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Photo: A view down the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt (October 2004). Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Let’s Put Order in Tourism and Tourism in Order

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio

The writer is publisher of Other News, an eminent proponent of "information that markets eliminate" and founder of IPS-Inter Press Service News Agency. This article is being reproduced courtesy of Other News with the writer's permission. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and his articles and comments can be read on Facebook @robertosavioutopia

ROME (IDN) – We are living a paradox in which two parallel worlds coexist: the (real) world of places of poverty and violence that we (occasionally) read about in newspapers or see on TV and the other world featuring the same places which exists only for tourists, the world of beautiful beaches, wonderful nature and fantastic hotels.

Behind this paradox lies a fundamental question: how many tourists travelling the world this year will consider the social, cultural and environmental impact of their activity? Probably very few, and this is a serious issue with tourism having become a mass phenomenon driven (as usual) by money.

: Roberto Savio; OPINION; 09 January 2018

Photo: (Late) Peter Sutherland, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration and Development, briefs journalists. 27 May 2015. United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

Tribute to Sir Peter Sutherland (April 25, 1946 – January 7, 2018)

By Dr. Purnaka L. de Silva

The author is Director, Institute for Strategic Studies and Democracy (ISSD) Malta.

VALETTA (IDN) - Humanitarians across the world are mourning the passing of one of the greatest champions for the rights and freedoms of migrants and refugees, Sir Peter Sutherland, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration (January 2006 – March 2017).

Migrants and refugees, the poorest of the poor whom he championed shall sorely miss him, especially in these dystopian times with the hysterical rise of anti-immigrant nationalism and xenophobia. Colleagues shall surely miss his judgment, clarity of vision of what is right and what is wrong, and being unafraid to say so – i.e. to speak truth to power.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 09 January 2018

Photo: President Donald Trump joined by Vice President Mike Pence meets with members of the Republican Legislative Leadership on January 5 at Camp David. Credit: Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian.

Donald Trump’s Nuclear Posture Rather Menacing

By Daryl G. Kimball

Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared with the caption 'Trump’s More Dangerous Nuclear Posture'.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Just one year ago, Vice President Joe Biden delivered an address touting the progress achieved during the Obama years to reduce the salience and number of nuclear weapons and curb their spread.

Biden argued that “given our non-nuclear capabilities and the nature of today’s threats, it’s hard to envision a plausible scenario in which the first use of nuclear weapons by the United States would be necessary. Or make sense. President Obama and I are confident we can deter and defend ourselves and our allies against non-nuclear threats through other means.”

: Arms Control Association; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 09 January 2018

Photo: Independent Expert on Human Rights Michel Forst. Credit: Jean-Marc Ferré

UN Experts Censure Saudi Arabia for Human Rights Violations

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – Despite being elected as member of the Human Rights Council at the end of 2016, Saudi Arabia has “continued its practice of silencing, arbitrarily arresting, detaining and persecuting human rights defenders and critics,” according to a group of top United Nations human rights experts.

“We are also seeking the Government’s clarification about how these measures are compatible with Saudi Arabia’s obligations under international human rights law, as well as with the voluntary pledges and commitments it made when seeking to join the Human Rights Council,” the group of experts said.

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Middle East; 08 January 2018

Photo: Tayé-Brook Zerihoun, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, briefing the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East on 5 January 2018. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UN Asks Iranian Authorities to Address Legitimate Concerns of the Population

By Tayé-Brook Zerihoun

Tayé-Brook Zerihoun is the Assistant Secretary-General for United Nations Department of Political Affairs. The following are extensive excerpts from his ‘briefing’ to the Security Council on ‘The Situation in the Middle East’ on 5 January 2018.

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran started on 28 December 2017 when hundreds of Iranians gathered, in a largely peaceful manner, in Mashhad, the country’s second-largest city, chanting slogans against economic hardship.

Over the following several days, protests occurred in other urban areas, including Tehran, as well as many rural areas. Some of the slogans also expressed disappointment at slow or limited change in social strictures and political freedoms, and criticized what demonstrators decried as the privileged position of the clergy and elements of the country’s security establishment. In some cases, demonstrators demanded that Iran cease costly involvement in the region.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Middle East; 08 January 2018

EU and 79 ACP Countries Plan a 'Modernised Partnership'

By Reinhardt Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – As the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) gear up for talks on future relations between the two groupings after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, some areas of agreement on their respective stances have emerged.

The agreement that was signed in June 2000 in Cotonou – Benin’s largest city – is the most comprehensive partnership treaty between developing countries and the EU. Its fundamental principles include equality of partners, global participation, dialogue and regionalisation.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 07 January 2018

Photo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Credit: PTI

India Looks Forward to Hectic Diplomacy in 2018

By Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – The world could be too much with us in 2018, in a sense that Wordsworth may never have foreseen. In fact, the New Year would begin with a lot of the world in India when leaders of 10 ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations), governments come as Republic Day guests to commemorate 25 years of India-ASEAN relations. Never before has the R-Day had so many international guests.

That may set the tone for another year of hectic diplomacy when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be supping at the high tables of the G20 (Group of 20), SCO (The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the East Asia Summit (EAS) even as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) may have to deal with serious challenges looming large in the neighbourhood. It is a moot point whether 2018 would be better than 2017.

: Shastri Ramachandaran; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 06 January 2018

Photo: The Vatican Conference in session. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | IDN-INPS.

Landmark Vatican Conference on Nuclear Disarmament Brings a Breeze of Expectation

By Ramesh Jaura

The following article is based on an interview with Hirotsugu Terasaki, the Director General of Peace and Global Issues of the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International (SGI), in Tokyo, Japan. SGI was the sole Buddhist organization that participated in the Vatican Conference on nuclear disarmament on November 10-11, 2017.

BERLIN | ROME (IDN) – There was an air of surprise when religious leaders and representatives of civil society, officials of State and international organizations, eminent academics, Nobel Laureates, and students, gathered in the Vatican City against the backdrop of an escalating face-off between the U.S. and North Korea.

Surprise because for the first time the Vatican's newly created Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development was hosting a Conference on the 'Perspectives for a World Free from Nuclear Weapons and for Integral Disarmament'.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 05 January 2018

Photo: Patrice Nganang by Georges Seguin (Okki) - Own work, 28 March 2010, Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Jailed U.S.-Cameroonian Professor and Writer Wins Release

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A New York-based university professor jailed for his writings critical of President Paul Biya of Cameroon has been released from prison after an outpouring of support from free speech activists, students and academics around the world.

Stony Brook professor Patrice Nganang, who has dual citizenship in Cameroon and the United States, was facing five years imprisonment for “insulting the president”. He had been held for almost a month before being expelled from the country on December 27, 2017 and sent back to the U.S. where he teaches culture studies and comparative literature at the New York State University at Stony Brook. He is a published novelist and poet.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 January 2018

Photo: Testing of the Peacekeeper re-entry vehicles at the Kwajalein Atoll. All eight fired from only one missile. Each line, if its warhead were live, represents the potential explosive power of about 300 kilotons of TNT, about nineteen times larger than the detonation of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Former ICBM Launch Officer Calls for Reforming Presidential Nuclear Launch Authority

By J C Suresh

TORONTO | WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – Cofounder of the organization Global Zero, and a former Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile launch officer has called for major changes to prevent a U.S. President from ordering the use of nuclear weapons.

In a new article published in the forthcoming issue of Arms Control Today, Bruce Blair, who is also a member of the Princeton University research faculty, provides an authoritative summary of current U.S. nuclear launch protocol and its dangerous liabilities. The article includes new information about the process, including who is involved and how a nuclear use order would be executed.