Top Stories Archive
The Story and The Plan I took my first warm shower this morning, one week into my stay in the Philippines. I wanted to wait longer—perhaps two, three weeks (for dramatic effect)—but the opportunity presented itself, and I decided to end my winning (?) streak,...
by Belinda Navi at July 8, 2008 05:55 AM -05:00 GMT
i have a great respect for teachers i feel like my short stint as a teacher helps me empathize more w them and solidifies my belief that it is one of the most undeservedly underappreciated jobs there is. sometimes i feel like i'm bipolar b/c i want...
by Eunice Chyung at July 7, 2008 05:21 AM -05:00 GMT
Early Gold Medal for Team China The Beijing Olympics may be still a month away, but Team China has already struck gold. After the pre-meetings of the G8 Summitt in scenic Hokkaido, President Bush and PM Fukuda have both stated their commitment to attend the Opening...
by Kevin Xu at July 6, 2008 11:02 PM -05:00 GMT
The End of Theory, and the US Army on "the Cusp of Postpositivism"? In an interesting Small Wars Journal article, Christopher R. Paparone (associate professor in the Army Command and General Staff College’s Department of Logistics and Resource Operations) looks at the new Army FM 3-0, Operations - and argues that this shows...
by jon_mendel at July 3, 2008 02:19 PM +00:00 GMT
Glorious arrival I just arrived in the Philippines last night, and what greeted me upon exiting the airport building was nothing less, nothing more than expected: humidity, heat (at 11pm), and the excitement of crowds of families gathered to welcome their loved...
by Belinda Navi at July 2, 2008 07:10 AM -05:00 GMT
the brunonians have arrived all of us are officially in kolkata and volunteering. hooray! if i had my camera cord dealie, this is where i'd stick up a photo of me, ye sul, lisa, and melissa. and i met a traveller from japan who...
by Eunice Chyung at July 1, 2008 08:13 PM -05:00 GMT
Options for Health: Western Cape I know there's been a rather large delay between the first entry and this one which means that I'm not hovering over a computer all the time :). The primary reason I'm in Cape Town in the first place is...
by Reshma Ramachandran at June 30, 2008 06:43 AM -05:00 GMT
Occupation justification The war in Iraq is clearly one of the most important foreign policy issues in this year's presidential campaign. Arguably, it was the issue that single-handedly shaped the parties' nomination battles. The success of Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) rested in...
by Daniel Widome at June 26, 2008 01:22 PM -08:00 GMT
Zimbabwe: A Lost Opportunity of American Leadership In light of Morgan Tsvangirai's decision to drop out of Zimbabwe's presidential run-off election, the opposition party--Movement for Democratic Change--has officially failed its bid to end Mugabe's 28-year long tyrannical dictatorship. Citing unfair competition and continuous violence, Tsvangirai condemned the...
by Kevin Xu at June 22, 2008 07:41 PM -05:00 GMT
WELCOME TO CAPE TOWN I arrived to Cape Town on Saturday, the 7th of June. The first thing I saw upon landing was green. Not just patches of green among concrete like at home, but green encompassing and surrounding the airport. I had only...
by Reshma Ramachandran at June 17, 2008 11:11 AM -05:00 GMT
most epic journey ever so i use the word "epic" pretty often considering that it is such an extreme adjective, but seriously, this time it is absolutely justified b/c it WAS the most epic journey ever. a few days ago, a few other volunteers...
by Eunice Chyung at June 17, 2008 02:35 AM -05:00 GMT
Response: Obamamania Around the World I am glad my last post has generated so many responses and questions. I will devote this entry to answering those qustions. (LeeAnn my response to your question is in the comment section of the previous post.) To Vicky: I...
by Kevin Xu at June 16, 2008 11:53 PM -05:00 GMT
profiles of different homes now that i've officially seen all of the places where volunteers can work: shanti dan - school for street kids and center for women who have either been abused, in prison, or have disabilities. the womens' building has 2 floors...
by Eunice Chyung at June 12, 2008 12:31 PM -05:00 GMT
Sudder St. Mafia It would be a funny thing if it weren't so serious. Basically, the beggars on Sudder (where most vols stay) are organized and specifically target foreigners for money. For example, just today, I was walking behind a beggar woman who...
