History

Photo: Methodist Central Hall, London, the location of the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. Source: Wikimedia Commons

75 Years On The First UN General Assembly Resolution

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The author is Ambassador, President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Seventy-five years ago, in January 1946, the United Nations General Assembly met for the first time after the signature of the Charter. Its first resolution was adopted on the 24th of that month. The developments mentioned and commented below come to mind as we recall the outcome of that inaugural session of the Assembly.

: Sergio Duarte; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 12 January 2021

Photo: Late French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and 'Emperor' Bokassa of the Central African Republic.

The Story of Giscard D’Estaing's Fascination for 'Emperor' Bokassa's Diamonds

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Early December the former president of France Valery Giscard D’Estaing died. The Guardian in its obituary described him as “the grand old man of French politics”. President Emanuel Macron said, “his presidency had transformed France and his direction still guides its way”. The New York Times said he was “a modern-minded conservative”.

Unlike many of the other obituaries, the New York Times failed to mention the scandal that was a major factor in bringing him down when he ran for a second term in 1981. He was accused and it was proved that he had accepted a gift of diamonds from Emperor Bokassa of the Central African Republic valued at about quarter of a million US dollars.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 15 December 2020

Image: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Ultraviolet: ESA/XMM-Newton. Source: Vox

Black Holes Pervade the Spirit of 2020

Viewpoint by Prabir Purkayastha*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – The Nobel P rize in physics for 2020 has been shared by Roger Penrose, the mathematical physicist, for his work on the theoretical basis of black holes, and astronomers Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez, who led independent teams, for verifying the existence of such a black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. Penrose showed that the consequence of Einstein’s general theory of relativity is the formation of black holes, not only in collapsing stars but also in certain dense regions of space.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 22 November 2020

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.