History

Photo: We're used to thinking of Hitler's Third Reich as the incomparably evil tyranny that it undoubtedly was. But Hitler didn’t take power by force. He used a set of rhetorical tropes codified in Trump’s bedside reading that persuaded enough Germans to welcome Hitler as a populist leader. (Photo: photolibrarian/Flickr/cc)

Soviet Advance Not U.S. Atomic Bombings Forced Japan To Surrender

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Seventy-five years ago the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 and on Nagasaki on August 9 was premeditated mass murder.

President Harry Truman had a workable alternative to using the atom bomb – to cooperate with Stalin, as Roosevelt and Churchill had done on the Western front, in the Soviet advance on Japan, rather than making it a race for control.

Indeed, it was the Soviet advance that convinced Japan to surrender.** Although unaware of each other’s thinking both Truman and the Japanese leadership shared a common cause – they both wanted to pre-empt the possibility of the Soviet Union occupying parts of Japan before the U.S. had got its boots on Japanese ground. Truman did not want to be compelled to concede Soviet participation in the government of post-surrender, occupied, Japan.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 11 August 2020

Photo: Apollo 11 backup crew members Fred Haise (left) and Jim Lovell prepare to enter the Lunar Module for an altitude test. Credit: NASA.

Apollo to Apple Store: The American Dream

Viewpoint by Jayasri Priyalal *

SINGAPORE (IDN) – On July 24, 1969, Apollo 11 lunar mission completed landing on the moon and the safe return of the three astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. The famous Neil Armstrong's words after landing on the moon, "That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" echoed around the world. The whole world was thrilled over the great achievement that happened nearly fifty years ago.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 July 2020

Collage: Backdrop population and environment image from Kullabs with photo of Malthus from Brittanica.

Malthus Revisited: Close Relationship between Population and Environment

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – The total human population and economy have imposed excessive weight on the global environment, as discussed in my new book circulated and freely downloadable from http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Malthus-Revisited-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

Thomas Rpbert Malthus' "Essay on The Principle of Population", the first edition of which was published in 1798, was one of the first systematic studies of the problem of population in relation to resources. Earlier discussions of the problem had been published by Boterro in Italy, Robert Wallace in England, and Benjamin Franklin in America.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 05 July 2020

Photo: Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured just before signing the controversial Munich Agreement in 29 September 1938. Credit: Federal German Archive, Koblenz CC-BY-SA 3.0

World War II: 75 Years on Doubts on the Origins

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – It is a common trait in mankind to apply to ourselves a generosity of interpretation which we do not extend to others. We find proofs of wickedness, using evidence that we would not use against our own. We play down the sins of ourselves, our own country and our leaders, past and present.

In the days of the Nazi government in Germany, there was an inbuilt tendency in the Allies' reporting to distort what Hitler was doing. For example, they wanted to pin on him the fact that in the early days of the war that he had started the indiscriminating bombing of civilians. In fact, it was begun by the directors of British strategy, as some of the more honest of them later boasted.

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 30 June 2020

Photo: Gdańsk (Danzig) downtown destroyed by air strikes and artillery fire (1945). On September 1, 1939 the German armies invaded Poland. Two days later the British government declared war supposedly to aid Poland to hang on uncompromisingly to Gdansk, which few British, French or Americans had ever heard of a few months earlier. Photo from Public Domain.

The Second World War: Flawed and Ignorant Thinking in Both Russia and The West

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – The tanks will roll across Moscow’s Red Square on June 24. It is the day of the great parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War. In the West it’s not that well-known a fact that the Soviet Union lost many more soldiers and civilians in the war than all the rest of the allies put together. Without the alliance of the West with Russia Hitler would undoubtedly have won the war.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 23 June 2020

Photo: Moruga - Columbus historical monument. Columbus landed here on his third voyage in 1498. This is on the southern coast of the island of Trinidad, West Indies. the sea in the background is named the Columbus channel. it separates the island of Trinidad from Venezuela. Kalamazadkhan CC BY4.0

Black Power Move to Remove Columbus Statue Contravenes Heritage Protection Act

Viewpoint by Dr Kumar Mahabir

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO (IDN) – The National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago has been strangely silent on the rowdy and relentless campaign to remove the historical statue of Christopher Columbus in the capital city of Port of Spain. I was the Vice Chairman of the Trust from 2013 to 2015.

The Trust seems to place its current Afro-centric agenda above and beyond the public and national interest.

: Opinion Editor; HUMAN RIGHTS; Racism; 22 June 2020

Photo: Putin and the newly appointed Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin meeting with members of Mishustin's Cabinet on 21 January 2020. CC BY 4.0

Russia Considers 75th Anniversary of the Great Victory Shared Responsibility to History and our Future

Viewpoint by Vladimir Putin

This article by the Russian President appeared in http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/63527 on June 19, 2020.

MOSCOW (IDN) – 75 years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War. Several generations have grown up over the years. The political map of the planet has changed. The Soviet Union that claimed an epic, crushing victory over Nazism and saved the entire world is gone. Besides, the events of that war have long become a distant memory, even for its participants. So why does Russia celebrate the 9th of May as the biggest holiday? Why does life almost come to a halt on June 22? And why does one feel a lump rise in their throat?

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Russia; 20 June 2020

McDonald's and the Ongoing Indo-Chinese Conflict

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn *

NEW DELHI (IDN) – Thomas Friedman first put forward the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention in 1996 which claimed that no two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's.

However, life has its own logic and cannot be interpreted in binaries. The Western logic is rooted in the Greek traditions and is binary, whereas the logic in the Eastern traditions can be multi-dimensional such as the four valued Chatushkoti logic of the Vedas or Buddhism used by scholars like Patanjali and Panini, or seven valued Saptabhangi of the Jainas. It helps one get a bigger, better and richer picture of life.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 June 2020

Photo: Lorie Shaull/Flickr – Xena Goldman, Cadex Herrera, Greta McLain, Niko Alexander and Pablo Hernandez (artists)

Racism and Exceptionalism Are Backbones of Trump Doctrine

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – Elimination of excessive economic inequality makes societies happier and better, underlines the incontrovertible evidence that a new freely downloadable book presents.

Going back to history, the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas during the 17th to 19th centuries. Sir Isaac Newton's rational explanations for cosmic phenomena demonstrated that reason is better than superstition.