By Marcel Arsenault NEW YORK, Sep 17 2020 (IPS) – The promise of the United Nations, as articulated 75 years ago, is a global system capable of managing global issues. As UN leadership knows, that promise is needed now more…
Category: Columns
A World Without Hunger Is Also About Protecting Food
By Mario Lubetkin ROME, Sep 17 2020 (IPS) – Concern about food loss and waste has become an increasingly important focus of attention when discussing ways to eliminate hunger which, according to the latest FAO report, already exceeds 690 million…
Care for Poorest, Underserved Children for a Better World
By Stella Paul IPS senior correspondent Stella Paul interviews KERRY KENNEDY, president of Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Human Rights, about why allocating funding for the poorest and most underserved children is a vital component of creating a better world.
Just stand and deliver
Sudhirendar Sharma On Teachers’ Day (Sep 5) memories of my school teachers stretch beyond what they were paid for. Without doubt, they were so committed to their task that any non-compliance of their instructions would make us realize that a…
The COVID CiTY
Ian Goldin and Robert Muggah LONDON – No city has escaped the deadly spread of COVID-19. But the virus has had a profoundly uneven impact on different groups of people, even within the same city. When New York City was…
Climate-Friendly Cooling Can Slow Global Warming
Durwood Zaelke and Mario Molina SANTA BARBARA/SAN DIEGO – The ironies of climate change are often cruel. In our warming world, for example, the demand for air conditioning (AC) and refrigeration is exploding, especially in developing countries. But more AC…
How the Pandemic Can Revolutionize Climate Policy
Roland Kupers AMSTERDAM – Economists have long dominated climate-policy debates, but have scant results to show for it. As with the ongoing global fight against the coronavirus pandemic, our best hope for tackling the climate crisis may instead lie with…
Bangabandhu: Focus in politico-historical outlooks
Dr. Sinha MA Sayeed Concentrations on the father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman cannot be treated as repetitions rather logically and historically such queries, searches and researches remain sine die for reasons, known or unknown. From historical standpoints,…
“No deal” BREXIT: An accident waiting to happen
Brendan Donnelly In an interesting article in this weekend’s Sunday Times, its political correspondent Tim Shipman warns that the chances of a “no deal” Brexit are higher than usually assumed. He attributes this risk largely to misunderstandings by the EU…
The sorry state of apology
Sudhirendar Sharma When you desperately seek it, it rarely comes your way. And when you don’t, it flows like beer from a pitcher. Still at other times, you may not even notice when someone brushes past you while exclaiming ‘sorry’.…
Stimulating Brazil’s Bioeconomy
by Pedro Frizo SÃO PAULO – In the midst of the growing climate crisis, the world can no longer rely solely on old models of economic development. In this context, the concept of a bioeconomy – activities that produce relatively…
The Need for Debt-for-Climate Swaps
by Kevin P. Gallagher,Stephany Griffith-Jones,Jörg Haas,Shamshad Akhtar,Ulrich Volz ISLAMABAD – A global debt crisis is looming. Even before COVID-19 swept the world, the International Monetary Fund had issued a warning about developing countries’ public debt burdens, noting that half of…
Stopping Cambodia’s Reckless Urban Development
by Sam Rainsy PARIS – Years ago, I spoke to the head of a large factory in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. She was worried that more than 100 of her workers lived in riverside slums around the building. Their…
We Must Prioritize Local Solutions to Global Problems
By Ritah Nansereko KAMPALA, Uganda, Aug 18 2020 (IPS) – World Humanitarian Day is the perfect time to refresh our push to localize humanitarian aid for COVID-19 and all the challenges we face. Celebrating #RealLifeHeroes!
Beating Anger into Empathy: The Need of the Hour in Ethiopia
By Dr Joshua Castellino LONDON, Aug 17 2020 (IPS) – The murder of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, an icon of the Oromo people in Ethiopia was a tragic loss for all who struggle for rights in systems that fail to accommodate them.
