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News for a Sustainable World
Published by The Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group
with IDN-InDepthNews as the Flagship Agency
Download Sustainable Development Observer
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to send you Edition 09 | 2022. This weekly is the flagship news product of the Non-Profit International Press Syndicate Group with registered offices in Canada, Germany, Japan and Singapore, and correspondents around the world. Feel free to share and re-publish articles pro bono mentioning the source. Previous editions are available on https://newsletter-archive.indepthnews.net. Your feedback is most welcome.
Kind regards from the Non-Profit
International Press Syndicate
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — Perhaps one of the biggest ironies of the current military conflict is that Ukraine may be using mostly Soviet-era weapons against the Russians, including combat helicopters, T-64 battle tanks and AT-6 anti-tank missiles acquired from the former USSR.
But that military scenario is expected to change significantly with increased security assistance and fresh arms supplies both from Europe, and most importantly, from the US, amounting to over a staggering $1.0 billion dollars.
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By Jonisayi Maromo, Independent Online (IOL)
PRETORIA (IDN) — The South African government has thrown its weight behind the statement of the African Union (AU), which expressed concern over the treatment of Africans fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Ambassador Mathu Joyini, South Africa’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations delivered a statement at an emergency sitting of the UN's General Assembly on Tuesday (March 1) night, calling on the European countries to resolve the situation, where African nationals have reportedly been barred from leaving the war-torn nation.
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Frederick the Great of Prussia was a friend of Voltaire and enjoyed ribald evenings with the philosopher discussing the intricacies of life’s dos and don’ts. Before becoming king, he was persuaded by Voltaire to become a pacifist. But on ascending to the throne, he became the most ferocious and successful of Europe’s warrior leaders. He said of himself that he was “doomed to make war just as an ox must plough, a nightingale sing and a dolphin swim in the sea.”
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — A fierce tug of war is underway between a U.S. Museum and a Congolese gallery over a statue depicting the angry spirit of a Belgian officer beheaded during an uprising in Congo in 1931.
An image of the statue of Maximilien Balot, a colonial administrator, is claimed by the Virginia Museum of Fine Art.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Wheat and other grains are back at the heart of geopolitics following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both countries play a major role in the global agricultural market.
That was the clear-eyed assessment of Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, and a visiting research fellow at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Thousands of African students are among the tens of thousands of Ukrainians seeking shelter from a barrage of Russian airstrikes against its southern neighbour in what has been called an unprovoked and unjustified effort to remove and replace the Ukrainian government by the President of Russia.
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Viewpoint by Kevin P. Clements
This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
TOKYO (IDN) — As a peace researcher for over 40 years, it appals me that in 2022 we are trying to make sense of an outmoded 20th century invasion aimed at changing borders and seizing sovereignty. This war is the most blatant act of cross border aggression that I have seen since the Second World War and a major contravention of the UN Charter.
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By Jutta Wolf
BERLIN (IDN) — People and the planet are threatened by the impact of climate change, according to UN scientists. Ecosystem collapse, species extinction, deadly heatwaves and floods are among the "unavoidable multiple climate hazards” the world will face over the next two decades due to global warming, they warn.
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By Joan Russow
The writer, Joan Russow, PhD, is Co-Ordinator, Global Compliance Research Project, based in Canada.
VICTORIA BC, Canada (IDN) — Over the years, whenever the United States— with or without the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—decided to go to war, the US used pretexts for war.
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Viewpoint by Tim Newton
The writer Tim Newton has lived in Thailand since 2011. An Australian, he has worked in the media, principally radio and TV, for 42 years. This article was issued by Thaiger.
BANGKOK (IDN) — Issuing its first cautious statement over the invasion of Ukraine, ASEAN calls on… “all parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint, to pursue dialogue through all channels, including diplomatic means to contain the situation, to prevent it from further escalation and to see peaceful resolution in accordance with international law and the UN Charter.”
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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The spiraling crisis in Ukraine has an ominous underlying fact: it is a conflict that involves four of the world’s major nuclear powers: the US, Russia, UK and France, with the remaining five, namely China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel on the sidelines as spectators—at least so far.
Mercifully, the nuclear option is not on the negotiating table—but it is still very much in the air.
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Viewpoint by Dr Chandra Muzaffar
The writer is the president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) in Malaysia. This article was issued by CounterCurrents.
SELANGOR, Malaysia (IDN) — The mainstream Western media is almost unanimous in demanding that Russia and Vladimir Putin stop their military operation in Ukraine immediately. This in their opinion is the only solution to the current conflict. However, if one attempts to understand how the current conflict had evolved, one would ask not Russia but the US led Western alliance to bring down the political temperature as a first step.
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By C. Todd Lopez
This article was issued by U.S. Department of Defense.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on February 25 activation of the alliance's defense plans, which means also that it can deploy the NATO Defense Force. The U.S. Defense Department now stands ready to provide capabilities to help fill that defense force, if asked to do so, said Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby.
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The truth is this whole Russian-Ukrainian-Western confrontation could be largely solved if the Ukrainian and Western sides wrote on paper that they don’t want to see Ukraine in NATO. This is the key issue for Russia. But it must be written down. Moscow no longer trusts verbal understandings that can be broken, as when the Reagan and Bush (Senior) Administrations gave President Mikhail Gorbachev the distinct impression that the US would not take advantage of the Soviet Union now that the Cold War was over, but it did.
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By Reinhard Jacobsen
VIENNA (IDN) — The Commonwealth of Dominica announced its decision early February to join the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) that bans nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere—on the Earth's surface, in the atmosphere, underwater and underground. The Treaty was signed 26 years ago but it has yet to enter into force.
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By Daryl Kimball
The writer is executive director, Arms Control Association. This editorial is issued in the March 2022 issue of Arms Control Today.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — President Vladimir Putin has chosen the path of destruction instead of diplomacy. His months-long build-up of a massive Russian invasion force encircling Ukraine and his decision on February 21 to order Russian soldiers into the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk have set in motion a catastrophic war.
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Considering that the above question cannot be answered at this stage, a look back at history of the founding of the League of Nations and the origin of the United Nations would be useful. Following are excerpts from the UN Website https://www.un.org/en/about-us/history-of-the-un/predecessor
From UN in Geneva
GENEVA (IDN) — The predecessor of the United Nations was the League of Nations, established in 1919, after World War I, under the Treaty of Versailles "to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security."
Despite some early successes, the League of Nations was not able to prevent World War II.
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