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News briefs compiled by Suresh Jaura*
TORONTO | NEW DELHI (IDN) – A wide range of themes from informal workers to the multi-layered impact of Coronavirus spans this edition of briefs. For example, the loss of more than 120 million in April 2020 as a result of the lockdown, the absence of transparency in regard to COVID-19 infections, out-of-pocket health spenders, the role of faith and medical ethics, India's worst recession, and the invasion of locusts.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
Long before the Coronavirus and global warming, the great philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote: "Unhappy men would increase their happiness more by walking 6 miles every day than by any conceivable change in philosophy."
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Shouldn't we be Panglossian when it comes to the progress now being made to defeat the Coronavirus? Pangloss in his youth was unreasonably optimistic. He was in Voltaire's novel "Candide" Candide's mentor, and coined the phrase, "All this is for the best in this best of all possible worlds."
Viewpoint by Anthony Barnett*
This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News
LONDON (IDN) – In 1957-58, a flu pandemic killed around million people world-wide. In the UK estimates of the deaths it caused vary from 14,000 to 30,000. Before it arrived from Asia, a British Medical Journal report noted, “The public seems under the impression that nothing can be done to prevent the calamity”, and indeed nothing was done.
In 1968, the Hong Kong or H3N2 flu virus killed over 700,000 people worldwide, around 100,000 in the US. But there were no mass shutdowns of national economies.
Viewpoint by Anthony Barnett*
This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News
LONDON (IDN) – Nine moments forged the processes described above to shape the globalisation that has now gone into shock. In identifying them I’m not denying that there were many other events of global consequence, such as the end of apartheid, the wars of post-Yugoslavia, the triumph of Narendra Modi and his assault on India’s secular constitution, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands or the battles over Ukraine, to mention just five. Nor am I writing a history, I say nothing about Japan, for example, despite its importance and I am conscious of a North Atlantic bias, when the most grievous impacts have been imposed on the poorer, more populous countries.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Years of inaction over the fate of an 18-foot statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader with the Royal African Company (RAC) was decided on June 7 with the toppling of Colston’s bronze statue in Bristol, England.
The statue was pulled down by a group of protestors at a demonstration in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and George Floyd. The figure was dragged to the Bristol harbour and flung into the River Avon.
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | BRUSSELS (IDN) – The interregional ACP officially became the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) on April 5, when 79 leaders of the group endorsed the revised version of the 1975 Constitutive Act, known as the Georgetown Agreement, at the December 2019 Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
One month earlier, on March 2, Angola's Ambassador to the European Union, Mr. Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti, took over from the Guyanese Ambassador, Dr P.I. Gomes, the office of the Secretary-General. A highlight of Dr Gomes' five-year term was the decision of the group to change its name, thus stressing its importance for organisations such as the United Nations.
Viewpoint by Anthony Barnett*
This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News
LONDON (IDN) – The word ‘globalisation’ has different meanings. In the broadest sense of ‘the interconnectedness of humanity’ it began when early homo-sapiens in Asia reconnected with the first human communities in Africa to become a world-wide species, perhaps two million years ago.
Viewpoint by Anthony Barnett*
This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News
LONDON (IDN) – Medically we can foresee that cures or vaccines could be developed that might prevent the future rampage of COVID-19. Politically, a short-run scramble to reassemble normality is already underway. To achieve it, labs must deliver at speed, social distancing be sustained, testing implemented and those who test positive be quarantined – as demonstrated in South Korea – to try and achieve national eradication.
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*
COPENHAGEN (IDN) – Elimination of excessive economic inequality makes societies happier and better, underlines the incontrovertible evidence that a new freely downloadable book presents.
Going back to history, the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas during the 17th to 19th centuries. Sir Isaac Newton's rational explanations for cosmic phenomena demonstrated that reason is better than superstition.
By Pattama Vilailert *
BANGKOK (IDN) – On New Year's Eve of 2020 when the Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) of strange pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Thailand's tourism industry, the country's primary gross domestic product (GDP) driver, was facing an unprecedented boom. But, six months later, the industry is on its knees with knowledgeable sources predicting a lengthy recovery period.
This interactive WHO dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily Basis.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.
IDN-InDepthNews serves as flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate and its partner, the Global Cooperation Council, established in February 1983.