By Perry World House Much of the debate over how artificial intelligence (AI) will affect geopolitics focuses on the emerging arms race between Washington and Beijing, as well as investments by major military powers like Russia. And to be sure,…
Category: Op-Ed
Africa’s economic growth prospects amongst world’s brightest
The best time to invest in Africa is now. However, foreign investors have not moved into the continent as quickly as expected because foreign investment decisions are often methodically over-structured. One of the major factors cited is too much risk.…
Bangladesh: Protests, arrests and their aftermath
By Nava Thakuria Bangladesh is a land of happenings. As the populous country is approaching the next general (national) elections by the end of this year, we can expect more public chaos, protest demonstrations, media outburst followed by government crackdowns…
The gender of law: What mapping of family laws reveals
Recent developments around the world give support to the idea of the #MeToo movement’s transformative potential. A postmodernist claim was that the feminist movement was essentialist and that no one expression of feminism can be applicable to women of different…
Nigeria shows a new path to development
Corporal punishment is an illuminated neon sign overhanging a dysfunctional society where schools and homes are no longer safe havens of love, protection and care for children Any government that permits corporal punishment to children in schools, madrassahs and homes would…
Upgrading International Development Cooperation
by Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Stefano Manservisi, Mario Pezzini Paris – These are hard times for international cooperation. With rising protectionism, burgeoning trade disputes, and a troubling lack of concern for shared interests like climate change, the world seems to be…
Chilling accounts of torture, deaths in Iraq – HRW
Investigate Abuse During Interrogations in Mosul Beirut – Two former detainees and the father of a man who died in detention have provided details of ill-treatment, torture, and death in facilities run by the Iraqi Interior Ministry in the Mosul…
Prisons are factories for TB epidemic
At the first-ever United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on tuberculosis (TB) in September, the global spotlight is set to focus on this neglected disease and conditions that continue to influence its spread.
Why Trump cancelled the Iran Deal
By Eric Zuesse The following is entirely from open online sources that I have been finding to be trustworthy in these matters in the past. These sources will be linked-to here; none of this information is secret, even though some…
Palestinian children, the true victims of the conflict
Over 500 to 700 West Bank children were arrested and prosecuted each year by Israeli military forces. And Palestinian child rights organisation, Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP), says that between 2012 and 2017 the organisation represented more than 700…
Lack of affordable vegetables creating an obesity epidemic
Every Sunday afternoon, Thembi Majola* cooks a meal of chicken and rice for her mother and herself in their home in Alexandra, an informal settlement adjacent to South Africa’s wealthy economic hub, Sandton.
2017 Global Findex: Behind the numbers on Bangladesh
On the face of it, the 2017 Global Findex shows that Bangladesh has made great strides toward financial inclusion since the previous Findex was released in 2014.
Turkish – Syrian border: Confusion, destruction and grief
By Andre Vltchek When we first met in 2017, the Turkish poet, Mustafa Goren, stood proudly and defiantly next to a monstrous concrete wall built on orders from Ankara. The partition has just recently separated two towns with the same…
Attorney General for improving education quality
Dhaka, Aug 11 – Attorney General Mahbubey Alam on Saturday said that the nation would not develop until the development in terms of education quality and dignity of teachers.
‘Sexual violence applied to force ethnic minorities migrate’
Dhaka, Aug 11 – Sexual violence against ethnic minority women is used as one of the main tools to force the people living in hills to migrate elsewhere leaving their ancestral lands, say experts and human right activists.
On-grid solar success is yet to start in Bangladesh
Zulker Naeen The spread of the off-grid power solution in Bangladesh started in 2003 using the stand-alone photovoltaic systems, known as the solar home systems. By 2017, the country installed 5.2 million solar home systems that offer a cost-effective mode…
Stop repression on students, journos, HR workers: Statement
Dhaka, Aug 9 – A total of 69 leading academics, lawyers, rights activists, filmmakers, media personalities and cultural activists of Bangladesh in a joint statement have demanded the government to stop repression on students, academics, journalists and human rights activists…
Transforming food systems
Washington, 1 Aug (IPS/Alice Lloyd) — The world’s food systems face two immense challenges today. One, to produce enough food to nourish a global population of seven billion people without harming the environment.
Farmer-herder conflicts on the rise in Africa
By Juliana Nnoko-Mewanu Minnesota, United States, Aug 6 2018 (IPS) – Violent clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria’s Middle Belt in June reminded me of a smelting hot afternoon a year ago. I was sitting in my living room…
“Outrage appropriate, surprise is not”: Tackling Sex Abuse
A new report on the scale and extent of sexual abuse and exploitation in the aid sector should come as no surprise. It is now time for international agencies, including the UN, to step up and show some much-needed leadership…
Helping Indigenous Peoples Live Equal Lives
Although indigenous peoples are being increasingly recognised by both rights activists and governmental organisations, they are still being neglected in legal documents and declarations. Indigenous peoples are only mentioned in two of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)…
Indian women, inordinately burdened by housework
Underneath two gigantic chandeliers in the conference room of a posh Gurgaon hotel, 250 elegantly dressed women are ferociously beating drums. Faster, slower, louder, stop. It’s easier than it looks. The women break out into a sweat as they whistle…
When Sarangi vibrates with Tabla
Ustad Liyakat Ali Khan and Jaffar Khan Talks to the GreenWatch Dhaka representative in Stuttgart, Germany, Monowara Begum Moni It was a beautiful summer day when I met Sarangi Maestro Ustad Liyakat Ali Khan with the legendary Tabalchi Jaffar Khan in…
A Bangladeshi helped avert World War III?
North Korea is the most powerful nuclear nation on earth and has the capability of destroying the three-million square miles of the USA in 42 minutes 42 seconds precisely By Proinsias Mac Pheadair Worldwide News A video entitled “Trump almost…
Zimbabwe’s election of great expectations
Counting is underway today across Zimbabwe as the country voted in an historic election on Jul. 30, which many expect will bring political and economic transformation. It is a long-awaited change for many after autocratic leader, Robert Mugabe, was ousted…
Caribbean builds resilience through enhanced data collection
By the end of September 2018, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) would have installed the last of five new data buoys in the Eastern Caribbean, extending the regional Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) network as it continues…
ADB launches strategy 2030 for Asia and the Pacific
Manila, Philippines (26 July 2018) — The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Board of Directors has approved a new long-term corporate strategy, Strategy 2030, that sets out the institution’s broad vision and strategic response to the evolving needs of Asia and…
Will today’s youth save the world?
The world has known about the dual crises of climate change and over-exploitation of natural resources since the 1970’s. Action has been slow in coming, but many say that we are entering a transition period towards sustainability in the areas…
Iron-enriched millet ups cognitive senses in Indian youths
Washington, D.C.—July 19 – Poor diets lacking in iron limit brain development and learning capacity, hampering the potential of individuals and societies, generation after generation. Countries like India are at the heart of this challenge, as nearly half of all…
Fossil-fuel doublespeak
by Lili Fuhr, Hannah McKinnon Berlin – Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, too many policymakers have fallen for the oil and gas industry’s rhetoric about how it can help to reduce greenhouse-gas em issions. Tall tales…