In 1978 Vaclav Havel wrote The Power of the Powerless in which he argued against the communist regime, maintaining that it forced people to “live in a lie”. For Havel, the resistance against the lie was to begin living in…
Category: Op-Ed
The premature death of Marx
Most Marxists and anti-Marxists alike probably fail to realise that the highest praise for capitalism is to be found in Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), that readily recognised that the capitalist system promoted urbanisation, industrialisation, technical…
Standard dilemmas of left politics
On a day-to-day basis, it is hard to break free of a mindset dominated in the UK by the details of the Brexit negotiations or in the United States by the tweeting of an emotionally volatile president. But in both…
Time for a global financial makeover
Liu Zhenmin NEW YORK – In 2015, United Nations member states came together and committed to achieving a comprehensive and universal set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) spanning all dimensions of economic and social development.
Chocolate’s sustainability challenge
Jeff King HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA – In the 1970s and 1980s, when multinational firms first linked sustainability to business success, the chief catalyst was vulnerability, not altruism. Consumer pressure, political boycotts, and costly lawsuits were damaging companies’ bottom lines, and environmental…
Canada takes the lead on methane emissions
Scott Vaughan and Durwood Zaelke OTTAWA/WASHINGTON, DC – In the fight against climate change, carbon dioxide attracts the bulk of regulators’ attention. But while long-lived CO2 is a key contributor to rising temperatures, it is not the only culprit. Other…
Saudi crown prince sees new axis of ‘evil’ in Middle East
By Ishaan Tharoor Mohammed bin Salman, the youthful and ambitious Saudi crown prince, arrived in London on Wednesday for a three-day visit shrouded in controversy. Critics protested the British government’s close ties to Riyadh, lambasting the kingdom’s human rights record…
Should ‘modalities’ for finance info be part of Paris mandate
Bonn, 4 May (Meena Raman) – Parties were divided on whether the issue of ‘modalities’ for the biennial communication of indicative information on the financial resources available to developing countries under Article 9.5 of the Paris Agreement (PA) is part…
Recommendations for agroecological transitions
Agroecology has been gaining worldwide interest in recent years as a strategic pathway to transition to sustainable food and agriculture systems.
Health-care workers suffer attacks every single week
Geneva (ICRC) – An incident of violence against health-care facilities or personnel has taken place every single week since the passage two years ago of a U.N. Security Council Resolution meant to increase respect for the sanctity of health care.
Top 7 disruptive technologies for cities
By Abhas Jha Imagine you were working in development and poverty reduction in the early 1990s (I was!). Only one website existed in all the world in August 1991 (today there are over 1.5 billion). Mobile phones were expensive, rare,…
What prospects for the Polish left
For most of the post-1989 period, the most powerful political and electoral force on the Polish left was the communist successor Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), which governed the country from 1993-97 and 2001-5. However, the Alliance has been in the…
Hatred of journalism threatens democracies: RSF
The 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), reflects growing animosity towards journalists. Hostility towards the media, openly encouraged by political leaders, and the efforts of authoritarian regimes to export their vision of journalism pose a…
Good food advocates to converge in D.C. to oppose Farm Bill
Danielle Nierenberg On May 8-9th next Food Policy Action (FPA) is mobilizing stakeholders from across the United States to voice their united opposition to the draft 2018 Farm Bill released by the House Agriculture Committee.
Some bloody immigrants think they should get all The Perks
According to the latest figures of Italy’s National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT), 184,638 non-EU citizens acquired Italian citizenship in 2016. Of these 5,799 were Brazilians, placing this nationality seventh in the ranking, behind Albanians (36,920), Moroccans (35,212), Indians (9,527), Bangladeshis…
Strange bedfellows undermining liberalism: Trump & academia
by Bo Rothstein For people like myself, working as a social science researcher, these are very strange times. Almost any colleague, in whatever discipline you talk with, will quickly turn the conversation onto one and only one question – the…
Panmunjom declaration: A glimmer of hope
By Askiah Adam Taken pleasantly by surprise, not least because of the speed at which the joint Panmunjom Declaration has materialised, the world cannot but rejoice. In the few months from the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea when the…
Bangladeshi among 10 ‘Emerging Young Leaders Award’
Dhaka, May 2 – The US Department of State will honour outstanding young leaders from around the world, including Tanzil Ferdous from Bangladesh, on Wednesday (today).
How Europe gets Roma culture wrong
There are several different social groups known as Roma which share common historical and cultural elements, formerly called Gypsies, Tzigane, Zingari, Gitanes, Zigeuner, Bohemians and Gitanos. According to the prevailing approach, based mainly on linguistic – rather than historical –…
Why we need to socialise competition law
Until January 2018 Carillion was a huge British conglomerate before going bankrupt. From its roots as a construction company, it expanded into a grand-scale facilities management company: The construction projects such as schools, prisons and road-building that it undertook were…
S. Korea to remove propaganda loudspeakers at shared border
Seoul, Apr 30 (AP/UNB) — South Korea says it will remove propaganda-broadcasting loudspeakers from the border with North Korea.
Cellphone snatching: A new menace haunting Dhaka dwellers
Dhaka, Apr 30 – Habibur Rahman, an East West University student, along with his three friends boarded a bus from Farm Gate to go back to Malibagh and sat on a window seat for a comfortable trip.
Guns and liberty
By Chris Hedges Feb 2018 – The proliferation of guns in American society is not only profitable for gun manufacturers, it fools the disempowered into fetishizing weapons as a guarantor of political agency. Guns buttress the myth of a rugged…
Revving up green growth
By Tharanga Yakupitiyage UN, Apr 27 2018 (IPS) – While sustainable development may still seem elusive to some, a new initiative wants to pave a path for nations working towards a greener future.
Sex sells, but should it?
Are there legitimate grounds for discrimination in the business world? This episode explores the hiring practices of Abercrombie & Fitch, Hooters, and even OBGYNs.
Post modern illusion
Once, postmodernism and its protagonists identified themselves as freedom fighters – and probably still do. Their argument goes like this: The universalism of modernity and the logic of the general in industrialized societies, as the German sociologist Andreas Reckwitz calls…
Development prospects for hundreds of millions in jeopardy
By Amina J. Mohammed UN, Apr 24 (IPS) – The global economy is strengthening. A broad-based economic upturn has underpinned progress in many areas.
“Fake news” a growing new threat to press freedom
By Thalif Deen UN, Apr (IPS) – When a Malaysian politician of a bygone era was asked about the “leading newspapers” in his country, he shot back: “We don’t have any leading newspapers in our country because all our newspapers…
20 good food reads for Spring
Danielle Nierenberg Food Tank has collected 20 of the best new books in food and agriculture to celebrate spring. Our favorite reads this season cover critical topics including the paradox of obesity and malnutrition, building strong communities through socially-conscious food…
Memorial to African Americans who were lynching
In a plain brown building sits an office run by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, a place for people who have been held accountable for their crimes and duly expressed remorse.