Viewpoint by Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK (IDN) — The opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state by many Israelis is based on national security concerns, which presumably offers a justification for the continuing occupation. The truth is that the occupation itself—not a Palestinian state—poses the gravest danger to Israel’s security.
Looking Back on the Cuban Missile Crisis Of 60 Years Ago
Viewpoint by Katrina vanden Heuvel* NEW YORK (IDN) — October 16 marks 60 years since the Cuban missile crisis—the 13-day standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union widely regarded as the closest we ever came to global nuclear war. On this anniversary, as we veer terrifyingly close to the brink of Armageddon once […]
Child Massacre Exposes Weaknesses in Thai Society
By Kalinga Seneviratne BANGKOK (IDN) — The massacre of 37 people, 26 of whom were preschool children taking an afternoon nap in their day-care centre, in a remote north-eastern township of Thailand on October 7 has shocked the nation, with many social media postings calling for the extrajudicial killing of those involved in the drug […]
Make Persons with Disabilities Integral Players in Fully Inclusive Societies
Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana The writer is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). BANGKOK (IDN) — Ten years ago, the Asia-Pacific region came together and designed the world’s first set of disability-specific development goals: the Incheon Strategy to “Make […]
Digital Finance Can Drive Women’s Economic Empowerment in Africa
From Africa Renewal By Economic Commission for Africa UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A new report reveals persistent barriers in the digital finance sector that limit women’s economic empowerment in Africa while recommending policy responses to overcome them. Commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the latest edition of the biennial African Women’s […]
WFP Starts Afresh in DR Congo’s Violence-Torn Northeast
By Benjamin Anguandia, WFP KINSHASA (IDN) — Kesereka, who prefers to go by Sadi, accepts a stack of cash from a World Food Programme (WFP) officer in a small room in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s northeastern town of Mabalako. He counts it carefully, folding it neatly, so it fits in his small pocket.
Don’t Just Worry About Nuclear War — Do Something to Help Prevent It
Viewpoint by Norman Solomon SAN FRANCISO (IDN) — This is an emergency. Right now, we’re closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war than at any other time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. One assessment after another has said the current situation is even more dangerous. Yet few members of Congress are advocating for any […]
Ukraine War Stresses the Need for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — We were standing in Hiroshima looking at a stonewall. All there was to see was a shadow of a man. It had been etched into the wall at the moment of his obliteration by the blinding light of the first atomic bomb. Olof Palme, prime minister of […]
Peace Foundation Leader Asks: “Is the US Leading the War on Tigray?”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The disastrous war in the Horn of Africa is being guided secretly by the US, according to briefings reported by the World Peace Foundation (WPF), a philanthropic foundation for research into peace processes affiliated with Massachusetts-based Fletcher School of Law. The year-long conflict in Ethiopia […]
GMOs that Promote Poverty and Dependency Gain Foothold in Kenya
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Kenya has officially entered into the cultivation and use of Genetically Modified Organisms—known as GMOs—that have been banned in 26 countries. This month, Kenyan authorities announced plans to lift the country’s ban on genetically modified crops, in part to deal with a record drought that […]