By Monica Juma NAIROBI, Kenya, May 24 2019 (IPS) – In 1994 the International Conference and Population and Development (ICPD) was hosted in Cairo by the Government of Egypt. Twenty-five years later, Kenya is ready to convene the ICPD “Nairobi…
Category: Columns
The free market is not the answer
by Jochen Steinhilber Earlier this month, the leader of the youth section of the German SPD ruffled feathers with his call for an ‘attractive utopia’ as an alternative to capitalism. Finally, someone has pointed out the massive economic elephant loitering…
Celebrating the Mediterranean diet
Danielle Nierenberg This month, as eaters across the Northern Hemisphere start the grilling and picnic season, we’re celebrating International Mediterranean Diet Month as a reminder to eat to protect health and the planet this summer. Praised by doctors, scientists, and…
It’s time to talk about democracy at work
by Stan De Spiegelaere Democracy at work has many benefits but above all, it is a matter of human dignity. My normal bike commute to work was interrupted by red flags. No revolution (yet) but industrial action blocked access to…
The contribution of humanitarian action to peace
By Peter Maurer Stockholm, May 22, 2019 (IPS) – The connection of humanitarian action to broader objectives like peace, development and human rights is understandably complex, but it is also an area in which some fresh thinking is important. The…
Targeting Iran
By Chandra Muzaffar A dangerous flashpoint has emerged in world politics at the moment. There is widespread fear that the United States and its allies might launch a military operation against Iran at any time. A US aircraft carrier and…
Public-private partnerships fad fails
By Jomo Kwame Sundaram After the failure and abuses of privatization became apparent, public-private partnerships have since been promoted ostensibly to mobilize private finance for the public purpose. In all too many cases, PPPs have socialized costs and losses while…
Long life to their majesties, the bees!
By Baher Kamal Madrid, May (IPS) – Amazingly organised social communities, bees ensure food chain. ‘Bee’ grateful to them… at least on their World Day! While the (surprisingly) still called homo sapiens continues to destroy Mother Nature, bees and other…
To the postcapitalist city … via Amsterdam circa 1619
What makes the 21st century city the harbinger of a postcapitalist world is that for the first time in modern history the network can transcend the market. Imagine yourself in Amsterdam exactly 400 years ago. What word would you use…
Cities for the people
By Abhas K. Jha Singapore – Dante’s Divine Comedy describes one level of hell (the City of Dis) as “Satan’s wretched city … full of distress and torment terrible.” He could well have been describing many modern-day metropolises. The world,…
The rising tide of sustainable seafood
By Teresa Ish and Henrik Österblom Stockholm – McDonald’s. Hilton. IKEA. Each of these corporate titans enjoys an enormous customer base. But what most of their customers might not realize is that these companies are leaders in ocean stewardship: they…
A carbon dividend is better than a carbon tax
By Mark Paul and Anthony Underwood Sarasota – Climate change is the world’s most urgent problem, and in the United States, the left, at least, is taking it seriously. Earlier this year, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator…
Authoritarianism, social inequalities a prelude to conflict
STOCKHOLM, May 17 2019 (IPS) – I want to talk about peacebuilding and inclusive peace. My main point is that peace begins in the minds of people, and people, communities, societies must be allowed to participate in peace for it to…
Rethinking Europe—a challenge for trade unions
In our ‘Europe2025’ series, setting the agenda for the EU in the new term following the coming elections, Peter Scherrer outlines a project for rethinking Europe from a trade-union perspective. Nearly 700 delegates will be debating the future of our continent at…
Unlocking the power of women
NEW YORK, May 15 2019 (IPS) – This June, thousands will flock to Vancouver for a global dialogue on how to accelerate progress for girls and women under the banner of power, progress and change. At the Women Deliver 2019 Conference, the…
The good life after work
To manage the latest wave of automation, we must have ends that are more compelling than merely wanting more products and services. Almost all ‘robots are coming’ stories follow a tried-and-true pattern. ‘Shop Direct puts 2,000 UK jobs at risk’…
Privatization solution worse than problem
Jomo Kwame Sundaram Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 14 2019 (IPS) – Privatization has not provided the miracle cure for the problems (especially inefficiencies) associated with the public sector. The public interest has rarely been well served by private interests taking over…
How EU can prevent an east-west divide between its members
Any reform efforts must be as inclusive as possible towards central and eastern European states, where nationalist parties are gaining ground. The east-west divide in the European Union has finally commanded the attention of policy-makers and scholars on both sides of…
America first as a threat to mulitlateralism
STOCKHOLM / ROME, May 13 2019 (IPS) – On 25 April, Joseph Biden announced his candidacy for the US presidency, declaring that his decision was based on fears of Trump being re-elected: Joe Biden´s statement mirrors rising concerns that Trump´s agenda,…
An urgent need to advance peace
STOCKHOLM, May 10 2019 (IPS) – Let us be blunt: the world is in crisis. Peace, human rights, our planetary ecosystem, and our systems of conflict management and global governance are under enormous strain. Global military expenditures reached 1.8 trillion in 2018,…
The age of the Internet calls for younger leaders
ACCRA, May 10 2019 (IPS) – Days before Algeria’s 82-year-old strongman president Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted from power, the country made one last ditch attempt to keep control: it shut down the internet. A few weeks later, 75-year-old Sudanese president Omar Hassan…
From sanctioning Iran to war?
DENVER, May 8 2019 (IPS) – With the recent military moves announced uncharacteristically by the White House first, the world is witnessing with grim fascination what could turn out to be the early moves towards a war against Iran. How plausible…
Unequal Europe—collating the data
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a website collating the sources of data on inequality across the European Union and exploring evidence-based policy prescriptions? Now there is. Why is human labour remunerated so differently? Do opportunities in life have…
Neoliberal reforms strengthening monopoly power, abuses
KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, May 7 2019 (IPS) – Over the last four decades, growing concentration of market power in the hands of oligopolies, if not monopolies, has been greatly enabled by ostensibly neo-liberal reforms, worsening wealth concentration and gross inequalities in the…
Is the crisis of social democracy a crisis of equality?
by Carol Johnson Social democracy in Europe is struggling to come to terms with the more complex equality agenda of today—to which its Antipodean counterparts are however offering some answers. As many contributors to Social Europe have acknowledged, European social…
The trilemma of Big Tech
by Karin Pettersson Karin Pettersson says we can have Big Tech’s market domination, business models and democracy—just not all at the same time. Last week Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage in San Jose, California, and presented his vision…
Austerity is hurting women’s health
by Fran Darlington-Pollock A close look at how the austerity practiced in the UK since 2010 has affected women’s health shows a gender lens must always be applied to see the full picture. Where you live can kill you—and, in…
A message for May Day
Mayday, mayday: the leader of the European trade union movement warns of the threat from the populists in the coming EP elections. May Day is workers’ day—and for trade unionists that means celebrating the solidarity we manifest towards each other…
Massacre of the innocents: Whereto from here?
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Apr 30 2019 (IPS) – We have been here before. This blooded precipice is familiar, this looming abyss. What is unfamiliar, what renders the Easter Sunday massacre most vile and truly nightmarish is the total absence of any…
How to tax a multinational
For too long, multinational corporations—and digital firms in particular—have used existing rules to avoid paying taxes in countries where they do much of their business. For some time now, multinational companies (MNCs) have been gaming the rules of the global…