Ovi magazine; Monday November 20th, 2023 – Universal Children’s Day

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Monday November 20th, 2023 – Universal Children’s Day

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Universal Children’s Day by Rene Wadlow

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 20 November as Universal Chlidren’s Day, a day devoted to promoting the welfare of the children of the world.  The date of 20 November was chosen as it is the anniversary of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.  The Convention, which is the most widely ratifies international human rights treaty sets out a number of children’s rights including the right to life, to health, to education and to family life.

When the Convention on the Rights of the Child was unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989, governments took a major step forward in establishing a framework of world law to protect the basic dignity and rights of children in all parts of the world.  Thus, we remember with gratitude those who worked to develop the concepts and reality of the Rights of the Child but also to measure the tasks that are before us, especially as members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  This universal framework is based on the principle that each child should have the possibility to develop into an active and responsible member of society. The way in which a society treats its children reflects not only its qualities of compassion and protective caring, but also its sense of justice, its commitment to the future and its urge to better the human condition for continuing generations.

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Life crowded with details #poem & #painting by Amir Khatib

“Your life is always crowded with details.
There is no time to remember…
Memories attack the mind when it is empty.
A torrent descends towards abandoned hearts,
My teacher said: “Man, insofar as he is a part of nature,
be part of its destiny.”

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Ant-Biotics #28 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Saturday October 21st, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Saturday October 21st, 2023

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A conversation with Shri Manish Tewari by Dr Elsa Lycias Joel

In a freewheeling conversation with Elsa Lycias Joel, Manish Tewari talks about his early days, memories of travelling, how capable and visionary governance can complement our diversities to bring about unity and prosperity, why the government must honour the role of a free press only to foster a successful and stable democracy, why the last 9 years or so look like a spectre of undeclared emergency, a few fundamental revisits to ensure the freedom of speech and expression and catalyze the role of governors so that their actions do not become the subject of controversy in addition to avoiding allegations of political partisanship, experts recognizing paper ballots as one of the most important security measures India must switch over to and why each one of us must derive strength from the diversities that surround us, be more inclusive and commit to equal opportunity for all. 

Given his credentials as a grass root public, political activist, lawyer, politician and Union Minister, Manish’s conversation weaves around defending civil liberties, the right to privacy and defending fundamental principles.

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Over the tree whispers turn into screams #poem by Abigail George

“I haven’t fallen in love in eight
hours. I wish I could fly out of this
room to any place that I could call home
and sanctuary away from this cold
winter’s dream, thinking about what
you did not say out of the blue, and I think of
the Parisian-rooftops of Rilke, my sister’s
Prague, Lulu, and I feel lonely”

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Ant-Biotics #26 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Friday October 6th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday October 6th, 2023

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Red-orange by Theodore K. Nasos

The mesmerising movement of the falling leaves. The sunsets that last a whole day, the red-brown and the orange that rule. The wine rich air and despite the fact that winter is coming; it is the light and the celebratory birth of the autumn that arouse.

Waves of lulling ground smells and the magenta finish of the day with the welcome rain the threat that tomorrow it will be cold. The magical loops in colour and feel. This awkward silence between the buildings.
Nothing comes out right or truthful enough to reach or erase. This is all left for the next. Winter’s white. Now it’s autumn’s orange-red.

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Like Zen #poem by Michael Lee Johnson

“You are morning
when the artist comes
young oriental with your
poems like Zen.”

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Ant-Biotics #25 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Thursday September 21st, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday September 21st, 2023

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Brief for Murder: Pinochet’s Apologists Five Decades On by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

During the Cold War, assassinations most foul were entertained as necessary measures to advance the set cause.  In Latin America, military regimes were keenly sponsored as reliably brutal antidotes to the Marxist tic, or at the very least the tic in waiting.  Any government deemed by Washington to be remotely progressive would become ripe targets for violent overthrow. 

To this day, the murderers of Chile’s socialist president Salvador Allende, (wait, we hear the first apologist mock, he was not murdered but suicided out of choice) along with thousands of innocents continuesto receive briefs in their defence.

On September 15, Mary Anastasia O’Grady, a Wall Street Journal scratcher turned police-state boot polisher bombarded her Australian Radio National host, Tom Switzer, with the stock libels about Allende’s legacy and the military coup of September 11, 1973.  The interview will go down as one of Switzer’s poorer efforts, despite meek attempts to bring his frothing interviewee back to the bloody account opened by the military regime.

