News Media

Photo: Nairobi National Park is the only national park in the world that shares a fence with a city. It boasts of abundant wildlife, including the “big five” animals – the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo. Credit: Olga Lev-Ari Ercolano

Concerted Campaign to Protect Nairobi National Park

By Dominic Kirui*

This article was originally published on Waging Nonviolence and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

NAIROBI (IDN) – The Nairobi National Park is a rare gem that defines the Kenyan capital and it is the only national park in the world that shares a fence with a city. It boasts of abundant wildlife, including the “big five” animals – the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo – that can, in places, be viewed against a backdrop of city skyscrapers and planes coming in to land at the local airports.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 August 2020

Photo: Commander-in-Chief Rodrigo Duterte (His Excellency) in full Battle Dress Uniform (BDU). Source: Wikimedia Commons

Four Ways the Philippine Strongman Rodrigo Duterte Could Fall

Viewpoint by Walden Bello *

“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.” — T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men

NEW YORK (IDN) – The fix that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is in now illustrates the truth in the saying that the best-laid plans of mice and men are often unravelled by the least expected event.

In the case of the beleaguered Philippine president, the equivalent of the asteroid from outer space that killed off the dinosaurs was COVID-19, which threw him from the high horse he was riding in triumph after the midterm elections of 2019, which his partisans swept at all levels.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 27 August 2020

Photo: The Slave Ship by J.M.W. Turner depicts the Zong massacre. Credit: Wikimedia

How the Shadow of Slavery Still Hangs over Global Finance

Viewpoint by Philip Roscoe*

ANDREWS, Scotland (IDN) – When the infamous Zong massacre trial began in 1783, it laid bare the toxic relationship between finance and slavery. It was an unusual and distressing insurance claim – concerning a massacre of 133 captives, thrown overboard the Zong slave ship.

The slave trade pioneered a new kind of finance, secured on the bodies of the powerless. Today, the arcane products of high finance, targeting the poor and troubled as profit opportunities for the already-rich, still bear that deep unfairness.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 26 August 2020

Photo: President Trump signs an Executive Order at the White House Summit on Human Trafficking in honour of the 20th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Jan. 31, 2020. Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks.

President Trump's 'Orwellian' Policy Fosters Child Trafficking

Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.

LOS ANGELES (IDN) – President Donald Trump thinks of himself as a champion against human trafficking. He addressed a White House Summit on the issue in January claiming there was a “humanitarian crisis” at the border fomented by criminal organizations and that “traffickers victimize countless women and children.” He signed an executive order and diverted $400 million in funding to combat the issue, boasting in his usual manner that “we have signed more legislation on human trafficking than any other administration has ever even thought about.”

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 August 2020

Photo: Image compiled by the author, public domain

TikTok, Trump and the Need for a Digital Non-Aligned Movement

Viewpoint by Juan Ortiz Frueler*

This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (IDN) – Recent weeks have seen a dramatic escalation in the US stance towards tech companies from the People's Republic of China (PRC). After hounding the telecommunications company Huawei for years, the social networking app TikTok is the latest Chinese company to enter the firing line.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 23 August 2020

Photo: Patrón cortando caña (Patrón cuts the cane), Colombia, 2015. Credit: Pablo Fierro.

Colombian Sports Hero Patrón's Assassination Targets Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Communities

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad and Zoe PC

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) – Not much, apart from football, unites the Colombian people. If a 2014 Interior Ministry survey called “The Power of Football” is to be believed, then 94 percent of the Colombian population say that football is either important or very important. Patrocinio Bonilla—called Patrón—was on the side of those who believed that football was very important, indeed essential. Patrón was murdered on August 11, 2020.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 20 August 2020

Photo: A march held by pro-Morales protestors in La Paz on 14 November 2019. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Uncertainty Hangs Over the Fate of Elections in Bolivia

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad and Manuel Bertoldi *

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) – On November 10, 2019, President Evo Morales Ayma of Bolivia announced his resignation from the presidency. Morales had been elected in 2014 to a third presidential term, which should have lasted until January 2020. In November 2019, protests around his fourth electoral victory in October led to the police and the military asking Morales to step down; by every description of the term, this was a coup d’état. Two days later, Morales went into exile in Mexico.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 August 2020

Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong prepare for a group photo with ASEAN leaders at the ASEAN-Russia Summit in Singapore, 14 November 2018. Source: ASEAN

Russian Influence in Southeast Asia Will Struggle to Be More Than Marginal

Viewpoint by Joshua Bernard B Espeña, UP Diliman *

DILIMAN, Quezon City, Philippines (IDN) – The Russian people have voted in favour of constitutional reforms that give President Vladimir Putin the potential to stay in power until 2036 through a landslide victory in a national referendum on 2 July 2020. While critics complain about voting irregularities, the changes mean that Putin could become Russia’s longest-serving ruler since Peter the Great.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 17 August 2020

Media and Artists Join UN in Fighting COVID-19 Fake News

By Franck Kuwonu *

NEW YORK (IDN) – Aissata Diop, a Senegalese mother of four, living in Pikine on the outskirts of the capital city Dakar, had long heard that consuming garlic and lemon could have health benefits.

So, when her friend, Ramatou, displayed a message on her phone saying that drinking a daily bowl of boiled garlic and lemon could keep people from contracting COVID-19, Aissata wasted no time stocking up on her daily market run.

: Africa Renewal; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 17 August 2020

Image: The wheel in the centre of the white in the Indian national flag represents the dynamism of a peaceful change. But certainly not dynamic departure from democracy and diversity that appears to be in the offing. © Yann Forget / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0

Bells Toll for India's Diversity and Democracy

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran *

NEW DELHI (IDN) – August is a month of memories for India with memorable dates redolent of history, freedom and politics. August 15, with that unforgettably evocative ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is, doubtless, the most important of the dates observed. Inextricably linked to that is August 8, on which date was launched the Quit India Movement, the turning point in India’s long struggle for freedom from the British Raj.