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Photo: Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan and Head of the Secretariat of the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Credit: The Astana Times.

Leaders of World and Traditional Religions Gather in Astana for Inclusive Dialogue

Viewpoint by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

The author, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan and Head of the Secretariat of the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. This opinion article first appeared on The Astana Times on October 5, 2018, and is being reproduced courtesy the prestigious Kazakh newspaper. IDN-INPS are providing a special coverage of the conference, including videos interviews and features. – The Editor.

ASTANA (IDN-INPS) – The Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions is a unique interfaith forum, convened every three years in Astana at the initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. For 15 years, this forum has played an important role in the rapprochement of cultures and civilisations, in searching for answers to the key challenges of our time. “Religious Leaders for a Safe World” is the main topic of the Sixth Congress, which will be held October 10-11 in the capital of Kazakhstan.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 08 October 2018

Photo: The ballet The Red Detachment of Women, one of the Model Dramas promoted during the Cultural Revolution. White House photo by Byron Schumaker. Source: https://web.archive.org

On 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' – or Ideological Mess and Reality

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the third of a four-part series. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2.

ROME (IDN) – One of the collective ideological hallucinations of the 20h century was Mao Zedong Thought. A remarkable thought in terms of metaphors and similitudes but even more so in terms of incoherence: as with Stalin, the most different lines can be extracted from the texts and the practice of Mao depending on convenience.

It is true that the Red Army was mostly peasant; but it is also true that from the "Great Leap Forward" in the second half of the 1950s – which resulted in the greatest famine of the twentieth century (about 30 million deaths between 1958 and 1961) – up to the phase of the "Third Front" of industrial development in China's interior, and passing through the Cultural Revolution and most of the 1970s, the peasant masses trapped by the hukou system were uninterruptedly squeezed like a lemon to finance industrial development, especially heavy and military industry.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 08 October 2018

Photo credit: Peter Miller © Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

India Needs to Reify its Global Nuclear Disarmament Policy

Viewpoint by Pulkit Mohan

India's challenge in asserting its stance on global nuclear disarmament requires a precise articulation of its goals and plans, writes Pulkit Mohan, a Research Intern at India's prestigious Observer Research Foundation. The article first appeared on 28 September 2018, and is being reproduced courtesy the Foundation.

NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) – For India, non-proliferation challenges have warranted special attention both from regional and global contexts for several decades. India's tumultuous relationship with its neighbours and its desire to be a regional and global power has continually shaped the tenets of its nuclear weapons programme and policy.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 08 October 2018

Photo: Puay Kim Teo speaking at the 1st Asian Buddhist Media Conclave in Delhi in August about the festival.

What is Buddhist in a Buddhist Film Festival?

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 25th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – The just concluded 5th edition of 'Thus I Have Seen Buddhist Film Festival (THISBFF)' in Singapore attracted a large non-Buddhist audience according to its organisers, but still it grappled with the question of what constitutes "Buddhist" in a film festival.

Festival director Puay Kim Teo of ‘Dhamma in Action’, reminiscing at its origins 10 years ago, recalls “we were looking for an outreach platform to share Buddhist teachings and Buddhist culture with the wider community in Singapore, beyond the normal temple grounds and society premises”.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 October 2018

Photo: Angolan President João Lourenço addressed European parliamentarians in a formal sitting in July 2018. Credit: European Union 2018 - EP

New Angolan President Makes His Presence Felt As Dos Santos Empire Collapses

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – One reason why African presidents may cling to power, even re-writing the constitution to grant them extra terms, may be the case of Angola.

Newly elected President João Lourenço is sending shivers across the continent as he relentlessly attempts to recoup billions of dollars subverted from the national treasury, including by members of the previous regime – former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, billionaire daughter Isabel and son Jose Filomeno dos Santos – aka Zenu.

The president’s son is meanwhile under arrest for the formation of a criminal organization, illegal enrichment, money laundering and corruption.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 07 October 2018

Photo: Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire. Credit: The Charleston Chronicle.

Rwanda Outlaws Political Cartoons and an Opposition Leader Goes Free

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW York (IDN) – The Rwandese government of Paul Kagame has outlawed the drawing of cartoons that portray politicians/leaders in an unflattering manner.

Anyone who draws such a cartoon risks imprisonment of up to two years and a fine of up to Rwf1 million ($1,145). If the cartoon targets a session of parliament or a “top ranking official,” the penalty is doubled.

Media experts say this is a huge blow to the profession and will greatly hamper their work.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 October 2018

Photo: In Tiananmen Square protests Beijing in 1989 the hopes of a mass democratic movement and the possibility that it would generate a workers' and people's movement of the Solidarność type were massacred. CC BY-SA 3.0

On 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' – or Mask of Capitalism

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the second of a four-part series. Click here for Part 1

ROME (IDN) – "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" is described by the regime in the following terms:

"A historic transformation from a highly centralised planned economy to a dynamic socialist market economy has been achieved in China. A basic economic system in which public ownership takes the lead and different economic ownerships grow side by side has come into being. The market plays an increasingly important role in allocating resources, and the system of macroeconomic regulation is improving. A social security system covering both urban and rural residents is taking shape, and culture, education, science and technology, health care, sports and other social programs are flourishing."

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 07 October 2018

Photo: A horrific video circulating online appears to show women and children being blindfolded and executed at point blank range in Cameroon.

Grim Shadow Over Cameroon President's Re-Election Bid

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the clock ticked down to October 7 presidential elections in Cameroon, President Paul Biya remained tightlipped about a grisly video gone viral of two mothers and their infant children executed in cold blood by government soldiers.

The grainy video shows two women – one with a baby on her back and another holding hands with a young child – walking across a dirt patch. Armed men walk behind them, and one yells in French “You are B.H. (Boko Haram), you are going to die.” The women are forced to kneel. Shots ring out and the women fall to the ground, one with her child still strapped to her back.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 06 October 2018

Photo: The two Nobel Peace laureates: and Denis Mukwege. Credit: Amnesty International. Nadia Murad and

UN Hails Nobel Peace Prize Seeking to End Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations has extended an enthusiastic welcome to The Norwegian Nobel Committee's announcement that it has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018 to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2017 was awarded to ICAN, the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition on such weapons."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 06 October 2018

Photo: Chang'an avenue in Beijing. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

On 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' – or Problem of Epochal Social Transformation

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the first of a four-part series.

ROME (IDN) – The "peaceful rise" or "peaceful development" of China is one of the most remarkable processes marking the world economy between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries ... and perhaps the most important.

Over four decades of the era of economic reforms, per capita product growth, industrial production and export rates have been impressive. The Chinese government can proudly show that since 1978 its gross domestic product has multiplied, that China's share in world production has increased fourfold, that China is the number one exporter in the world and that it is the country with the largest currency reserves (mostly in dollars).