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Society doesn't need a large group with a license to kill.
Viewpoint by Justin Podur *
Justin Podur is a Toronto-based writer and a writing fellow at Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. You can find him on his website at podur.org and on Twitter @justinpodur. He teaches at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. He is the author of the novel Siegebreakers.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | KAMPALA (IDN) – A petition to rename roads honouring British colonial figures has gathered thousands of names. The appeal ties into the Black Lives Matter protests.
Running through the centre of the city and past Kampala's impressive Independence Monument is Speke Road, named after the British explorer and officer John Hanning Speke, the first European to identify the source of the Nile.
The U.S. military’s budget, like so many police department budgets, is bloated, and diverts our tax dollars into forces of domination and violence. Now is the time to question our spending priorities at the local and federal level.
Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar
This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.
Viewpoint by Dr Kumar Mahabir
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO (IDN) – The National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago has been strangely silent on the rowdy and relentless campaign to remove the historical statue of Christopher Columbus in the capital city of Port of Spain. I was the Vice Chairman of the Trust from 2013 to 2015.
The Trust seems to place its current Afro-centric agenda above and beyond the public and national interest.
By Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch Podcasts
NEW YORK (IDN ) – The Black Lives Matter movement has spread quickly around the world. Over the last several weeks, there have been BLM demonstrations in nearly every major city in Europe. Tens of thousands of people showed up for protests in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, and London, just to name a few. There were also many protests across Latin America, Australia – even Asian cities like Seoul and Tokyo saw Black Lives Matter protests.
So how did the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota spark an anti-racism and civil rights movement that extends far beyond the United States?
By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK (IDN) – Twenty-two United Nations senior African officials who hold the rank of Under-Secretary-General have in their "personal capacity" signed "Joint Reflections" on the last few weeks of protests at the killing of George Floyd in the hands of police, which they say in no uncertain terms have left them all "outraged at the injustice of racism that continues to be pervasive in our host country and across the world".
Viewpoint by Alice Slater
The writer serves on the Board of 'World Beyond War', and represents the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation at the United Nations.
NEW YORK (IDN) –The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) just issued its 2020 Yearbook, reporting on developments in armaments, disarmament, and international security. In light of the drumbeat of frightening news about growing hostility between the dominant nuclear-armed states vying for power, SIPRI describes a bleak outlook for arms control. It notes ongoing nuclear weapons modernization and new weapons development, space weaponization moving forward, without check or controls, and a disturbing increase in geopolitical tensions together with a rapid deterioration in practices and possibilities for cooperation and monitoring between the great powers.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) – "The United States (US) has always taken pride in calling itself the 'Land of the Free' and appointed itself to be the global cop to punish others who violate human rights. … It has poked its nose in the affairs of almost all countries, all the time presenting itself as the torch-bearer of human rights", noted India's WIONEWS TV.
In addition to the murder of African-American George Floyd by the police in broad daylight, police cars have been shown to ram into unarmed protestors.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Years of inaction over the fate of an 18-foot statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader with the Royal African Company (RAC) was decided on June 7 with the toppling of Colston’s bronze statue in Bristol, England.
The statue was pulled down by a group of protestors at a demonstration in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and George Floyd. The figure was dragged to the Bristol harbour and flung into the River Avon.
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*
COPENHAGEN (IDN) – Elimination of excessive economic inequality makes societies happier and better, underlines the incontrovertible evidence that a new freely downloadable book presents.
Going back to history, the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas during the 17th to 19th centuries. Sir Isaac Newton's rational explanations for cosmic phenomena demonstrated that reason is better than superstition.
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