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Donors Spend Less on Refugees, More on Poorest Countries

By Rita Joshi

PARIS (IDN) – Foreign aid from 30 opulent nations, designated as "official donors", totalled USD 146.6 billion in 2017, signifying a small decrease of 0.6% from the previous year in real terms because they spent less money on refugees hosted by them. But countries most in need of aid received more funds.

Aid, formally labelled as Official Development Assistance (ODA), constitutes over two thirds of external finance for least-developed countries. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is pushing for ODA to be better used as a lever to generate private investment and domestic tax revenue in poor countries to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

: Rita Joshi; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 13 April 2018

Image credit: Modern world caricature illustration by Steve Cutts. Source: boredpanda.com

Reflection on Today's World and Our Era

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

The author wrote this as a reaction to the article by Roberto Savio entitled ‘Ten Reflections on the Crisis‘ which was published by IDN on 8 April 2018. – The Editor

ROME (IDN) – The reflections of Roberto Savio touch problems which have roots that are not recent and have become increasingly serious over time. His arguments coincide with mine, which are directed both to the present and to a re-reading of the past in the light of contemporary needs. With no claim to being exhaustive, the following are a number of considerations stimulated by Savio's article.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 12 April 2018

Photo: Lula climbs the ramp leading to the Palácio do Planalto, with Vice President José Alencar, for the official ceremony marking the beginning of their second term, in 2007. CC BY 3.0 br

Lula da Silva – Condemned by the Courts, Absolved by History

Viewpoint by Boaventura de Sousa Santos*

COIMBRA, Portugal (IDN) – The Lula da Silva case blatantly shows that something is rotten in the Brazilian judicial system. It brings to the fore procedures and practices that are incompatible with the basic principles and guarantees of democracy and the rule of law, in a way that needs to be denounced and democratically opposed.

The principle of the independence of the courts is one of the basic principles of modern constitutionalism. It ensures that citizens have the right to a justice that is free from pressures and interference on the part of political or factual powers, whether national or international.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 11 April 2018

Photo: This picture, taken at Ankor Wat and depicts the Hindu influence in Mekong/Cambodian architecture, shows the 'churning of the ocean' (samudra manthana in Sanskrit), which is one of the best-known episodes in the Hindu mythology. It explains the origin of the nectar of immortality (amrita). Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

Ganga Initiative Brings Culture Into New Asian Trade Routes

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 23rd in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

BANGKOK (IDN) – A recent conference at Thammasat University in Bangkok brought together Indian and Southeast Asian scholars to discuss re-building cultural links along two major rivers in Asia – the Ganges and the Mekong – that in ancient times provided transport links to build great civilizations influenced by Hindu and Buddhist philosophies and promote cultural flows.

The celebration of the New Year April 14 in the region based on astrology and harvesting cycle epitomizes these cultural links.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 11 April 2018

Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama said that the then president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, was “the most popular president on earth”. This picture shows Obama greeting him in the Oval Office in March 2009. Credit: White House.

Sending Brazil's Lula To Jail Is Absurd

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – President Barack Obama said that the then president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, was “the most popular president on earth”. Now, while fighting for a new term in office, he has been brought low, imprisoned for 12 years for corruption.

He is still the most popular politician in Brazil and until he went to prison on April 7 he was the favourite to win October’s election. After his previous terms in office he left behind a country, one that had been the most unequal society on earth, see a quarter of its population lifted out of poverty, a fast-growing economy and a sharp increase in its lower-middle class as millions got jobs and/or pay rises.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 10 April 2018

Photo: Omoyele Sowore | Credit: Daily Post Nigeria

A Journalist Joins the Presidential Race in Nigeria

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LAGOS (IDN) – Next year’s race for the presidency in Nigeria just got a lot more interesting as a crusading journalist – an upstart known for exposing the millions and billions stolen by a national “loot-ocracy” – announced his candidacy for the nation’s top job.

As news spread that the journalist, Omoyele Sowore, was testing the waters for national office, President Muhammadu Buhari, age 75, reminded Nigerians that he too would be a candidate, ending months of speculation that the President might step down.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 April 2018

Photo: A forensics tent covers the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal fell unconscious. CC BY 2.5

Trade War, Skripal, Arsenic and Old Lace

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

ROME (IDN) – Like the rest of humanity, I have no way of identifying the instigator of the attempted assassination of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. But I venture some reasoning, just to clear the field of fantasies and focus on real problems.

It is true that personalities unwelcome to the Kremlin sometimes meet with serious and mysterious pathologies. One of the famous cases is that of Viktor Yushchenko, a candidate for the presidential elections of Ukraine in 2004, in an election campaign during which, among others, Russian President Vladimir Putin travelled seven times to that country to support Yushchenko's competitor Viktor Yanukovych.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 10 April 2018

UN Shipping Agency Slammed for Stalling Climate Action

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Transparency International has criticised the United Nations shipping agency for delaying action on climate change. The global anti-corruption organization warns in a new study that the private shipping companies' concerns are impacting the policymaking process at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), undermining its ability to effectively regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from maritime trade.

IMO creates "a regulatory framework for the shipping industry that is fair, effective, universally adopted and implemented." According to a report by the European Parliament, the shipping industry could contribute up to 17 percent of global CO2 emissions by 2050 if left unregulated.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 09 April 2018

Image: The consequences of climate change. Credit: NASA

Reverse the 'Individualising Imaginary' on Climate Change

By Maurizio Fratta

ROME (IDN) – The data collected by climatologists speak clearly: since 1880 – when surveys began – the summer of 2017 in Italy was the second hottest ever; the month of August recorded an average thermal excess of 2.5°C, with the fourth day of the month the hottest in the last 60 years in many cities of the country's centre.

That 2017 turned out to be Italy’s second hottest year ever (after 2016) is full confirmation of global warming scenarios.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 09 April 2018

Photo (left to right): ACP Secretary-General P. I. Gomes; President of Guyana, Brigadier David A. Granger addressing the ACP Committee of Ambassadors; and Ethiopian Ambassador Teshome Toga Chanaka, Chair of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors for the period 1 February 2017 - 31 July 2017. Credit: ACP

ACP Group Looks Forward To Becoming 'Effective Global Player'

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | BRUSSELS (IDN) – While preparing for talks on future relations with the European Union (EU) after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is engaged in concerted efforts to reshape itself into "an effective global player" serving as a catalyst and an advocate for defending, protecting and advancing multilateralism, within the overarching framework of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An important factor for this objective to be achieved, as the ACP Secretary-General, Dr. Patrick I Gomes, told IDN's 'UN Insider', is the Revision of the Georgetown Agreement named after the capital of Guyana, where it was signed in 1975. The Revision would allow the ACP Group to deepen and widen its foundations.