As North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump’s war of words escalates, Independence Day celebrations – commemorating the Korean Peninsula’s 1945 liberation from Japanese colonial rule – are unfolding in both North and South Korea. The occasion underscores not just the shared history between the two countries, but also the South’s unique qualifications to bring about a peaceful resolution to the current military standoff. ...With saber-rattling between North Korea and the US at an all-time high, the [US-South Korea UFG] military exercise – which will begin on August 21 – could escalate the conflict dramatically. By Katharine H.S. Moon.
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Results for Opinion
Tuesday 15 August 2017
Cambridge-MA, USA
Wednesday 9 August 2017
Istanbul, Turkey
Over the next few months, the 12,000 employees based at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California will complete their move to an extravagant new campus. The “spaceship,” covering 2.8 million square feet, includes a two-story yoga studio, running paths, and even revolutionary pizza boxes that keep slices crisp. One thing it does not have, however, is daycare. By Bharati Sadasivam
Monday 7 August 2017
Milan, Italy
National and international institutional frameworks must continue to guard against destructive actions by political leaders. In the final analysis, confidence in these institutions’ resilience – and in an eventual end to the current political dysfunction – is what markets seem to be banking on. by Michael Spence.
Thursday 3 August 2017
Los Angeles, USA
Despite the falsehoods that some politicians peddle, facts still matter, and getting those facts right is essential for survival. I know, because I regularly see the deadly consequences of getting facts wrong. ... When we glibly dismiss fact-checked articles in reputable news sources as “fake news,” we fail to use evidence to support our conclusions. In politics as in science, when we dismiss revealed truth, we increase the likelihood of catastrophically bad outcomes. By Daniel T. Blumstein.
Sunday 30 July 2017
New York, USA
Giving girls the skills and knowledge they need to become productive individuals who can participate in the twenty-first-century economy empowers them in all aspects of their lives, enabling them to contribute to their families, communities, and economies in ways they choose. It is the right thing to do for global development – and for girls and women themselves. But ... empowering girls to use their energies and talents to transform their societies will not be easy. By Thoai Ngo.
Wednesday 26 July 2017
1 comment
Stanford, USA
When a tortoise is sitting on a post, you know it didn’t get there by itself. The reappearance of the same four arguments developed a quarter-century ago by an industry that benefits from delaying climate policies – arguments used with great success precisely because their origin and true purpose were hidden from the public – looks a lot like the tortoise’s four wiggling feet. The same arguments – and people – used by the fossil fuel industry to block climate policies decades ago are back. By Benjamin Franta.
Wednesday 19 July 2017
Liverpool, United Kingdom
Science fiction has long explored the terrifying possibility that we are devoid of free will, and that some unpleasant creature could control our minds or turn us into plodding zombies. But mind control is not just a literary trope. It is also a common method by which parasites gain access to environments where they can grow, reproduce, and complete their life cycles. By Robbie Rae.
Monday 17 July 2017
Princeton, USA
When Americans are asked what percentage of US government spending goes to foreign aid, the median answer is 25%. The correct answer is 1%. No wonder, then, that when President Donald Trump justifies cutting aid on the grounds that other countries need to step up because they are not paying their fair share, many people believe him. By Peter Singer.
Saturday 15 July 2017
Oxford, United Kingdom
In recent years, the world has become increasingly preoccupied with the catastrophic potential of global warming and other human-induced environmental changes, and rightly so. But one of the most serious risks has been all but ignored: the threat to human health. ...Determined opponents will question the science and criticize those who claim that human health is being jeopardized by environmental disregard. But to these critics I pose a question of my own: “Are you willing to risk being wrong?" By Shaukat Aziz.
Monday 10 July 2017
Brussels, Belgium
Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, the United States took another major step toward establishing itself as a rogue state on June 1, when it withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. For years, Trump has indulged the strange conspiracy theory that, as he put it in 2012, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” But this was not the reason Trump advanced for withdrawing the US from the Paris accord. Rather, the agreement, he alleged, was bad for the US and implicitly unfair to it. - Joseph E. Stiglitz.