Understanding of De facto one party state with corporatocracy
Dr. Sinha MA Sayeed Nature, contents and contexts of politics, political science and government(s) evolve and move in various and varied moods and modes in the settings of time-space and dimension. All these are topics of social science and necessarily…
What is Next for Palestinian Popular Resistance in Gaza?
Speaking to Journalist Wafaa Aludaini By Ramzy Baroud Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo Wafaa Aludaini is a witness to many of Gaza’s recent tragedies and also never-ending resistance. She experienced the violent Israeli occupation, the subsequent blockade on…
Debt Hawks Detract from Urgently Needed Fiscal Recovery Efforts
By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 2020 (IPS) – Developing country debt has continued to grow rapidly since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC). Warnings against debt have been reiterated by familiar prophets…
Greening Sovereign-Debt Restructuring
By Simon Zadek BEIJING – Many developing countries have so far avoided the high COVID-19 infection and mortality rates that are being experienced elsewhere. While that may be good news, at least in the short term, the bad news is…
China’s Great Wall of Water
by Giulio Boccaletti LONDON – The East Asian monsoon is pummeling China this summer. As of late July, flood alerts had been issued for 433 rivers, thousands of homes and businesses had been destroyed, and millions of people were on…
18 Young People Building a Stronger Future for Global Food
Danielle Nierenberg Today is International Youth Day, observed by the United Nations every August 12. This year, International Youth Day focuses on the theme of youth engagement for global action. Across the world, it’s often our youngest citizens who are…
We can’t ignore adolescent girls in Covid-19 response
Opinion by Michelle Obama and Melinda Gates (CNN)Today should have been a school day for 15-year-old Fortunate Ayomirwoth. But for the past five months, her school has been closed. Fortunate now spends her days at home in a small suburb…
Floods don’t always happen, these are caused too
Sudhirendar Sharma The reality behind the statistics and headlines of man made disasters are too grim for words. Flooding has always threatened human habitation, but it is happening too often in recent times with disastrous consequences in unexpected places. Much…
Nature by the Numbers
by Robert Watson NORWICH – When Cyclone Amphan came barreling up the Bay of Bengal this past May, South Asia’s first named storm of the year appeared to pose a massive threat to the people who live on the coastal…
Pandemic Policy Must be Climate Policy
by Renzo Guinto CALAMBA – While the world focuses on the COVID-19 crisis, climate change continues to advance. The consequences are devastating and becoming more so – and that includes for the pandemic response itself.
Online Course Assessment during Corona Leave
M Zahidul Haque IT is much difficult to assess student’s performance on completion of an online course. A question naturally arises-“Would the Universities award a degree without taking at least a final examination?” This author remembers a popular saying—“Student life…
Statue smashing – Heroes, values and racism
By Jan LundiusSTOCKHOLM / ROME, Jul 29 2020 (IPS) – On Friday the 24th of June, President Trump announced he was skipping a weekend at his New Jersey golf resort to ”ensure law and order in Washington”, tweeting:I just had…
Only govts can prevent covid-19 recession turning depression
By Jomo Kwame SundaramKUALA LUMPUR, Jul 30 2020 (IPS) – Covid-19 threatens economic life the world over. The most urgent and important need is for governments, businesses and families to survive. Governments must revive economies and livelihoods to prevent Covid-19…
How digitalisation must be harnessed to save jobs
by Esther Lynch on 29th July 2020A framework agreement between the social partners should ensure job security and worker involvement are prioritised across the European Union.The announcement of jobs losses around Europe as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic has…
Neglected, Sacrificed: Older Persons During COVID19 Pandemic
By Isabel OrtizNEW YORK, Jul 28 2020 (IPS) – Failing to help those in most needCOVID19 is devastating on older persons. The numbers are staggering, more than 80 percent of the fatalities due to coronavirus in the US and East…