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By Daryl G. Kimball
Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared with the caption 'Trump Repeats Failing Formula on North Korean Threat'.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) - In his high profile address to the South Korean National Assembly November 8, President Donald Trump missed a crucial opportunity to clarify and adjust his administration’s disjointed and, at times, reckless policy toward North Korea.
By Wim Brummelman
Note: This report, based on an interview with a representative of the opposition Freedom Friday ('Arbi Harnet') in Asmara, Eritrea, was first published in the Dutch newspaper NRC on 7 November 2017. Following is its unofficial translation by Klara Smits. – The Editor.
AMSTERDAM (IDN-INPS | NRC) - The banned Eritrean opposition is asking the international community to pay attention to the continuing repression in Eritrea. “Foreign countries must send observers to find out what is happening here,” said an opposition member speaking over the phone from the Eritrea's capital city Asmara.
PARIS (IDN | SWAN) – The French branch of rights group Amnesty International is hosting its 8th Human Rights Film Festival, with films from countries including France, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia.
The six-day festival, which runs until November 12 in Paris, includes features and documentaries, with the aim of raising awareness and increasing the public’s “engagement in favour of human rights,” the organisation said.
Each screening will be followed by discussions between the filmmakers and the audience.
“Through a rich selection of narratives, the films give a voice to victims and to those who fight daily to advance rights,” Amnesty International France said.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Even former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who single handedly (without much Jewish appreciation) did more to make Israel secure than any other living person, confesses neither he nor anyone can change the march of demographics. Within the boundaries of the Holy Land there are just over 6 million Jews and 6 million Palestinians. The Palestinian birth rate is almost three times that of the Israeli Jews. If anything the Jewish population is starting to fall as an increasing number of Jews decide that Israel has no future for them and emigrate.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - A few recent words from Jack Matlock who was U.S. ambassador to Moscow under presidents Reagan and Bush senior: “The Ukraine crisis is a product, in large part, of the policy of indefinite expansion of NATO to the east. If there had been no possibility of Ukraine ever becoming part of NATO, and therefore Sevastopol (the ex-Soviet naval port in Crimea) becoming a NATO base Russia would not have invaded Crimea.”
He goes on to say: “Americans have lived for nearly two centuries with the Monroe Doctrine [which forbids non-Americans to seize land or intervene in Latin America]. Why don’t we understand that other countries are sensitive about military bases from potential rivals not only coming up to their borders, but also taking land that historically they have considered theirs. These are extremely emotional issues – issues that are made to order for any authoritarian leader that wants to strengthen his rule”.
By A.D. McKenzie
KINGSTON (IDN | SWAN) – Dance has long been a potent force among the arts in Jamaica, with pioneering companies such as Rex Nettleford’s National Dance Theatre Company holding a mirror up to society and promoting Caribbean culture.
Now students are taking the genre to a whole new level with powerful, socially relevant performances.
The island’s top high school, Campion College, is one of the institutions leading the way. Now in its seventh season, the school’s Dance Society performed to packed audiences in Kingston in July with its “Roots” production, which addressed issues such as violence against women and the challenges young people face in building confidence and self-esteem.
By Amina Mohammed
The author is Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. This article first appeared on UNCTAD website on July 21 with the caption: 'Can trade deliver the UN’s 2030 agenda?' – The Editor
UNITED NATIONS (IDN-INPS) - Trade can be a source of prosperity, new ideas and shared values and ambitions. Today, the world strives to harness globalization in realizing the social, economic and environmental goals embodied in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Making sure that trade plays its part is a must, which means both sustaining it and ensuring its consistency with sustainable development.
Viewpoint by Asanga Abeyagoonasekera
COLOMBO (IDN-INPS) - The Sri Lankan public has become the unfortunate victim of the nation’s health and sanitation crisis. The policymakers are questioned by both the public and the media of their inability to manage the ongoing situation.
One of the world’s most iconic cities, New York, was turned into a garbage dump in February 1968 due to the sanitation workers’ refusal to collect garbage. After 9 days, 100,000 tons of garbage had piled up and a state of emergency was declared. In Sri Lanka, garbage collection in Colombo and the surrounding areas has become a serious problem over the past few weeks. Sabotage by sanitation workers and relocation of the garbage dump, with an on-going blame-game, has aggravated the situation. A record high of 100,000 dengue patients is an indirect consequence. Hospitals have run out of beds compounding the health crisis.
Viewpoint by Sugeeswara Senadhira*
COLOMBO (IDN-INPS) - While there is much written about China’s jittery relations with many of its neighbours these days, there is hardly anything written about equally jittery relations between India and its smaller neighbours in South Asia.
The scorching summer of 1987 saw the relations between Sri Lanka and India plummeting to a lowest ever ebb. New Delhi's decision to airdrop supplies over Jaffna had opened up a diplomatic Pandora's Box. New Delhi tried to justify this blatant violation of Sri Lanka's sovereignty as an act of humanitarian necessity. But the world knew it as a hegemonic political action entangled directly in the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka.
By Kishore Mahbubani
The author is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and co-author of The ASEAN Miracle. This article first appeared in EASTASIAFORUM on June 18. An extended version of this article appeared in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Strategic diplomacy in Asia’. – Editor.
SINGAPORE (IDN | INPS) - Try imagining a world where the Middle East is at peace. The thought seems almost inconceivable. Imagine a world where Israel and Palestine, two nations splintered from one piece of territory, live harmoniously. Impossible? This is what Malaysia and Singapore accomplished. After an acrimonious divorce in 1965, they live together in peace.
