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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Journalists who step out of their high-floor offices or manage to escape from their coronavirus confinement sometimes find a great story right on the street below. Such was the story discovered by Kevin Phillips Momanyi, a reporter with Kenya’s Tuko news channel.
By Justus Wanzala
BUSIA, Kenya (IDN) – It is a hot afternoon at a bus station at Mungatsi market centre, Nambale Sub-County, in Busia County, Western Kenya. Many people, many travellers, are queuing to wash their hands. Each person is maintaining a distance from the other as they wash their hands and board public service vehicles heading to their various destinations.
Hand washing before boarding public service vehicles and maintaining social distance are new practices that Kenyans are constrained to observe. They have been declared mandatory by health authorities as a safety measure to contain the spread of COVID-19.
By UN Women
"Rise for All" calls on all leaders to meet the human crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and fully fund the UN Response and Recovery Trust Fund
NEW YORK (IDN) – Supporting the UN Secretary-General's call for solidarity and urgent action in response to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, an initial group of prominent women have joined a global advocacy effort to save lives and protect livelihoods, urging leaders in all countries, across all sectors, to address the human crisis of the pandemic.
Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad*
This article was produced in partnership by Indian Punchline and Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute where it first appeared. This is the first part of a two-part series. The second is available here.
KOLKATA, India (IDN) – On April 14, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump addressed a news conference at the White House, where he said that his administration would “halt [all] funding” for the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO, founded in 1948, is the principal United Nations agency tasked with the improvement of the health of the world; it is also widely acknowledged as an agency that is best suited to deal with health emergencies.
Viewpoint by John McCarthy *
MELBOURNE (IDN) – Australia's decision to spearhead an international enquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic — read China's lack of transparency and the WHO's mistakes — is a nice hoary bellow from the domestic political ramparts, but it is a policy mistake.
The Australian opposition's support for the decision does not bathe the policy in divine light. It merely doubles the weight of the mistake.
Whichever country had decided to initiate such a policy, it would have been a bad idea.
Viewpoint by Jan Zielonka*
This article was originally published on open Democracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.
VENICE (IDN) – Our lives currently seem to be in the hands of doctors, and this concerns not only those who have caught the corona virus. New regulations on quarantine, social distancing and borders have been dictated to governments by their medical advisors.
Viewpoint by Dr P. I. Gomes
The writer is former-Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean & Pacific Group of States (now known as Organisation of Africa, Caribbean & Pacific States - OACPS)
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (IDN) – As the curve flattens in the trajectory of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in some countries, or the peak is claimed to have reached in others, allowing limited economic activities as in Wuhan, China or shopping for household necessities in Germany, widespread commentary and debate focus on economic, social, commercial and political impacts of the pandemic.
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene *
ABUJA, Nigeria (IDN) – In one of his bestsellers, The Zahir, Paulo Coelho said there are two major problems in life: knowing when to begin and knowing when to stop.
If, for example, Nigeria had closed its borders early on and enforced quarantine for all returning Nigerians, whoever they are, things might have been different today. I’m sure many others would say the same for their own countries as well.
Viewpoint by Alison Mountz*
This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.
WATERLOO, Ontario (IDN) – We are living a sudden, seismic acceleration of bordering. This acceleration unfolds not only along national borders but within them: between states and provinces, around cities, care homes, apartment buildings, hospitals, cruise ships, apartments, bodies – two metres, to be precise.
By Hamid Ali Khan Eusafzai
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (IDN) – The University of Central Asia (UCA), along with many other universities across the globe, suffered the effects of COVID-19. Being forced to close the campus and send students back home, for the health and safety of both students and staff, it also opened a new opportunity for the university to develop digital learning. But, with most students coming from remote rural mountain communities, the challenges were more daunting.
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