Did US Biotechnology Help to Create COVID-19?
May 30, 2022
Viewpoint by Neil Harrison and Jeffrey D. Sachs
This article was issued by Project Syndicate and is being republished with the authors’ permission.
NEW YORK (IDN) — When US President Joe Biden asked the United States Intelligence Community to determine the origin of COVID-19, its conclusion was remarkably understated but nonetheless shocking. In a one-page summary, the IC made clear that it could not rule out the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) emerged from a laboratory.…
There Should Be No Crisis in World Food Supplies
May 25, 2022
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The world is lather about the jump in world food prices in world food prices. Just this last weekend the Minister of Agriculture of Egypt was saying that, without assured grain supplies from Russia and Ukraine, he expected a rise of widespread malnutrition.
As long ago as 1974, when grain prices had just quadrupled, all the nations of the world meeting at the World Food Conference in Rome promised that by the end of the century “no child would go to bed hungry”. After a steady increase in aid for agriculture for a number of years the momentum slowed.…
South Pacific: Fiji Tourism Is Back on Its Feet with Focus on Sustainability
May 24, 2022
By Sheryl Lal and Akansha Narayan*
NADI, Fiji (IDN) — Though Fiji Islands was unaffected by the first wave of COVID-19, its tourism sector, the lifeblood of the economy, has been devastated by border closure across the world due to the pandemic in the past two years. Thus, when the Fijian Tourism Expo (FTE) returned after a break of two years, Fiji Tourism’s CEO Brent Hill was in an upbeat mood, especially because they have been able to attract over 500 participants to the Expo in these competitive times for the travel industry. But, having experienced the vulnerabilities, sustainability was very much in focus during presentations at the event here.…
Southern Africa Feels the Pinch of Russia-Ukraine War
May 22, 2022
By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Life is no longer the same for Zimbabwe’s shop owner, 34-year-old Richwell Mhasi in the capital Harare who has had to park his car at home, switching to his bicycle, cycling to and from work amid the rising prices of fuel since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war this year.
In South Africa’s Musina town closer to the border with Zimbabwe, widowed 43-year-old Laziwe Muleya living in a shack with her three children has now turned to wood fire as she can no longer afford the price of gas for cooking. (P06) ARABIC | JAPANESE | SWAHILI
Fiji: Recognising Sufferings of Indentured Labourers
May 17, 2022
By Ravindra Singh Prasad
SUVA (IDN) — Every year on May 14 Fiji’s Indian community mark the day when the first shipment of their ancestors came here as indentured labourers to work in British sugarcane plantations established in their Pacific Ocean colony.
Girmitiya is how they came to be known over time—the name derived from the term Girmit, a corruption of the English word, agreement.…
Economic Gender Equality Falls Short—Despite Investments in Girls’ Education
May 15, 2022
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A new study concludes that investments in girls’ education have failed to deliver economic equality for women.
The researchers found that while such investments have delivered many other benefits—including better health outcomes for women and their families—the economic returns are often disappointing. (P05) JAPANESE | SPANISH | THAI…
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times
May 11, 2022
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness
It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair — A Tale of Two Cities 1859
Viewpoint by Joseph Camilleri
This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
MELBOURNE, Australia (IDN) — These opening lines of Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution, offer us a remarkable insight into humanity’s current predicament.…
Endless Wars
May 10, 2022
Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte
The writer is an Ambassador, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affair, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
NEW YORK (IDN) — The Charter of the United Nations consolidated important norms of international law. Its Preamble affirms the decision to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. At the time of its adoption, the world was deeply shocked by two successive wars that directly involved Europe and other regions. In spite of the lofty purposes expressed in the Charter, several armed conflicts in many parts of the globe have marked the seventy-seven years of the United Nations’ existence. (P04) GERMAN | JAPANESE | PORTUGUESE…
Double Standards
May 6, 2022
This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf
BONN (IDN) — At present, historical analogies are very often used to explain reasons for or against the causes of the war in Ukraine or to describe the horrors of this war with historical arguments. Some of these comparisons are downright perfidious, like equating Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin.…
Climate Action Is a Matter of Global Justice
May 3, 2022
By Annalena Baerbock
Following is the text of a speech by Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs at the “Sustaining Peace amidst the Climate Crisis: The Role of Data Science, Technology & Innovation” Conference on May 2-3 in Berlin.
BERLIN (IDN) — The climate crisis is a threat to our world, to our lives.
Many of you have known this for years.…
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