Peace & Justice

Photo: Demonstration of 25 November 1989 in Prague. The Velvet Revolution with half a million participants in peaceful protests in Czechoslovakia from 17 November to 29 December 1989 helped undermine the authority and confidence of the 41-yearlong communist government. CC BY-SA 3.0 | Wikimedia Commons.

Peaceful Resistance Has Proved to Be More Effective Than Violent Protests

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Non-violent protests seem to be erupting all over the place. Martin Luther King would be happy. So would Mahatma Gandhi. In Russia in the eastern city of Khabarovsk marchers, each Sunday for the last three months have been protesting the arrest of their governor. In Belarus, even larger numbers protesting the recent manipulated presidential election are still marching every weekend. In the United Kingdom, the anti-Brexit marches last year were mammoth.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 13 October 2020

A Multidisciplinary Perspective of an Association of Five Major Emerging Economies

Interview by Kester Kenn Klomegah *

MOSCOW (IDN) – The BRICS, an association of five major emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has a significant influence on regional affairs and is very active on the global stage. All of them are members of the G20. While the group has received both praise and criticism from different corners of the world, BRICS is steadily working towards realizing its set goals, bilateral relations among them are also conducted on the basis of equality and mutual benefits.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; OPINION; 12 October 2020

Photo: Mr Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of Boston Global Forum

On Way to A Transatlantic Alliance on Digital Governance

A New Social Contract in the Age of Artificial Intelligence'

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – People around the world are realizing that capitalism driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) requires crafting a new sort of Social Contract, based on "stakeholder capitalism", that is, capitalism that benefits everyone.

"Such capitalism cannot measure itself by money alone, but instead must encompass all aspects of human life, using metrics such as those developed to quantify the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," says Alex Pentland, director of MIT Connection Science, an MIT-wide initiative. He previously helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab and the Media Lab Asia in India.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 11 October 2020

Photo: A creek in southern New Caledonia. Red colours reveal the richness of the ground in iron oxides and nickel.) CC BY 2.5

New Caledonia Votes to Remain a French Colony, But Indigenous Kanakas Smell Independence of the South Pacific Islands

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – Voters in the South Pacific Islands French colony of New Caledonia have narrowly voted to remain with French rule, but indigenous Kanaks have been celebrating the outcome of October 5 vote as taking a step closer to independence. A third referendum needs to be held in two years' time under the Noumea Accord, and they feel that majority of voters would then vote for independence.

Kanaks are an indigenous Melanesian race that has settled in the islands 3,000 years ago. Ethnographic research has shown that Polynesian seafarers have intermarried with the Kanaks over the centuries.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 06 October 2020

Putin Pleads For 5P Retaining Their UN Security Council Veto

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) – While U.S. President Donald Trump has availed of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations to continue China-bashing, for example, holding "China accountable for their actions" such as for unleashing "this plague" (COVID-1), and emitting "more toxic mercury into the atmosphere than any country anywhere in the world", Russian President Vladimir Putin preferred to focus on the role of the world body in maintaining international peace and security.

Trump believes that China is dumping "millions and millions of tons of plastic and trash into the oceans," overfishing other countries’ waters, destroying "vast swaths of cor.al reef".

: Radwan Jakeem; THE WORLD; Russia; 03 October 2020

Photo: Nigeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja. CC BY-SA 4.0

Regional Autonomy Could Resolve Nigeria's Multifaceted Problems

Viewpoint by Kester Kenn Klomegah *

MOSCOW (IDN) – The African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have turned blind-eyes to the unprecedented and indiscriminate killings of civilians mostly in the southern parts of Nigeria. Nevertheless, the International Court of Criminal Justice (ICC) has utterly refused to categorise these as a genocide in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Amnesty International (AI), the International Crisis Group and local human rights organisations, have documented, in several reports, frequent attacks on civilians, mostly Igbo and Yoruba, in the Christian dominated southern Nigeria.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 October 2020

Image: Map of the Caribbean Sea and its islands. CC BY-SA 3.0

Caribbean Concerns Find Voice at 75th Anniversary of the UN

Viewpoint by P.I. Gomes*

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) – The High-level Meeting to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations was held on September 21, 2020, with a view to adopting a political declaration on the theme: “The Future We Want, the United Nations We Need: reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism”.

The opening Plenary session observed the usual formalities of statements by the President of the General Assembly (GA) and by Presidents of the Security Council, Economic & Social Council and of the International Court of Justice.

: Dr. Patrick Gomes - former ACP Seretary-General; UN INSIDER; 30 September 2020

Europe Pivots Towards Indo-Pacific Amid Row with China

By Atul Aneja

The writer is a veteran Indian journalist who reported conflicts from Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Benghazi, Kabul, Tehran, and Dushanbe. He is an expert on the Middle East and China political affairs. He was Strategic Affairs Editor of an eminent Indian newspaper, The Hindu.

CHENNAI (IDN) – Enticed for decades by China, which became the fulcrum of its Asia policy, continental Europe has finally broken ranks and pivoted towards the democracies of the Indo-Pacific, in its search for allies.

: Europe Editor; THE WORLD; South Asia; 29 September 2020

Reviewing the Book 'Myth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era’

By Kannan Salazar

BANGKOK (IDN) – With Julian Assange’s “show trial” in progress in the UK for alleged national security breaches in the US, and a cold war era propaganda campaign between the Anglo-American media and China gathering momentum, a timely new book sheds some light on how the so-called “free media” has ditched its libertarian values.

The book titled Myth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era published by SAGE 2020 and written by Sri Lankan born journalist and communication scholar Kalinga Seneviratne* challenges the Anglo-American media’s claim to be an objective ‘free media’. He maintains that the western media fails to understand that objectivity in news is subjective.

: Devendra Kamarajan; ARTS & CULTURE; 20 September 2020

Call for a Strengthened and Reformed United Nations System

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – Ahead of the September 21 High-Level Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations, a group of prominent former government and UN leaders are calling on current world leaders to take action to strengthen the United Nations system.

According to the UN2020, in an Open Letter published on September 18, former UN and government officials from around the world are calling for the 75th anniversary to lead to “a stronger, more accountable, inclusive multilateral system.”