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Photo: Joe Biden (left) and Donald Trump (right). Credit: MIT Technology Review

The US Has Moved to Being the Saboteur of Democracy

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – It will take a long time before America can again strut the world stage and lecture about the values of democracy, poking its finger in the eye of every authoritarian or dictatorial government it has the desire to show up. A former president, no less, is going to use every occasion into the distant future to tell the world that this election of 2020 was illegally hijacked.

The election has shown up the deficiencies in America’s “democracy”. We again learnt that winning a handsome majority of votes wasn’t enough and that for President-elect Joe Biden to win he had to garner 270 votes in the electoral college which is biased towards the under-populated, rural, states such as Wyoming with only 600,000 people.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 10 November 2020

Faith-based & Other NGOs Look Forward to Entry into Force of the Nuclear Ban Treaty

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – When she learned that the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) reached the 50 states parties required for its entry into force, Setsuko Thurlow said: "I was not able to stand. I remained in my chair and put my head in my hands, and I cried tears of joy. … I found myself speaking with the spirits of hundreds of thousands of people who lost their lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was immediately in conversation with these beloved souls. …I was reporting to the dead, sharing this good news first with them, because they paid the ultimate price with their precious lives."

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 10 November 2020

Photo: Trump has a hobby, a nasty hobby, of blocking Nigerian candidates for international positions. He incited the Board of the African Development Bank (AfDB) against its president Akinwunmi Adesina’s second term bid. And, he has been blocking, Nigeria/Africa’s candidate for the position of director general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Collage of pictures of Akinwunmi Adesina (left) and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (right) by IDN-INPS.

Letter to US President-elect Joe Biden

By Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) – If Nigerians had a vote, you’ll probably not be the 46th President of the United States of America. A Pew Research Centre poll in January showed that two countries – Kenya and Nigeria – were still madly in love with lame-duck President Donald J. Trump.

You might wonder why in spite of your long list of transgressions against Trump – from his malicious negligence in the fight against Coronavirus to his congenital lying, and from race-baiting to his crooked politics – we still love him.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 November 2020

Photo: Screenshot of President Trump delivering President Trump delivering remarks in North Carolina on November 2, 2020. White House YouTube video.

The Evil That Men Do Lives After Them

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN) – Now it is clear that Joe Biden is the new president of the United States. It is unlikely that Donald Trump’s legal manoeuvring will change the election results, as when a conservative Supreme Court in 2000 decided in favour of George Bush over Al Gore, who lost by 535 votes. Not even this Supreme Court, where Trump has six sympathetic members (three appointed by him, quite a record), and only three unsympathetic, will dare to change a result coming from too many states.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 09 November 2020

Photo: Children in Ethiopia's Oromia Region, where alarming violence has erupted. Credit: WFP/Michael Tewelde

Ethnic Strife in Ethiopia Threatens All-Out Civil War

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Those who held high hopes for peace in the Horn of Africa are troubled by the rise in conflicts across the region with fears growing of a potentially destabilizing civil war. The latest conflict pits the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed against the Tigray people who see themselves side-lined from power after almost two decades as head of a coalition that ran the country from 1991 until 2012.

On November 4, Mr. Abiy, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize after making peace with Eritrea, ordered the start of a military offensive against Tigray, accusing the region’s ruling party of attacking a government defence post and attempting to steal artillery and military equipment.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 09 November 2020

Breaking the Culture of Violence to Advance Peace and Security

Viewpoint by P.I. Gomes*

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) – The Preamble to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development refers to what is called the 5P’s of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership. They capture with such lucid precision what is referred to as “all areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet.”

These are all areas deserving of concerted attention, but the widespread and insidiously yet blatant impact of violence, as the negation of “peace”, might benefit from some reflections. Manifested increasingly in such multiple forms as gender-based violence (GBV), trafficking in persons, ruthless assaults of gun violence, armed conflict, racial supremacist abusive language, ethnic profiling and violent extremism – all span a range of human behaviour that is violent in intent and in effect, resulting in loss of life or life-long injury, at times physical, psychological or both.

: Dr. Patrick Gomes - former ACP Seretary-General; OPINION; 09 November 2020

Reclaiming Public Development Banks to Finance a Sustainable & Equitable Recovery Post Covid-19

Viewpoint by Thomas Marois and Maria Jose Romero *

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Those who work in the world’s public development banks will meet virtually on November 11-12 to discuss their response to the Covid-19 pandemic and their role in a more sustainable future.

This new summit, which they have called ‘Finance in Common’ (FiC), will also bring together the governments that own them and other key stakeholders from the public and private sectors, civil society, think tanks and academia.

: Europe Editor; COVID-19; 08 November 2020

Photo: US Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris and President-elect Joe Biden as he arrives for his victory address after being declared the winner in the 2020 presidential election, in Wilmington, Delaware. The National | EPA

Defending Democracy and Our Future: Biden’s Victory and the Struggles Ahead

Viewpoint by Joseph Gerson*

NEW YORK (IDN) – That was one roller coaster of a week! A nasty four years!

Celebrating Biden’s election with others in my hometown, there was joy as drivers’ faces lit up with smiles, women in hijabs and Central American landscapers gave us thumbs up, and hundreds of car horns rang out in support.

People’s joy was an expression of relief at the anticipated departure of a would-be dictator more than a love for Joe Biden. The African-American commentator Van Jones' tearful words spoke for so many:

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 08 November 2020

Photo: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu with the then US Vice President Joe Biden. Source: The Times of Israel.

Biden Is A Veteran Friend of Israel But Against Settlement

By Raphael Ahren

The writer is the diplomatic correspondent at The Times of Israel, which published it on November 7, 2020.

JERUSALEM (IDN) – Joe Biden, the newly elected 46th president of the United States, is a true friend of the Jewish state, friends and even political adversaries of the emerging president-elect agree.

“He has a deep feeling for Israel,” said Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the US when Biden was vice president. Oren opposed almost all of the Middle East policies championed by Biden and his boss, Barack Obama, especially on Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian question. Still, he annually attended Biden’s Rosh Hashanah party, and asserts that the former Delaware senator is genuinely concerned about Israel’s well-being.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East; 07 November 2020

Photo: Trump's new apparently low-yield nuclear warhead entered production in 2019. Credit: Ronald Gutridge/U.S. Navy.

Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal Under International Law

A Landmark Victory for the United Nations

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) reached on October 24 the required 50 signatories for its entry into force on January 22, 2021. It will eventually make nuclear weapons — the most dangerous weapons of mass destruction — illegal under international law.

Unquestionably, it is a landmark victory for the United Nations that continually for 75 years had on its agenda the issues relating to disarmament and abolition of nuclear weapons. It is remarkable that it coincided with the UN’s 75th anniversary, and also the infamous use of atomic bombs in August 1945.