American political scientist Francis Fukuyama hailed “the end of history” and the ascendancy of Western liberal democracy in an article published in the National Interest at the very moment of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Fukuyama naively...
Amid spiking violence and displacement, life in the Democratic Republic of Congo today is nothing short of nightmarish. The numbers may help show the scale: renewed violence in the northeastern part of the country killed more than 1,300 and displaced more than 660,000 Congolese from their homes so far this year. They join a staggering 1.7 million displaced people in that region alone. In July last year, the DRC’s president,...
The COVID-19 pandemic has been labeled a children’s disaster, with particular concern being placed on the protection of minors. In this crisis, as with other crises and disasters, children have paid a high price, with tens of millions of them affected by the lockdowns caused by the pandemic. The majority of people impacted by disasters are children and many are also displaced due to such crises. In fact, the United...
We may not like what President Donald Trump is saying about the World Health Organization (WHO), China and the world at large. In fact, we do not like it at all, but Trump has a point, and acknowledging it would empower us to address him in earnest, with honesty and efficiency. The world is led by two things: bombs and dollars — a carrot and a stick. The United Nations...
With border closures, supply chain interruptions and loss of income due to lockdowns caused by COVID-19, the number of people facing acute hunger around the world is estimated to rise from 135 million to 265 million this year. This is particularly the case in sub-Saharan Africa, where before the pandemic 20% of all citizens were already considered undernourished and 277 million people out of the continent’s 1.28 billion population faced severe food insecurity. Although sadly...
The news on May 14 that two Rohingya refugees have tested positive for the coronavirus in the densely-populated camps in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, is chilling for those who have been drawing attention to the vulnerability of refugees and other displaced people to the COVID-19 pandemic. It follows similar news from South Sudan and Greece: On May 11, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), reported that two people had tested positive in...
March 25 marked the fifth anniversary since a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, with direct support from the US, launched its campaign of airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The air campaign has gone hand-in-hand with an effort by Saudi and Yemeni forces opposing the Houthis to regain territory from the rebels. The Houthi movement, which emerged in 1994 in northern Yemen and whose supporters normally adhere to the...
Malawi is one of the most impoverished nations on the planet. It is experiencing what officials describe as a “population explosion” in a society with inadequate resources. As of 2018, Malawi is the third poorest country in the world with a GDP per capita of only $342, according to the International Monetary Fund. Over 90,000 people in the landlocked African country live with HIV/AIDS, which accounts for one in 10...
