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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Africa was ever on the mind of Martin Luther King Jr. and his concerns for the continent appear in in his many papers in the King Institute.
MLK spoke out about the Congo at an event celebrating the independence of Kenya. “There are many problems on a world scale today and one of them is the Congo.”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | PARIS (IDN) — A check may soon be on its way for some of the last surviving African soldiers who fought in French wars around the world but were forced to live in France six months of the year in order to qualify for the pensions they were owed.
As a result of the six-month rule, many retirees could not spend their last days in Africa with their wives and children. With the regulation now to be lifted, they will continue receiving their pension payment even if they move away permanently.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN) — There were many heartless, soulless, violent men and women who defended apartheid during the years of racist white rule in South Africa. Some held government jobs, some were brutal enforcers of law, some gave quiet approval as tens of thousands of Blacks were detained, locked up without trial, deprived of their lands, their rights and finally their lives.
But one man was the “face of evil”, according to many who lived during those times. His name was Adriaan Vlok.
Viewpoint by Ambassador Palitha Kohona*
BEIJING (IDN) — Sitting in the middle of the Indian Ocean at the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka occupies an enviable strategic position. A blessing that it has successfully leveraged to advantage in the past and a curse that will continue to attract the rapacious attention of global and regional powers seeking to dominate the Indian Ocean region strategically, economically and culturally.
Viewpoint by Katrina vanden Heuvel*
NEW YORK (IDN) — October 16 marks 60 years since the Cuban missile crisis—the 13-day standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union widely regarded as the closest we ever came to global nuclear war. On this anniversary, as we veer terrifyingly close to the brink of Armageddon once again, we should look to that crisis to guide us in resolving our present one.
Viewpoint by Dr Ram Puniyani
This article is the 23rd in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is a former professor of biomedical engineering and former senior medical officer affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (now Mumbai) and, meanwhile, a social activist and commentator.
Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens
GENEVA (IDN) — Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) born on August 29, was an English writer, educator and pacifist, socialist reformer. Carpenter came from a middle class intellectual family and studied at Cambridge University. As with some of his fellow students who were interested in philosophy and ideas, he was ordained in the Church of England hoping that its outlook and theology could be widened from the inside.
By A. L A. Azeez
Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva
COLOMBO (IDN) -- Most comments that have come out in public since the sad passing away of Prof. Hasbullah in August 2018 appear to give due credit to him for the work he has done to highlight the plight of the displaced community.
That work extends to an exploration of the complexities of the phenomenon of IDPs and other demographic and geographical issues. Empirical facts gathered through that very process have contributed to a global understanding of the multidimensionality of that phenomenon.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | LEICESTER (IDN) — It remains a bitter memory for Asians, some life-long and others more recent residents of Uganda, of their sudden, unexpected expulsion from the African country they called home 50 years ago this month.
They had just 90 days to pack up and leave, then President Idi Amin declared in a televised speech. For now, he was "giving Uganda back to ethnic Ugandans".
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — The only documented female army in modern history was that of the Kingdom of Dahomey—now southern Benin—which, by the 1800s, had thousands of female troops.
In September, a film version that portrays the lives of these warrior women will be seen in cinemas around the country. In the meantime, a trailer of the film can be seen on YouTube. It features Viola Davis and Hero Fiennes.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.