A warm welcome!

You have our trilingual online publication in front of you. We hope you will take your time to read it and recommend us further. We are happy to inform you about new publications with our newsletter.

What must not be forgotten: death in the marshes

by Ralph Bosshard,* Switzerland

(14 February 2025) On Monday, 27 January, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was commemorated, but other places of horror must not be forgotten – or made to be forgotten. There are still many such places, especially on the map of Belarus, that remind us of the pain and horror of the terrible tragedies and cruel crimes of the Nazis during the Second World War, known as the Great Patriotic War. In addition to the Khatyn memorial, the village of Ozarichi in the Gomel region deserves a prominent mention.

Ukrainians: 73 per cent in favour of “immediate peace negotiations”

by Multipolar,* Germany

(14 February 2025) Representative survey: demand for peace has majority support in all parts of Ukraine / 89 per cent of Ukrainians oppose lowering the age of conscription / German government supplies additional weapons.

Netanyahu entraps Trump in a quagmire

by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India

(14 February 2025) Seldom, if ever, one gets to pick up the threads of what one had written 3 days back as conjectures. But my prognosis that “the sea side view” of Gaza is mesmerising President Donald Trump and his special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, two great real estate developers of modern times, is literally so. See my blog “Trump turn is bad news for West Asia”, Indianpunchline.com, February 3, 2025.

Swiss government continues to practice double standards

by Christian Müller*

(14 February 2025) Can a woman be “a little bit pregnant”? No, either she is pregnant, or she is not! It is the same with neutrality: either a state is neutral, or it is not neutral. But the Swiss government is pursuing a US- and NATO-friendly course, while claiming that, as a “neutral country”, it is also a good place for peace talks.

On the occasion of World Education Day 2025: What defines good education

by Ralph Studer,* Switzerland

(7 February 2025) “School education and pedagogical thinking are in crisis,” says Jochen Krautz, Professor of Art Education at the University of Wuppertal. What Krautz is talking about here is now a widespread consensus. There is a need for a return to fundamental principles. And good education would not be that difficult after all ...

Russia-Iran treaty signifies a ‘breakthrough’ in ties

by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India

(7 février 2025) Russia and Iran, as two immediate neighbours and great powers with a glorious history, had a difficult, chequered relationship through centuries. It goes to the credit of Iranian pragmatism that it learned to live with the consequences of Tsarist Russia’s expansionism rather than getting locked in eternal enmity. In some ways, it also shared the plight of China at the hands of predatory powers. Such bitter experiences inevitably get embedded in a nation’s psyche.