By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden. 25 July 2023 (IDN) — This is what is missing from Christopher Nolan’s powerful film, “Oppenheimer”- the story of the making of the atomic bomb: Yes, one can blame the wartime leadership of Japan for persisting with the war when the evidence was overpowering that Japan along with Germany had […]
The Riots in France as Seen Through the ‘Long Take’
By Sam Ben-Meir* NEW YORK. 22 July 2023 (IDN) — On June 27, Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French citizen of North African descent, was shot dead by a police officer in the Paris suburb of Nanterre when he attempted to drive off during a traffic check. His killing sparked protests and riots across France, especially […]
Why Ugandan President Museveni’s Video Shames Africa
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA. 21 July 2023 (IDN) — There’s a trending video from nine years ago. If you watched it casually, you might in fact think that it was done yesterday. It was a clip of Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, narrating what happened in 2014 […]
Listening to Obasanjo on Boko Haram in Nigeria
News Insight by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – If there is one man in Africa who combines kindness, authoritarianism of right and rationed proportions with nevertheless a deep commitment to democracy, business proficiency learnt on his now large-scale farms, political nous that outsmarts all competitors, a demanding Christian belief, honed while he was in prison for 3 years under the military dictatorship and a not overdone portion of charisma, it is Olusegun Obasanjo, the man who returned Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country and largest economy, to democracy twice and was himself the elected president for 8 years from 1999 to 2007. No wonder a majority of Nigerians consider the Obasanjo years as the best in Nigeria’s history.
I have to say in my 40 years of being a writer on foreign affairs and interviewing over 60 heads of government he is the one who has impressed me the most, for sheer brainpower, idealism and wisdom.
Biting on a Bitter Kernel of a Truth of Human Experience
LUND, Sweden (IDN | INPS) – Was the cultured and sophisticated Italian writer, Oriani Fallaci, speaking for the large numbers of working class people who end up being the ones who usually play host to immigrants, when she wrote in a leading liberal newspaper, Corriere della Serra, of her experience of trying to get rid of Somali immigrants living in a tent, performing all their bodily functions next to Florence’s cathedral?
“I don’t go singing Ave Marias or Paternosters before the tomb of Mohammed. I don’t piss or shit at the feet of their minarets. When I find myself in their countries I never forget that I am a guest and a foreigner. I am careful not to offend them with clothing or behaviour that are normal to us but inadmissible to them. Why should we respect people who don’t respect us? Why should we defend their culture or presumed culture when they don’t respect ours. I want to defend our culture and I say that I prefer Dante Alighieri or Omar Khayyam. And the sky opens. They crucify me ‘Racist, racist’.”
Educate UK Public on the History and Ideals of Europe
LONDON (IDN | INPS) – The British have a problem. A referendum on continuing membership of the European Union scheduled for June may lead to Brexit- Britain heading for the exit. Anybody with any knowledge of Europe’s war-like history knows this would be totally self-defeating.
Writing in 1751 Voltaire described Europe as “a kind of great republic, divided into several states, some monarchical, the others mixed but all corresponding with one another. They all have the same religious foundation, even if divided into several confessions. They all have the same principles of public law and politics unknown in other parts of the world.” But they also had a lot of war.
Counter-terrorism – South East Asian Style
At the recent counter-terrorism conference in Jaipur, a star-studded galaxy of policy makers, security analysts and law enforcement officials debated on tackling the Daesh threat. Some of the most positive steps to counter the terror propaganda came from South East Asia and India’s neighbourhood
By Sameer Patil
“कोई बेगुनाह फंसे नहीं, और कोई गुनहगार बचे नहीं (No innocent should suffer and no guilty should escape),” will be the cornerstone of India’s counter-terrorism policy, as stated by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in a fitting end to the India Foundation’s Counterterrorism Conference held in Jaipur on February 2-3, 2016.
Rescuing Multilateral Disarmament
KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN) – The International Peace Institute, since its inception as the International Peace Academy in 1970, has focused on strengthening the multilateral process in the conduct of international affairs with the United Nations as its focal point. It is appropriate that in the 70th anniversary year of our indispensable global institution, the UN, an Independent Commission on Multilateralism should be established by the IPI to address 16 topics of relevance to the global agenda.
It is a necessary corollary to the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals that the international community has agreed to pursue. I welcome especially the Commission’s choice of “Weapons of Mass Destruction, Nonproliferation and Disarmament” as one of them.
Seventy years ago on January 24, 1946, the United Nations General Assembly meeting in London adopted its very first resolution and, significantly, by consensus. This historic resolution established a commission of the UN Security Council to ensure:
The “control of atomic energy to ensure its use only for peaceful purposes,” and
“The elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.”
2030 Agenda Needs a Reformed UN Development System
BONN (IDN | GDI) – The 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adds new urgency to the reform of the UN Development System (UNDS). If we wish the UNDS to play a decisive role in sustainable development, it must be made fit for purpose. UN member states have recognized the need for action.
In December 2014, they launched a state dialogue in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in order to discuss the longer-term positioning of the UNDS and present concrete reform proposals by mid-2016. To date, no breakthrough has been achieved. Participating states are opting for incremental reforms within existing mandates and structures, which are unlikely to bring the necessary changes.
‘ISIS Is The Sanctuary For The Desperate’
“The ISIS’ allure is that it is fighting these Arab tyrants across the region, even as it fulfils the longing of its adherents to participate in a cause that is founded on their own history and traditions”
Last year, as he addressed the congregation from the pulpit of the mosque in Mosul, the self-styled caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi invited all Muslims to migrate to the Islamic State “because hijra to the land of Islam is obligatory”. Read in Japanese