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My Ego #poem by George Cassidy Payne

“Smells like roasting
Bull Nose peppers,
and tastes like
Daffodils in Prague.
Forsaken as a
permanently deleted Email,
It is in trouble by the way
she holds her brandy.”

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Ant-Biotics #24 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Wednesday September 6th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Wednesday September 6th, 2023

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How To Find A Good Mental Health Counselor by Stan Popovich

Many people have a difficult time in finding an effective mental health counselor that will help them get their life back on track.

The key is to find someone that you can trust in discussing your anxieties and depression.

With this in mind, here are seven suggestions on how to find a great mental health counselor that works for you.

1. Talk to your doctor or primary care physician: Your medical or family doctor is a great source in finding a therapist. Explain to your doctor your problems and he or she can point you in the right direction in seeking the proper treatment. Your primary care physician may even know of some low-cost services that you can use to your advantage.

2. Go to your local hospital: Your local hospital is another source you can use to find a good counselor and they also know of many different mental health programs in your area. Your emergency center can also handle your situation right away if you are struggling with fear and anxiety. This is just a few examples on the importance of getting mental health assistance in your life.

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Sackcloth Clad #poem by Saloni Kaul

“The unmistakably contrite at heart 
Commence their long long walk of hard penance
And gripping biting unseemly dust with art
As they sight their goal in the looming distance.”

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Ant-Biotics #23 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Tuesday August 22nd, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday August 22nd, 2023

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Iran Repression Continues: NGO Action Needed by Rene Wadlow

Repression of protests in Iran continues.  A wave of protests swept across Iran in the wake of the September 2022 death in custody of 22 year-old Mahsa Jina Animi, an ethnic Kurd.  It is estimated that the Iranian security forces have killed over 500 protesters, and have arrested some 20,000 persons of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. (1)

In response to the State-led violence, the United Nations Human Rights Council has created on 24 November 2022 the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran with the chairmanship of Sera Hossain of Bangladesh.

One aspect of the repression of protests is that religious leaders of the Sunni Muslim communities especially in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province and the Kurdish provences are being increasingly targeted by the Islamic Republic authorities for arrest and imprisonment because of their peaceful criticism of the repression of protests.  Iran is a majority Shia Muslim country, and Shiism is the official religion of the State.

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Snow Globe #poem & #painting by Nikos Laios

“I gaze at the snow globe 
And remember those 
Ragged roads through  
Rugged mountain ranges, 
Grazing sheep on steep slopes”

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Ant-Biotics #22 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Monday August 7th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Monday August 7th, 2023

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Niger: The Coup Next Door by Kola King

Barely two weeks after President Bola Tinubu made his inaugural speech as the new Chairman of the Economic Community of West Africa, ECOWAS during the Africa Union, AU meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya on July 16, where he excoriated coup plotters and military adventurers who torpedo democratically elected governments on the continent and at the same time waxed strong about defending democracy on the continent than soldiers in the Niger Republic, Nigeria’s neighbour to the northwest, seized power removing President Mohammed Bazoum from office on July 26, throwing the Sahelian nation into an uncertain future.

Tinubu who was speaking at the Fifth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting (5thMYCM) of the African Union (AU), the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the Regional Mechanisms (RMs), and the African Union Member-States, had announced plans to strengthen the ECOWAS Standby Force to deter coups and combat terrorism in the sub-region.

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I’ll shoot the first angel I come across! #poem by Amir Khatib

“We are all going to die!
But who dies first,
It is a matter that time alone decides;
A time in which we share the relationship, each according to the weight of his life and the place of time in it.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Ant-Biotics #21 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Sunday July 23rd, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Sunday July 23rd, 2023

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Peace Planners: Awake! by Rene Wadlow

he recent NATO Summit in Vilnius is an indication that the war planning community is busy at work in the spirit of Von Clausewitz that war is a continuation of politics by other means.  Thus there is a need for the peace planning community to be awake and be equally busy.  The challenges which humanity faces today: armed violence, persistent poverty, mass migration, and the consequences of climate change, require strong collective action at the local, the national, and the world level.

For peace planners, we need to analyse current armed conflicts and the strong tensions which may lead to violence.  Sometimes these tensions start as small localized events, such as tensions between military forces on the India-China frontier, but such tensions contain the seeds for later armed violence.  The recent trip of the 100 year old Henry Kissinger across the Pacific to discuss with the Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu is an indication that tensions in the Indo-Pacific area are being taken seriously.

