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The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness
It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair — A Tale of Two Cities 1859

Viewpoint by Joseph Camilleri

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

MELBOURNE, Australia (IDN) — These opening lines of Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution, offer us a remarkable insight into humanity’s current predicament.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 May 2022

Image: Taj Mahal, Agra, India. Credit: © Yann Forget / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA.

Is The Taj Mahal Not a Part of Indian Culture?

Viewpoint by Dr Ram Puniyani

This article is the 19th 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.

: Asia Editor; ARTS & CULTURE; 11 May 2022

Photo: Protestors at a February 2022 rally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine march past the statue of Tsar Alexander II in Senate Square in Helsinki. CC BY 2.0

Endless Wars

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is an Ambassador, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affair, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Charter of the United Nations consolidated important norms of international law. Its Preamble affirms the decision to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. At the time of its adoption, the world was deeply shocked by two successive wars that directly involved Europe and other regions. In spite of the lofty purposes expressed in the Charter, several armed conflicts in many parts of the globe have marked the seventy-seven years of the United Nations’ existence.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 10 May 2022

Image: The Opium wars. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Legacy of The Opium Trade in Hong Kong

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — During the difficult years that preceded the British handover of Hong Kong to China the Chinese government's intense antipathy to opium and the still-fresh memories of the evil that eighteenth-century buccaneering Britain had inflicted on China and Hong Kong added an extra emotional charge to what, anyway, was a most complicated transition.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 10 May 2022

Photo: Displaced children in Roe, a temporary site for internally displaced people in DRC's province of Ituri (file photo). UN / Eskinder Debebe

UN Chief Calls for Probe into Deadly Armed Attacks on DRC Mining Site

NEW YORK (IDN | UN News) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to investigate the deadly armed group attacks in Djugu Territory, Ituri Province, on May 8.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 10 May 2022

Rock Bottom Spending on Women’s Health in Sierra Leone

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — On its web page titled U.S. Relations with Sierra Leone, the State Department gushes with warmth and affection for the African country—once called the ‘Province of Freedom’—which remains among the world’s poorest countries, ranked 180th out of 187 countries in the United Nations' Human Development Index in 2011.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 09 May 2022

Photo: A landscape view of El Geneina town, the capital of West Darfur, Sudan. UNAMID/Hamid Abdulsalam

Renewed Violence in Darfur Leaves Behind an Unstable Sudan

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) — 24 April 2022 saw renewed violence in the Darfur Provence of Sudan between Arab militias and the indigenous tribes of the area, the Masalit and the Fur. The violence began in 2003 and has caused some 300,000 deaths and some three million displaced. While most of the fighting was when General Omar al-Bashir was President, his overthrow by new military leadership has not fundamentally improved the situation.

: Rene Wadlow; OPINION; 09 May 2022

Global Leaders Call for Urgent Action to Stem the Loss of Lives and Livelihoods

By Devendra Kamarajan

ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire (IDN) — Government leaders meeting at the United Nations global conference on land have called on the international community to take urgent action to stem the loss of life and livelihoods that communities all over the world are experiencing due to the increasing and devastating impacts of desertification, land degradation and drought.

: Devendra Kamarajan; UN INSIDER; 09 May 2022

Image Credit: ESIC Medical College Hyderabad.

ALCAP to hold Dialogues for Development “COVID-19 Memories & Memorials with Lutyens” at ESIC-Hyderabad

By Niba Mirza *

HYDERABAD, India (IDN) — As of May 6, 2022, there have been 513,955,910 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, including 6,249,700 deaths, reported to WHO.

Though WHO also claims that the world’s true COVID-19 pandemic death toll is nearly 15 million. And as of May 4, 2022, a total of 11,562,157,794 vaccine doses have been administered.

: Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 08 May 2022

Photo: Overlooking the central Kumasi market at closing time in Kumasi, Ghana, June 22, 2006. Credit: Jonathan Ernst / World Bank (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Ukraine and Africa: Food Crisis, Energy Ambiguity and An Uncertain Political Outcome

This article was issued by The Institute for International Political Studies - ISPI.

Viewpoint by Lucia Ragazzi

MILAN (IDN) — Since the war in Ukraine broke out in Europe, its consequences and side effects have been reverberating across African countries. Rising food and energy prices, supply disruptions, and inflationary pressures have created additional challenges on the road to a post-pandemic economic recovery the continent painstakingly embarked upon, in what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a 'perfect storm'.