THE WORLD

Image: EU-BREXIT courtesy Live Trading News

COVID-19 and European Union – For Whom The Bell Tolls

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn *

NEW DELHI (IDN) – While reading observations of Douglas Webber, Professor of Political Science at INSEAD in his article "Why Brexit Has Not and Will Not Trigger EU Disintegration," made one speculate on whether if one had applied the principle of Co-evolution to the EU, the conclusion would have been different.

The fundamental premise of Co-evolution is that organizations evolve in relation to their environments while at the same time these environments evolve in relation to them. And events like COVID-19 have enormous impacts that dwarf everything else.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 15 April 2020

African Climate Groups Deplore Development Bank for Funding High-Risk Pipeline

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A climate justice movement of over 100 major organizations in Africa and abroad has joined hands to press the African Development Bank (AfDB) to drop its support of an "exceptionally high-risk project" that threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in East Africa.

In a letter to the Bank President AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina, leaders of environmental and social groups from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and South Africa, among others, warned that the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) posed global climate risks and environmental damage including harm to freshwater supplies and biodiversity in the region.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 April 2020

Photo credit: A woman in Somalia washes clothes with scarce water, March 24, 2017. USAID.

Sustainable Water Governance Is Critical for Achieving Peace in Horn of Africa

By Anniek Barnhoorn, Florian Krampe, Luc van de Goor, Elizabeth Smith & Dan Smith*

STOCKHOLM (IDN) – As the global climate changes, climate-related security risks are making the existing political, social, and economic challenges even more complicated. The 230 million people who live in the Horn of Africa are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change such as droughts and floods. Political fragility and transnational complexities make water governance a matter of regional high-level politics as well as geopolitical tensions. In short, sustainable water governance is critical for achieving resilient peace.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 14 April 2020

Photo: Joe Biden with Bernie Sanders who has endorsed his presidential candidature. Source: Twitter.

Biden's Foreign Policy Leaves Enough Room for Revamping

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Joseph Biden for president! His main rival for the Democratic Party's nomination, Bernie Sanders, endorsed him on April 13. If the world could vote, the overwhelming majority would vote for Biden, despite some misgivings. My reservations would be on his foreign policy. Like President Barack Obama he would be good on domestic policy but mistaken on much of his foreign policy.

Obama made Biden responsible for dealing with the Ukraine crisis where he fashioned an anti-Russian policy based on little evidence that this was fair to the facts. He writes now of the need to "counter Russian aggression" and that "we must impose real costs on Russia for its violations of international norms".

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 14 April 2020

Photo: Pyramids are the backbone of Egyptian tourism. Credit: IFPRI.

Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Tourism and Remittances – Insights from Egypt

Viewpoint by Clemens Breisinger, Abla Abdel Latif, Mariam Raouf and Manfred Wiebelt

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – The economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are increasingly hitting low- and middle-income countries and the poor. International travel restrictions and the full or partial closure of businesses and industries in Asia, Europe, and North America have led to a collapse in global travel and are expected to reduce the flows of remittances. Tourism and remittances are important sources of employment and incomes for the poor, respectively. This post assesses the potential impacts of the expected reductions in these income flows by using Egypt as a case study.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 April 2020

Photo (left to right): Cabinet Secretary Ambassador Ukur Yatani, the Minister of Treasury; UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya, Siddharth Chatterjee; and Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, the Minister of Devolution. Credit: standardmedia.co.ke

COVID-19: UN Joins Kenya in $267.5 million Flash Appeal

By Devendra Kamarajan

NAIROBI (IDN) – The Government of Kenya, the United Nations and humanitarian partners have launched a Flash Appeal requesting $267.5 million to respond to the most immediate and critical needs of 10.1 million people.

Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Planning, Ukur Yatani Kanacho, said: "When times are challenging you get to know your friends better. I would like to commend the Kenya United Nations Country Team and humanitarian partners for being real friends and fighting with us shoulder to shoulder as we fight this deadly pandemic."

: Devendra Kamarajan; THE WORLD; Africa; 13 April 2020

Photo: President Vladimir Putin at the virtual meeting with regional heads on combatting the spread of the coronavirus in Russia. Credit: en.kremlin.ru

The Pandemic of Fear Haunts Moscow

Viewpoint by Lyubov Sharkova*

MOSCOW (IDN) – In just a short period of time, the world in Russia has changed for everyone. I've started to notice how people around me are going mad. They've started blaming and avoiding other people, making social distance the priority of their lives. These people are well-educated, well-off, with flexible minds. It doesn't matter who they were in their life "before corona". Now all of them are afraid. And that's the reason for their madness.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Russia; 12 April 2020

Photo: Screenshot of YouTube streaming on 8 Apr 2020 by Bernie Sanders announcing his exit from Presidential campaign. Credit: Bernie Sanders' Website.

The End of Bernie Sanders' Socialist Agenda

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Socialist-Democrat Presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, ended his campaign as it lost momentum – and the coronavirus pandemic changed everything. Claiming that he is a democratic socialist, he wanted to stage a political revolution in America.

The dreaded words "socialist" and "revolution" are anathema to Americans even though they may be quite familiar with their modern day color revolutions, regime changes, and Arab Springs abroad – in the name of democracy and freedom.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 April 2020

Photo: President Trump addressing a press conference. Credit: The White House.

COVID-19: Trump's Bizarre Performance Blocked His Emergence as a 'Hero'

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) – For a man who is a self-absorbed, power hungry narcissist who wants to be recognized as one of the greatest presidents of the United States while desperately trying to be reelected, Trump failed miserably to rise to the occasion precipitated by the unfortunate advent and spread of the coronavirus.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 April 2020

Photo: Outdoor restaurant in central Stockholm, Sweden, 26 March 2020. Credit: EPA-EFE/Janerik Henriksson

COVID-19: Why the Nordics are Our Best Bet for Comparing Strategies

Viewpoint by Paul W. Franks*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Daily updated graphs illustrating the rising COVID-19 death rates in different countries raise hopes that we can understand impact of the virus and work out how to stop it from spreading further. But when comparing countries as different as South Korea, China, Italy and the UK, we may find the impression of how different interventions work is obscured by many other factors.

These countries differ in many important ways, including demographics, civil disobedience, population density, patterns of social interactions, air quality and genetics. Italy, for example, has regions with older populations than many other countries. And European societies are unlikely to ever accept the draconian interventions used in China and South Korea.