Health & Well Being

Photo: Polish border guards pushing-back refugees on the Polish-Belarusian border, Usnarz Gorny, Poland. Credit: Karol Grygoruk/RATS Agency

People as Pawns to Power: The Unfolding Humanitarian Crisis on the Belarusian Border Needs Urgent Attention

By Anna Alboth

The writer is Anna Alboth is Media Programmes Coordinator, Minority Rights Group International, Warsaw.

WARSAW (IDN) — For an organisation established on the back of a humanitarian disaster that shocked the world, the lack of discussion at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly about events unfolding on the Polish-Belarusian border is deeply disappointing.

As feeble international efforts to hold Lukashenka to account failed, he instead consolidated power extending a vice-like grip on power in Belarus.

: Europe Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 23 September 2021

Photo: On the second day of the high-level UN session on September 22, the General Assembly Hall was virtually empty due to corona virus restrictions. But at least one delegate was tested positive.

UN Jolted by Single Corona Virus Infection at a Meeting of World Leaders

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) — Amid fears of the current General Assembly sessions in danger of being a “super spreader” of the Delta virus—among hundreds of delegates attending a two-week long meeting through end September—the United Nations has alerted its staff about an unnamed delegate testing positive.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 23 September 2021

Photo: Bhikkhu Bodhi. Source: Buddhistdoor

Tackling Global Hunger at Its Roots

Viewpoint by Bhikkhu Bodhi

Tackling global hunger requires that we identify its fundamental causes and remove these at the roots. This necessitates not only the adoption of transformative policies, but a fundamental change in our own values and attitudes, writes Bhikkhu Bodhi.

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Buddha teaches that to effectively solve any problem we have to remove its underlying causes. While the Buddha himself applies this principle to the ending of existential suffering, the same method can be used to deal with many of the challenges we face in the social and economic dimensions of our lives.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 19 September 2021

Photo: Masked staffers at the podium of the UN General Assembly last year. Credit: United Nations

UN Session, With Over 110 World Leaders, May be a “Super Spreader” of Covid-19, Warns US

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations, perhaps never in its 76-year history, has held a General Assembly session characterized by risks that could trigger the spread of a deadly disease in a city where Covid-19 Delta variant infections are on the rise.

In a letter to the 192 UN missions, the United States has warned it does not want the upcoming sessions, beginning September 21, where over 110 world leaders, foreign ministers and visiting delegations are expected to participate, to be a “super spreader” of Covid-19.

: Thalif Deen; UN INSIDER; 17 September 2021

Photo: A market in Igwuruta, Nigeria's Rivers State, which has started a war with the Federal Government over the collection of Value Added Taxes (VAT). CC BY-SA 4.0

A VAT War Between Nigeria's Federal Govt. and Rivers State

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — The guns of Nigeria’s three-year civil war were silenced 51 years ago, but in the battle for a truly federal state, the echoes of warfare have never been more resonant.

On August 10, Rivers State, which at an average monthly federal receipt of N12b, is the third richest by dole amongst Nigeria’s poor 36 states, started a war with the Federal Government over the collection of Value Added Taxes (VAT).

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 September 2021

UN Assembly President Abdulla Shahid Highlights Hope For Billions Around the World

UN News

NEW YORK (IDN) — The incoming President of the General Assembly says that hope is desperately needed for those billions around the world struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, devastation, and strife. In his first major interview, he told UN News that the General Assembly, as the UN’s most representative body, is ideally placed to give shape to that hope.

“The General Assembly is the only body which has the 193 countries represented and this body, when it speaks unanimously, when it decides on a matter, that is the international conscience,” Abdulla Shahid said, ahead of the 76th General Assembly session, which started on 14 September.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 16 September 2021

Photo: G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors gathered in Venice for their third official meeting under the Italian G20 Presidency on July 9-10, 2021.

The G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative Is a Fiasco

Viewpoint by William N Kring

The writer is the Assistant Director for the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. This article first appeared on EastAsiaForum on September 7, 2021.

BOSTON (IDN) — As the more lethal and contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 rips across the globe, the prospects of multilateral efforts to combat the virus, tackle the looming global debt crisis and mount a sustainable economic recovery are dim. Nowhere is the insufficiency of the multilateral response more apparent than on the issue of debt relief.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 16 September 2021

Photo: Dr. Firdausi Qadri. Credit: Dhaka Tribune

Bangladesh's "Affordable Vaccine Pioneer" Wins Asia's Nobel Prize

By Amitava Chowdhury

KOLKATTA (IDN) — One of 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Awards—known as ‘Asia’s Nobel Prize’—has been awarded to the Bangladeshi scientist Dr Firdausi Qadri who has played a “key role” in creating more affordable vaccines to combat cholera and typhoid, the Manila-based award foundation said in a statement on August 31.

The 70-year-old female scientist has dedicated a lifetime to help the poor overcome sickness and disease with her research at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR) at Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 13 September 2021

Photo: Lawmakers at the signing of the Texas Heartbeat Act. Photo from Sen. Bryan Hughes. Credit: The Texan.

Abortion Bounty Hunters in Texas Are Not ‘Whistleblowers’ — They’re Cruel Vigilantes

Viewpoint by Norman Solomon

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and the author of many books including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 and 2020 Democratic National Conventions. Solomon is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 September 2021

Photo: Covid testing queue. Source: CIDRAP | Michael Coghlan / Flickr cc

As Lockdown Fetish Fades, Australia Argues Over "Living With Covid"

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Last year, Australia was among the first countries to successfully battle the Covid-19 pandemic with lockdowns and efficient contact tracing, but, with the rapid transmission of the Delta variant, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, the politicians' fetish for lockdowns is now being questioned with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and some state leaders arguing for "opening up" after a certain threshold is reached in vaccinating the population.