2019 was a momentous year for UN-aligned! The organisation was launched in May after years of preparation and it only took a few months to attract members from all over the world. The first months were focussed on perfecting and consolidating the website and communication structures, including the magazine and language options.

In December 2019 the Government of India, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), secccesfully amended a bill to the Citizenship Act of 1955, offering amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants, who arrived in India prior to 2004. These immigrants must be able to prove that they are citizens of one of the three neighbouring countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan. Half the truth is often a whole lie Spokespeople of the Indian Government have repeatedly claimed that the new law intends to give sanctuary to people fleeing religious persecution.

The Enemy Within When Martin Luther King Jr. visited India in 1959, he paid the homage to the venerable land with these powerful words: “To other countries I may go as a tourist, but to India I come as a pilgrim.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Nuclear leaks are probably among the most horrifying accidents possible due to their long-term detrimental damage to life and environment. Eight years after the nuclear leak from Japan’s Fukushima power plant, local residents, many of whom are fishermen, are still suffering the consequences.

National Identity Villages and towns, built on cooperation, existed long before nations did. With time, however, the need for security threaded them together like a string of pearls.

What happened? Although people are long used to the erratic twists and turns of Donald Trump, his decision to sell the Kurds down the river by withdrawing American troops from Syria caught everyone by surprise. Whether Trump was right to extricate his forces from Syria remains debatable, but just as there is rarely a good time to start international military interventions, so there is rarely a good time to discontinue them.

Lies, half truths, deceit and hypocrisy are so embedded in our society that people have become immune to them, accept them and often believe that subterfuge is a way of life. Some, indeed, revel in fake news, willingly spreading fictitious slander in jest.

This year we took it upon ourselves to go through every speech of the United Nations General Assembly and brief you about the most important updates. In doing so, we got to hear some of the most bold and exciting statements from leaders around the world. We believe that the President of El Salvador’s speech was courageous, effective and to the point and thus, deserves the prize of the best statement of the debate.

Every Forty Seconds The 10th September was World Mental Health Day. In this context the WHO published a flyer to raise awareness on suicide and how to help prevent it: Working Together to Prevent Suicide.

A number of thorny topics were on the agenda this year. Some of the key issues included: foreign policy, trade and, of course, climate change.

So, President Trump now wants to buy Greenland! An uninhabited Greek island is one thing, but the largest island in the world that is also an autonomous territory… Well! Although Greenland has been a part of Denmark for over 200 years, it has been increasingly self-governing since 1979, with only foreign affairs and defence still controlled by Denmark. The suggestion just highlights how callous and clueless the American President is. Trump wants to buy all of greenland, no joke: WATCH People are not for sale Despite its promising name, Greenland is no Eden.

After publishing the August issue of The Gordian, we received the kind message from an UN-aligned member, Anahita, saying the magazine had inspired her to travel to the Iranian Kurdistan. As a thank you we received beautiful pictures from her which we decided to publish as a bonus, showcasing Uraman Takht, a magnificent village in the west of Iran.

UN-aligned is slowly, but surely, taking its place in the world arena of politics. We are also increasingly being criticised by different sides of the political spectrum.

And so it continues… Migrants are once again the victims of indifference and direct aggression. Six children and about 50 adults were killed and more that three times as many were badly hurt when a migrant detention centre was bombed by the forces of General Khalifa Haftar who are fighting the UN recognised government of Libya.

A bike campaign In the autumn of 2015, a young environmentalist in Arak, a city with pollution levels as staggering as those in Tehran, started a “car-free Tuesday” campaign to encourage people to commute by bike. The campaign soon turned popular with municipal authorities across the country beginning to encourage residents to ride bikes and leave their cars at home.

While the global political scene is beginning to look more and more like a Theatre of the Absurd, UN-aligned has become an alternative platform for many to turn to. This is not surprising; long lasting peace and prosperity can only be achieved with the kind of values and principles that UN-aligned advocates.

It has not been a good week for refugees; but then again, it never is… Today’s The Guardian reports how the Lebanese government forced 5,000 refugee families to demolish their own home in order to induce them to return to Syria. Yesterday, the captain of rescue ship Sea-Watch 3, Carola Rackete, was arrested after she forcefully docked her ship in the Italian island of Lampedusa. Having rescued 53 migrants drifting off the coast of Libya on June 12, the Sea-Watch 3 was left stranded while the Italian authorities kept refusing to let her dock.

Second thoughts… After ordering an attack on Iran last week, president Trump had an after thought. How many human lives would it cost? One wonders: what amount of casualties would have made his strike acceptable? Fifty? A hundred? Creating a problem The Iranian problem is of Trump’s making.

Learning a thing or two from Taiwan… Taiwan gave the world a lesson in real democracy last month when same-sex marriage was legalised in the “country“. In a referendum last November, 72% of the population had voted against allowing same-sex marriage.