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Viewpoint by Dr S.S. Sira*
TORONTO (IDN) – Evolution is a slow process. It is surprisingly orderly. Everything that is observed obeys laws that have been enunciated by science. Only in the last 100 years much progress has been made.
Physics of the structure and the properties of the atom have been worked out. The fundamental particles are the quarks. Quantum mechanics has been successfully applied to explain many phenomena, often counter intuitive to common experience.
Viewpoint by James M. Dorsey
James M. Dorsey – a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture – offered this viewpoint to IDN.
SINGAPORE (IDN) – India’s decision to deprive Kashmir of its autonomy, alongside a clampdown in the troubled north-western Chinese province of Xinjiang and US-backed Israeli annexation of Arab land, is the latest indication of what a new world order led by civilisational leaders may look like.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In her famous decree in 1767 Empress Catherine the Great proclaimed Russia to be a European power. She wanted Russia to be a major player in European politics. She compelled the Europeans to accept Russia as a great power as a condition for doing business. In 1815 Russia was considered an equal in the 1815 Concert of Europe.
In contrast, Imperial China at that time was self-sufficient and inward looking. It basked in its own superior culture. It did not want to open up trade relations with Europe and the emperor questioned the ability of the British who were knocking on the door to “acquire the rudiments” of Chinese civilization.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Two experimental treatments are raising hopes among medical personnel that a cure for the deadly virus Ebola has been found. The antibody-based treatments will now be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced the finding together with Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research and Dr. Michael J. Ryan, director of emergency response for the World Health Organization.
By Alisher Kukanbekov
KHOROG, Tajikistan (IDN) – In this mountainous Gorno Badakhshan region with around a third of the population estimated to be unemployed, the exodus of the people for greener pastures abroad has gathered momentum in the past decade. To protect the colourful traditional culture from disappearing along with its population, the ‘Roof Top of the World” annual cultural festival was launched 12 years ago.
It now has the added objectives of attracting both its expat population to come back for a summer cultural break as well as to attract tourist to the region.
By UN Environment
NAIROBI (IDN) – If human society is to stay within the bounds of critical ecological thresholds, it is imperative that environmental laws are widely understood, respected and enforced. This is the environmental rule of law.
Since the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of 1992, the world has converged on protecting our ecosystems; to illustrate, environmental laws and agencies have expanded 38-fold in the last few decades.
Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
The writer is UN Women Executive Director. She issued this statement for International Youth Day, 2019.
NEW YORK (IDN) – Sixteen-year old Gambian Jakomba Jabbie wants to be an aerospace engineer. A vocal advocate for girls’ education, she created a robotics team at school to show that girls can also participate in the area of technology, and “to make it a space for all of us”. She knows how important education is, especially to a girl.
By Reinhard Jacobsen
BRUSSELS (IDN) – The heads of state and government of the 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States will gather at a momentous Summit themed ‘A Transformed ACP: Committed to Multilateralism’ from December 9-10 in Nairobi, Kenya. Laying the groundwork for finalizing the Post-Cotonou agreement as well as the revision to its Constitutive Act, the 1975 Georgetown Agreement will top the agenda of what is the 9th Summit.
The new-generation tourists are the millennials, and they are anything but ugly — at least when abroad. They travel light and are averse to carrying stuff. They travel not to pick up things, but to gather experiences.
By Shastri Ramachandaran*
NEW DELHI (IDN) – East Asian hotels and resorts, especially in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, have a despicable practice of not letting a guest leave until the room has been gone through with a toothcomb. A lot of hotels in Europe are also behaving like those in East Asia, especially when it comes to Indians. In parts of Europe, there are hotels that discourage Indians while a few keep a separate section for Indians.
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." – U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in 'The Chance for Peace' address in April 1953.
NEW YORK (IDN) – The arms race has reached a new dimension as the United States President Donald Trump withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
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IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.
IDN-InDepthNews serves as flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate and its partner, the Global Cooperation Council, established in February 1983.