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Landmark World Social Forum Meets Virtually

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN) – Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the international edition of the World Social Forum (WSF) will take place virtually this year from January 23 to 31, marking the 20th anniversary of an extraordinary global gathering. The forthcoming WSF will be the longest ever held since the first World Social Forum in 2001 in Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

This event will enable global and local political responses to the serious and urgent challenges in times of the profound crises of capitalism.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 14 January 2021

Photo: President Buhari with U.S. counterpart Trump at Oval Office on April 30, 2018. Credit: Information Nigeria.

How Will Africa Remember Donald Trump? Here Is How.

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) – US President Donald Trump may have lost re-election but he would be escorted out of the White House on January 19 night with a special prize: Africa’s worst friend in modern times.

Not that it matters one way or the other to Trump. We can only hope that after four years of spite, insults and hostilities, he might yet, in a fleeting moment of sanity, ask himself whether going out of his way to annoy or denigrate the continent was worth all the trouble.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 14 January 2021

Photo: In Aksum, Tigray region of Ethiopia. Credit: Rod Waddington.

As A Tigrayan, My Bond with Ethiopia Feels Beyond Repair

Viewpoint by Temesgen Kahsay

The author is an Assistant Professor at the Norwegian School of Leadership and Theology. The following appeared first in 'African Arguments' on January 12, 2021.

OSLO (IDN) – We’re told the war is not with ordinary Tigrayans. Yet as thousands suffer and our compatriots remain silent, that’s how it feels.

As a child growing up in the then Ethiopian city of Asmara in the 1980s, my parents used to ask me what I wanted to be when I was older. My answer was always that I either wanted to be a fighter pilot or army general. The reason was simple. My father was a soldier in the Ethiopian army under the Derg regime and I too wanted to kill the nation’s “enemies”.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 January 2021

Whither the G20 in a World of Declining Multilateralism: Part 2

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN | OtherNews) – A decision on the debt issue is now expected from the next G20 Summit in Rome, in November. But before that, the Global Health Summit called by the G20 together with the EU in May will be the occasion to verify what will happen with vaccines.

However, in the same month, Portugal has called the very important Social Summit of the European Union. Portugal has taken the much more substantial chairmanship of the EU, and this is a very positive contribution to a positive 2021. Portugal is today probably the most civilised country of Europe, a place of tolerance, harmony and civic engagement, much like Sweden in the ‘80s. And it is the only credible country on the issue of immigration.

: Roberto Savio; OPINION; 13 January 2021

Whither the G20 in a World of Declining Multilateralism: Part 1

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN | OtherNews) – For 2021, Italy has been given chairmanship of the Group of 20, which brings together the world’s 20 most important countries. On paper, they represent 60 percent of the world’s population and 80 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

While the shaky Italian government will somehow perform this task (in the general indifference of the political system), the fact remains that this apparently prestigious position is in fact very deceiving: the G20 is now a very weak institution that brings no kudos to the rotating chairman.

: Roberto Savio; OPINION; 13 January 2021

Image credit: Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor

Watchdog Indicates Barriers to UN Ban on Nuclear Weapons

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – Most of the world’s states can become a party to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and comply with the Treaty without making any changes to their existing policies and practices, says Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor (NWBM). But 42 states around the world currently engage in conduct that is not compatible with the new ban on nuclear weapons. In fact, Europe stands out as the region with the most states that act in conflict with the UN Treaty.

: Jamshed Baruah; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 13 January 2021

Photo: Edinburgh is the 17th largest financial centre in the world in 2020. CC BY 2.0

The Rationale for Scotland Returning to the European Union

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Trump wants to get in. Scotland wants to get out. That sounds a bit odd. Let me explain. A few days ago, the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, said she’d heard that one of the White House’s planes had asked for permission to land in Glasgow airport a day before the inauguration of the new president, Joe Biden. She said she had refused it. The surmise was that Donald Trump wanted to escape to one of his favourite golf courses, near where his mother was born.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 12 January 2021

Photo: Methodist Central Hall, London, the location of the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. Source: Wikimedia Commons

75 Years On The First UN General Assembly Resolution

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The author is Ambassador, President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Seventy-five years ago, in January 1946, the United Nations General Assembly met for the first time after the signature of the Charter. Its first resolution was adopted on the 24th of that month. The developments mentioned and commented below come to mind as we recall the outcome of that inaugural session of the Assembly.

: Sergio Duarte; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 12 January 2021

Photo: Screenshot of UN Chief addressing the UN Open Summit on January 11. Source: France TV04 /YouTube

Humanity Needs to Take a Course That Does Not Conflict with Nature

By Kwame Buist

NEW YORK (IDN) – The process of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic offers the chance to change course and put humanity on a path which is not in conflict with nature, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said January 11, urging greater efforts by everyone to protect biodiversity and step up action to counter climate change.

Guterres was addressing world leaders at the virtual One Planet Summit hosted by France, which came in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland.

: Phil Harris; UN INSIDER; 12 January 2021

Photo: Protesters in Algiers on 1 March 2019. CC BY-SA 4.0

Corruption Trials in Algeria – No More Facebook for Museveni – Nobel Laureate Denounces Rise of Armed Groups

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – While corruption trials continue for Algerian officials ousted in nation’s ‘Arab Spring’ 2010-2012, on the eve of elections, social media leader Facebook has barred Ugandan President Museveni, and the Nigerian Nobel Laureate has decried the rise of armed groups as a threat to sovereignty.

Responding to the recent rise in student kidnappings and massacres, Wole Soyinka said in an interview, Nigeria’s sovereignty has been taken over by armed groups. He asked President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to stop terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements.