HARARE, Zimbabwe, Feb 11 2025 (IPS)* – Many in the West, of the political right and left, now deny imperialism. For Josef Schumpeter, empires were pre-capitalist atavisms that would not survive the spread of capitalism. But even the conservative Economist notes President Trump’s revival of this US legacy.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Economic liberalism challenged
Major liberal economic thinkers of the 19th century noted capitalism was undermining economic liberalism.
John Stuart Mill and others acknowledged the difficulties of keeping capitalism competitive.
In 2014, billionaire Peter Thiel declared competition is for losers.
According to Elon Musk, USAID, the US chief foreign aid agency, “deserves to die.” Why? Because it is “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.”
Richard E. Rubenstein
What planet does this strange fellow live on? I AM a radical-left Marxist professor – one who happens to love the USA–and for more than forty years I have been criticizing USAID for not being radical or leftist at all.
What the irate oligarch means by “Marxist” is anyone’s guess.
(UN News)* — Two mass graves likely containing the bodies of migrants have been discovered in Libya, highlighting the ongoing, deadly dangers facing vulnerable people fleeing conflict and poverty, the UN migration agency, IOM said on .
Nineteen bodies were discovered in Jakharrah, around 400 km south of the coastal city of Benghazi, while at least 30 more were found in a mass grave in the Alkufra desert in the southeast. It is believed the second grave may contain as many as 70 bodies.
—Everyone knows the saying ‘life imitates art’, but we’d argue that art imitates life when it comes to Disney’s Moana film franchise. Moana 2 premiered in theatres in late November following the title character’s quest to protect her community’s ancestral way of life.
(UN News)* —The world has just experienced the hottest January ever recorded, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on , citing data crunched by UN partner the Copernicus Climate Service
Last month was 1.75 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level and 0.79°C above the 1991-2020 average, despite expectations that the La Nina weather phenomenon might bring cooler temperatures.
In 2015, the international community agreed to try to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
ASMARA, Eritrea, Feb 10 2025 (IPS)* – At night, when the world lights up, large swathes of Africa remain cloaked in darkness—a stark reminder of the continent’s lack of reliable access to electricity.
Around 600 million Africans still lack reliable access to electricity, which is nearly half the continent’s population and more than 80 per cent of the global electricity access gap. Credit: Raphael Pouget / Climate Visuals Countdown via UNDP
This access is one of the key ingredients to accelerating the continent’s progress – powering homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses, towards unlocking the continent’s full potential.
(UN News)* — The civilian death toll in Sudan has surged dramatically, with at least 275 people killed between 31 January and 5 February, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, reported on Friday.[].
( UN News)* — Some 230 million girls in more than 90 countries – predominantly in Africa and Asia – have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) and can suffer lifelong physical, emotional and psychological scars, an issue that the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency has been tackling with the support of the international community including the United States.
Zeinaba Mahr Aouad, a 24-year-old woman from Djibouti, remembers the day when, as a ten-year-old, an unexpected visitor came to her house: “She had a syringe, a razor blade and bandages.”
The woman was there to carry out a brutal, unnecessary and – since 1995 in the Horn of Africa country – illegal operation known as female genital mutilation, which involves sewing up a girl’s vagina and cutting out her clitoris.
Two weeks after Goma was captured by the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, many families who lost their loved ones are begging for peace. Some of them have had no news of their loved ones, while others have already identified their relatives, civilians and soldiers, who died during the fighting in the city.
M23 fighters at border between Rwanda and DRC. At least 2,800 people have died in renewed hostilities. Credit: Ajabu Adolphe/IPS
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb 6 2025 (IPS)* – Zawadi Delphine is a soldier’s wife and mother of three. She and her family live in Camp Katindo, east of the city of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu.
US president, Donald Trump, on 4 February 2025, announced his plan for the Middle East: the US to take control of Gaza, 2 million Palestinians to be evacuated to Egypt and Jordan, and to build in Gaza an international touristic resort… World’s human rights organisations stated that the plan violates international laws and amounts to “ethnic cleansing“...
On 10 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Declaration setting out, for the first time, the fundamental human rights that should to be universally protected.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 