THE WORLD

Photo: Cover the reviewed book. Credit: Amazon

Colonialism Is Not Dead, it has Acquired A New Face

Sri Lankan Author of a New Book Warns

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – In the 19th century, European powers came to Asia and used gunboats and gunpowder along with doublespeak to intimidate and coerce local rulers to accede their land for the European mercantile elites to establish plantations.

Sri Lankan born American sociology professor Dr Asoka Bandarage’s Colonialism in Sri Lanka: The Political Economy of the Kandyan Highlands 1833-1886’* published originally in 1983 documented extensively how the British used doublespeak to grab land and ultimately the country to establish coffee and tea plantations.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 25 September 2020

Photo: A community meeting. Credit: High Atlas Foundation

Mobilizing Decentralized, Participatory Energy Transition in Morocco

Viewpoint by Kerstin Opfer, Yossef Ben-Meir, Imane Akhezzane & Marine Pouget

Kerstin Opfer is a Policy Advisor with Germanwatch. Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is President of the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) in Morocco. Imane Akhezzane is a Program Director at HAF. Marine Pouget is a Project Manager at the Climate Action Network in France.

MARRAKECH (IDN) – Humankind faces the unprecedented challenge of existing on the warmest earth we have known. A lack of political will and societal awareness has inhibited the necessary, vigorous change to meet this challenge.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 September 2020

The Virality of Hate Is the Lifeline of Facebook

Viewpoint by Prabir Purkayastha

The writer is the founding editor of Newsclick.in, a digital media platform. He is an activist for science and the free software movement. This article was produced in partnership by Newsclick and Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW DELHI (IDN) – A recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article, “Facebook’s Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics,” has blown the lid off Facebook’s unholy alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the right-wing ruling party in India.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; South Asia; 23 September 2020

Photo: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Navalny Case: Why Hasn't Germany Sent Samples of the Tests to WHO?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – I begin this column with a declaration that shows my bias: if President Vladimir Putin wanted Alexei Navalny dead, he would be dead. Army sharp-shooters do not miss a sitting target. A bullet in the head would leave an imprint hard to trace, and that would be that. Novichok, a poison, creates a multitude of problems, as we have seen.

Nevertheless, let’s assume the Kremlin was guilty of poisoning Navalny with Novichok. If the authorities had kept him at home nobody would know what had nearly killed him. Then Russia would have been free to invent any cock and bull story, even though they knew it had been Novichok.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 22 September 2020

Photo: Nigerians troop out to protest the scourge of rape ravaging the country. Credit: town_crierng

A Nigerian State to Test Castration as Punishment for Rapists

By Lisa Vives

Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Is it a welcome development? Or legislative sadism?

Those are the two sides of a debate roiling Nigeria following the passage of an amendment to a law that orders convicted rapists to be surgically castrated if a man, or have their fallopian tubes removed if a woman.

If the victim is under 14, the rapist will have his testicles surgically removed before being executed, under the legislation signed by the governor of Kaduna state.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 September 2020

Photo: Makerere University main building burning (PHOTO/PML Daily).

Historic Uganda University Devastated by Overnight Blaze

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – "It is a very dark morning for Makerere University. Our iconic Main Administration Building caught fire and the destruction is unbelievable. But we are determined to restore the building to its historic state in the shortest time possible."

Those were the words of Makerere’s Vice-Chancellor Barnabas Nawangwe as fire officials struggled to extinguish the last embers of a huge fire that appear to have started in the upstairs public relations office of the Main building – also known as the Ivory Tower, spreading to floors below that house the finance and records department. Buildings that housed the classrooms were not damaged, witnesses said.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 September 2020

Photo: Stabilising the global food system. Credit: Barilla Center.

Transforming Agriculture for Food, Nutrition and Livelihoods

By Busani Bafana

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (IDN) – Horticulture farmer Prosper Chikwara, grows cabbages, spinach and kale on the idyllic family farm, 20km north of the city of Bulawayo. Word of mouth is no longer enough to sell his produce.

He now grows on order because it no longer guaranteed there will be buyers at his gate when the crops are ready for harvest.

Six months ago, Chikwara, supplied 20 000 kg of vegetables to wholesalers in the city of Bulawayo. He is now selling less than half of his produce since the Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown was imposed.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 September 2020

Photo credit: Deutsche Welle: P. Lorgerie

Besides Mali, Russia Keenly Interest in 5-Nation Sahel Group

Viewpoint on By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) – Russia’s alleged involvement in the political change on August 18 in Mali, a former French colony with the fractured economy and breeding field for armed Islamic jihadist groups (some of which are reportedly aligned with Al Qaeda and ISIS), demonstrates the first drastic step towards penetrating into the G5 Sahel in West Africa. The G5 Sahel are Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

Despite this widely published allegation, Moscow officially said it was seriously concerned about the developments in Bamako and further urged “all Malian public and political forces to settle the situation peacefully at the negotiating table”.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 21 September 2020

Photo: The port at Tema, Ghana. @ Jonathan Ernst / World Bank.

COVID-19 Crisis Underlines the Importance of Economic Diversification in Africa

Business as Usual Will Only Reinforce Economic Hardship

Viewpoint by Njuguna Ndung’u*

NAIROBI (IDN) – Africa’s low level of economic diversification is a leading factor in the continent’s economic fragility. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the risks of countries’ over-dependence on a single natural resource such as oil.

Africa is endowed with abundant natural resources, including minerals, and revenues from their export constitute a major source of income for many countries.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 19 September 2020

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in Manila, Philippines on August 6, 2017. (Photo credit: U.S. Department of State/Public Domain)

U.S. Shifts Arms Control Strategy with Russia

By Kingston Reif and Shannon Bugos

While Kingston Reif is the director for disarmament and threat reduction policy, Shannon Bugos is research assistant at the Arms Control Association.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The Trump administration has softened its demand that China immediately participate in trilateral nuclear arms control talks with the United States and Russia and says it is now seeking an interim step of a politically binding framework with Moscow.

But the administration continues to reject Russia’s offer of a clean five-year extension of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) and has said that President Trump will not consider an extension until several conditions are met.