In 2009, the world economy contracted by -2.2%. Growth in all developing countries declined from around 8% in 2007 to 2.6% in 2009 as the developed world contracted by -3.8% in 2009. The collapse of the Lehmann Brothers investment bank…
Category: Op-Ed
The politics of food in Venezuela
Co-Written by Ana Felicien, Christina M. Schiavoni & Liccia Romero Few countries and political processes have been subject to such scrutiny, yet so generally misunderstood, as Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution. This is particularly true today, as the international media…
Wetlands key for accurate greenhouse gas measure in Arctic
The Arctic is rapidly warming, with stronger effects than observed elsewhere in the world. The Arctic regions are particularly important with respect to climate change, as permafrost soils store huge amounts of the Earth’s soil carbon (C). Warming of Arctic…
Row over Law Minister’s comment on Khaleda’s counsels
Dhaka, Sept 11 – Pro-BNP lawyers and pro-AL lawyers Monday held briefing and counter-briefing over the law minister Anisul Huq comments that ‘BNP lawyers do not understand laws’.
Why has populist right outperformed populist left in Europe?
Twenty-first century European politics has been characterised by patterns of electoral volatility, alongside the recent economic and ongoing refugee crisis. This has allowed ‘populist’ parties on both the right and left to capitalise on the electoral failure of mainstream centre…
My baby died. please ask me his name
From BBC Magazine 8 September 2018 There is no word in the English language for a parent whose child has died as if the subject were too painful for society to confront. Elle Wright lost her son Teddy soon after…
Three British schoolboys visit Porsche Museum in Stuttgart
Monowara Begum Moni Oh nice, yells Hasib al Rashid, 12 at the first sight at the Porsche Porsche-Museum a, museum Architecture in book form. The Porsche museum itself is an architectural wonder of metal and glass.
NYT reflects free press’ deep roots in the US
Mostafa Kamal Majumder What the New York Times has done Last Thursday is nothing short of making a new history, publication of an anonymous opinion piece against the Trump administration that too from ‘a senior member’ of the said administration,…
Trump has 4 or 5 suspects for anonymous op-ed writer in NYT
Washington, Sept 8 (AP/UNB) — President Donald Trump says he can identify up to five people who could have written the anonymous New York Times opinion piece criticizing his leadership.
Migrants as messengers explain dangers of irregular migration
By IPS World Desk Dakar, Sep 7 2018 (IPS) – Migrants as Messengers is a peer-to-peer messaging campaign by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) where returning migrants share with their communities and families the dangers, trauma and abuse that…
Setting the record straight on secular stagnation
Joseph Stiglitz recently dismissed the relevance of secular stagnation to the American economy, and in the process attacked (without naming me) my work in the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. I am not a disinterested observer, but…
“In two years, Duterte has crushed all progress we’ve made”
“Isn’t it cool? I get some hostile looks when I walk around in it, but other people come up asking where they can buy one,” Josua Matas says of his T-shirt, which reads “Resist dictatorship”. He is the Secretary General…
Vanuatu bans single-use plastics, why not other countries!
By Ralph Regenvanu Port Vila (IPS) – Cradled in the South Pacific, my home country Vanuatu is made mostly of the ocean. The Pacific covers 98 percent of the national jurisdiction. Here, some 280,000 Ni-Vanuatu like myself live simply off…
No hurry for new collective goal on finance, say Industrial nations
Bangkok, 6 September (TWN) – Developed countries are refusing to determine a process for setting a new collective quantified goal on finance under the Paris Agreement (PA), claiming that it was too early in the process to deal with this.…
The world Is digitalising – so too should regulators
Governments, including the Swedish government, are beginning to explore how legislating could be improved in light of digital technologies. This is welcome but something that businesses and business leaders have known for some time: the data being generated by our…
Punish those behind a massacre or the people who expose it?
Monday September 3 was a black day for freedom of the press and the rule of law in Myanmar. A court in Yangon sentenced Reuters journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, to seven years in prison for…
“We should not wait” — Action needed on Myanmar
After the release of a scathing report on Myanmar’s human rights violations, next steps to achieve accountability and justice remain elusive and uncertain.
WHO warning over global lack of exercise
By Alex Therrien Health reporter, BBC News Very little progress has been made in reducing levels of inactivity worldwide, experts have warned. A WHO report estimates that more than a quarter of people worldwide – 1.4 billion – are not…
What ails the Ganga
September 4, 2018 SANDRP The Ganga river basin’s importance is well acknowledged. The World Bank that is funding a currently ongoing USD 1 Billion project for Ganga Cleanup says in its Project Appraisal Document: It’s the most populous basin in…
Guru Suruj Dewan – a tribute
Sir Frank Peters The death of Guru Suruj Dewan last Friday brought a dark cloud of sadness to the village of Haydarabad Ward-39, Gazipur.
Plight of women & young people in Rohingya refugee crisis
DHAKA – August 25, 2018 marked one year since violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, triggering the massive Rohingya exodus to neighbouring Bangladesh.
In Scotland, girls go to school with one less worry – period
Every girl around the world has feared it, or worse, felt it: the snickers of peers who see bloodstains on her clothes, the sneers of classmates as she slips a pad into her pocket. But what of the girls who…
2 Food podcasts catalyzing food movement—with new addition
Contributing Author: Katherine Walla Food Tank is excited to introduce the podcast “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg.” On the podcast, Nierenberg invites chefs, experts, and activists to outline their ideal food system—and how their projects are making a better food…
Brexit: The conservative centre cannot hold
The Minister for Exiting the European Union, Dominic Raab, last week published a number of “notifications” on the possibility of the UK’s leaving the European Union without a Withdrawal Agreement (“no deal Brexit”). On the same day, wide publicity was…
UN seeks probe into Saudi bombing of civilian targets
Saudi Arabia, which has been accused of relentlessly bombing civilian targets in strife-torn Yemen and threatening executions of human rights activists, is fast gaining notoriety as a political outcast at the United Nations.
Fuel loading begins in Chinese NPP, built with Russian help
Dhaka, Aug 28 – First fuel assembly was loaded into the core of Unit 4 of Tianwan Nuclear Power Project in China on August 225, 2018. The project is being implemented with the assistance of Atomstroyexport (ASE), Engineering Division of…
Fight for the right to abortion spreads to Latin America
By Fabiana Frayssinet Buenos Aires, Aug 23 2018 (IPS) – The Argentine Senate’s rejection of a bill to legalise abortion did not stop a Latin American movement, which is on the streets and is expanding in an increasingly coordinated manner…
Inclusion in water: breaking down barriers
SOMA GHOSH MOULIK In many countries, women walk over six kilometres to collect water. Between 2006 and 2012 in Niger, women travelled an hour, on average, to fetch water. Worldwide, 4.5 billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation services…
Has globalization enhanced development cooperation?
Protracted economic stagnation in rich countries continues to threaten the development prospects of poorer countries. Globalization and economic liberalization over the last few decades have integrated developing countries into the world economy, but now that very integration is becoming a…
Suitable public transport, house must for disabled people
Even though over six billion people—nearly one billion of whom will have disabilities— are expected to live in urban centres by 2050, many of the world’s major urban cities have a long way to go before their infrastructure becomes inclusive…