Global Views

The global pandemic caused by COVID-19, climate change, and racism all have some unfortunate similarities. They are all global crises and they all have a death toll. They each cause the most harm to the least well-off in society, and they all lay bare our structures of social inequality. And they all are made worse […]

Turkey’s cities are back to their daily hurley-burley after most of the restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19 were lifted. The return to the old normal, with crowds on the streets, packed public transport and traffic jams, happened so fast that the time when the cities appeared apocalyptically quiet and still during the curfews […]

Tell us about yourself in a nutshell. What would you say makes your work unique? I am an interdisciplinary visual artist and UCF Associate professor of studio art. What makes my art unique? I move between disciplines -drawing, sculpture, video and live performance- to best get my points across instead of only working in one […]

My friend Shaimaa leaned across the table, tears streaming down her face, “You cannot go back to America, it is not safe there. Here in Egypt it is safe.” I didn’t have enough Arabic to explain my reasons for leaving, but events in late February and early March had made it clear that my options […]

There is currently a call to “defund” policing agencies to eliminate police brutality and/or use of excessive force. In a June 8, 2020 article, Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, is quoted as saying that, “It’s not just about taking money away from the police, it’s about reinvesting those dollars into black communities. […]

The Botswana tourism sector faces many threats ranging from climate change, humanitarian crisis and health issues, the current Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) being a case in point. It does not come as a surprise that the sector has not escaped the brunt of the global pandemic considering that it involves interactions among people. The United […]

Societal sustainability rests on the three interconnected pillars of water, energy and food, the WEF Nexus. Supply and demand of each must be in balance with the other two or the three-legged stool either wobbles or falls over leading to social and political instability. The ultimate driver of the Nexus is economics, and WEF interactions […]

In trying to understand the potential effects of COVID-19 on society, some commentators have looked to the Black Death – the name given to the Yersinia Pestis plague that first ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351. The Black Death started the Renaissance, caused the end of serfdom and “feudalism,” led to the Reformation and so […]

The emergence of the Coronavirus pandemic and a collapse in oil prices have inflicted acute socioeconomic shocks across Gulf Arab states, which now confront the unenviable prospect of managing prolonged economic downturns. Policymakers must consider controversial measures to cut government expenditures and generate needed revenues. Raising taxes – such as the value-added tax (VAT) and […]

Note: Journalist Veronica Camacho wrote this opinion piece just one day before she learned she lost her job as TV Host at Ecuavisa after working there 15 years. GPII’s Katie Coronado subsequently interviewed her about how it happened and what she will do now that she has been impacted directly by this pandemic. Her responses […]