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Photo: Mary Robinson and Kofi Annan attend Citizens Manifesto event in Zimbabwe in July 2018. Credit: The Elders

The Elders Call for Restraint and Justice in Zimbabwe to Honour Kofi Annan’s Legacy

LONDON (IDN-INPS) – The Elders today urged Zimbabweans at every level in society to uphold the democratic rights to justice and peaceful protest, and refrain from words or actions that could incite violence, drawing on the counsel of their late Chair, Kofi Annan (1938-2018).

Ahead of the ruling by Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court on the petition filed by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance regarding the 30 July election result, The Elders called on political leaders to act responsibly to avert further bloodshed.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; Kofi Annan; 23 August 2018

Image: 2030 SDGs Game. Credit: Imacocollabo

'2030 SDGs Game' Arouses Growing Interest in Japan

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – Reports have it that when Albert Einstein was some five years old and confined to bed, his father gave him a magnetic pocket compass to play with. He twisted and turned it, wondering how the needle always knew to point towards the north.

Takeo Inamura and Nobuhide Fukui share a similarly profound curiosity about how the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, world leaders adopted in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit in New York, could really transform the world.

And, what could be done to bring home to the common man and woman that there is no magic wand to realize the grand vision of SDGs, to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind?

: Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 23 August 2018

Photo: Seaweed farmers. Credit: Mwinyi Sadallah

A Glimmer of Hope for Zanzibar Seaweed Farmers

By Kizito Makoye

PAJE, Zanzibar (IDN) – As the morning breeze sweeps Mwanamkasi Jumbe wade through knee-deep water, her gown flapping in the wind as she drags a pile of seaweed seedlings to her farm before it is too hot.

Armed with a bundle of sticks, she hangs pieces of fresh seaweed haphazardly hooked on a yellow polyethylene rope.

"It's a tough job, but I love doing it. I get something to support my family," she says. "The seedling takes six weeks to mature," she adds.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 August 2018

Photo: Che Guevara Statue, Santa Clara, Cuba (CC0 Public Domain).

Guevara and Marx: Critical Remake of an Old Film – 6

By Roberto Massari*

This is the sixth of a nine-part series. Read Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

BOLSENA, Italy (IDN) – With regard to the “Marxism” of Marx there is not much more, because the rest of the article launches itself into a very imaginative analysis of the progress of the Cuban revolution which I leave out here without remorse.

In the past, however, I have devoted some attention to the hasty manner in which Che had dismissed some statements in that text from the two founding fathers related to Mexico and Bolivar. Here I limit myself to mentioning the piece by Guevara, but for my comment I refer to the detailed analysis I made in Che Guevara. Pensamiento y política de la utopía (pp. 54-9).

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 22 August 2018

U.S. Goes for 'Space Force All the Way'

Viewpoint by Alice Slater*, The Hill

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – […] Vice-President Mike Pence announced the Trump administration’s plan for a new military command, the U.S. Space Force, emphasizing President Donald Trump’s urging that “It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space: we must have American dominance in space.” Pence’s announcement was greeted by Trump, tweeting in response, “Space Force all the way!”

Pence’s rationale for this disturbing expansion of U.S. militarization to the heavens is that “our adversaries”, Russia and China, “have been working to bring new weapons of war into space itself” that pose a threat to American satellites.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 21 August 2018

Little Progress in Nuclear Disarmament Since Helsinki Summit

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Everything gets said, nothing gets done. When President Donald Trump met President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, we were promised all sorts of goodies – progress in reconciliation in Ukraine and Syria, and not least nuclear disarmament. If there is progress behind the scenes it's not noticeable to the naked eye.

People talk about Trump being in Putin's pocket yet when, soon after Trump became president, Putin suggested major cuts in nuclear weapons Trump turned him down. This would have been a fantastic way to start his presidency. He could have upped Barack Obama's achievement of getting the arsenal down to 1550 warheads each. In nearly everything else he wants to destroy Obama's legacy or minimize it. This would have been a way to do it.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 21 August 2018

Mozambique Imposing Hefty Fees on Local and Foreign Media

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Press freedom in Mozambique just got a lot less free. Under a new government decree, local and foreign journalists must now pony up thousands of dollars for the right to report in this Southern African country.

The little dribble of news about Mozambique in the foreign press could disappear altogether, ending press freedom at a crucial time. Human rights groups call it an attempt to discourage reporting from the country.

"We think this is completely exorbitant and out of any reasonable proportion," said Arnaud Froger, head of the Africa desk for the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 August 2018

Photo: Speaking at the UN General Assembly on December 11, 1964 on behalf of Cuba, Argentinean-born Ernesto "Che" Guevara responds to questions regarding his accent, affirming he is Cuban and willing to die for the liberation of any Latin American country. Credit: UN

Guevara and Marx: Critical Remake of an Old Film – 5

By Roberto Massari*

This is the fifth of a nine-part series. Read Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.

BOLSENA, Italy (IDN) – Second half: ORTHODOXY STORY: Scene 6 [from Havana to Moscow, 1959-63]

As is well known, the revolutionary government assigned commander Guevara with tasks of great importance, but all within the economic sphere as president of the Banco Nacional de Cuba, in a first phase, and then as Minister of Industry (at the time unified in a single ministry) until the day of his resignation became operational between the end of 1964 and the spring of 1965.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 21 August 2018

Photo: Boy drinks from a tap at a NEWAH WASH water project in Puware Shikhar, Udayapur District, Nepal. Photo by Jim Holmes for AusAID. Source: Wikimedia Commons

'Right To Water' Should Be A Major Human Right, Say Indonesian Women Activists

By Kalinga Seneviratne

JAKARTA (IDN) – Indonesian women activists, fighting an uphill battle to reverse a 20-year old water privatization project signed by former authoritarian ruler Suharto with French and British companies with the support of a $92 million loan from the World Bank, argue that the United Nations and the international human rights community need to prioritize ‘right to water’ as a major human right.

"We are seeing that a lot of communal resources like land, water, even the air, are not belonging to the community anymore. It’s a shifting of the perspective," argues Dinda Nuur Annisaa Yura, National Program Coordinator, the Coalition of Jakarta Residents Opposed to Water Privatization (KMMSAJ).

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 20 August 2018

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres (front left) views an exhibit at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum on 9 August 2018. UN Photo/Daniel Powell

73 Years On, a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World Remains a Mirage

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda recall a quote from Martin Luther King Jr – "We are always on the threshold of a new dawn" – and aver that the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July 2017 is such a 'threshold'.

In a joint appeal 'To the Youth of the World', released to the media and wider public in Rome, and handed over to Pope Francis, they note that the Treaty "is an international legal instrument that establishes the absolute illegality" of nuclear weapons.