Peace & Justice

Photo: Kyle Rittenhouse (left, with backwards cap) walks along Sheridan Road in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 25, with another armed civilian. Adam Rogan/The Journal Times via AP.

Many Police Can Hardly Be Distinguished from Armed Vigilantes

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.

LOS ANGELES (IDN) – Police in America, whose mottos claim to “protect and serve” us, have been openly declaring allegiance with the forces of white supremacy. It is no coincidence that this has become a hallmark of Donald Trump’s presidency.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 September 2020

Photo: Zaina's mother, Cremesta, has moved into her daughter's home in Montepuez after fleeing from c UN Mozambique/Philip Hatcher-Moore conflict.

COVID-19 Pandemic Threatening Peace and Security

By Rosemary DiCarlo
UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs

Following are extensive excerpts from Ms DiCarlo's briefing to the Security Council on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on peace and security.

NEW YORK (IDN) – It is sobering to realize that the risks the Secretary-General identified to this Council on 2 July are manifesting in a number of countries across the world.

But we are also witnessing resilience, innovation and inclusive political action to mitigate the impact of some of them.

I would like to begin by highlighting three heightened risks.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 10 September 2020

Photo: One of the protests against President Trump in 2017. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Mass Direct Action Might Be the Only Way to Stop Trump from Stealing the Election

Viewpoint by George Lakey *

This article was originally published on Waging Nonviolence and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

PHILADELPHIA (IDN) – The warning drums for a contested election are beating louder and louder. At a recent campaign stop in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Trump once again laid the groundwork for not stepping down by saying, “The only way [the Democrats] are going to win is by a rigged election.”

The concern for what Trump might do in the absence of a landslide Biden victory has even led one bi-partisan group of experienced legal and political minds to run a “war-game” type experiment called the Transition Integrity Project.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 09 September 2020

Photo: Fires like this one in the city of Ventura, California, are likely to be more common, say University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) climate scientists. Credit: Ryan Cullom/Ventura County Fire Department.

Why The November U.S. Election Is Critical

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery *

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – Why did Prof. Noam Chomsky call the US Republican Party “The most dangerous organization in the history of the world”? He did so because the party is characterized by climate change denial and by support for giant fossil fuel corporations. According to the 2018 IPCC Report, the world has only a very short time left in which to stop the extraction and use of fossil fuels. If we collectively fail to do this within a decade or so, feedback loops may be initiated which will make human efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change useless. Much of the world could become uninhabitable, and a very large-scale mass extinction could be initiated.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 09 September 2020

Collage of the mass grave at the Killing Field of Choeung Ek with the leader of the Killing Fields on the left. Source: Wikimedia.

Death of The Leader Of "The Killing Fields" Raises Questions

Will there be more genocides that the world will ignore until it is too late?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – One of the cruellest men ever to have lived died on September 2 in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Kaing Guek Eav, popularly known as “Duch”, was 77 and had been convicted of mass torture by the UN/Cambodian war crimes court. He was the only one of the five defendants to admit his crimes. In July 2010 in a trial I witnessed first-hand he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

According to Seth Mydans, the New York Times’s correspondent in Cambodia at the time of the rule of Pol Pot who founded the guerrilla movement, the Khmer Rouge, “he was a schoolteacher before the Khmer Rouge came to power. He took his revolutionary name from a children’s book about an obedient schoolboy named Duch. ‘I wanted to be a well-disciplined boy who respected the teachers and did good deeds’, he told the court.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 08 September 2020

Photo: The name "United Nations", coined by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt was first used in the Declaration by United Nations of 1 January 1942, during the Second World War, when representatives of 26 nations pledged their Governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers. Source: UN

Will the United Nations Survive To See Its 100th Birthday?

Viewpoints by Franz Baumann, Fmr. UN Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations and Christopher Ankersen, Global Affairs, New York University.

NEW YORK (IDN) – "Adlai Stevenson, President Kennedy’s Ambassador to the United Nations, rebutted UN critics by recounting Adam's marriage proposal to Eve. When she hesitated, Adam asked 'is there somebody else?' Stevenson concluded that much good had been done, also some harm, but there was nothing else. That was then," recalls Dr Franz Baumann, and adds: "What about now?"

The following is the first of two rounds of Dr Baumann's stimulating exchange with Dr Chris Ankersen posted on PAIRAGRAPH – A Hub of discourse between pairs of notable individuals. The second round will be launched in the next days also on the link: https://pairagraph.com/dialogue/f47ba870e06d4df2b0cccef483592d82.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 08 September 2020

Photo: The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny marches on Tverskaya street on 26 March 2017. CC BY-SA 4.0

Reactions to Navalny's Poisoning Aren't Much Ado About Nothing

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Despite Western and European countries and many reputable international organizations calling for objective investigations that will inevitably establish facts about the alleged "poisoning" of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Russian officials have categorically turned down and confidently played against such suggestions.

He is a Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption activist. He came to international prominence by organizing demonstrations and running for political office, to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, President Vladimir Putin, and Putin's government.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 07 September 2020

Photo: Eminent political analyst, writer and former Special Envoy Abukar Arman. Source: Middle East Monitor, May 30, 2015

Somalia Remains the Epicentre of Global Geopolitical and Geo-Economic Competition

Kester Kenn Klomegah* talks to a Former Somali Diplomat Abukar Arman

MOSCOW (IDN) – Though Somalia is coveted for its strategic location and huge marine resources, it remains one of the largely unstable and underdeveloped countries in Africa. With its longest coastline, bordering Ethiopia to the west, Kenya to the southwest and the Gulf of Eden, it has attracted many foreign countries to the region.

Over the years, Somalia has been in quest of political stability, peaceful investment environment and sustainable development. There have been attempts to help the country establish its political institutions and structure political power. In 1991, for instance, a multi-phased international conference on Somalia was held in neighbouring Djibouti.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; OPINION; 03 September 2020

A New Alliance Will Likely Shape U.S. Foreign Policy for Years to Come

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback and James Carden*

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – In early June, a group of former officials from the George W. Bush administration launched a PAC in support of Joe Biden’s candidacy. The group, 43 Alumni for Biden, boasts nearly 300 former Bush officials and is seeking to mobilize disaffected Republicans nationwide.

The mobilization appears to be having an impact: More recently, “more than 100 former staff of [recently deceased Senator John] McCain’s congressional offices and campaigns also endorsed Biden for president,” according to NBC News, as well as dozens of former staffers from Senator Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 03 September 2020

Photo: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Source: SADA ELBALAD.

The Press Freedom Climate in Algeria Has Changed for The Worse Under New President

Viewpoint by M ElHaies

The writer is a consultant in CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program. This article is being republished courtesy of CPJ which first carried it on its Website on August 26.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Two weeks after the imprisonment of a high-profile Algerian journalist, a former reporter has been sentenced to prison for his online commentary, cementing fears that Algeria’s new president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, is on track to match his predecessor’s record of enacting restrictive policies toward the press even as he has promised democratic reforms.