SUSTAINABILITY

Pakistan’s Political Change ‘Won’t Affect Solid Friendship with China’

Close ties with China ‘a consensus shared by all groups in Pakistan’

This article was issued by Global Times.

BEIJING (IDN) — Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted from office in a no-confidence vote in the country's parliament on Sunday (April 10), but such a major political upheaval in Islamabad will not affect the solid friendship between China and Pakistan. Experts from both China and Pakistan are confident in the future of the China-Pakistan ties, as they believe the new government will continue to uphold the country's long-standing tradition to make sure the friendship with China and all China-Pakistan cooperation projects will be unaffected.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 10 April 2022

Kenyan President's Bid to Rewrite Nation’s Laws Rebuffed

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — While political leaders around the world jockey for comebacks, to extend their terms in office or merely to ignore a no-confidence vote, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was scheming to make sweeping changes to the constitution which, critics say, would have expanded his powers and create a ‘super presidency’.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 09 April 2022

Photo: A woman rummages through a pile of clothes at the Polish border as migrants from Africa, the Middle East and India flee to Poland and other neighbouring countries. Source: NEW FRAME | Wojtek Radwanski

Racial Bias Against Blacks Fleeing Ukraine

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — As the US prepares to welcome tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war, scores of African and Caribbean refugees are being sent back to unstable and violent homelands where they face rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and other abuses. Racial bias? An African refugee thinks so.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 09 April 2022

Sri Lanka’s Civil Unrest Should Trigger Alarm Bells Across Asia

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne *

SYDNEY (IDN) — Civil unrest spreading across Sri Lanka in the past few weeks resembles the beginnings of the Arab Spring uprising by youth frustrated with corrupt political systems which left the Middle East in utter chaos, and the youth at the mercy of human traffickers and European governments.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 08 April 2022

Image: Montage of an inert test of a United States Trident SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missile), from submerged to the terminal, or re-entry phase, of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The End Of (Human) History?

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is Ambassador, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affair, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — Roughly three decades have gone by since the publication of Francis Fukuyama’s essay “The End of History?”. The interrogation mark makes clear that the social scientist and philosopher was not announcing an end to contradiction and conflict among nations. He was mainly asking whether Western liberal democracy could be considered as the final stage of human sociocultural evolution and the final form of governance that would endure.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 08 April 2022

Putin's Aggression Against Ukraine Has Changed the World

This article was issued by the Wall Street International and is being republished with their permission.

Viewpoint by Franz Baumann

NEW YORK (IDN) — Wars teach about geography. In mid-February, the autocorrect on my phone did not recognize, and few people in Western Europe or America could have located on a map Mariupol, Charkiv, Bucha, Kherson, Chernihiv or Irpin. Now we know, tutored by the shocking images of Putin’s 'spetz operatsiya’.

: Franz Baumann; OPINION; 07 April 2022

Russian Invasion of Ukraine Triggers a Rise in Military Spending in Europe

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The Russian invasion of Ukraine is forcing most European countries to increase defence spending, boost military capabilities and secure their territorial borders.

The attack against Ukraine, which began February 24 and has continued despite international condemnations, has resulted in thousands of civilian killings, along with the devastation of a country of 44 million people, triggering charges of war crimes.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 07 April 2022

Photo: Chilean president Gabriel Boric celebrates following his election victory in December 2021. His rise to power and prospective victories for leftist candidates in key elections in Latin America in 2022 have fuelled talk of a new 'pink tide' of progressive politics in the region. (Image: Fotografoencampana / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Can Latin America’s New ‘Pink Tide’ Turn Green?

This article was issued by the Diálogo China and is being republished under the Creative Commons licence.

Viewpoint by Felipe Betim

SÃO PAULO, Brazil (IDN) — Much like the early 2000s, Latin America could be on the brink of a new “pink tide”—but one that is awash with another colour. Gabriel Boric won Chile’s presidential elections last December promising “development compatible with the environment”.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 April 2022

Image: Haolenphai Village, Manipur / Ms. Hatneihoi Haokip

Climate Change and the Tribal Communities of Manipur, India

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

Viewpoint by Robert Mizo

NEW DELHI (IDN) — Climate change is bound to have far-reaching implications on tribal societies even though they have traditionally lived in close harmony with nature. For them, climate change is an issue of human rights and equity as it threatens to disrupt their traditional ways of life and production through land degradation, agricultural shifts, changes in rainfall patterns, higher incidence of pests and diseases.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 April 2022

Photo: The Ukraine Refugees Response Moldova - IsraAID

EU and US Allocate Funds to Assist Refugees in Moldova

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW | CHISINAU (IDN) — The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland, has documented almost five million refugees streamlining from the war-ravaged Ukraine crossing borders, most often with difficulties, especially into neighbouring Poland, Baltic republics, Moldova, Romania, and Hungary.