Individual Journalists

Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama said that the then president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, was “the most popular president on earth”. This picture shows Obama greeting him in the Oval Office in March 2009. Credit: White House.

Sending Brazil's Lula To Jail Is Absurd

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – President Barack Obama said that the then president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, was “the most popular president on earth”. Now, while fighting for a new term in office, he has been brought low, imprisoned for 12 years for corruption.

He is still the most popular politician in Brazil and until he went to prison on April 7 he was the favourite to win October’s election. After his previous terms in office he left behind a country, one that had been the most unequal society on earth, see a quarter of its population lifted out of poverty, a fast-growing economy and a sharp increase in its lower-middle class as millions got jobs and/or pay rises.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 10 April 2018

No Easy Answer To The Knife That Killed Arnaud Beltrame

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Personally I'm a coward. I'm unlikely ever to be a hero. (I have rescued on different occasions three young children from drowning, but I didn't risk my life.) I certainly would never have done what Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, the French policeman, did.

He asked the terrorist who had taken over a supermarket if he could substitute himself for the female hostage he held. The terrorist agreed and then murdered him. Beltrame was given a state funeral on March 28. The Moroccan terrorist who appears to be a supporter of ISIS is in jail, awaiting trial.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 03 April 2018

Photo: Vladimir Putin delivering Presidential address to the Federal Assembly on 1 March 2018 at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow. Credit: Presidential website en.kremlin.ru

Why Putin Will Win Re-election As Russia's President

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The seemingly eternal president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has an iron grip on his nation and a foreign policy to match. A large majority of Russians give him their support. He will win re-election.

Is it his early economic success? Or is it because of a new stability? Or the nation’s growing self-respect after the ignominious years that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union? Or is it a sense of besieged defensiveness because of the advantage the West took of Russia afterwards.

The answer is a bit of all these.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 13 March 2018

Photo: Umbrellas on the Piazza of the Prophet´s Holy Mosque in Medina. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

What the Prophet Implied and What Sustains Fundamentalists

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – What do we in the West know about Islam? Perhaps more than we did before 9/11 but not much.

When Tony Blair was prime minister of the United Kingdom he was photographed walking along holding the Koran. President George W. Bush said repeatedly that Islam was a religion of peace.

Even though at that time one of the most influential American political writers, Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University, had written that it wasn’t fundamentalism that was the problem, it was Islam itself.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 March 2018

A Revolutionary Change is Sweeping Across Southern Africa

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – It’s been an odd couple of months for southern Africa. No one predicted last year that in almost the same breath the long-serving dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and the super-corrupt president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, would be soon overthrown – and non-violently to boot.

In Zimbabwe the army did trigger Mugabe's demise, but it was a sort of passive coup, a non-violent withdrawal of support. In South Africa Zuma was compelled to stand down as leader of the African National Congress because of a majority vote against him in an assembly of the ANC, the party of black protest against former minority white-led rule. Again, all done non-violently.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 February 2018

Image: Snapshot of Vice President Pence at the 2018 Winter Olympics extracted from YouTube. Credit: The White House.

No Harm to be Polite When Dealing with North Korea

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – How rude can you get? The US vice-president, Mike Pence, sitting one row in front of the sister of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un refused to turn round and say hi. She was one outstretched arm away from him. For the whole of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics he sat with his back to her.

It didn’t have to be a handshake – unless the lady initiated it – but a pleasant expression and a friendly hello would not only be what mother told all us men to do when meeting a lady, it would a way of saying, "We Americans hope that we can substitute ploughshares for the sword".

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 13 February 2018

Photo: U.S. President Donald J. Trump (on screen) addresses the General Assembly’s annual general debate on 19 September 2017 in which he declared: "The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea." Credit: UN Photo/Ariana Lindquist

Trump Might Well Break International Law Over North Korea

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – We are soon going to have a clash between President Donald Trump and international law. This is predicable when one examines the presidential discourse over what to do about North Korea and its possession of nuclear-tipped rockets.

He has threatened "fire and fury" which doesn’t sound like the opening words of the UN’s Charter: "We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…..and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained……and for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours."

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 February 2018

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (here shaking hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before their working dinner at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on February 14, 2017) believes that “Iran seeks dominance in the Middle East and the destruction of our ally, Israel”. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Trump Appears to be Getting Ready to Wage War in Syria

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – President Donald Trump said it would never happen. Now it is. During the election he said he did not want more interventions – no more Iraqs, no more Afghanistans, Libyas or Syrias.

A year into his presidency the American military is involved in all these places and he’s aching to get boots on the ground in North Korea and perhaps even Iran. At least he’s not thinking about it in Ukraine – that would really set the cat among the pigeons.

Last week his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said that waging war in Syria is “crucial to our national defence”. This is a big deal but few seem to be talking about it. The pundits and congressmen are either asleep at the switch or taking a holiday.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 30 January 2018

Photo: President Trump departs from the Pentagon alongside Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Jan. 27, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jette Carr)

Mattis-Trump Duo Uncovers China and Russia as US Adversaries

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The American secretary of defence, Jim Mattis, has declared a new era: "There has been a return of great power competition ……great power competition – not terrorism – is now the primary focus of U.S. security." In the new national defence strategy document*, unveiled on January 19, China and Russia are singled out as "adversaries".

Although the U.S. is now spending on defence three times as much as China (1.7% of its GNP as against America’s 3.3%), Mattis is worried that the U.S. military advantage over its adversary has eroded "in every domain of warfare". The military, he said, was coping with "inadequate resources" and he called for Congress to appropriate it more billions of dollars.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 23 January 2018

Image: Principally practiced in antiquity, it is one of the most well-known execution methods due to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Credit: list25.com

Torture Begets More Brutality

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Looking for a good cause for 2018? Something you can do while sitting in your arm chair. Something that needs to be done if we are to live in a “clean” planet. Campaigning against torture is what it is. It can be done by e-mail, s-mail, phone, text and petition signing. In the past, water dripping on a stone has worked and can be made to work again.

“Torture works. OK, folks? Believe me, it works…..And waterboarding is your minor form, but we should go much stronger than waterboarding,” said Donald Trump while campaigning to be president.

At the moment, as far as I know, the U.S. is not torturing anyone. President Barack Obama put a stop to the practice of it by the administration of President George W. Bush. Even Trump says that since the Secretary of Defence, General James Mattis, is against re-introducing it it probably won’t happen. But one day Mattis can be sacked and someone more pliant installed in his place.