Monday 26 June 2017
2 comments
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Regretfully, I must intrude into your day, and reluctantly make a further comment on the sad saga that is the 2019 Pacific Games (PG2019).
Thursday 15 June 2017
Auckland, New Zealand
Please Prime Minister Pohiva, think again and do not harden your heart, because you are making a mockery of our Parliamentary system...you have Tongans and friends of Tonga with the archeological, cultural, environmental and engineering expertise and the hearts and minds to build our nation, please Prime Minister use them. You are destroying our environment and in the process destroying our very fragile “democracy” and our trust in you and this Government. -‘Ana Hau‘alofa‘ia Koloto
Monday 12 June 2017
1 comment
Washington, USA
I cannot over emphasize the potential gravity of development in and around the reclaimed Popua landfill. I recommended this area not be used for a landfill from its onset in the 1980's. I can't say how extremely disturbed I was to see the area around it now being developed as a children's park that I was told was being funded as a Chinese gift. Richard Stoll, environmental engineer.
Monday 12 June 2017
Honolulu, Hawaii
The people of Tonga need to take the PM to task and hold both him and his government accountable for such a blatant disregard of his own laws and policies...The PM’s Popua project already is a disaster and will take on monstrous proportions, if it is allowed to progress...this governing body acts senselessly and carelessly, endangering the lives of the people with their poor decisions. Kat Lobendahn
Saturday 10 June 2017
1 comment
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
'Oku hangee kiate au 'oku tau to he luo kotoa pe na’atau keli mo ‘u’ufi he ‘etau fakato’emi kihe Temokalati tokua he ‘oku ‘alu kiai ‘a maamani.
Saturday 10 June 2017
Premium content
New York, USA
After 16 years of negotiations, 11 Pacific island nations will sign the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER Plus) in Tonga on 14 June. By Daniel Gay. Inter-Regional Adviser on least developed countries, UN Committee for Development Policy Secretariat, New York.
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Saturday 10 June 2017
Vienna, Austria
British Prime Minister Theresa May has, of her own volition, stripped her Conservative Party of its governing parliamentary majority by calling an early election. If she stays on as prime minister, she will also strip British citizens of the political and economic rights conferred by membership in the European Union. But May’s habit of stripping away people’s rights and powers is not new: for years, she has been normalizing the practice of stripping certain Britons of their citizenship altogether, even at the risk of rendering them stateless “citizens of nowhere.”
Wednesday 7 June 2017
Manila, Philippines
We live on a parched planet. Subterranean aquifers, which amount to the world’s reserve water tank, are also running dry. If this continues, the consequences could be dire. Depleted aquifers near coastlines are prone to contamination from saltwater, rendering land barren...Subterranean aquifers should be the reservoir of last resort. If we don’t protect them today, future generations will pay a steep – or even an existential – price. By Yasmin Siddiqi, Principal Water Resources Specialist at the Asian Development Bank.
Wednesday 7 June 2017
1 comment
Berkeley-California, USA
A distinguished academic, Patrick V. Kirch, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in the ancient Pacific, urged Tonga's Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva to protect the Va'epopua Sia Heu Lupe mound complex from desecration two years ago. "These archaeological sites are a priceless legacy of the ancient Tongan past and deserve to be protected for future generations to appreciate," he says.
Thursday 1 June 2017
New York, USA
President Donald Trump’s ravings against the 2015 Paris climate agreement are partly a product of his ignorance and narcissism. Yet they represent something more. They are a reflection of the deep corruption of the US political system, which, according to one recent assessment, is no longer a “full democracy.” American politics has become a game of powerful corporate interests: tax cuts for the rich, deregulation for mega-polluters, and war and global warming for the rest of the world. By Jeffrey D. Sachs.
