A major problem in the Brexit debate since June 2016 is how 95 percent of reporting and discussion in the UK media has been about internal Westminster politics. Occasionally space is found for a brief interview with a minister or…
Category: Op-Ed
Unconventional holidays are in store for Americans this year
From Danielle Nierenberg Greetings from Baltimore, Maryland In the United States, almost 54 million people will travel across the country this Thanksgiving to join their families and friends around the holiday meal. While this classic feast normally features a variety…
Level playing field for all parties is a must: Hasna Moudud
Interview with Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud by
Wages and social dumping – Competition law as a way out
Fighting against transnational social dumping can best be compared to Heracles’ struggle against the Hydra of Lerna – the multi-headed serpent in Greek mythology. This struggle is highly uneven because every time a head is cut off, the monster regenerates…
Stopping menstrual management history from repeating itself
When Deputy Principal Rose was a student, there was a week every month that she dreaded: the period every twenty-eight days or so when she had her period. A keen student with an innate love of learning, she loathed this…
Onion Domes: A Temple of Culture and the Truth?
Monowara Begum Moni from Germany At last, I have visited that place, which I have seen very often on TV, the colourful Onion Doms of Moscow. Its name is St. Basil`s Cathedral, an icon of Russia. Its onion- domes have survived…
Cambodia: 30 years after Khmer Rouge, justice still elusive
Thirty years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia’s culture of impunity remains as strong as ever, Human Rights Watch said today. Under Prime Minister Hun Sen, the Cambodian government continues to obstruct the United Nations-supported court created to…
Electronic driving systems don’t always work, tests show
Detroit,(AP/UNB) — Testing by AAA shows that electronic driver assist systems on the road today may not keep vehicles in their lanes or spot stationary objects in time to avoid a crash.
Trump’s anti-media rhetoric resonates worldwide
A former French president once remarked: Never pick a fight with a little kid or the press. The kid will throw the last stone at you and the press will have the last word.
Human rights win out in US Election
The 2018 midterm elections showed people resoundingly voted in favor of protecting human rights in America, showing they care about the rights of the most disenfranchised and marginalized communities from coast to coast.
Austerity inside a wagon in the forest of compiègne
What is the link between the current civil war in Syria, the austerity policy imposed by Germany during the last economic crisis or the Arab-Israeli conflict? Its origin, which lies in the world that was born a hundred years ago,…
Using data to restore land
A new landmark initiative aims to make quality data and tools available to the international community in order to combat an “existential crisis”: land degradation.
Bringing informal workers to the forefront of our economy
The image of the ‘struggling’ daily wage labourer in India is one that stakeholders from across the development sector aspire to transform. Financial security, quality living conditions, and opportunity to thrive are the buzzwords in a conversation about the needs…
Bolsonaro: a monster engineered by our media
By Jonathan Cook With Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in Brazil’s presidential election at the weekend, the doom-mongers among western elites are out in force once again. His success, like Donald Trump’s, has confirmed a long-held prejudice: that the people cannot be…
Five reasons to quit sugar now
Why it’s so important to cut back on your sugar intake—and take back control of your health.
Diversifying crops to help overcome drought in Brazil
Dozens of trucks used to leave São Gonçalo every day, carrying the local agricultural production, mainly coconuts, to markets throughout Brazil, including the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, more than 2,000 kilometers away.
Large Companies “More Open Than I’ve Ever Seen Before” to Food System Change
Danielle Nierenberg On “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg,” Margaret Zeigler, Executive Director of the Global Harvest Initiative, talks about the private sector’s energy to address sustainability and food productivity across the globe.
Peace, stability not possible sans rural development
Rome, 9 November 2018 – At this week’s Paris Peace Forum, Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will ask global leaders to consider the crucial role that increased investment in rural areas of developing…
Tunisia: Privacy threatened by ‘homosexuality’ arrests
Tunisian authorities are confiscating and searching the phones of men they suspect of being gay and pressuring them to take anal tests and to confess to homosexual activity, Human Rights Watch said today. Prosecutors then use information collected in this…
The crumbling architecture of arms control
At a political rally on Saturday, 20 October, US President Donald J. Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the 1987 Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF Treaty). This confirms what has steadily been…
Rainwater harvesting eases daily struggle in Argentina
“I’ve been used to hauling water since I was eight years old. Today, at 63, I still do it,” says Antolín Soraire, a tall peasant farmer with a face ravaged by the sun who lives in Los Blancos, a town…
Will Saudi Arabia remain unchanged after Khashoggi?
By Askiah Adam While the body of the murdered Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post has not been found, the government of Saudi Arabia has admitted that he is dead, killed during an interrogation gone wrong in their…
Big brands are fuelling the business of nutrition
Food is an increasingly hot topic, no matter if you are rich or poor. Malnutrition – including undernutrition, overweight and obesity – affects 1 in 3 people around the world.
The Green Lobby’s misdirected anger
By Yossi Sheffi Boston – In August, when US President Donald Trump proposed to freeze fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, environmentalists and their supporters were outraged. Now, the temperature of the debate has risen again, following a special report…
Is hothouse earth avoidable?
By Johan Rockström , Jørgen Randers, and Per Espen Stoknes Stockholm – Nearly 50 years ago, the Club of Rome’s report “Limits to Growth” warned that if economic growth continued apace without regard for the environment, the world could face…
Gay & lesbian rights prove divisive at lawmakers’ Confce
When the International Parliamentarians’ Conference (ICPI) on population and development concluded its two-day forum in the Canadian capital last week, more than 150 legislators from around the world approved a seven page Declaration reaffirming their opposition to some of the…
A hospital where a doctor is more a friend
-Prof. M Zahidul Haque A medical doctor’s cordial and friendly behaviour creates a positive impact on the treatment and subsequent healing process of a patient. Recently I had been to the Artemis Hospital, a 400 plus bed super speciality hospital…
Kids weighed down by school bags
Tazlina Zamila Khan How many of you lifted a bag of a school-going student?
Libya in chaos seven years after NATO’s ‘liberation’
By Neil Clark – RT Libya remains a lawless land, with rival militias fighting battles in the streets of Tripoli and over 1 million people in need of aid. But the West’s ‘liberal interventionists’ aren’t interested in the catastrophe they…
With poor human rights record, repatriation not possible
Policies that allow for impunity, genocide, and apartheid are “intolerable” and make repatriation of Rohingya refugees impossible, say United Nations investigators.