THE WORLD

Photo: The infographic reveals for the first time that the U.S. is now operating in 40 percent of the world’s nations. Credit: Smithsonian Magazine

Insurrection and the Racist Underpinnings of US Exceptionalism

Viewpoint by Ravi Arvind Palat

The writer is a professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton

NEW YORK (IDN) – Several commentators have underlined the sharp contrast between law enforcement responses to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by mobs unleashed by President Trump on January 6, 2021, and to the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer. Despite two months of warnings that the president was mobilizing his supporters to reverse his election loss, the police and National Guard appeared to be caught off-guard, unlike the massive mobilization of law enforcement agencies against those calling for racial justice.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 January 2021

Photo: Crowd of Trump supporters marching on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, ultimately leading the building being breached and several deaths. C BY-SA 4.0

Behind January 6 Insurrection: America Is an Oligarchy, Not A Functioning Democracy

Viewpoint by Albena Azmanova and Marshall Auerback *

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK | BRUSSELS (IDN) – While the majority of Americans deplored the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, it was troubling to see a YouGov poll indicating that 1 in 5 voters approved of the assault. Their attitudes were buttressed by a significant number of House and Senate Republicans who have egged on the matter by continuing to call into question the legitimacy of last November’s election result. This is a sign that the rot in the American political system goes deep.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 17 January 2021

Photo credit: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineiro, DOD.

The US Department of Defense Announces New Strategies for the Middle East and Space Force

By J C Suresh

WASHINGRTON, D.C. (IDN) – The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has announced that changing Middle East situation means changes for Israel. In another press release it said, partnerships are key to Space Force delivering warfighting capabilities.

In the first release on January 15 it said: in a sign of the changing political environment in the Middle East, the United States military will move Israel from the U.S. European Command's area of responsibility to that of the U.S. Central Command. The move, it said, is part of unified command plan changes.

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 16 January 2021

Photo: Aberrahim is the caretaker at the Akrich nursery, the first of the High Atlas Foundation's fruit tree nurseries built on land lent in-kind by the Moroccan Jewish Community

High Atlas Foundation Grows Trees in Nurseries Built on Moroccan Jewish Community Land

By Yossef Ben-Meir, President, High Atlas Foundation

MARRAKECH (IDN) – On World Religion Day, January 17, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) celebrates its interfaith fruit tree nurseries, which are built on land lent in-kind by the Moroccan Jewish community and are enhancing livelihoods for Muslim farming families around Morocco. These nurseries champion the notion that Morocco’s multicultural past and present, and the preservation of it, should necessarily advance the sustainable development of the country by providing a tangible and vital pathway for the social and economic benefit of generations of Moroccans to come, said HAF in a media release.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 January 2021

Photo: Johnson holding his first cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, 25 July 2019. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

'Fine Words Butter No Parsnips' — Behind Boris Johnson’s So-Called Liberalism

Viewpoint by Sam Fowles*

LONDON (IDN) – The UK has left the EU and plunged into a third lockdown (the latter some two weeks after doing so was recommended by the government’s medical advisers), while, in the US, right-wing terrorists stormed the Capitol.

Strangely, all three provoked responses along the lines of “Boris Johnson is a liberal”. For Robert Tombs, writing in The Telegraph, the chief benefit of Brexit is a “reinvigorated democracy”. For Robert Peston, Johnson’s repeated ignoring of scientific advice is due to “a political philosophy… that he will not restrict our liberties unless there is an overwhelming reason to do so.” For James Forsyth in The Times, "Johnson is not Trump's Transatlantic twin".

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 15 January 2021

Photo: The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion (Maryam Ts'iyon Church) in Aksum. Credit: Britannica.

Things Bode Increasingly Ill for the Horn

Compiled by EEPA

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Asena TV shows images of four to six explosions outside the municipality offices in the centre of Addis Ababa, which were followed with a few shots.

New Eritrean troops have entered Mekelle, roaming the city along with many intelligence agents.

Tigray news reports that Al Shebaab fighters are entering western regions of Ethiopia and may even be controlling parts of the Somali region of Ethiopia.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 15 January 2021

Photo: International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Flickr Photos, CC by 2.0

Intra-African Commerce Remains Abstract Hope

Viewpoint by Kudzai Chimhangwa*

HARARE (IDN) – Edwin Moyo takes a stroll through his maize field, smiling as the lush green leaves of his crop brush against each other in response to the breeze. Busy amid the serenity of his two-hectare farm in the west of Zimbabwe, his patient tending looks likely to pay off, as the rainy season did not disappoint. The thick maize cobs spread out across the field are now the envy of his neighbours.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Africa; 15 January 2021

Photo: Looking upward from the Fifth Avenue Trump Tower (New York City) entrance. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Politicisation of “White Victimhood” Nothing New to Trump’s Presidency

Viewpoint by Lee Bebout*

TEMPE, Arizona (IDN) – Despite failed lawsuits, recounts and formal confirmation that President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump and his supporters continue to maintain that the election was rigged and that he and the American people are victims of massive voter fraud.

This politicisation of victimhood is nothing new to the Trump presidency.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 14 January 2021

Photo: President Buhari with U.S. counterpart Trump at Oval Office on April 30, 2018. Credit: Information Nigeria.

How Will Africa Remember Donald Trump? Here Is How.

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) – US President Donald Trump may have lost re-election but he would be escorted out of the White House on January 19 night with a special prize: Africa’s worst friend in modern times.

Not that it matters one way or the other to Trump. We can only hope that after four years of spite, insults and hostilities, he might yet, in a fleeting moment of sanity, ask himself whether going out of his way to annoy or denigrate the continent was worth all the trouble.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 14 January 2021

Photo: In Aksum, Tigray region of Ethiopia. Credit: Rod Waddington.

As A Tigrayan, My Bond with Ethiopia Feels Beyond Repair

Viewpoint by Temesgen Kahsay

The author is an Assistant Professor at the Norwegian School of Leadership and Theology. The following appeared first in 'African Arguments' on January 12, 2021.

OSLO (IDN) – We’re told the war is not with ordinary Tigrayans. Yet as thousands suffer and our compatriots remain silent, that’s how it feels.

As a child growing up in the then Ethiopian city of Asmara in the 1980s, my parents used to ask me what I wanted to be when I was older. My answer was always that I either wanted to be a fighter pilot or army general. The reason was simple. My father was a soldier in the Ethiopian army under the Derg regime and I too wanted to kill the nation’s “enemies”.