IDN-InDepthNews

Asia-Pacific2016-12-022023-07-10

An Island Where World’s First Cultured Pearls Were Created

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – To adorn the necks of all women in the world with pearls: this was the “humble ambition” of Kokichi Mikimoto, who died in September 1954 at the age of 96, says Noboru Shibahara, Manager of the Mikimoto Pearl Island, as we stand in front of a bronze statue of the man after whom Japan’s famous island is named.

Mikimoto was fully aware that “in order to realize his ambition, peace and trusted relations among nations have to exist based on democratic principles as advocated by Yukio Ozaki”, adds Shibahara.

Also remembered with his pseudonym ‘Gakudo’, Ozaki served in the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet for 63 years (1890–1953), and is still revered as the “God of constitutional politics” and the “Father of the Japanese Constitutional Democracy”.

Asia-Pacific2016-12-012023-07-10

A Japanese NGO Keeps Yuki Ozaki’s Spirit Alive

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

ISE | TOKYO (IDN) – Takako Doi is a warm-hearted, youthful and dynamic woman in her late sixties wedded to the cause of promoting educational and exchange programmes to foster international cooperation and friendship. She is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, and her mind, ears and eyes are open to the global community.

Doi is President of Gakudo Kofu, a not-for-profit organisation (NPO) launched in 2006 and tasked since 2010 with administration of the historic Ozaki Gakudo Memorial House supported by the Ise City, known as the ‘Holy City’ because it hosts Ise Jingu, the Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine complex centered on two main shrines, Naikū and Gekū, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Read in Japanese

Africa2016-12-012023-07-10

Morocco Hosts the World’s largest Solar Plant

By Fabíola Ortiz

MARRAKECH (IDN) – The ambitious Moroccan plan for harnessing heat coming from the sun in the Sahara desert and turning it into electricity has drawn international attention, also during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22), held in Marrakesh, between November 7-18.

Two hundred kilometres Northeast drive from the COP22 venue lies the 450 hectares Noor solar complex. When it starts fully operating in 2018, it will power over one million households and curb 760,000 tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions.

UN INSIDER2016-11-302023-07-10

Trump Nominates Nikki Haley as Ambassador to the UN

By Suresh Jaura*

TORONTO (IDN) – First American-born Indian-origin woman, Nikki Haley, made history in U.S. by being nominated to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, by President-elect, Donald Trump, on November 23. She is one of the two women in Trump cabinet, the other is, Ms Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education nominee.

Haley, 44, born as Nimrata Nikki Randhawa on January 20, 1972, is the American-born daughter of Indian immigrants. Her parents, Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa, immigrated to Canada after her father received a scholarship offer from the University of British Columbia. Her father moved his family to South Carolina after earning PhD in 1969.

DEVNET2016-11-302023-07-10

Facilitating Agricultural Co-ops in Indochina

By Fumiyasu Akegawa*

This advertorial is part of IDN’s media project jointly with Global Cooperation Council and DEVNET Japan.

TOKYO – After ensuring cooperation from associated government ministries in Japan and United Nations organizations such as the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as well as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), DEVNET Japan is in the process of launching agricultural cooperatives in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar – the mainland Southeast Asian countries, historically known as Indochina.

UN INSIDER2016-11-302023-07-10

UN Concerned about Weak Trade Performance in Asia-Pacific

By Devinder Kumar

BANGKOK (IDN) — The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) highlights in a new report that the region’s trade flows are wavering amid sluggish global economic and trade growth, downward movement of world commodity prices and an uncertain policy environment.

According to ESCAP’s Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2016 released on November 29, the volume of exports of goods increased by 3 per cent in 2015, the nominal value of exports and imports by the region experienced a significant decline, of 9.7 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

UN INSIDER2016-11-292023-07-10

UNIDO Key Supporter Germany Deepens Bilateral Ties

By Jaya Ramachandran

VIENNA (IDN) – Germany and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have agreed to intensify and expand their relations. UNIDO will establish an Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) in January in the Bonn UN Campus. Germany will also provide funds to UNIDO for implementing three projects.

German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Gerd Müller and the Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), LI Yong signed an agreement on November 21 to establish ITPO in Bonn. The signing ceremony took place on the margins of UNIDO’s 50th Anniversary celebrations at the Vienna International Centre.

OPINION2016-11-292023-07-10

Understanding Trump’s Beefed Up Economics

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Donald Trump is changing the right wing’s economic spots. He is doing what Franklin Roosevelt did at the time of the Great Depression by increasing government spending – although it was the rearmament brought on by entering World War 2 that was an even more important factor in lifting America out of the doldrums.

Trump is following what Hitler did so successfully before World War 2 when he rebuilt Germany’s economic strength with autobahns and industrial subsidies (not rearmament in the beginning, as is often said). He is walking in the footsteps of President Richard Nixon who when he changed course with a new economic policy said, “We are all Keynesians now”.

Africa2016-11-282023-07-10

African Livestock Experts Focus on Climate-Resilient Fodder

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Demand for milk and livestock products in Kenya is growing fast and has already outstripped supply in some parts of the country. One of the results is that many smallholder farmers are venturing into rearing dairy cattle and, to some extent, dairy goats.

One of these farmers is Emily Mukwambo, who keeps six dairy cows in her three and half acre farm in Busia County, western Kenya. However as Emily and thousands of other small-scale farmers embrace dairy farming, it is emerging that climate change is affecting the availability of fodder and forage leading to farmers failing to meet the nutritional needs of their livestock. Compounded by the lack of information some farmers have about these needs, milk production is being affected, leading to diminished incomes.

Asia-Pacific2016-11-272023-07-10

Malaysian Buddhist Monk Empowers Education of Muslim Children

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 12th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

KUALA LUMPUR (IDN | Lotus News Features) – A grand Chinese temple on the hills of central Kuala Lumpur overlooking the Malaysian capital was the site of a unique event on November 27 where a Sri Lankan born Buddhist monk’s vision to empower the education of poor Malaysian children, most of them Muslims, was taking place without the glare of any television cameras or the national media.