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Photo: A community meeting. Credit: High Atlas Foundation

Mobilizing Decentralized, Participatory Energy Transition in Morocco

Viewpoint by Kerstin Opfer, Yossef Ben-Meir, Imane Akhezzane & Marine Pouget

Kerstin Opfer is a Policy Advisor with Germanwatch. Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is President of the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) in Morocco. Imane Akhezzane is a Program Director at HAF. Marine Pouget is a Project Manager at the Climate Action Network in France.

MARRAKECH (IDN) – Humankind faces the unprecedented challenge of existing on the warmest earth we have known. A lack of political will and societal awareness has inhibited the necessary, vigorous change to meet this challenge.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 September 2020

The Virality of Hate Is the Lifeline of Facebook

Viewpoint by Prabir Purkayastha

The writer is the founding editor of Newsclick.in, a digital media platform. He is an activist for science and the free software movement. This article was produced in partnership by Newsclick and Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW DELHI (IDN) – A recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article, “Facebook’s Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics,” has blown the lid off Facebook’s unholy alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the right-wing ruling party in India.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; South Asia; 23 September 2020

Photo: The International Seabed Authority.

UN At 75: How the Law of The Sea Has Shaped A More Fair and Equal Society

Viewpoint by Michael W. Lodge

Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) based in Jamaica.

KINGSTON (IDN) – In his address to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in July 2020, reflecting on what kind of UN we need at the 75th anniversary, the Secretary-General of the UN called for strengthened and renewed multilateralism, geared towards the overarching goals of peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 22 September 2020

Photo: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Navalny Case: Why Hasn't Germany Sent Samples of the Tests to WHO?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – I begin this column with a declaration that shows my bias: if President Vladimir Putin wanted Alexei Navalny dead, he would be dead. Army sharp-shooters do not miss a sitting target. A bullet in the head would leave an imprint hard to trace, and that would be that. Novichok, a poison, creates a multitude of problems, as we have seen.

Nevertheless, let’s assume the Kremlin was guilty of poisoning Navalny with Novichok. If the authorities had kept him at home nobody would know what had nearly killed him. Then Russia would have been free to invent any cock and bull story, even though they knew it had been Novichok.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 22 September 2020

Photo: Nigerians troop out to protest the scourge of rape ravaging the country. Credit: town_crierng

A Nigerian State to Test Castration as Punishment for Rapists

By Lisa Vives

Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Is it a welcome development? Or legislative sadism?

Those are the two sides of a debate roiling Nigeria following the passage of an amendment to a law that orders convicted rapists to be surgically castrated if a man, or have their fallopian tubes removed if a woman.

If the victim is under 14, the rapist will have his testicles surgically removed before being executed, under the legislation signed by the governor of Kaduna state.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 September 2020

Photo: Makerere University main building burning (PHOTO/PML Daily).

Historic Uganda University Devastated by Overnight Blaze

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – "It is a very dark morning for Makerere University. Our iconic Main Administration Building caught fire and the destruction is unbelievable. But we are determined to restore the building to its historic state in the shortest time possible."

Those were the words of Makerere’s Vice-Chancellor Barnabas Nawangwe as fire officials struggled to extinguish the last embers of a huge fire that appear to have started in the upstairs public relations office of the Main building – also known as the Ivory Tower, spreading to floors below that house the finance and records department. Buildings that housed the classrooms were not damaged, witnesses said.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 September 2020

Photo: Stabilising the global food system. Credit: Barilla Center.

Transforming Agriculture for Food, Nutrition and Livelihoods

By Busani Bafana

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (IDN) – Horticulture farmer Prosper Chikwara, grows cabbages, spinach and kale on the idyllic family farm, 20km north of the city of Bulawayo. Word of mouth is no longer enough to sell his produce.

He now grows on order because it no longer guaranteed there will be buyers at his gate when the crops are ready for harvest.

Six months ago, Chikwara, supplied 20 000 kg of vegetables to wholesalers in the city of Bulawayo. He is now selling less than half of his produce since the Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown was imposed.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 September 2020

Photo credit: Deutsche Welle: P. Lorgerie

Besides Mali, Russia Keenly Interest in 5-Nation Sahel Group

Viewpoint on By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) – Russia’s alleged involvement in the political change on August 18 in Mali, a former French colony with the fractured economy and breeding field for armed Islamic jihadist groups (some of which are reportedly aligned with Al Qaeda and ISIS), demonstrates the first drastic step towards penetrating into the G5 Sahel in West Africa. The G5 Sahel are Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

Despite this widely published allegation, Moscow officially said it was seriously concerned about the developments in Bamako and further urged “all Malian public and political forces to settle the situation peacefully at the negotiating table”.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 21 September 2020

Reviewing the Book 'Myth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era’

By Kannan Salazar

BANGKOK (IDN) – With Julian Assange’s “show trial” in progress in the UK for alleged national security breaches in the US, and a cold war era propaganda campaign between the Anglo-American media and China gathering momentum, a timely new book sheds some light on how the so-called “free media” has ditched its libertarian values.

The book titled Myth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era published by SAGE 2020 and written by Sri Lankan born journalist and communication scholar Kalinga Seneviratne* challenges the Anglo-American media’s claim to be an objective ‘free media’. He maintains that the western media fails to understand that objectivity in news is subjective.

: Devendra Kamarajan; ARTS & CULTURE; 20 September 2020

UN Releases Special 2020 Broadcast Calling for Collective Action

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In a significant move to mobilise global support, the United Nations, Project Everyone and 72 Films are launching 'Nations United - Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times'. A first of its kind film has been released September 19 on the UN YouTube channel and global broadcast networks.

The importance of the move lies in the fact that with just ten years to go for the 2030 deadline, implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is far from satisfactory. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening decade of global progress.