NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – Africans were tweeting and messaging about the surprise outcome of U.S. elections that left many around world worried for the future. Kenyan-American and distinguished professor Makau Mutua was “quarterbacking” as a “day after” couch potato who second-guesses why his team lost.
“Hillary Clinton was defeated by “white-lash”, as opposed to “white backlash”, he wrote, an opinion shared with CNN analyst Van Jones, the African-American Harvard-educated lawyer,
By Bernhard Schell
MARRAKECH (IDN) – The South Centre and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN have decided to join together to foster South-South Cooperation with the aim to improve food security, boost rural development, and address climate change in the Global South.
The five-year cooperation agreement – in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) – builds on years of collaboration between the two organizations. It was signed on November 11 on the sidelines of the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) taking place in Marrakech; Morocco from November 7 to 18, 2016.
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – On November 25, the United Nations and civil society commemorate the International Day to End Violence against Women. That same day, UN Women – the global champion for gender equality – will kick off 16 days of global activism, until December 10, to halt a gross violation of women’s human rights that affects at least 1 in 3 women and girls worldwide.
“It is a pandemic that we must stop. To do so, we need everyone’s help,” says Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women.
By Rodney Reynolds
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has continued to reiterate the key role to be played by youth in the implementation of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, points out that many young people across the world have been disproportionately affected by economic crises and recession.
“As torch bearers of the new development agenda, you have a critical role to play in ending poverty, inequality, hunger and environmental degradation. Your actions will be central in ushering in an era in which no one is left behind,” he told a gathering of youth.
By Syed Akbaruddin, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York
Following are excerpts from his statement on November 7, 2016 at the current Session of the General Assembly’s Agenda Item 122: ‘Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters Related to the Security Council.’
While aligning with the statements made by St. Lucia on behalf of the L69 (a cross regional grouping of 42 developing countries from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific) and Germany on behalf of G4 (including Brazil, India and South Africa), he highlighted a few additional issues in his national capacity. Excerpts follow.
By Katsuhiro Asagiri and Ramesh Jaura
TOKYO | HIROSHIMA (IDN) – Striving for a nuclear-weapons-free world holds a special place in Kazakh-Japan relations, according to President Nursultan Nazarbayev who on November 9 visited Hiroshima that suffered U.S. atomic bombings along with Nagasaki 71 years ago.
Nazarbayev was on a three-day official visit to Japan less than two months before it joins the UN Security Council in January as its non-permanent member for two-years until the end of 2018. In the first year it would be working closely with Japan before Tokyo’s two-year term in the Council comes to a close at the end of 2017.
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – Three days after having congratulated Donald Trump on his election as forty-fifth President of the United States in a statement he read out to the press at the UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has in a phone call on November 12 commended the President-elect’s calls for unity – and this with apparent satisfaction.
On November 9, Ban said in a statement to the press: “In the aftermath of a hard-fought and often-divisive campaign, it is worth recalling and reaffirming that the unity in diversity of the United States is one of the country’s greatest strengths. I encourage all Americans to stay true to that spirit.”
By Kizito Makoye Shigela
DAR ES SALAAM (ACP-IDN) – Taxi driver Mwajuma Ramadhani adeptly steers her way through the crowded streets of the bustling Kariakoo business hub in Dar es Salaam. Suddenly, a motorcycle rider with two passengers cuts in, causing her to swerve abruptly to the right.
“You would have caused an accident had I not been careful,” she tells the rider, while he scowls at her, visibly shaken.
“I face these challenges almost every day,” says Ramadhani, hooting loudly at the rider. “I often ignore reckless riders like him. Just because it’s a woman behind the wheel, he’s trying to take advantage.”
By Somar Wijayadasa*
NEW YORK (IDN) – After an acrimonious election that lacked a dialogue on policy issues but filled with animosity and innuendo, Donald J. Trump won the presidency in a stunning upset that has surprised the whole world.
He single-handedly won the election despite the Republicans in Washington shamefully spurned the Republican nominee with disdain and contempt. Even the major media outlets jumped on the bandwagon indiscriminately bashing Trump’s every word. Even three days after elections, the media was still stirring the cesspool.
Trump’s win is not a win for the Republican Party because Americans voted to prove their absolute repugnance and distrust of the “established political order” in Washington.
Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne
BANGKOK (IDN) – Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential elections has drawn mixed reactions. Thailand hopes that a Trump presidency will adhere to a “balanced” foreign policy, while Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia have expressed concerns that he will dismantle the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Indonesia cautioned its citizens not to react negatively to Trump’s anti-Islamic stance and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed Trump’s victory because both are “alike”.
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