SUSTAINABILITY

Photo: Voting station in Kamchatka Krai in the Far East region of Russia, with a population of 322,079. CC BY-SA 4.0

Putin's "Soft Authoritarian" Regime and Russian Freedom

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – One of the founders of Russia's Pussy Riot rock band, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, was interviewed at length on the BBC this past weekend. She has no time for President Vladimir Putin. When the group played inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour she was sent to jail for two years for "religious hatred". She doesn’t seem bitter but she seems damning. She thinks that last week’s referendum on a new constitution was only held to cement Putin in power for another couple of decades. She barely discussed the other articles of the constitution.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 07 July 2020

Photo: Cape Coast Castle's 'Door of No Return' that slaves would pass through right before they were put on ships to the Americas and elsewhere. Source, Wikimedia Commons.

'Black Lives Matter' Continues to Spur Changes in Africa

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – As Americans explore the renaming of army bases, statues, streets, and schools that honour racist slave-holders or portray demeaning relationships between whites and Black, Brown and Latinx citizens, similar efforts are underway in Senegal and Liberia most recently.

Goree, an island in Senegal linked closely with slave trade, has decided to rename one of its main squares in response to the anti-racist movements around the world.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 July 2020

Photo: The shooting dead of popular Ethiopian political singer Hachalu Hundessa has sparked unrest in the country. Hundessa is considered a voice for Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromo, during years of anti-government protest. He is a Nobel Peace laureate. Source: DW Africa.

Murder of Popular Protest Singer Swells Opposition Against Ethiopian Leader

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ethiopian protest singer and revered musician Hachalu Hundessa sang about love and unity, recalled his friend Amensisa Ifa, raising issues that many would not dare to bring up.

He addressed issues of marginalization – capturing the struggles and frustrations of his Oromo people who faced efforts by successive Ethiopian regimes to destroy the Oromoo language, exploit its precious resources, and expropriate Oromo lands into an expanded Addis Ababa.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 July 2020

Photo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the Indian troops during his visit to the forward post at Nimu in Ladakh, Friday, July 3, 2020. Credit: PIB/PTI

Cultural Wisdom Might Help Resolve India-China Conflict

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 42nd in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a special address given on Asadha Poornima day on July 4 marking the anniversary of Gautama Buddha's first sermon said Buddhism teaches respect for people, and respect for peace and nonviolence.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 06 July 2020

Photo: Women tend a community nursery created as part of a completed ITTO project to assist forest landscape restoration in Togo. Credit: ODEF

A Landmark Project Aims at Reforestation in Togo

Income Opportunities for Women

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – Togo in West Africa is the venue of a milestone project between Soka Gakkai, a global community-based Buddhist organization and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). The two have signed a memorandum to launch a reforestation project offering income opportunities for women's groups in two rural areas of Togo.

The memorandum involving a donation of 10 million yen (US$93,300) for the initial one-year phase of the project was signed on July 1 at the Soka Gakkai (SG) headquarters in Tokyo. The project will kick off on September 1.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 05 July 2020

Collage: Backdrop population and environment image from Kullabs with photo of Malthus from Brittanica.

Malthus Revisited: Close Relationship between Population and Environment

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – The total human population and economy have imposed excessive weight on the global environment, as discussed in my new book circulated and freely downloadable from http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Malthus-Revisited-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

Thomas Rpbert Malthus' "Essay on The Principle of Population", the first edition of which was published in 1798, was one of the first systematic studies of the problem of population in relation to resources. Earlier discussions of the problem had been published by Boterro in Italy, Robert Wallace in England, and Benjamin Franklin in America.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 05 July 2020

India's First COVID-19 Vaccine Gets Nod for Human Clinical Trials

News briefs compiled by Suresh Jaura*

TORONTO | NEW DELHI (IDN) – The focus of news in Indian media in the second half of June was on the start of human trials by India's 'first' indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, a nod to Indian start-ups to participate in space activities, emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975, persecution of 'dissenters', restrictions against Chinese goods, and Russian assurances to stand-off with India against China.

: Suresh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 04 July 2020

Image credit: Caribbean News Global (CGN)

There's a Hidden Economic Trendline That Is Shattering the Global Trade System

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback and Jan Ritch-Frel

Marshall Auerback is a market analyst and commentator and Jan Ritch-Frel the executive director of the Independent Media Institute. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has recently conceded: "In general, economic thinking has privileged efficiency over resilience, and it has been insufficiently concerned with the big downsides of efficiency." Policy across the globe is therefore moving in a more overtly nationalistic direction to rectify this shortcoming.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 04 July 2020

Photo: The Porcupine caribou herd in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Credit: Peter Mather/petermather.com

ARCTIC: Protecting the Sacred Place Where Life Begins

Viewpoint by Nick Engelfried*

BELLINGHAM, Washington (IDN) – As the Trump administration neared the end of its first year in office in 2017, it seemed environmental activists had lost one of the most hard-fought battles in the movement's history. Thanks to a last-minute manoeuvre by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Congressional Republicans succeeded in passing legislation allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Some of the worst fears of environmental and Indigenous rights groups for what might happen under the administration appeared to be coming true.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 03 July 2020

India's Ties with South Asian Neighbours Strained

News briefs compiled by Suresh Jaura*

TORONTO | NEW DELHI (IDN) – Though India became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council on June 17, with undisputed support from all countries in the 55-member Asia-Pacific Group for a two-year term in 2021-22, the country's relations with its South Asian neighbours are strained and in some cases antagonistic. One view is that the country is being "strategically encircled".

Following are news briefs underlining that view: