By Ronald Joshua ROME (IDN) – Director-General QU Dongyu of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has declared 2021 a key year to move forward the transformation of agri-food systems, marked by big events, particularly the UN Food Systems Summit in New York, the Pre-Summit in Rome, and FAO’s Youth World […]
Insurrection and the Racist Underpinnings of US Exceptionalism
Viewpoint by Ravi Arvind Palat The writer is a professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton NEW YORK (IDN) – Several commentators have underlined the sharp contrast between law enforcement responses to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by mobs unleashed by President Trump on January 6, 2021, and to the […]
One Planet Summit on Biodiversity Pledges Action Commitments
By Jaya Ramachandran PARIS (IDN) – The global health crisis of the COVID 19 came as a dramatic reminder of the importance of Nature for our daily lives and economies: biodiversity is our life insurance. Yet, the damage to ecosystems is unprecedented and will have major consequences on our lifestyles in the decades to come. […]
Time to Dispense with the Rhetoric of Decolonisation
Viewpoint by Themrise Khan* KARACHI (IDN) – While preparing to speak at an online discussion on decolonising the aid sector, I searched Google Translate for a corresponding word for ‘decolonisation’ in my native language of Urdu. I couldn’t find one. In many other languages, from Arabic to Spanish, only a loanword exists. It’s just one […]
UN Chief Warns Against ‘vaccinationalism’ As 2 Million Die of COVID-19 Pandemic
By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) – “Our world has reached a heart-wrenching milestone: #COVID19 has now claimed two million lives. Sadly, the impact of the pandemic has been made worse by the absence of global coordination. In the memory of those two million souls, the world must act with far greater solidarity,” tweeted UN […]
Behind January 6 Insurrection: America Is an Oligarchy, Not A Functioning Democracy
Viewpoint by Albena Azmanova and Marshall Auerback * This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. NEW YORK | BRUSSELS (IDN) – While the majority of Americans deplored the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, it was troubling to see a YouGov poll indicating that 1 […]
The US Department of Defense Announces New Strategies for the Middle East and Space Force
By J C Suresh WASHINGRTON, D.C. (IDN) – The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has announced that changing Middle East situation means changes for Israel. In another press release it said, partnerships are key to Space Force delivering warfighting capabilities. In the first release on January 15 it said: in a sign of the changing […]
High Atlas Foundation Grows Trees in Nurseries Built on Moroccan Jewish Community Land
By Yossef Ben-Meir, President, High Atlas Foundation MARRAKECH (IDN) – On World Religion Day, January 17, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) celebrates its interfaith fruit tree nurseries, which are built on land lent in-kind by the Moroccan Jewish community and are enhancing livelihoods for Muslim farming families around Morocco. These nurseries champion the notion that […]
‘Fine Words Butter No Parsnips’ — Behind Boris Johnson’s So-Called Liberalism
Viewpoint by Sam Fowles* LONDON (IDN) – The UK has left the EU and plunged into a third lockdown (the latter some two weeks after doing so was recommended by the government’s medical advisers), while, in the US, right-wing terrorists stormed the Capitol. Strangely, all three provoked responses along the lines of “Boris Johnson is […]
Things Bode Increasingly Ill for the Horn
Compiled by EEPA BRUSSELS (IDN) – Asena TV shows images of four to six explosions outside the municipality offices in the centre of Addis Ababa, which were followed with a few shots. New Eritrean troops have entered Mekelle, roaming the city along with many intelligence agents. Tigray news reports that Al Shebaab fighters are entering […]