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The Invasion by Abigail George

“Into the window of despair that is written all over your
face. What do you know of terror? Walk towards me is
all I asked.  You could not love or rather could not love
me. This is what you would choose over me. The she.
The “she” that lives in an office building and for the men
in her life. I mut forgive myself for stepping into the
nonchalant river. Two vessels of light. You were a body of
water and I floated on my back looking at pictures of
classmates from high school that had no memory of me.”

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Ant-Biotics #20 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Saturday July 8th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Saturday July 8th, 2023

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Europe better tread carefully in the future by Christos Mouzeviris

For the past year and a half, we all been watching a terrible disaster unfolding. This time not in the Middle East or Asia, but right on our doorstep; Ukraine.

“Putin’s War”, as Western media often portray it, is anything but though. These kind of conflicts have happened many times before in history, one of such times it was Greece that suffered the consequences of the struggle between East and West, with the Greek Civil War happening back in the post WW2 ’40s.

That conflict was the first proxy war of the Cold War and represents the first example of postwar involvement on the part of the Allies in the internal affairs of a foreign country, an implementation of George F. Kennan’s containment policy.

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Nakashawu #poem & #painting by Virginia Maria Romero

“Surrendering I become a vessel
         –unleashed, buoyant, flowing…”

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Worming #69 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Friday June 23rd, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday June 23rd, 2023

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Elite sportsmen, elite artists and anxiety by Joseph Gatt

Anxiety is part of the sport. First off, being an elite artist or sportsman is a privilege that usually comes with years of hard work and training.

Definition: there are lots of sportsmen or artists playing any sport or dabbling with any art. Elite means you get lots of visibility, usually because you play the sport or the art really, really well. Either because you collect a long series of titles and championships, or because your art work has huge impact.

Being part of the elite is of course not a lifelong title, and you have to keep your elite status for about a decade or two before you can become a so-called “legend” and that’s when you’re in the history books.

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Tickled pink (Pink Flamingo Day) #poem by Dr Elsa Lycias Joel

“A new dream is born
In the city of dreams
Honking-grunting-growling, a song
Tickled pink is Bombay, ahem!“

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Ant-Biotics #18 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Tuesday May 9th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday May 9th, 2023

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Jerry Springer: Ringmaster of Civilization’s End by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

It involved bringing out the irregular or peculiarfrom society’s peripheries – at least as popularly perceived at the time.  Granted a national, broadcasting stage, various persons of despairwould perform, if only for a spectacular,brief moment.  Cue the chants of a studio audience and the threat of physical confrontation. And the late Jerry Springer, former news reporter and Cincinnati mayor, would be there, willing to market the performance and throw these samples of humanity upon screen and audience.  Before the idea of incendiary, vapid reality television, there was The Jerry Springer Show.

It all began on the fifth-floor studio at Cincinnati, Ohio’s WLWT in September 1991.Initially, the programwas fed by a tepid mainstream, with audiences to match.  Topics included the big if often skirted around issues in the social Darwinian world of US culture: poverty, inequality, gun control. Put another way, these were topics that might fail to garner the ratings, inducing a vast yawn of boredom.  It did not take long for Springerto shed the chrysalis of journalism.

By December 1997, a staff reporter for the Cincinnati Post would write that Springer had found himself “top of the trash heap,” even as others came and went. He had discovered the formula of “lived experience”, drawing upon the endless well of antagonism offered by his guests.  It was one that did not align with the defenders of boredom, those like Pamela Paul, who claim that it “teaches us that life isn’t a parade of amusements.”

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Black Lines #poem by David Barger

“White mountainous clouds reflect
Orange magma colored sky
As the sun dips below fading tree lines.
Miracle like rays of light
Shine through the tree arranged branches –
Pinpoint upon swing rocking by slight breeze.
Beyond wooden swing set”

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Ant-Biotics #15 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Tuesday April 25th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday April 25th, 2023

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A Road Paved with Irritations: Macron’s Strategic Third Way by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to Chinadid not quite go according to plan, though much depends on what was planned to begin with.In one sense,the French Presidentwas consistent, riding the hobbyhorse ofEurope’s strategic autonomy, one hived off from the US imperium and free of Chinese influence. 

Europe’s third-way autonomy would be a mighty thing for the Elysée Palace, especially given French pretensions in steering it.After all, Frau “Mutti” Merkel is no longer de facto European chief, presiding over thebloc with matronly care.  Her successor, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is finding himself caught in undergrowth, a difficult thing at times for the continent’s largest economy, and the globe’s fourth.

