Reduced Inequalities

Photo credit: Flickr/Paul Stein.CC BY-SA 2.0

History Gives Us Reason for Hope That Inequality Can Be Beaten

Viewpoint by Ben Phillips*

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.

LONDON (IDN) – 2020 isn’t just the year of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s also the year when protest has gone viral. Covid-19 has both supercharged our inequalities and shone a sharper light on them, exposing the reality that the status quo cannot hold. It has opened up a moment of opportunity, and young people are showing how we can seize that moment by building up a movement.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 07 September 2020

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres during the virtual town hall with women's civil society organizations. Credit: screengrab, UN Web TV

UN Chief Concerned Over Deepening Existing Inequalities

By António Guterres

The following are excerpts from UN Secretary-General António Guterres' remarks at Town Hall with Young Women from Civil Society Organizations on August 31. on the sidelines of the Commission on the Status of Women.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The COVID-19 pandemic has in the past six months turned our world upside down. Beyond the virus itself, the response has had a disproportionate and devastating social and economic impact on women and girls.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 02 September 2020

Photo: The Slave Ship by J.M.W. Turner depicts the Zong massacre. Credit: Wikimedia

How the Shadow of Slavery Still Hangs over Global Finance

Viewpoint by Philip Roscoe*

ANDREWS, Scotland (IDN) – When the infamous Zong massacre trial began in 1783, it laid bare the toxic relationship between finance and slavery. It was an unusual and distressing insurance claim – concerning a massacre of 133 captives, thrown overboard the Zong slave ship.

The slave trade pioneered a new kind of finance, secured on the bodies of the powerless. Today, the arcane products of high finance, targeting the poor and troubled as profit opportunities for the already-rich, still bear that deep unfairness.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 26 August 2020

Photo: The Indian government is apparently trying to find some mechanism for informal sector workers. Credit: Press Trust of India (PTI).

India's COVID-19 Experience May Usher in a More Humane World for Women and Informal Sector Workers

Viewpoint by Lakshmi Lingam*, Tata Institute of Social Studies

MUMBAI (IDN) – Women in India spend 297 minutes on unpaid domestic work each day, 245 minutes more than men who contribute only 52 minutes. Women’s work is not accounted for in the national accounting system, making their contributions unrecognised and unvalued.

An Oxfam report observes that the unpaid work of Indian women plays a crucial role in sustaining economic activity, equivalent to 3.1 per cent of GDP. Economic and social challenges, including domestic violence, dowry at the time of marriage and the trafficking of women, coalesce to sustain and perpetuate gender inequalities in India.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 19 August 2020

Chronic Underfunding of Public Health and Racist Policies Responsible for the Impact of COVID-19 in the US

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – It is understandably tempting to drop all the blame for America’s catastrophic response to COVID-19 on the big desk in the Oval Office. But there’s more to the story than epic incompetence, grift and delusion at the highest levels of government. The stark divide in the level of health care from testing to treatment is divided by wealth and the legacy of systemic racism.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 16 August 2020

Photo; Kamala Harris and Biden signing paperwork to officially get on the ballot in all 50 states. Source: @KamalaHarris

Jo Biden's Kamala Harris Choice Is Consequential Beyond 2020

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) – Joe Biden’s pick of Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) as his running mate for the 2020 Democratic presidential ticket has generated strong responses. While many Democrats are elated at the idea of seeing a brown-skinned woman of Indian and Jamaican heritage in such a position, progressives are debating one another about Harris’ mixed record on bread-and-butter issues such as criminal justice reform, foreign policy, and health care.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 14 August 2020

Photo: Thousands of protestors march on newly named “Black Lives Matter Plaza” in Downtown DC on June 7.

Spreading the Seeds of Multiculturalism: A Moroccan Perspective

By Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts

VIRGINIA, USA (IDN) – Since early June, an estimated 15 to 26 million people across the United States have participated in protests against the death of George Floyd and the persistence of systematic racism in America, making it one of the largest movements in the country’s history.

Recent trends have shown that support for the Black Lives Matter movement—now more than 67%— has doubled since 2016, and the majority of Americans favour working directly with Black Americans to solve local issues.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 August 2020

Photo: Kant with friends, including Christian Jakob Kraus, Johann Georg Hamann, Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel and Karl Gottfried Hagen. Public Domain | Wikimedia Commons

What Is Morally Wrong With Discrimination? A Kantian Analysis

Viewpoint by Dr Sam Ben-Meir

Dr Sam Ben-Meir is a professor of philosophy and world religions at Mercy College in New York City.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Supreme Court decided on June 15 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. Discrimination ‘because of sex’ is unlawful. But what is it that makes discrimination morally wrong? It is useful to examine this from a Kantian standpoint because Immanuel Kant lays the foundation for recognizing the inherent dignity of every individual – and discrimination is indeed an affront to human dignity.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 29 July 2020

Photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivers the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UN Chief Makes a Passionate Plea for Discarding Fallacies and Falsehoods

The Rich and Poor are Not Sailing in the Same Boat

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres has in a surprise dramatic move, castigated a series of "fallacies and falsehoods" perpetrated particularly on the deprived of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed all lies such as the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all; the fiction that unpaid care work is not work; the delusion that we live in a post-racist world; the myth that we are all in the same boat".

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 19 July 2020

The Pandemic of Racism in America

Viewpoint by Dr Alon Ben-Meir

The writer is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU). He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The rage, desperation, and determination which continue to bring tens of thousands of Americans to the streets in protest against racism and injustice hopefully will be just the beginning.