Individual Journalists

Photo: Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest, near Manaus. CC BY-SA 2.0

The Emerald Forests Need Not Die

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Belem is the Brazilian city at the mouth of the Amazon. Unlike its slummy counterpart, Kinshasa, at the mouth of the Congo, it’s full of resplendent streets with beautiful nineteenth century houses. It has squares and marketplaces full of cafes, fountains and life.

The large city grew up shipping rubber from the Amazon forest, which begins on its doorstep. This made it wealthy. One can see the beautiful baroque Theatre of Peace, a fluffy pink building where Anna Pavlova danced. On the main square, ornate with pavements of black and white quartz, is the Hotel Grao Para where Xavier Cugat and his orchestra would play and Zsa Zsa Gabor would stop over on her way, by propeller plane, on the slow flight to Rio.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 10 September 2019

Photo: 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition law protest on 16 June, captured by Studio Incendo from Flickr. CC BY 2.0

In Hong Kong the Two Sides Must Meet Each Other Half Way

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In 1995 in a little remembered event Li Ruthuan, a member of the Chinese Politiburo (containing the top seven in the government), made a speech likening the Chinese take-over of Hong Kong to the case of a lady who had agreed to sell a 100-year-old Yi-Xiang teapot that was famous for the taste of the tea it poured.

Unbeknown to her, its quality derived from the residue that had accumulated on the inside of the pot. In her eagerness to prepare the pot for sale she cleaned and polished it. When the purchaser came to try using the pot the tea was dreadful and he demanded his money back.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 August 2019

Photo: Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin on June 5, 2019, The Kremlin, Moscow. Credit: en.kremlin.ru Moscow.

Russia and China Are Coming Closer Again

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In her famous decree in 1767 Empress Catherine the Great proclaimed Russia to be a European power. She wanted Russia to be a major player in European politics. She compelled the Europeans to accept Russia as a great power as a condition for doing business. In 1815 Russia was considered an equal in the 1815 Concert of Europe.

In contrast, Imperial China at that time was self-sufficient and inward looking. It basked in its own superior culture. It did not want to open up trade relations with Europe and the emperor questioned the ability of the British who were knocking on the door to “acquire the rudiments” of Chinese civilization.

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Russia; 13 August 2019

Europeans Should Refuse to Go MAD Again

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – If MAD was Mad then the decision of President Donald Trump to renounce the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) is MADDER.

MAD is Mutually Assured Destruction, a concept which underlay the nuclear deterrence of the Cold War. Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan began the hard work of dismantling MAD with the INF, a treaty affecting the land-based missiles of Europe. It abolished missiles with a range of 500 to 2000 kilometres.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 August 2019

Photo: Four soldiers carrying rifles near helicopter under blue sky. Credit: Somchai Kongkamsri

US War with Iran will Violate Law Against Aggression

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In 2010 the signatory states of the International Criminal Court, established to prosecute war crimes, convened a conference to add aggression to the list of crimes the court could try. The U.S., Russia, Iran, China and India have refused to sign up as ICC members and have not welcomed the addition of “aggression”. But fifteen NATO states have. Moreover, Russia wrote its own law into its Criminal Code. It prohibits “Planning, Preparing or Waging an Aggressive War”. It goes further: it prohibits “Public Appeals to Unleash an Aggressive War”. This opens the door to Russian leaders and politicians being prosecuted in domestic courts.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 30 July 2019

Photo: Sword of Damocles, 1812, oil on canvas. Richard Westall. Ackland Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Public domain). Source: The Times of Israel.

Damocles' Sword Hanging Over Netanyahu and Netanyahu's Over Palestine

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – A sword of Damocles hangs over the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The sword of Netanyahu hangs over Palestine – and Israel. Which will fall first?

A court case approaches. A new election in September approaches. Netanyahu is being accused of a serious crime of corruption. He is fighting not just for his political beliefs but also for his own self-interest. If he wins the election he could seek immunity from prosecution.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 16 July 2019

Photo: Xi with the first lady during the Moscow Victory Day Parade on 9 May 2015. CC BY 4.0

President Xi of China Remains an Enigma

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Xi Jinping, president of China, remains an enigma. You watched him on television reviewing the dancing in Pyongyang in the company of Kim Jong-un and his face is near to expressionless when in repose. He doesn’t stand like an arrogant man and we recall that time when he went out to eat in a noodle cafe he joined the back of the queue. His face doesn’t look hard, as did Hitler’s or Stalin’s or Donald Trump’s and Boris Johnson’s do today.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 25 June 2019

Photo: U.S. Navy convoy in the Strait of Hormuz on July 21, 2016. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Send in to the Persian Gulf a Flotilla Under the UN Flag

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In 1980 in his State of the Union address President Jimmy Carter said: “Any attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”

Dear President Donald Trump: We’ve been here before and it’s as ludicrous this time as it was nearly 40 years ago. Why on earth are you sending in a flotilla of ships and 2,500 troops? Why are you so convinced that the mines that exploded on two oil tankers, neither of which were American, in the Persian Gulf are the work of the Iranians?

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 18 June 2019

Photo: Grand Cascade of Peterhof. CC BY-SA 4.0

Russia Isn't a Riddle, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – I’m on the 250 km/hour train hurtling from Moscow to St Petersburg when it suddenly clicks in my mind. My apologies for being so stupid, but despite regular trips to Russia over many years I have only suddenly got it – I too have been brainwashed about Russia by Western politicians, media and authors, like nearly everyone else.

What I noticed in Moscow and what I’ve seen in St Petersburg on previous trips is that, yes, I am, indeed I am, in a normal Western big city environment. Both cities are grand in different ways. St Petersburg, with its museums, palaces, great churches, canals and river, its rich store of art (probably second only to the Louvre) and its musical life (the Marriinsky theatre is the epicenter of world ballet) is arguably the most beautiful and imposing of all the world’s cities.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 04 June 2019

Brexit Sans Theresa May

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Brexit grabs the attention of much of the world, not least because Britain once had an Empire and ruled a great part of the world’s peoples. And it’s the caretaker of the English language, the Empire’s most important legacy. Add to that the BBC, the world’s favourite and most trusted radio and TV station, its top universities, its production of pop music, and its numerous top-flight classical orchestras.