Hong Kong, China – Media OutReach – June 16 – The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), a Hong Kong-based not-for-profit organization, named Nita Bhalla of Thomson Reuters Foundation the Journalist of the Year at the SOPA 2017 Awards Gala…
Category: Op-Ed
Migrant workers pour trillions into world economy
By Roshni Majumdar UN, Jun 15 (IPS) – A new report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says the flow of money from migrants—commonly located in developed countries—to their families in lower income countries has doubled over the…
Understanding today’s stagnation
Ever since the ‘Great Recession’ of 2007-2009, the world’s major central banks have kept short-term interest rates at near-zero levels. In the United States, even after the Federal Reserve’s recent increases, short-term rates remain below 1%, and long-term interest rates…
‘End violations-abuses of Burma’s etnhic minority’
Civilians from minority ethnic groups suffer appalling violations and abuses, including war crimes, at the hands of Myanmar’s military and ethnic armed groups in the country’s Kachin and northern Shan States, Amnesty International said today in a new report based…
Women Deliver 2019 Global conference in Vancouver
Ottawa, Canada, 13 June – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada is proud to have been chosen as the host country for the global Women Deliver Conference, which will bring over 6,000 world leaders, influencers, advocates, academics, activists, and…
Refugee numbers outpace resettlement spots
By IPS World Desk ROME, Jun 13 2017 (IPS) – Against the backdrop of increasing refugee numbers around the globe, fuelled by crisis and insecurity, and an ever-widening gap in places to resettle them, the top United Nations official dealing…
When women have land rights, the tide begins to turn
By Manipadma Jena New Delhi, June 12 (IPS) – In Meghalaya, India’s northeastern biodiversity hotspot, all three major tribes are matrilineal. Children take the mother’s family name, while daughters inherit the family lands.
Protecting children on the move in Bangladesh
When Cyclone Mora struck southwest Bangladesh at the end of May, the storm had a particularly devastating impact on the informal settlements in Cox’s Bazar, which are home to displaced people from Myanmar who fled violence in their homes in…
Dhaka turned unhabitable, says BNP
Dhaka – BNP on Monday alleged that a disastrous situation has been created in the capital city due to the spread of mosquitoes and rundown roads. -UNB
BD community radio networks champs at world info summit
Dhaka – Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) has recognised as a Champion in UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2017 Community Radio related two Initiatives of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC)…
Family planning carnival Bangladesh 2017
Rafiqul Alam Khan In the early 70s’ birth per women constituted above 7 percent in Bangladesh but according to World Bank the rate in 2017 is just 2.2. This is almost analogous to a miracle. Something happened between these periods…
Brexit strategy for a weak UK Government
Ngaire Woods Oxford – As Prime Minister Theresa May seeks to form a new government, following an election in which her Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority, she knows that, within days, she will also need to get down to…
An interview with Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy’s 1997 debut novel, The God of Small Things, was a worldwide sensation, and deservedly so. Wildly inventive and fresh, the novel went on to win the Booker Prize and establish her as one of the brightest of a…
Automation, job liss and the welfare state
With the capabilities of artificial intelligence quickly expanding and middle class jobs under threat of being automated, will the government need to step in to pick up the slack of a job market hollowed out by machines? Chaired by Susan…
Why Jehadists are striking Iran now
In the early hours of June 7, a group of six people — five men and one woman — launched coordinated terrorist attacks against two sites in Tehran, hitting the Iranian Parliament and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder,…
What future for 700 million Arab and Asian youth?
By Baher Kamal Rome, Jun 8 (IPS) – With a combined population of around 400 million inhabitants, 22 Arab countries are home to nearly 300 million youth. Meantime, there are 400 million youth living in Asia and the Pacific. In…
Solar tents improve nutrition in highlands villages of Bolivia
By Franz Chávez Phuyuwasi, Bolivia, Jun 7 2017 (IPS) – In this remote highlands valley community in central Bolivia, a group of Quechua indigenous women have learned how to combat the intense frosts and the shortage of water in solar…
Crisis in the Gulf: Escalation or negotiation?
By James M. Dorsey Singapore, Jun 8 (IPS) – Turkey’s parliament is this week fast tracking the dispatch of up to 3,000 troops to Qatar, home to the country’s military base in the Middle East. Certain to stiffen Qatar’s resolve…
Poverty and the UK general election
In a modern election it is increasingly easy to get caught up in the drama of the campaigns and ignore the actual issues that lie beneath. There is often a lack of thoughtful expert analysis on the issues at hand,…
Fight against illegal mining in River Ganga
Bhim Singh Rawat Finally on World Environment Day, Swami Shivanand has withdrawn his fast unto death agitation. It was thirteenth day of his indefinite hunger strike including six days of water fast (from May 25 – 30, 2017) against illegal…
Denial of human rights in one county concerns all others
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein Opening Statement by Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 6 June 2017 Fifty years ago, this was the day I first heard the sound of war. I was three and a half years old and, while fragmentary, I can still remember military men milling around our home in Amman, an armoured car stationed nearby and later, planes that flew overhead. It was a war that shaped my life, and forged my later desire to understand the depths of Palestinian suffering but not only that, Jewish suffering too – the latter spanning over two millennia, and which culminated in that colossal crime, the Holocaust.
US pullout from Paris deal: What it means
By withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, President Donald Trump abdicated not only leadership but membership of the community of nations cooperating to tackle climate change, the most serious crisis facing humanity. Trump’s announcement was shocking, even though…
Continuing the climate battle without the US
By Martin Khor With President Trump pulling the United States from the Paris agreement, the US has lost not only leadership but membership of the community of nations that subscribe to humanity’s fight for survival against climate change So in…
Trade unions and the decline of social democracy
by Simon Otjes and Anne Rasmussen In the Dutch elections on 15 March, the Labour Party (PvdA) lost three quarters of their seats, falling from 25% to 6% of the vote. The fall of the Dutch social democrats parallels the…
Women small-holder farmers, key drivers for sustainable production
By Sally Nyakanyanga Harare, Jun 5 (IPS) – The shouts can be heard from a distance as one approaches Domboshawa, 30 kilometres northeast of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
Charting a course to a Blue Commonwealth
By Patricia Scotland London, Jun 5 (IPS) – The United Nations Ocean Conference offers an historic opportunity to safeguard the ocean environment and support small island and vulnerable developing coastal states, who depend on the seas for national economic growth…
Re-connect with nature now… before it is too late!
By Baher Kamal Rome, Jun 5 (IPS) – Now that president Donald Trump has announced the withdrawal of the world’s largest polluter in history—the United States, from the Paris Accord, perhaps one of the most specific warnings is what a…
Ariana Grande in Manchester to honour victims with benefit
Manchester, Jun 5 (AP/UNB) — Ariana Grande paid tribute to the city of Manchester, England, on Sunday with an energetic, all-star concert that raised millions for victims of a suicide bombing that tore through her last performance in the city…
A sustainable economy for the Arab World
Mahmoud Mohieldin Washington, DC – In recent decades, millions of people in the Arab world have been lifted out of extreme poverty. But progress is now at risk of slowing, or even reversing, owing to a vicious circle of economic…
International environmental criminal court needed
Phyllis Omido Nairobi – The announcement of the winners of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize is an opportunity to celebrate activist leaders. But it is also a moment to recognize just how much courage their efforts (and those of a…