Photo source: Christian Science Monitor By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront After the resurgent New Democracy, rose to power, in Greece, it seemed that the left-wing populism, and an era of fragile coalitions, was clobbered, as Kyriakos Mitsotakis had secured a decisive, and comfortable mandate, in the 2019 Greek election, mainly because he vowed to end the financial crises, during his campaigns. After the election result, he stood up on the podium, over Acropolis, and was clicked by photojournalists, in a jubilant mood. A former investment banker, he was seen by many Greeks, as a tireless campaigner, who tried to listen, to the woes of common people. His focus, during election campaigns, was mostly on economic recovery, negotiating better terms with creditors, promises of lower public taxation, attracting foreign investment, and creating jobs. He also had a strong political slogan, with an impactful message: ‘the need for Greeks is to get out and vote’. Amid the econom...

Photo Source: NPR.org By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront A s extreme weather continues to force the earth, into more drought, floods, hurricanes, a time will come, in our world, when the poorest people would be forced to choose, between migration, and starvation.  The overall scenario has been termed as ‘climate apartheid’.  This term got a limelight after the UN Human Rights Council, published a report that received worldwide attention, and was widely quoted in the global press. The report rests on the figures from the World Bank, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, among others. It imagines a world, after a few decades, with 2° C (3.6° F) of warming above pre-industrial levels. It says this could impact hundred to four hundred million people, who are at risk of hunger, and one to two billion will have no access to adequate water. Crop yields could drop by thirty per cent, by 2080, while malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress, could c...

Photo source: Open Canada By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront F or more than a hundred years, the First Nations Peoples, of Canada, were forced to learn in an educational framework, designed to remove all evidence, of their native identities.  As Canada became one hundred fifty years old, in 2017, many people believe that it was their celebration of genocide. While Canada was willing to spend billions of dollars on events marking Canada’s one hundred fifty years, in 2017, essential social services for First Nations people were under-funded. Pamela Palmater, in a Now Toronto Oped, wrote, on March 29, 2017: ‘a rguably, every firework, hot dog, and piece of birthday cake in Canada's 150th celebration will be paid for by the genocide of Indigenous peoples and cultures’. In recent past, a damning report, that took a remarkable six years to produce, details how five hundred thousand children from aboriginal families were forced to attend over one hundred thirty C...

Photo source: nhm.ac.uk By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront Asian nations, no longer, want to be a plastic dumping ground, of rich nations. It is because there are innumerable rubbish crates, that arrive, at the ports, of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, from the West. But, these south-east Asian nations are now vowing to end it, by freeing their seas and lands, that resemble like a giant, clogged gutter, or a place of a toxic wasteland. It brings back the old adage: We made plastic. We depend on it. Now, we are drowning in it. In fact, Rodrigo Duterte, had threatened to suspend diplomatic ties with Canada if the Trudeau government doesn’t take it back. Earlier, the Canadian government did not agree to take back its sixty-nine containers, containing fifteen hundred tonnes of waste that had been expelled to the Philippines, in 2013, and 2014. Duterte had even said that if Canadian government didn’t stop playing petty politics over this issue, ...

Photo source:  The Conversation By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront   The most widely used vegetable oil, in the world, over the years, has become available to consumers, at a harrowing price. Its production not only makes our planet warmer, but is also destroying the habitat of Sumatran Tigers, Sumatra Rhinos, and Orangutans driving these species, to near extinction. Global financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has pushed Malaysia and Indonesia, on track, to produce more of this crop, leading to severe environmental degradation, in its low-lying tropical regions, that source rainforests, and peatlands. It is because these leading global institutions view its production, as a poverty reduction scheme. In fact, various Dutch banks itself have provided various loans to Indonesian farmers, between 1995 to 1999. The business expansion has been vital to regional companies because it not only gives a higher shelf life, to processed ...

Photo source: Fox News By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Up Front A fter the death of Mohammed Morsi in June 2019, the global media, is in a stir, as reactions have come from all quarters, of the globe. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, called his death, ‘a slow death’, but Morsi also had a dark side, and many flaws. Mohammed Morsi, was a pivotal member of Muslim Brotherhood, that started its political undertakings, from the shadows of Egyptian society. In his ambitious political resolve, he believed that he could provide a transition for a democratic Egypt, but, in the process, also feared an assassination. A charismatic leader, for his followers, in the Brotherhood, he wouldn’t have become a democratically elected president of Egypt, in 2012, and earn a name for himself, in the political clique of Middle East, and beyond, if the first choice candidate, Khairat Al Shati, disqualified by the electoral commission, for serving a prison sentence, under Mubarak, ran for t...

Photo Source: Al Jazeera By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront H ong Kong has become a powder keg, and a city on the edge.  Anger has been brimming, from all quarters of the society, as over million protestors, about fifteen per cent of the population, mostly young, in black-clad uniforms, belonging from myriad political camps, and social groups, marched the streets, to protest a new law, that would allow people, accused of crimes, from Hong  Kong, to be extradited, to China.  The movement started in March 2019 but went big scale in June 2019. The law says that the convicted people would  be subjected to China’s ‘opaque justice system’. It is also a move that would make Hong Kong, a safe haven, for many Chinese bureaucrats, and leaders. The protestors also seemed to have paranoias, of political manoeuvring, from the Chinese, that included spying.  They also want the release of previous protestors, held accountable, in the past. H...