By Rita Joshi BERLIN (IDN) – A new report has called on Germany and the European Union to convene a United Nations summit on ‘Digitalization and Sustainability’ in 2020 – 30 years after the UN Conference on Environment and Development, widely known as the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The central theme of the […]
Hookah Culture Invades Central Asia
By Milena Melnikova* NAYRN, Kyrgyzstan (IDN) – The culture of smoking hookah is becoming popular among young adults in the Central Asian countries of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, because of its affordability as well as due to its being legal as a way to relax and get rid of the accumulated stress, in the absence […]
Rich Nations Slash Development Aid to Neediest Countries
By Krishan Dutta PARIS (IDN) – “Donor countries are not living up to their 2015 pledge to ramp up development finance and this bodes badly for us being able to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría has cautioned. The warning of the head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development […]
Dictators Striving to be Thinkers and Writers
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – “Since the days of the Roman Empire”, Daniel Kalder wrote in his book ‘The Infernal Library’, “dictators have written books, but in the twentieth century there was a Krakatoa-like eruption of despotic verbiage, which continues flowing to this day.” It’s a strange thing but true that many […]
Think Tank Supports NAM Call for Reform of the UN System
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – Backing the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies (IINS) has called for “comprehensive, transparent, inclusive and balanced” reform of the United Nations. Recalling the final document of the 2018 NAM Ministerial Meeting held in Baku, Azerbaijan, the think tank emphasizes that the reform […]
The Pacific Reaffirms Commitment to the ACP Group of States
By ACP Press BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – Minister for National Planning and Monitoring of Papua New Guinea, Richard Maru, has assured the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group that Papua New Guinea will continue to play an active role in the affairs of the ACP Group of States. Minister Maru met the ACP Secretary General, Dr. […]
African Migrants Strive to Preserve Their Cultural Heritage
By Sharon Birch-Jeffrey* NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – To experience a taste of African culture deep inside the Big Apple, visitors – including many Senegalese – turn to Le Petit Senegal (Little Senegal), a West African neighborhood in West Harlem, New York. African grocery shops, fabric stores, hair braiding parlors and regional restaurants sit shoulder to […]
Angola Plans Manufacturing Russian Military Equipment
By Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW (IDN) – Many African countries are looking for profitable business, investment and trade rather than development aid. Now Angola, a south-central Africa, has announced corporate plans to diversify its state business away from purchasing to full-fledged manufacturing of Russian military equipment for the southern African market, and possibly other regions […]
Parliamentarians Demand ‘Greater Presence’ of ACP-EU Compact at the UN
By Robert Johnson BRUSSELS (IDN) – Parliamentarians of the compact of more than 105 countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group and the European Union (EU) are demanding “a greater presence” at the United Nations (UN). As a minimum, an ACP-EU coordination unit should have a seat at the UN, says a landmark […]
Terrorism Comes Unannounced to Laid Back New Zealand
By Dr Palitha Kohona The writer, former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and former Foreign Secretary, returned recently from a visit to New Zealand. COLOMBO (IDN) – White extremism and terrorism may appear to be uncoordinated and spontaneous. It certainly lacks the ‘viciousness incarnate’ tag conferred by the media […]