OPINION

Mexicontagion: Coronavirus & Mexico's Economic Vulnerability

Viewpoint by Bill Dahl

The writer is a former Senior Vice President for Bank of America in Los Angeles, CA. He currently resides in Queretaro, MX. His insightful analysis of global economic affairs have been published widely. He is a contributing columnist for Mexico News Daily, IDN-InDepthNews and Wall Street International Magazine.

REDMOND, Oregon, USA (IDN) – The Coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic has revealed that there are certain human beings more susceptible to heightened risks of infection, serious illness and death.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 29 March 2020

Photo: Health workers are at the frontlines in the fight against the new Corona Virus. Credit: Africa Renewal.

Protect Health Workers Serving Like Soldiers At the Frontlines Against COVID-19

Viewpoint by Siddharth Chatterjee and Mutahi Kagwe

Mr. Mutahi Kagwe is the Cabinet Secretary for Health in Kenya and Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya. This article was first published in Africa Renewal on 24 March 2020.

NAIROBI (IDN) – Many soldiers have seen first-hand the horrors of war and, terrifying though it often was, they knew who they were fighting, and could recognise their enemy.

The COVID-19 or the new Corona Virus is different. In this virus we have an enemy which is invisible and sometimes deadly, and the task is harder.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 29 March 2020

Photo: Global food supply chains are complex and include these kale farmers in Uganda. Credit: Africa Renewal.

COVID-19: A Battle Plan for Ensuring Global Food Supplies

Africa Renewal Talks to FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero Cullen

NEW YORK (IDN) – The COVID-19 pandemic has put the world on a crisis footing, with unprecedented actions to restrict movements and plans for radical deployment of public funds to combat the threat posed by a novel coronavirus that knows no boundaries. Success will entail coherent and robust plans for our food systems. FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero Cullen outlines a framework for how countries can think about and craft these plans.

: Africa Renewal; OPINION; 28 March 2020

Image credit: Sven Simon | Deutschlandfunk

COVID-19: Bio-Warfare Conspiracy Theories Need Investigation

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – With the new coronavirus now known as COVID-19 becoming a global pandemic affecting countries around the world, with epicentres in western countries, various conspiracy theories have emerged and are gaining traction both in social media and the mainstream. Rather than dismissing these, all such theories may need close examination by independent bodies to keep the world safer from such biological warfare fears.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 26 March 2020

Photo: ESCAP Executive Secretary Armida Salsiah Alisjahb addressing a gathering in 2019. Credit: UNESCAP.

UN Aims at Writing A Greener Story in Asia and the Pacific

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.

The writer is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP.

BANGKOK (IDN) – Rising economic prosperity and poverty reduction may not tell the whole story of progress in Asia and the Pacific. Telling signs in the natural world recount a narrative that is far from complete. This year has been particularly affected by the COVID-19 global health pandemic, with devastating impacts on our health and the economy. Yet, building on its achievements, the region must continue its drive towards a sustainable conclusion.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 March 2020

Photo: A deserted street in Cairo after the government ordered the closure of shops, restaurants and cafes. Credit: Ziad Ahmed/NurPhoto via Getty Images

One-Size-Fits All Approach to COVID-19 Could Have Lethal Consequences for Africa

Viewpoint by Alex Broadbent and Benjamin T.H. Smart*

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Suppose you had the choice between two health policies, A and B. Policy A would result in the death of a lot of elderly people. Policy B would result in the death of a lot of children, especially infants. Which would you choose?

Right now we are facing a choice between more or less drastic measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, a virus which, at the time of writing, has yet to claim a life under 10, and claims very few lives under 30, with the risk rising exponentially with age.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 March 2020

Photo: Wherever there were black votes to be had, Andrew Young was there, sometimes at Carter's side, explaining why they must come out and vote for Carter. It is doubtful that Biden will lose this time round. The picture shows Young at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2013. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The Power of The Black Vote in The US Election

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – According to the New York Times, President Donald Trump's re-election campaign is investing more money and resources in an attempt to attract African-American voters than any previous Republican presidential campaign. The Trump camp believe that with eight months of continuous advertising coupled with the opening of field offices in black communities it can peel off enough black voters to improve his standing by a crucial couple of points.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 24 March 2020

Photo (against the backdrop of Bandaranaike International Airport): U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina B. Teplitz (right front) presenting a branded donation of Dupont Tyvek coveralls, nitrile gloves, heavy duty work gloves, boot covers, and cleaning supplies to Major General (Rtd) GA Chandrasiri (left in front), Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka on behalf of the American people. The equipment will help protect airport personnel and prevent the spread of COVID-19. The donation is part of U.S. efforts to assist Sri Lanka.

COVID-19 in Sri Lanka and South Asia: Need for a Rational Policy Response

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (1882-1945).

Viewpoint by Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake*

The writer is a cultural anthropologist with research expertise in international political economy, peace, and development studies in South and South East Asia.

COLOMBO (IDN) – COVID 19 is more a panic than a pandemic: It obscures from view the fact that far more people die as a result of illness related to poverty, malnutrition, and other forms of structural violence than anything else in South Asia, and indeed the rest of the world.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 23 March 2020

Photo: (left) Collage of images of rural residents discussing a new territorial development plan at a meeting in Ovejas, in the Montes de María region in the north of Colombia, December 2017 and (right) map of the Montes de María region. Credit: Hobeth Martínez Carrillo.

Colombia's Conflict Victims Await 16 ‘Seats for Peace’ in Congress

Viewpoint by Hobeth Martinez Carrillo*

LONDON (IDN) – Four years after the UN-monitored peace agreement that was intended to end more than five decades of civil war in Colombia, the communities that suffered most during the armed conflict may finally be gaining places at the political table.

The members of the UN Security Council welcomed in a press statement on Colombia (SC/14081) continued progress by the three components of the Integral System for Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Non-repetition, with the participation of victims. They reaffirmed their full support for the critical role of these components in the peace process and stressed the need for them to be able to work independently and autonomously.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 22 March 2020

Photo: A passenger walks through an emptied check-in area at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, March 19, 2020. Foreign visitors to Japan have plunged by 58% since the coronavirus outbreak. Credit: EPA-EFE/Franck Robichon

The World's Response to COVID-19 Has Slashed CO2 Emissions

Viewpoint by Simone Abram*

DURHAM, UK (IDN) – How do you respond to a crisis? It's obvious that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been dramatically different to anything provoked by repeated scientific warnings about climate change. The many organisations that declared climate emergencies throughout 2019 and 2020 have so far enacted nothing like the scale and speed of action to limit the spread of coronavirus.