Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — High moments aside, do we know what happiness is? Is the world becoming a happier place? Are we happier than our parents' or grandparents’ generations? What could give us a little more happiness?

"Homo Sapiens has been around for about 8,000 generations, and for most of that time, life has been rather unpleasant. Most humans who have ever lived have done so under despotic regimes," wrote Stephen Krasner in Foreign Affairs in March 2020. Life expectancy, he points out, didn’t begin to increase until 1850, just seven generations ago, and accelerated only after 1900. It is still accelerating.

Time for a National Forum or Assembly

By Simone Galimberti

The writer is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit NGO in Nepal. He writes on volunteerism, social inclusion, youth development and regional integration as an engine to improve people's lives.

KATHMANDU (IDN) — One of the pillars of Our Common Agenda, the UN Secretary-General's global blueprint on delivering a better future based on cooperation and multilateralism, is a strong focus on inclusion, protection and participation.

Viewpoint by Tim Westbury

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

BRISBANE, Australia (IDN) — The Pacific Islands security narrative is often dominated by voices and interests outside the region. At the recent Shangri-La Dialogue, among the hype surrounding geostrategic competition in the Pacific, Fiji’s Defence Minister Inia Seruiratu said that the “single greatest threat to our very existence is ... human-induced, devastating climate change.”

Viewpoint by Dr Márcia Balisciano

The writer is the Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, RELX. She is also Chair of the UN Global Compact Network UK; Chair of the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Council of the Conference Board; and a founding member of the Board of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens.

LONDON (IDN) — The goal in 2015 was to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. We should have been more than halfway there, but given the tumultuous state of global affairs, we are off track.

We must do more to realise progress.

A new UNOOSA head is to be appointed soon

By Aurora Weiss

VIENNA (IDN) — Legend has it that a young Isaac Newton was sitting beneath an apple tree contemplating the mysterious universe. Suddenly —"boink!''—an apple unexpectedly hit him on the head. He experienced his "aha moment!". In a flash of light, he understood that the same force that brought the apple crashing toward the ground also keeps the moon falling toward the Earth and the Earth falling toward the sun: gravity. We are talking about real space Affairs in practice, which debuted in his book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1869). (P13) CHINESE | ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN | SPANISH

Viewpoint by Galina Angarova (Buryat), Executive Director, Cultural Survival

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, USA (IDN) — On August 9, 2022, the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous leaders will launch a new site—www.sirgecoalition.org—as part of the official public announcement of a new coalition to Secure Indigenous People’s Rights in a Green Economy (SIRGE Coalition).

UN Health Agency Calls for USD 123.7 million Until December 2022

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | NAIROBI (IDN) — The UN health agency, World Health Organization (WHO), has launched a funding appeal for USD 123.7 million to carry out urgent life-saving work in the greater Horn of Africa. The region also faces an unprecedented food crisis.

More than 80 million people in the seven countries spanning the region—Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda—are estimated to be food insecure. Over 37.5 million people are classified as being in IPC phase 3, a stage of crisis where people have to sell their possessions in order to feed themselves and their families, and where malnutrition is rife.

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The African continent of 1.2 billion people, which represents 17% of the world's population, contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions but suffers from extreme weather events, which scientists have warned will become more frequent due to climate change.

Researchers in a new study have now put an actual dollar figure on economic harm caused by the countries most responsible for the climate crisis. The ground-breaking data could serve as a starting point for legal action by Africans against the world's wealthiest nations.