THE WORLD

Photo: Putin visits COVID-19 patients at Moscow hospital. Source: Kremlin Press Office | Handout - Anadolu Agency)

Russia Hopes to Boost Vaccine Production at Home and Abroad

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) — Russia faces vaccine production challenges to meet the increasing market demand and to make prompt delivery on its current pledges to external countries. As vaccine production and distribution intensifies, rivalry and competition strengthen and the fight for market share and its associated disinformation abound worldwide.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly indicated that in order to boost sustainable supplies, the country has to build its domestic production capacity while, at the same time, searching for production partnership in foreign countries.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 17 March 2021

Photo: WTO Chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Source: WTO

WTO Chief Faces First Test Over Generic Corona Drug Patent

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The first African woman to lead the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is facing her first test of leadership as the leaders of poor and rich nations spar over the rights to generic versions of the COVID-19 vaccine, currently held by the rich nations.

In the current debate, over 80 developing countries led by South Africa and India are demanding a waiver of patent rights in order to boost the production of COVID-19 vaccines for poor nations. Blocking them are the richer members of the world trade group.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 16 March 2021

Photo: Counterintelligence in Mozambique and DRC. Source: Strategic Intelligence

U.S. Steps Up Counterterrorism in Mozambique and the DRC

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — U.S. counterterrorism officials are stepping up their activities in Africa, addressing the expansion of violent extremism on the continent.

Two previously unlisted insurgent groups identified as foreign terrorist organizations operating in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been slapped with sanctions along with their leaders.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 15 March 2021

Photo: John Magufuli. Source: Africanews

Tanzanian President Is Suspected Victim of Coronavirus

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Tanzania is missing a president. John Magufuli, a pandemic denier, has not been seen for three weeks according to reports by the opposition which place him in India with Covid.

Speaking to the BBC, Tundu Lissu, opposition leader and Member of Parliament, cited unconfirmed sources alleging that the 61-year-old president had been hospitalized in Nairobi but was transferred to a hospital in India after falling into a coma.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 15 March 2021

Senegalese Singer Thione Ballago Seck Recalled As “A Legend”

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Thione Ballago Seck, born in a family of praise or "griot" singers and one of Senegal's beloved music stars over the last four decades, has died at the age of 66 in Dakar on March 14.

Tributes poured in after his death was announced with the former mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall, paying tribute to a "true monument of Senegalese music". El Hadji Hamidou Kasse, a former journalist and current advisor to President Macky Sall, tweeted that Seck was "one of the artist heroes of an era".

: Global Information Network; ARTS & CULTURE; 15 March 2021

Image credit: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Afghan Women's Voices on Peace Heard with UN Mission's Backing

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | KUNDUZ (IDN) — While the UN Security Council on March 14 "condemned in the strongest terms" the alarming number of attacks deliberately targeting civilians in Afghanistan, women activists were over several days knocking on doors in Kunduz, posing two questions to their relatives, neighbours and fellow residents of the city: “What does the peace process mean to you? How do you see your role in it?”

The members of the Security Council expressed their deep concern regarding the increase of these targeted attacks in the months following the start of the Afghanistan peace negotiations on September 12, 2020.

: Devinder Kumar; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 14 March 2021

Photo: The “Billionaire Raj” is preparing to turn India back from a country of hunger (on the 2020 Global Hunger Index, India is 94th out of 107 countries) to a country of famine. Child who starved to death during the Bengal famine of 1943. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Profit Hungry Modi Government Ready to Risk Famine in India

Viewpoint by Justin Podur*

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

TORONTO (IDN) — India’s right-wing government has been deploying all the modern tools of repression against a historic farmers’ protest. Much is at stake. For the people of India, their agricultural system is about to get far more precarious. For its farmers, ruin, and bankruptcy for millions, is all but guaranteed. For the government of Narendra Modi and his elite backers, it’s a crossroads moment; they calculate that their political power is assured for decades if they can refashion the politics of rural India and force dependency upon the farmers.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 March 2021

Photo: Dorji Wangchuck, Bhutanese communication scholar and filmmaker, pleaded for 'Middle Path Journalism' instead of adversial journalism. Credit: Dr Kalinga Seneviratne.

Buddhists Map A New Paradigm for Dev. Communication

By Krishan Dutta

BANGKOK (IDN) — A group of Buddhist economists and communication scholars from Asia are embarking on a mission to redefine the development communication paradigm using concepts from the Buddhist philosophy.

A webinar held earlier this month organized by Lotus Communication Network (LCN) in association with the Institute of Asian Studies (IAS) at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and Delhi-based International Buddhist Confederation (IBC) discussed how ‘sufficiency economics’ (sometimes referred to as ‘Buddhist Economics’) and ‘middle path journalism’ could be incorporated into a new development communication paradigm.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 12 March 2021

UN Acclaims VODAN's Contribution to Fight COVID-19 in Africa

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) — The United Nations has commended VODAN-AFRICA for their innovative approach to "data sharing and re-use under the present COVID-19 circumstances". The Virus Outbreak Data Network is a system of sharing data on Coronavirus that ensures that the information remains in the country that generated it, rather than being exported and unavailable to local doctors and scientists.

The network includes computer scientists and health data management experts, clinicians and social scientists from all of the participating countries. Presently, these include Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Liberia and Zimbabwe.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 March 2021

Photo credit: The Daily Outlook Afghanistan

Detoxracy: The Current Challenge to Democracy in America

Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*

QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — Detoxification is essential to human life. Every cell of the human body must routinely detoxify. From the cellular level, these toxins are transported to our organs of elimination—the kidney and liver, to be processed and expelled. Organizations, institutions and governments also become toxic and must purge these life-threatening poisons.

Culminating in the siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the world has witnessed the fact that democracy in America is under siege. It has become toxic. This article examines the challenge to detoxify democracy in America; a process I refer to as detoxracy.