Opinion

Opinion

‘The shift to a post-growth economy is not just a matter of survival, but above all a matter of progress’

15 May 2023 -

As political leaders gather for a conference at the European Parliament on how to move “beyond growth”, a group of academics and civil society organisations see the geopolitical crisis as an opportunity to disengage from the socially and ecologically harmful growth competition.

Opinion

Open letter: Against the “sustainable” destruction of the rainforest and the people who live in it

13 May 2023 -

Following Milo Rau's theatre performance Antigone in the Amazon, the Landless Workers Movement MST and some experts and activists wrote an open letter denouncing the practice of greenwashing by the Brazilian company Agropalma.

Opinion

‘As a feminist I didn't realise other women felt underrepresented in our movement’

8 March 2023 -

This International Women’s Day Maëlle Salzinger would like to hold a plea towards her fellow white feminists. ‘We should allow women’s rights advocates across the globe to develop their version of feminism according to their challenges and needs.’

Opinion

‘Stop the impunity in eastern Congo’

30 December 2022 -

Following the recent massacre in eastern Congo, former minister Réginald Moreels, author David Van Reybrouck, political scientist and author Nadia Nsayi and others are calling for independent investigations to find out 'exactly what happened, and who is responsible for what crimes'.

Opinion

‘The Indian election results do not show that Modi’s days are numbered’

12 May 2021 -

'Hindu nationalism and India cannot sit easy at the same table anymore' writes Arjun Sharma (Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, KU Leuven) after the elections held for the legislative assemblies of the 28 states and 3 out of 8 union territories comprising the Indian union.

Opinion

‘Making peace with nature is possible, if we start now’

18 February 2021 -

Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, believes our 'environmental, social and economic challenges are interlinked'. 'This year, we must make peace with nature.'

Opinion

Future of Development: International Solidarity is the Key

30 October 2020 -

While country after country is returning to strict measures in order to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, UN assistant secretary general Ulrika Modéer looks beyond the current crisis to discern the challenges on the road ahead ‘towards more sustainable, just and inclusive societies.’

Opinion

The official End of the Two-State Solution is the Beginning of a new Battle

6 July 2020 -

The annexation of the West Bank heralds the end of the two-state solution, but also marks the beginning of a new struggle, writes Tom Kenis. “One for equal rights for all the people under de facto Israeli rule, from the river to the sea.”

Opinion

The corona pandemic blows the lid off the idea of Western superiority

24 April 2020 -

Olivia U. Rutazibwa looks at the spread of the corona virus in Europe from a great distance as she is on a writing retreat at the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Studies (JIAS) in South Africa, where a national total lockdown was declared on March 26th. While she’s there to write and dig into books and the past, she sees how in these extraordina ...

Opinion

The Brave New World of Telework, Computer Clouds, and Isolated Workers

5 April 2020 -

Underneath the fear for the new corona virus, there is the celebration of new apps and technologies that allow some of us to continue working, meeting and being somehow productive, while in isolation in our rooms and houses. But the shift we celebrate now, could be the pandemic of tomorrow, writes Eric Stryson. If we don’t flatten this curve now, i ...

Opinion

Open up the borders (for journalism)!

17 March 2020 -

‘While the world is forcing us to cooperate internationally and begging for global remedies for everything from the coronavirus to the climate crisis, there is still far too little attention to global journalism’. Gie Goris and Jago Kosolosky, current and future editor-in-chief of MO* respectively, regret that.

Opinion

Is Belgium the world’s recycling champion? The kingdom’s own inconvenient truth.

27 March 2018 -

The figures that Fost Plus, Belgium’s nationwide waste-buyer uses in the current debate about introducing deposit-fees are one big lie. Why is that? Fost Plus deliberately misinterprets the official figures of OVAM, the Flemish Government’s Waste Agency, claiming that disposable cans and bottles account for 10% of the litter, while it i ...