IDN-InDepthNews – Page 705 – News for a Sustainable World, Peace and Security

Asia-Pacific2016-09-012023-07-10

Buddhists Concerned About Mindfulness ‘Marketing’

By Kalinga Seneviratne*

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

BANGKOK (IDN | Lotus News Features) – Mindfulness, the meditative practice, which has its roots in Buddhism as Vipassana Bhavana, encourages people to focus on the present, rather than on the anxieties of the past or future.

In the previous decade, however, it has become somewhat of a fad around the world. Particularly in the U.S., it is now everywhere: in schools, law firms, banks, governments, and even in the U.S. military. They are all offering mindfulness sessions to staff.

ARMAMENTS2016-08-312023-07-10

The UN and the Test Ban

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball | Reproduced courtesy of Arms Control Association

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Twenty years ago this month, in a major nonproliferation breakthrough, more than 158 nations came together to adopt a resolution at the United Nations in support of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Since then, the treaty has been signed by 183 states and has established a powerful taboo against nuclear test explosions, which for decades were used to perfect new and more deadly warhead designs and fueled the global nuclear arms race. Only one country – North Korea – has conducted nuclear test explosions in this century.

UN INSIDER2016-08-302023-07-10

Kazakh Contribution to Building a Nuke Free World: A Tribute

Viewpoint by Jayantha Dhanapala*

This is a slightly modified text of Jayantha Dhanapala’s address to the Astana Conference on August 28-29 to mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.

ASTANA (IDN-INPS) – As the 550th anniversary of the Kazakh Khanate is celebrated we are fortunate, as invited participants of this important conference, to have the pleasure and privilege of being visitors in this ancient land – the Land of the Wanderers – heir to a centuries old traditional culture; a land which is at the same time a vibrant modern nation. It is a nation which since 1991 has been a trailblazer in international relations and in the specific area of building a nuclear-weapon world – the theme of our conference.

OPINION2016-08-302023-07-10

The Story of Peace in Colombia sans US-NATO Invasion

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – After 52 years of fighting between the Colombian government and FARC, the left wing, drug-dealing, Marxist, guerrilla grouping, there is a peace agreement.

I’ve always wondered why the U.S. and NATO never intervened militarily. They should have if they were to be consistent. Colombia has long been exhibit A for those who say, “Look what happens when the outside world doesn’t intervene – the local fires just burn brighter and fiercer”. (And it has been said likewise for Sri Lanka during its civil war.)

Asia-Pacific2016-08-302023-07-10

Japan Aids Healthcare for Poor Mothers in Bangladesh

By Naimul Haq

DHAKA (IDN) – Twenty-year-old Aklima Khatun gave birth to her first child on August 27 at a small clinic run by the government. The clinic, known as community clinic (CC), offers affordable but reliable maternal health services. Unlike the widely adopted traditional home deliveries, Aklima chose safer delivery in the hands of skilled birth attendants and in a hygienic environment.

All this was possible because Aklima had attended a safe motherhood programme, which promotes maternal healthcare and health education needed for mostly the poor and illiterate mothers. It is part of a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) funded project. The project aims at improving a maternal healthcare programme by revitalizing and enhancing effective care and monitoring.

DEVNET2016-08-302023-07-10

Japanese Earthquakes Show Need for Disaster Prevention

By Toshiaki Kitazato*

KUMAMOTO, Japan (IDN) – In April this year, two major earthquakes struck Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu, southern Japan, where I live and work as a lawyer.

I was resting in my house when a magnitude 6.2 earthquake with an epicentre at a depth of around 11 km struck at 21:26 on April 14. Less than two days later, this was followed by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake at 1:26.

In fear of my life, I spent three nights in a car outside the house with my family. Luckily enough, all of us were safe and my house only received minor damage, while the walls surrounding my house collapsed. JAPANESE

Latin America & the Caribbean2016-08-302023-07-10

Costa Rica Setting its Sights on Sustainable Development

By Jose Rafael Quesada*

SAN JOSE (IDN) – Costa Rica, a small Central American country with a population of barely 5 million inhabitants, has a high human development index (ranking 69th worldwide) and is considered a consolidated democracy in Latin America.

High investments in education, good development of social security and high levels of openness and competitiveness in international markets make Costa Rica a candidate for membership of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

However, the country is still experiencing serious problems in the area of endemic poverty, a low level of efficiency in the construction of infrastructure, high levels of state indebtedness and high indicators of tax evasion.

ARMAMENTS2016-08-292023-07-10

Kazakhstan Leads the Way to a Nuclear-Weapon Free World

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

ASTANA (IDN) – As divisions between States on how to achieve nuclear disarmament grow, countries like Kazakhstan must lead the way to common ground and inclusive dialogue. Such leadership is urgently needed to make our world truly secure, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a message delivered to the conference on ‘Building a Nuclear-Free World’.

Welcoming participants, President Nursultan Nazarbayev explained why Kazakhstan was leading the way: “August 29, 1991 is marked by an event of historic significance both for our country and the whole world. 25 years ago, we legally stopped the most sinister experiment of militarism, which had been tormenting our land and our people for almost 40 years. Several decades before that event, the world tried to lower the threshold of nuclear threat through the processes of nuclear weapons reduction, and a moratorium of its testing.“

UN INSIDER2016-08-292023-07-10

Global Migration Compact Negotiations to Begin in 2017

By Jaya Ramachdandran

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – The forthcoming UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants on September 19 in New York would launch a process of intergovernmental negotiations leading to the adoption of a ‘Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration’.

The intergovernmental negotiations, which will begin in early 2017, are to culminate in an intergovernmental conference on international migration in 2018 at which the Global Compact would be presented for adoption.

As the Third High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development is to be held in New York “no later than 2019”, the draft under consideration pleads for envisaging a role for the High Level Dialogue in the process.

UN INSIDER2016-08-282023-07-10

Ban’s Son-in-law Pledges to Uphold Human Dignity in New Job

Analysis by J Nasranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – An Indian national, Siddharth Chatterjee, is a new star on the horizon at the United Nations, nearly nine years after Shashi Tharoor announced his departure from the UN in the aftermath of finishing second in the 2006 elections for the Secretary-General to Ban Ki-moon.

Tharoor, meanwhile an eminent political leader in India, left the world body after having served for 29 years in different categories. Until 2007, he was a career official at the United Nations, rising to the rank of Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information in 2001.