Opinion

Opinion

Crisis situations are laboratories for human traffickers

30 July 2015 -

July 30, 2015 is the second UN Day against Human Trafficking. William Lacy Swing, Director-general of IOM, emphasizes that the focus on human trafficking should be permanent. It is time, he says, that the ongoing fight against human trafficking is taken seriously and is integrated in traditional aid operations.

Opinion

Climate Opportunity

3 June 2015 -

Next week, the G7 summit in quaint Schloss Elmau, Germany, will tackle the climate crisis, among many other looming disasters. Tom Kenis looks ahead at this 'climate opportunity'. 'For the eternal optimist, the glass is always half full. Especially when one is, as the saying goes, in it up to the neck.'

Opinion

The job cult

26 May 2015 -

A brand new cult has arisen; it’s called the job cult. It’s the new disease of the rational, thinking era. In recent years and without us noticing, it has taken over the lives of millions – even billions – of people. You are more than likely to know people who are part of it. You’re probably even a part of it yourself. ...

Opinion

‘Basic Income is the answer to technological developments’

13 March 2015 -

Increasingly, intelligent computers are taking over more and more intellectual jobs hitherto considered “safe” from automation, author Tom Kenis argues. Where will it end? Kenis points to a basic guaranteed income as a way forward.

Opinion

Are you Charlie?

9 January 2015 -

Our increasingly globalized world isn’t a happy place for everyone. The elites of the old West, Europe and the United States, are still in control. China, India, Brazil, and others are growing, but by and large global power relations are more or less the same as they have been since world war two. There is a pecking order. A division of labor ...

Opinion

Syria: Our Mandate Is Held Hostage by a Political Conflict

17 June 2014 -

We must raise the alarm! In Syria, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles every day, that further limit our ability to feed innocent victims of war.

Opinion

WFP Economist On CAR: "It Doesn’t Get Much Worse"

22 April 2014 -

The Central African Republic (CAR) – torn apart since December by widespread conflict and killings of civilians by armed groups – is unravelling. The consequences are already catastrophic for many people. Almost the entire population is in desperate need of food.

Opinion

Street versus State

9 July 2013 -

Street protests have been occupying the international limelight the past weeks. Is this the new way to actively practice democracy? Or does the surge of the street spell the demise of the democratic state?

Opinion

Everybody loves Mandela, but why?

14 June 2013 -

Everybody loves Mandela. If he could just stay, here with us, a bit longer. Why is it so hard to let him go? Are we afraid of the unbearable lightness of politics? South-Africa expert and former MO* journalist, Stefaan Anrys, tries to formulate an answer.

Opinion

Tunisia: the fate of moderate political Islam on the razor

15 February 2013 -

Tunesia's prime minister, Hamadi Jebali, announced that he will resign Saturday if his proposals for a cabinet of technocrats and early elections are not accepted. This brings the polarisation, that came to light after the assasination of opposition leader Chokri Belaid, to a head.

Opinion

'Send the vultures packing'

11 January 2013 -

From my café terrace in The Hague’s pleasant street bustle I immediately spot him. Boniface Mwangi sticks out with his polo shirt in black, green and red, the colours of the Kenyan flag. Apart from that, the two-time winner of the CNN Africa Photojournalist Award (2008 and 2010) is an inconspicuous figure. He shows signs of fatigue that s ...

Opinion

Is Ghana truly the beacon of hope for democracy in Africa?

21 December 2012 -

Ghanaians went to the polls on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th December 2012 to elect an executive President and 275 Parliamentarians for a four year term January 2013 to December 2016. Less than 48 hours after the voting was closed, the caretaker President H.E. John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was declared a wi ...