OP-ED: ARE WE READY TO MEET TODAY’S DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES?

The release on September 22 of the report Aid Effectiveness 2005-2010: Progress in Implementing the Paris Declaration, leads us to ask an important question: Are we any better at delivering aid effectively today than we were five years ago?

MIDDLE EAST: FAREWELL TO DICTATORSHIPS AND THE DEATH PENALTY

The approval by the UN General Assembly in December 2007 of the Resolution for a Universal Moratorium against Capital Punishment was a fundamental step forward not only for the anti-death penalty campaign but also for the affirmation of the rule of law and of those natural rights historically won and often written into national law but not always respected.

ARE WE READY TO MEET TODAY’S DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES?

The release on September 22 of the report Aid Effectiveness 2005-2010: Progress in Implementing the Paris Declaration, leads us to ask an important question: Are we any better at delivering aid effectively today than we were five years ago?

CAN BUSAN FORGE A NEW DEAL FOR AFRICA?

In the hope for a fairer deal on aid for the continent, African leaders are planning to present a unified position at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) in Busan, South Korea. Currently, discussions are underway between the African Union, New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), and private sector and civil society representatives on how to improve the impact of aid for the most vulnerable and marginalised. The outcome of these discussions will then be taken to Busan in November this year as the 'African Consensus and Position on Development Effectiveness'.

WHEN MEDICINE BECOMES POISON: PHARMACEUTICALS IN THE WATER SUPPLY

As water grows scarcer and scarcer, the pressure to recycle it grows more intense, and though this makes good ecological sense, there is an unfortunate drawback: the drinking water system worldwide is polluted with pharmaceuticals.

TURKEY: FURTHER THAN EVER FROM JOINING THE EU

The apparently eternal problem of Turkey's entry into the European Union seems even further from resolution. Istanbul, its largest city, is sending mixed signals. The call to prayer from the minarets mixes with the roar of rush hour traffic. The hawking and bargaining in the monumental grand bazaar is thoroughly infiltrated by Western "civilisation".

OP-ED: Double Standards: the Case of Itamar Awarta

Last March, a vicious crime occurred in the occupied Palestinian territories. Five members of an Israeli settler family were slain in their home in Itamar, a settlement in the northern West Bank. A mother, father, two young children and a three-month-old were all stabbed to death.

OP-ED-RIGHTS: “We Just Want to Know Where They Are”

The last time Supaya Serrano saw her sisters Erlinda and Ernestina, they were just three and seven years old, respectively.

WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR LIBYA?

According to NATO, the final chapter of Gaddafi's Libya is being written now. The scenario is very similar to the final chapter for Yugoslavia -Milosevic- for Afghanistan -Mullah Omar- Iraq -Saddam Hussein- and for the "War on Terror" -bin Laden: eliminate The Bad Guy. In the future chapters of this neo-crusade, orthodox Christians will also be targeted, just as they were in the crusades from 1095-1291.

IRENE, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE CARIBBEAN

Anyone who discusses international affairs with Americans quickly becomes aware of a fundamental change in syntax without which they find it impossible to converse. The subject of every sentence has to be the United States. If China, India, or Germany, for example, are the focus, the attention of the American interlocutor will waver -unless, perhaps the subject is Israel. The US is the only possible subject of discussion for Americans,with the obvious exception of the cultural elites and US citizens doing business around the world.

OP-ED: Manipulating Social Networks

If there's one thing that net-savvy activists from Tunisia to Bahrain are aware of, it’s that the Internet isn’t always safe. From the constant threat of surveillance to the knowledge that posting the wrong picture on Facebook can get you arrested - or worse - activists have for a long time taken measures to mitigate risks, censoring themselves, using special tools like Tor, or staying off certain networks altogether.

OP-ED: Language Becomes a Political Weapon in Israel

Speaking to the U.S. congress in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu boasted that his country is a beacon of freedom in the Middle East and North Africa, that it is the only place where Arabs "enjoy real democratic rights".

OP-ED: Governments Kill

We make a bargain with our governments. We pay taxes and expect a set of government services in return. And in return for a guarantee of some measure of security, we grant the government a monopoly on legitimate violence.

THE ISLAMIC WORLD: STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY

Before Islam, Arabia lived for centuries under various forms of "asabiya", variously defined as Arabism, tribalism, or clanism, which led to many long wars. But in 610, Prophet Muhammad, at the age of 40, received the first verses of Al-Quran, challenging the traditional social and political order. Asabiya yielded to brotherhood-sisterhood in a community of values, the Umma, from Umm, mother. Arabs engaged with enthusiasm in this new social order based on the Islamic religion which held that "there is no difference between an Arab and a non-Arab, or between a white and a black, except in degree of piety". Distinctions based on race, ethnic group, colour, gender, etc., disappeared in favour of unity, freedom, justice, and above all rahma (true love).

A PLAN OF ACTION FOR EUROPEAN POLITICS

Before anything else what we need today is a paradigm to diagnose and address the many grave global problems that face us all but are experienced differently in the various regions of the world. Because in Europe the crisis is more evident and is causing the suffering of tens of millions of people, the young especially, we must take it as reality.

Q and A: “Donor Base for UN Women Continues to Widen”

The donor base for UN Women has continued to widen since the new UN entity was established last year, according to Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women.

OPED: PUGWASH MOVEMENT AIMS AT ELMINATION OF ALL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

Years ago, at the height of the Cold War on 26 June 1963 President John F. Kennedy famously proclaimed in Berlin, "Ich bin ein Berliner" identifying himself with the beleaguered city where a wall had just been erected isolating West Berlin and its citizens. Years later, from July 1-4 2011, over 330 Pugwashites from about 43 countries converted themselves to being Berliners striving to break down the walls among and around them.

CUBA FIVE YEARS LATER

Five years have passed since the announcement by Fidel Castro that because of health problems he was "provisionally" delegating his responsibilities in the Cuban government to a group of five officials headed by his brother Raul until he was well enough to return to office. It would soon become evident that this return was not imminent, and before long Castro announced his withdrawal from active political life, though not from politics.

AFTER PEAK OIL, PEAK GLOBALISATION

For decades the world economy has been on a path towards globalisation. The drive to achieve ever larger economies of scale at ever lower marginal costs pushed manufacturing to standardise, slashing expenses by outsourcing and supply chain management, consolidating suppliers, eliminating unnecessary in-house middle management, pushing for mergers and acquisitions, purging excess to deliver better returns to investors and ever lower prices to customers, thus strengthening their purchasing power and bringing more citizens into the sought-after middle class.

OP-ED: Protest Movements Teach Economics to Bankers

The European Central Bank (ECB) is run by people who are not very good at economics. They continue to adhere to a fundamentally wrongheaded view of the economy and the central bank's role within it.

Aid Agencies Complain Lack of Funding to Battle Africa Famine

As the widespread famine in the Horn of Africa takes a turn for the worse, humanitarian aid organizations are lamenting the lack of aid being delivered to those in need and have called on the United States and the rest of the world to step up relief efforts, while redoubling their own efforts.