By Tharanga Yakupitiyage UN, Jul 12 (IPS) – More than seven decades after the deployment of deadly atomic bombs in Japan, the UN has passed a historic treaty banning nuclear weapons around the world. Though it has sparked hope for…
Category: Columns
The oad to a soft Brexit
The UK election result has been a game changer. The electorate has turned down the Theresa May/Daily Mail offer of a hard Brexit and the threat of walking away from the negotiations with the European Union. The result is a…
1997 Asian Crisis lessons lost
By Jomo Kwame Sundaram Kuala Lumpur (IPS) – After months of withstanding speculative attacks on its national currency, the Thai central bank let it ‘float’ on 2 July 1997, allowing its exchange rate to drop suddenly. Soon, currencies and stock…
G20’s record does not inspire hope
By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, Jul 7 (IPS) – The G20 leaders meeting in Hamburg, Germany, on 7-8 July comes almost a decade after the grouping’s elevation to meeting at the heads of state/government…
Why war? Building on the legacies of Einstein, Freud and Gandhi
Robert J. Burrowes In 1932, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein conducted a correspondence subsequently published under the title ‘Why War?’ See ‘Why War: Einstein and Freud’s Little-Known Correspondence on Violence, Peace, and Human Nature’. https://www.transcend.org/tms/2015/04/why-war-einstein-and-freuds-little-known-correspondence-on-violence-peace-and-human-nature/ In many ways, this dialogue…
Is religion new colonial frontier in int’l dev?
By Azza Karam UN, Jul 4 (IPS) – A decade ago, it was difficult to get Western policy makers in governments to be interested in the role of religious organizations in human development. The secular mind-set was such that religion…
Fallacies of Brexit: Simplistic polemics
by John Weeks Babbling Brexit: The British media provides a consistently misleading version of the process of UK disengagement from EU membership. The term used for this process, “Brexit”, is itself a substantial source of misguidance and obfuscation.
22 inspirational women in food and agriculture
Danielle Nierenberg Women are crucial to the functioning of a healthy and sustainable food system. At Food Tank, we are continually inspired by the hard work and creativity of women farmers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, community leaders, and family members.
A nonviolent strategy to defeat genocide
Robert J. Burrowes It is a tragic measure of the depravity of human existence that genocide is a continuing and prevalent manifestation of violence in the international system, despite the effort following World War II to abolish it through negotiation,…
Socially owned news media must for objective journalism
Mostafa Kamal Majumder A young journalist colleague told me the other day he would make no mistake in aligning himself with either of the two major political parties in Bangladesh because he has seen and is by now ‘sure that…
Water-sanitation for all: 4 pol errors to avoid
by Nathaniel Mason Eliminating inequality is integral to the Sustainable Development Goals, from ‘universal access’ to water, to ending poverty ‘everywhere’. Yet in a world where the politics of who gets what is increasingly polarised, leaving no-one behind is fundamentally…
Getting rid of Germany’s excessive current account surplus
by Gustav Horn There’s no end to the criticism of the excessive German current account surplus. Quite rightly, people suggest that this imbalance has the potential either to unleash violent currency fluctuations on a global scale or to generate a…
The answer is wages, not capital
by Jordi Angusto As in any other religion, faith lies behind capitalism. Faith that capital is a panacea always and in any situation: to push economic growth or to help less developed countries to catch up. Yet the fact is…
Democracy must prevail, always
by Thorvaldur Gylfason Diversity is desirable in human affairs, as in nature. Most countries strive toward economic and political diversification. Economic diversification is a way of escaping dependence on a narrow economic base so as to spread risk. Political diversification…
Of population growth – setting the record straight
by Maitreyi Bordia Das I am constantly startled by references to “population growth” as a cause of a number of development challenges. Whether it’s urbanization, food security, or water scarcity, all too often “population growth” is cited as a cause…
Refugee protection an obligation under international law
By Secretary-General António Guterres UN, June 21 (IPS) – It is impossible to be ten years as High Commissioner for Refugees, doing my best to try to help the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, without changing your life. And, indeed,…
Immigration and economic growth: Is keynes back?
by Bo Rothstein There is something very strange going on in the current debate on refugee immigration. There is a lot of alarmist talk about youth gang criminality, problems related to labor market integration, falling results in school, honor-related violence…
A private-sector solution to the refugee crisis
Nirj Deva Brussels – International development is not just about alleviating poverty; it is also about delivering security, stability, and economic opportunities to poor and fragile communities, thereby preventing citizens from having to flee their home country in search of…
Pakistan’s persistent energy crisis
Nadeem ul Haque Islamabad – For almost a decade, Pakistan has lacked the energy it needs, with producers and consumers across the country facing power outages for up to 12 hours per day. At the root of this crisis lies…
Will Qatar-Saudi-UAE diplomatic crisis reconfigure Gulf politics?
By Afro-Middle East Centre (AMEC) The 5 June decision by Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and their allies and proxies – Egypt, Bahrain, the Maldives, Mauritania and rival governments in Libya and Yemen – to sever…
The rise of the food barons
Christine Chemnitz Berlin – The industrial-agriculture sector has long faced criticism for practices that contribute to climate change, environmental destruction, and rural poverty. And yet the sector has taken virtually no steps to improve quality and sustainability, or to promote…
Understanding today’s stagnation
Ever since the ‘Great Recession’ of 2007-2009, the world’s major central banks have kept short-term interest rates at near-zero levels. In the United States, even after the Federal Reserve’s recent increases, short-term rates remain below 1%, and long-term interest rates…
5 surprising ways green products are trying to trick you
You’re standing at the store, a bottle of shampoo in each hand. Your gaze circles from one label to the other, and your mind runs 10 simultaneous comparisons to decide which bottle you’ll bring home. Blue is, after all, your…
Inside grain revolution and future of bread
Danielle Nierenberg While it may sound old-fashioned, home milling could have the potential to redefine one of the world’s oldest processed foods—bread. The grain revolution is sparking the revival and innovation of traditional and new local wheat varieties, home milling…
Overfed and underfed: Global food extremes
By Joseph Chamie New York, June 12 (IPS) – Global food extremes of chronic undernourishment and obesity have brought about a bipolar world of hundreds of millions of underfed and overfed people. Of the world’s population of 7.5 billion the…
Understanding what digital revolution means
The digital revolution, used here as shorthand for broader technological change, is one of today’s most hotly debated topics in politics, economics and business. It makes politicians wary about which preparatory policies to pursue, economists ponder productivity increases and trade…
Brexit strategy for a weak UK Government
Ngaire Woods Oxford – As Prime Minister Theresa May seeks to form a new government, following an election in which her Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority, she knows that, within days, she will also need to get down to…
Crisis in the Gulf: Escalation or negotiation?
By James M. Dorsey Singapore, Jun 8 (IPS) – Turkey’s parliament is this week fast tracking the dispatch of up to 3,000 troops to Qatar, home to the country’s military base in the Middle East. Certain to stiffen Qatar’s resolve…
Continuing the climate battle without the US
By Martin Khor With President Trump pulling the United States from the Paris agreement, the US has lost not only leadership but membership of the community of nations that subscribe to humanity’s fight for survival against climate change So in…
Re-connect with nature now… before it is too late!
By Baher Kamal Rome, Jun 5 (IPS) – Now that president Donald Trump has announced the withdrawal of the world’s largest polluter in history—the United States, from the Paris Accord, perhaps one of the most specific warnings is what a…