Opinion

Opinion

Plastic is poison, and that's that

2 February 2018 -

The government-run organisation Flanders Circular seems to support that “plastic is a valuable resource”. If that is the case, the “plastification of the minds” seems to be almost complete. If the agency that has to put Flanders on the track to become circular, is itself not able to unmask this subtle twist of so-called ...

Opinion

Our Right of Passage Should be Safe Migration, Not Leaky Boats

19 December 2017 -

‘I’m a migrant, but didn’t have to risk my life on a leaky boat or pay traffickers. Safe migration cannot be limited to the global elite.’ Thus spoke United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in September 2017.

Opinion

France destroys North Niger. Will the EU or UN act?

11 October 2017 -

Tens of thousands of people in Niger’s Arlit are exposed to often deadly radiation coming from the uranium mines around the city. AREVA, owned by the French State for over 80% and the main company on this environmental crime scene, has misinformed and lied to a population that is now waking up to the devastating consequences of this ecocide. ...

Opinion

The impact of “the refugee crisis”: rights are at risk in Europe

21 June 2017 -

From summer 2015 until spring of 2016, an increase in the number of people arriving in Europe to seek international protection stimulated a profound political crisis. Although it was termed “the refugee crisis”, it is more properly called a crisis of policy-making, a crisis of the EU, a crisis of European identity or even a crisis of hu ...

Opinion

Leave no one behind.

24 November 2016 -

25 years ago the extreme right( burst onto the Belgian political scene. The election of Donald Trump reminds us that we no longer have the “luxury” to look the other way. There is anger, there is fear. How do we answer the expectations of people who don’t belong to the succesful cosmopolitans?

Opinion

The militarisation of the South China Sea is too dangerous for simplicities

13 September 2016 -

The recent ruling by the UNCLOS Court of Arbitration in the Hague on the case brought by the Philippines has denied China’s claim to historic rights in the South China Sea. The implications could be serious and the ruling may turn out to be the turning point not only for the Asia Pacific but also in the wider world order.

Opinion

Are people monsters? The logic behind murderous attacks

17 July 2016 -

The truck attack in Nice once again raises the question: how can people deliberately plan and execute a blood bath? There’s a system behind the madness, say MO* chief editor Gie Goris. So the answer has to be systematic as well. And better.

Opinion

Source of Panama Papers speaks: 'The Revolution Will Be Digitized'

6 May 2016 -

The source behind the 11 million files that made the Panama Papers possible, sent a manifest to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. ‘Income inequality is one of the defining issues of our time. It affects all of us, the world over. The debate over its sudden acceleration has raged for years, with politicians, academics and activists alike he ...

Opinion

Tax Evasion Is A Violation Of Human Rights

15 April 2016 -

This week, Tine Destrooper, Managing Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University, followed the #PanamaPapers articles with the same indignation as millions of people worldwide. According to her, the contribution of tax avoidance and tax evasion to the violation of the most vulnerable people’s human rights ...

Opinion

Don't Drink Bombers' Deadly Cocktail

24 March 2016 -

In an editorial I wrote on Monday, after a week intense anti-terror activity in Brussels, I used an Uzbek proverb –‘One man builds a bridge, a thousand men cross it’- to advocate an active, two-way engagement between Brussels Muslim communities and the Belgian state.

Opinion

‘We need immigrants just as much as they need us’

18 December 2015 -

William Lacy Swing, director general of the International Organisation for Migration looks back at 2015 on the occassion of International Migrants Day. 'Now is the time for safe, secure and legal migration throughout the world.'

Opinion

‘Let's foster dialogues with our youngsters that respect privacy’

16 October 2015 -

‘Ever since people embraced the Internet, ever since we learned about the consequences of our new ways of interacting and communicating, the urgency to reflect upon – and maybe even rethink – the meaning of privacy grew stronger.’ Ben Caudron made the following speech ahead of the announcement of the jury's laureate of the B ...