Determining how to achieve adequate food for all is the right of citizens and the duty of governments COMMENT | NORA MCKEON | When I was a child, my father, who had witnessed the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, told me how common ground was sought around shared …
Read More »The great unbanking
Unchecked financial blacklisting, fueled by regulatory zeal, is neither reasonable nor prudent COMMENT | ROBERT SKIDELSKY | Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the driving force behind the campaign for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, recently caused an uproar when he revealed …
Read More »Perspectives on global security and Human rights
To de-weaponise human rights and restore global peace requires a shift of architecture from competition to cooperation COMMENT | CRISPIN KAHERU | Speaking at the official opening of the Forum on Global Human Rights Governance at the Capital Hotel in Beijing, China on June 14, 2023, I made a presentation on …
Read More »Threads versus Twitter
Why Meta’s app is the biggest threat to Twitter yet after gaining 30 million users in less than 24 hours of launch COMMENT | LISA M. GIVEN | The launch of social media app Threads as a competitor to Twitter is a game-changer. Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, launched …
Read More »Focus on productivity, not technology
New technologies may fail to lift all boats because their benefits can be captured by a small group COMMENT | DANI RODRIK | Economists have long argued that productivity is the foundation of prosperity. The only way a country can increase its standard of living sustainably is to produce more goods …
Read More »A world of cronyism and corruption
To eliminate it, we must first improve our understanding of its mechanisms and incentive structures COMMENT | KAUSHIK BASU | Imagine the following scenario. A political outsider wins a critical election by promising to root out corruption. Even if that is a sincere intention, upon assuming office, they will quickly realise …
Read More »Energy transition is fueling power transition
It means seizing this moment of peril and possibility to ensure that women and girls fulfill their potential COMMENT | GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON | In the battle to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and avert the worst impacts of climate change, the world has a vast resource that remains largely untapped: women. Preventing …
Read More »The axis of denial
To escape politics of denial, we cannot just cling to multi-party democracy but build social consensus COMMENT | SLAVOJ ZIZEK | The wife of a drunkard is in bed with her lover when her husband unexpectedly stumbles in and climbs under the sheets. “Darling, I’m so drunk that I see six …
Read More »A mild global contraction is coming
While a severe credit crunch has been avoided, a short and shallow recession has become likely COMMENT | NOURIEL ROUBINI | There are currently four scenarios for the global economic outlook. Three of these entail potentially serious risks with far-reaching implications for markets. The most positive is a “soft landing,” where …
Read More »The costly return of geopolitics
This state of affairs should not only be better than previous state, it must cover evils of transition COMMENT | ROBERT SKIDELSKY | One of the regrettable consequences of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was the advent of the pseudoscience known as geopolitics. Drawing inspiration from Darwin’s concepts of …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price