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Ukrainian Organization Does Not Deserve a Nobel Peace Prize

Viewpoint by Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin*

COUNTERCURRENTS issued this article on October 7, 2022.

NEW YORK (IDN) — In what was described as a harsh rebuke of Russia, the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Ukrainian human rights organization 'Center for Civil Liberties', along with Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski and the Russian human rights organization Memorial. While at first glance, the Ukrainian 'Center for Civil Liberties' might sound like a group that is well deserving of this honor, Ukrainian peace leader Yurii Sheliazhenko wrote a stinging critique.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 October 2022

Photo: A protester holds a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a demonstration in support of the young Iranian woman, who died after being arrested in Tehran by the Islamic Republic's morality police, on September 20, 2022. three days in a coma. Credit: Ozan KOSE / AFP via Getty Images. Source: WBUR.

Iran Overwhelmed by “Women-Life-Liberty!” Cries

Viewpoint by René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) — The cry “Women-Life-Liberty!” is going up in many different parts of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is not possible to know in advance how strong the protests will be and what will be specific reforms demanded. However, the Government is worried. On October 3, Ayatollah Ali Khomeinei, the Supreme Guide, justified the repression in a talk to the Military Academy and said that the manifestations were the work of the USA and Israel.

: Rene Wadlow; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 08 October 2022

Photo: A Sri Lankan Muslim woman walks along a road in Colombo. Credit. Lakruwan Wanniarachchi / AFP. Source: The Hindu.

Sri Lanka: Muslim Women to Take Up 50% Quota Demand in Political Bodies

By Sugeeswara Senadhira

COLOMBO (IDN) — Though Muslim women have been considered a group that shunned politics for generations, in recent months, there has been a remarkable change in their awareness of political rights. Reflecting this new awareness, a group of Muslim women displayed their desire to take up the cause of Sri Lankan women for their rightful place in politics.

: South Asia Bureau; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 October 2022

Photo: Zimbabwean farmer Ruth Rugejo runs a hydroponics sytstem that uses recycled plastic bottles at her home in Gweru. Credit: Kudzai Mpangi.

Zimbabwe: Growing Lettuce in Empty Plastic Bottles

By Farai Shawn Matiashe

MUTARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Ruth Rugeje, 38, monitors plants of cabbages, a pale green leafy vegetable, grown in empty two-litre bottles in the backyard of her home in Mutapa, a high-density suburb in the central Zimbabwean city of Gweru.

This innovative farmer picked these plastic bottles from the illegal dumping sites in her neighbourhood and reused them in hydroponics.

There is a greenhouse to help control temperatures in her garden.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 07 October 2022

Pacific Leaders Urge Re-Focus on Climate Emergency

Viewpoint by Volker Boege

Toda Peace Institute issued this article, and it is being republished with their permission.

BRISBANE, Australia (IDN) — At the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2022, the leaders of the small island—or ‘big ocean’—countries in the Pacific called for a re-focus on the global climate emergency. Using their moral authority, which is grounded in the fact that their countries are the ones most affected by this emergency while contributing hardly anything to its causes, Pacific leaders demanded more decisive climate action and put forward new proposals and initiatives.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 07 October 2022

Photo: Army Officers appear on Burkina Faso TV, declaring new coup, dismissing Junta leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

Africa Would Do Well to Stop Playing with Fire

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — There is a fire in Ouagadougou. And who’s to say where it’s catching next? For the second time in eight months, the military in Burkina Faso struck in a palace coup that removed military leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

The coup leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, cited the same excuses Damiba gave for seizing power in January as reasons for his removal; namely, that the government has proved incompetent in containing the spread of Islamic insurgency, leading to increasing loss of lives among military and civilian populations.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 06 October 2022

Photo: A tactical nuclear weapon. Credit: Modern War Institute.

What If Russia Unleashes a Less Deadly Weapon on Ukraine?

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — Russia's military setbacks in Ukraine have triggered widespread speculation in the US that Russian President Vladimir Putin may unleash his stockpile of "tactical nuclear weapons", which may be less devastating than the deadly US weapons that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki back in August 1945.

In the face of battlefield losses in eastern Ukraine, Putin has warned that he "will make use of all the weapon systems available to us" if our territorial integrity is threatened.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 06 October 2022

Photo: Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Credit: Screenshot video Kremlin.ru

Doubts Whether Putin Can Defeat Ukraine and Maintain Power in Moscow

Viewpoint by John Feffer

Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF), a project of the Institute for Policy Studies, issued this article on September 28, 2022.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — When a country starts casting around for 60-year-old veterans to send to the front, you know something’s wrong. All hands don’t go on deck unless the ship is foundering. It’s not yet clear whether the Russian ship of state is taking on water. But its military effort in Ukraine is obviously at the SOS stage.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 05 October 2022

Photo: Nuon Chea (left) and Khieu Samphan in the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). (file) © ECCC/Sok Heng Nhet.

Lessons of the Cambodian-UN War Crimes Trials

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Finally, finally, the over-long, fifteen-year-long trials of the leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge leadership of Cambodia are concluded. It has been water on stone, but the conclusion is the stone has cracked.

The New York Times reported on September 22: “The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia—a United Nations-backed tribunal charged with prosecuting the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime—held its final hearing. It rejected an appeal by the ninety-one years old Khieu Samphan, the fanatical communist movement’s last surviving leader, upholding his conviction and life sentence for genocide.”

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 04 October 2022

Photo: ANC Youth League. Source: Daily Maverick.

ANC Youth League Defends Support for Referendum in Occupied Ukraine

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — South Africa's ANC Youth League is facing sharp criticism for endorsing Russia’s referenda in occupied parts of Ukraine, which many countries have dismissed as unacceptable, in violation of the United Nations Charter and illegal under international law.

The referenda were designed to pave the way for Moscow to annex the territories.