What, then, of the fuss?  In the first place, Macron had company on his Beijing visit: on his first day of the trip, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had decided to come along.  This was never going to go well, given their respective views over the Middle Kingdom.  Von der Leyen, for one, uses a larded management approach to Beijing, ringing the relationship with restrictions and signals of constipation.On Taiwan’s status, she sticks to the warring line embraced by policy makers stretching from Canberra to Washington.  Macron, at least in one sense, understands the power of China to be not only inextinguishable but a logical weight against the US.

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Where the River Bends #poem by George Cassidy Payne

“Our memories were
Once possibilities of
God’s timeless perfection
Our lives predicted by
Laws of grace, our dreams”

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Ant-Biotics #14 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Monday April 10th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Monday April 10th, 2023

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A Matter of Personal Hospitality: Buying the US Supreme Court by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

What is going to be done with Clarence Thomas, that darling reactionary among reactionaries on the US Supreme Court?  Evidently, the justice seems to assume that being bribed, paid off or bought by a billionaire over the course of 20 years is a perfectly appropriate practice, reconcilable with the role of his office in handing down judgments affecting the lives of millions.

A ProPublica investigation has found that the Supreme Court justice received gifts fromthe billionaire real estate magnate and Republican donor Harlan Crow for two decades.  It opens with a description of one of those gifts: flying on a Bombardier Global 5000 jet to Indonesia, wife Virginia “Ginni” Thomas in tow; nine days of island hopping across the archipelago on a fully staffed superyacht – all for the splendid value of $500,000.

As the investigation points out, the failure to disclose such travel and resort stints would seem to violate the post-Watergate law requiring justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts.  For Crow, as outlined in a statement, this was all a case of extended “hospitality”, something which Thomas had never sought.  It was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”  That’s influence for you.

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The Second Beatitude #poem by George Cassidy Payne

“My mind is rustling
leaves, sound shadows
and deadening echoes.”

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Ant-Biotics #13 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Tuesday March 28th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday March 28th, 2023

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The betrayal of the public by mainstream media – The truth has been hidden by Murray Hunter

Australian Sky News presenter Rita Panahi hosted a documentary about the lies around the origin of Covid-19, examining the lies and denials in the media over the lab leak hypothesis. The documentary (above), gave a run down on how the mainstream media portrayed the possibility of a lab leak as a conspiracy theory. She exposed the role of ‘experts’ in suppressing the truth. Those who opposed the establishment narrative were labelled as ‘conspiracy theorists’ and/or deplatformed from social media.

Today mainstream media echoes and disseminates establishment narratives

Mainstream media has been developing specific narratives to influence public opinion. We can go back to ‘weapons of mass destruction’ before the US attack on Iraq. No one in the media questioned the narrative. During the Covid-19 pandemic the BBC painted ivermectin as a horse medicine. The Guardian, funded by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, used headlines like ‘You are not a horse: FDA tells Americans stop taking dewormer for Covid’.

Operation Mockingbird was a CIA operation designed to channel propaganda through the mainstream media through the cold war. The program is still in operation under different names. AP and PBS are associated with CIA and NED based organizations, which fund programs, claimed to be in-depth investigative journalism. These tie-ups and sponsorships are not clearly disclosed by the networks.

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Loose change #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“Breathing was a surprise,
it’s 4 am and I’m still alive;
when you said good bye,
I thought that I had died.”

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Ant-Biotics #12 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Tuesday March 14th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday March 14th, 2023

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Saudi-Iranian deal brokered by China will change geopolitics in the MENA by Murray Hunter

For those within the Anglophile world, the recent agreement cut between Saudi Arabia and Iran, brokered by China, received scant reporting. The deal re-establishing relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran after a seven-year hiatus, may potentially become a major pillar for stability within the region.

Relations turned sour when the Saudi authorities executed a Shiite cleric Nimr Al-Nimr, back in 2016. This resulted in mobs storming the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran, and the breaking off of diplomatic relations.

Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed last Friday in Beijing to restore diplomatic ties by reopening their respective diplomatic missions within the next two months. Shiite majority Iran and Sunni majority Saudi Arabia re-establish a nexus between two competing Islamic leaders, within the Middle East and North African region.

President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia last December, and hosted the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in Beijing last month. The deal was signed just after President Xi, was re-elected for an unprecedented third term.

This is part of a broader Chinese initiative to broker a wider agreement, which includes Iraq, and Oman to reduce tensions in the region, and potentially realign the Middle East.

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That One #poem by George Cassidy Payne

“The one that doesn’t
want you to create anything
because it wants to
protect what it doesn’t know
from being found out.”

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Ant-Biotics #11 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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