History

Photo: After the release of Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) leaders from prison in 1951. From left to Right: Kojo Botsio, Kwame Nkrumah, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah and Kofi Baako. NB: The PG symbol written on their cap stands for Prison Graduates. It was a popular title for these freedom fighters. Credit: Ghanaian Museum, Sep 8, 2021

Nkrumah’s Prison Cap Left an Indelible Memory With 'MLK'

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in anguish over the extreme violence displayed at the aftermath of the legendary Montgomery bus boycott, found solace in Ghana which he visited with his wife Coretta Scott King at the invitation of the newly installed Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.

Alongside African American leaders including A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell and Ralph Bunch, MLK was there to observe Ghana’s independence ceremony. It was March of 1957.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 January 2022

Photo: Remains of 6, 7, and 1 WTC on September 17. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Lies About How the Attack on Afghanistan Started

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) — The mainstream media, including the BBC, do not tell us the true story of how Afghanistan was invaded by the United States and its allies. Here is a link to an article by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies about the invasion of Afghanistan:

https://truthout.org/articles/will-the-voices-of-those-who-were-always-right-on-afghanistan-still-be-ignored/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=0260a0ca-3224-4181-89de-adf54fb583df

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 28 August 2021

Collage: (left) The tree nursery at Imerdel, Province of Ouarzazate, Morocco (7 July 2021, HAF). (right) The day Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir and colleagues of the High Atlas Foundation installed the sign at Imerdel, the burial site of Rabbi David-Ou-Moche and the location of the new community fruit tree nursery in the Ouarzazate province of Morocco (7 July 2021).

The Significance of the New Signage at the Ouarzazate Tree Nursery in Morocco

By Yossef Ben-Meir

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is President of the High Atlas Foundation and Chief of Party of the USAID Religious and Ethnic Minorities Activity Program in Morocco.

MARRAKESCH (IDN) — Twenty-seven years ago, I lived in a village called Amsouzerte in the Tifnoute Valley, the south side of the High Atlas Mountains, closeby to the burial location of the Moroccan-Hebrew saint David-Ou-Mouche. The Tifnoute community and its region long desired for the building of a fruit tree nursery so that they could move away from subsistence agriculture. They struggled with the risk of giving over portions of their farmlands to the venture.

: Europe Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Sustainable Cities & Communities; 19 August 2021

Image source: National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR).

The Study of History Can Avert a New Cold War

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Does America know what a dangerous game its leaders have been playing? Does it know its history? And do the leaders of Europe, who should be a brake on American determination, go along with Washington because they are almost equally ignorant? The fact is none of the present crop of European and American leaders have had time to study much history.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 27 July 2021

UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata Fidel Castro Ruz, President of Cuba addressing the General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York in 1979.

DON'T QUOTE ME: Cuba Survives One of the Longest Economic Wars in Modern History

By Thalif Deen*

NEW YORK (IDN) — When Raul Castro decided to retire, both as leader of Cuba and head of the Communist Party last April, it was the end of a politically adventurous era for a country most American leaders loved to hate.

In the late 1950s, it was Raul and his more famous older brother, Fidel Castro, who led an insurgency that toppled the American-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

: Thalif Deen; UN INSIDER; 23 June 2021

Photo: Capt. Matthew Dixon, who deployed with the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division, receives a combat patch during his deployment to Afghanistan during the spring of 2020. U.S. ARMY

The US to End its War In Afghanistan, “The Graveyard of Empires”

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — President Joe Biden of the United States announced that its war in Afghanistan, the US’s longest war ever, will end on September 11, 2021.

A glimpse of Afghanistan’s history—dubbed as “the country where Empires go to die” will help us understand why many empires failed in that country.

Afghanistan, rightfully called a “graveyard of empires”, is a mountainous landlocked country located along the ancient Silk Road between Asia and Europe, and surrounded by powerful nations such as India, Pakistan, and Russia.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 23 April 2021

Photo: Counter-attack by Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces supported by T-34 tanks near Playa Giron during the Bay of Pigs invasion, 19 April 1961, by CIA-led Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. CC BY 3.0.

Lessons of the Bay of Pigs Invasion Followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is well remembered, even by those not yet born when it happened. The word has been passed down the generations and probably always will be. It was the first and only time, say many historians and political scientists, that the world faced the likelihood of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the USA.

For my part, I find it impossible to forget.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 April 2021

Photo: Soviet soldiers attack, February 1943. The ruined Railwaymen's Building is in the background. CC BY-SA 3.0

Solving the Riddle of Who Won the Second World War

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Who won the Second World War? If you go to the United Kingdom people will answer, we did, led by Winston Churchill. If you visit the USA people will say, we did, led by Franklin Roosevelt. If you go to Russia, people will say the Soviet Union did, led by Stalin.

They can’t all be right. All three did to an extent, in as much as all three went flat out to defeat Hitler’s Germany.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 13 April 2021

Photo: A Security Council meeting in progress. Credit: United Nations. Credit: UN

DON'T QUOTE ME: Did US Spies Read Russian Lips in the UN Security Council Chamber?

The following excerpts are from a newly-released, 220-page book titled “No Comment – and Don’t Quote me on That”, a rich collection of political anecdotes, both serious and hilarious, reflecting over 40 years of reporting from the United Nations*

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, (IDN) — The United Nations, along with the 193 diplomatic missions located in New York, have long been veritable battlegrounds for spying, wire-tapping and electronic surveillance.

: Thalif Deen; OPINION; 13 April 2021

Photo: Sri Lanka Sinharaja Forest Preserve. CC BY-SA 2.0

‘Human Rights’ and Ecological Crisis in Sri Lanka

Viewpoint by Dr Asoka Bandarage

The writer, a scholar and practitioner, has taught at Yale, Brandeis, Mount Holyoke (where she received tenure), Georgetown, American and other universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad

COLOMBO (IDN) — The recent UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution A/HRC/46/L.1/Rev.1 of March 16 has brought extensive charges against Sri Lanka over alleged human rights violations but is arguably seriously flawed.