report. At that time, sustainable development concentrated on the idea of natural resource management and how humanity must not consume the sources of our sustenance to an extent that any harm is brought upon our collective future.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 04 June 2021

Photo: The railway station of Birobidzhan, a town and the administrative centre of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway, near the China-Russia border. Created: 6 October 2007. CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Russian Town Birobidzhan Is an Alternative to Jewish Settlements in Palestine

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The Israeli government allows its settler movement to go on and on claiming more of the West Bank. Is there nothing that can be done? The might of America, combined with the influence of the European Union and the Arab world, have not been able to halt the territorial growth of Israel.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 01 June 2021

Image: Nigerian children. Source: LEADERSHIP.

Nigerian Child Faces a Double Whammy of Corona and Violence

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

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

ABUJA (IDN) — It all seems like memories from a distant past. But it’s not. This time last year we were in a lockdown. The world was under the monstrous grip of the Coronavirus. Rumours and speculations about the origin and nature of this invincible foe were rife, leaving data and science in the dust. Fear ruled the world.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 29 May 2021

Photo: Students demonstrating in Berlin on 15 March 2019 against the climate crisis. Source: Clean Energy Wire | Rachel Waldholz.

Germany's Constitutional Court Gives Teeth to Paris Climate Agreement

Viewpoint by Franz Baumann, PassBlue

NEW YORK (IDN) — In September 2016, the German parliament unanimously adopted the Paris Agreement. The government then translated Germany’s commitments under the agreement into a Climate Protection Law, which was approved by the Bundestag in November 2019 with a wide majority, making Germany the first country in the world with a greenhouse gas neutrality plan.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 28 May 2021

Photo: (From Left to Right) Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. Mr. Bimalendra Nidhi, Ex-Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal and Jainendra Karn.

Nepal Is the Boat of Democracy on The Road Ahead

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn

Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat & ALCAP’s Special Advisor for Asia & Africa and Jainendra Karn is a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

KATHMANDU (IDN) — What a sombre way to start one’s day by going through the newspapers and realize the dystopian times we live in. It’s just like listening to Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones or pondering about what Ayn Rand had said: There is no difference between Communism and Socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: Communism proposes to enslave men by force, Socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 26 May 2021

Photo: Praying at the Western Wall. CC BY 2.0

The Jews Need to Reflect on Their History

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — There are questions that even today the historians don’t seem moved to investigate. Two important ones come to mind. Why was it that Pharaonic Egypt never went to war for hundreds of years until Ramesses 11 became pharaoh in 1303 BC? Isn’t it a fact that Jews in Europe were unmolested for most of the first millennium after the death of Jesus?

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 25 May 2021

Photo: An Air Force Global Strike Command unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operation test at 11:49 p.m. PT Feb. 23, 2021, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. (Brittany E. N. Murphy/Space Force)

Only 'No First Use' Policy Can Defuse Tension

Viewpoint by Ramesh Thakur *

The article was first published in International Politics and Society Journal. on May 20, 2021, by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Brussels office.

CANBERRA (IDN | IPS-Joural.EU) — A ‘no first use’ (NFU) policy is an official commitment by a nuclear-armed state that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons against any adversary under any contingency. By making such a declaration, the state confirms its use of nuclear weapons will be restricted solely to retaliation and only against a nuclear attack. Consequently, these weapons will never be used for preventive, pre-emptive or coercive (nuclear blackmail) purposes.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 May 2021

Photo: Indigenous Juruna warrior from a village in the Brazilian Amazon reviewing his territory | Photo by Todd Southgate

Rivers Are Crucial for Restoring Biodiversity Worldwide

Viewpoint by Alessandra Korap Munduruku*, Darryl Knudsen** and Irikefe V. Dafe ***

This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

ITAITUBA, Brazil | OAKLAND, USA | ADDIS ABABA | Ethiopia (IDN) — In October 2021, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will meet in China to adopt a new post-2020 global biodiversity framework to reverse biodiversity loss and its impacts on ecosystems, species and people.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 22 May 2021

Photo: Palestinians protest Israeli ban on Al-Aqsa guards. Source: The Rahnuma Daily.

Netanyahu Has Raised the Stakes Over Jerusalem

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Poets as diverse as William Blake and Yehuda Amichai have sung the praises of the heavenly Jerusalem, a land without strife or rancour, war or bitterness, envy, acquisitiveness or hatred. Israel, Fatah and Hamas, in the midst of the present chaos and carnage, have the historic opportunity to take a giant step towards making the present-day Jerusalem acquire, at least in some of its aspects, the earthly prototype of the heavenly Jerusalem.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 18 May 2021

Stop Muddying The Waters On The Appointment Of The CTBTO Executive Secretary

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf*

“And so … ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country”, President John Kennedy, 20 January 1961.

VIENNA (IDN) — For the better part of a year, diplomats from more than 180 countries have been feuding over the appointment of the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) located in Vienna, alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans nuclear explosions “by everyone, everywhere: on the Earth's surface, in the atmosphere, underwater and underground”.