by Eunice Chyung at June 10, 2008 04:12 AM -05:00 GMT
Obamamania Around the World With Barack Obama officially securing the Democratic nomination and Hillary Clinton officially, albeit bitterly, endorsing him and offering him every ounce of her support, the rest of the world is cheering for the possibility of a new era of American...
by Kevin Xu at June 10, 2008 12:36 AM -05:00 GMT
I think I can I've been in Kolkata a little over a week, and I think I'm beginning to adjust to life here (knock on wood). The heat isn't so bad if you're smart about it, like not being outside during the middle of...
by Eunice Chyung at June 8, 2008 04:22 PM -05:00 GMT
Introduction Dear all, As my first entry for the Watsonblog community, I feel it is appropriate that I provide a brief introduction of myself and what I hope to bring to the blogging community to keep things fresh, fun and fulfilling....
by Kevin Xu at June 8, 2008 12:45 AM -05:00 GMT
Appeasement politics Now that the Democratic nomination is all but settled, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is transitioning from the primary campaign to the general election. His Republican opponent, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), has been waiting for him there. But in recent days,...
by Daniel Widome at May 22, 2008 11:49 AM -08:00 GMT
Durham and Amsterdam's Data Wars project: website launch Just a quick post to say that the Amsterdam and Durham Universitys' Data Wars project (which I'm working on as research associate) has just launched its new website. As the website says, Data Wars is a three-year research project which...
by jon_mendel at May 16, 2008 02:58 PM +00:00 GMT
Who Lost Iran? Charles Krauthammer has been taking the Bush administration to task over Iran. His recent National Review piece began, "It is time to admit the truth: The Bush administration's attempt to halt Iran's nuclear program has failed. Utterly." Simply put, he's...
by Barron YoungSmith at May 6, 2008 06:57 PM +02:00 GMT
Distribute Iraq's oil revenues directly to the public? Not many entries lately - I have been finishing up an article on the role of networks in the construction of the Afghan state, and a paper on Iraqi resources for the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. More on the latter paper...
by jon_mendel at May 1, 2008 10:43 PM +00:00 GMT
Bedside manner Despite appearances to the contrary, the recent vitriol between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama masks some genuine differences between the Democratic candidates. One particularly important difference involves health care. The difference, however, is not so much one of policy....
by Daniel Widome at April 30, 2008 12:17 AM -08:00 GMT
Update / Burma's Sham Referendum Many apologies for the prolonged absence in posting. Security concerns. Let me update you since last entry. At the end of last year, I finished my time editing papers for human rights and environmental activists from all around the Mekong...
by social justice at April 28, 2008 06:08 PM +08:00 GMT
Special interests By now, the Democratic primary has stretched on longer than almost anyone could have predicted. Senators Hilary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) are each well-funded and broadly supported candidates. But as the race has dragged on, the sparring between...
by Daniel Widome at April 24, 2008 08:13 PM -08:00 GMT
Our New Book Is Coming Out! For the past year I've been working for another Brown Journal of World Affairs editor, Peter Scoblic (also of The New Republic) on a book: (U.S. vs. Them: How A Half-Century of Conservatism Has Undermined American Security) I really...
by Barron YoungSmith at April 11, 2008 05:33 PM +02:00 GMT
Encouraging Adoption Pakistan and the Muslim World Thus the history of Islam provides us with adequate encouragement for adoption as a worthy deed and one which families should consider more actively across the Muslim world but particularly in Pakistan. While Senator McCain might not be the most appealing U.S. presidential candidate for many Pakistanis on other accounts, his nobility as an adoptive parent must be admired and emulated.
by Saleem Ali at March 29, 2008 10:06 AM -05:00 GMT
Encouraging Adoption in Pakistan and the Muslim World Thus the history of Islam provides us with adequate encouragement for adoption as a worthy deed and one which families should consider more actively across the Muslim world but particularly in Pakistan. While Senator McCain might not be the most appealing U.S. presidential candidate for many Pakistanis on other accounts, his nobility as an adoptive parent must be admired and emulated.
by Saleem Ali at March 29, 2008 10:06 AM -05:00 GMT
Five years The fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq generated a good deal of reflection on the course of the war so far. Unsurprisingly, much of this commentary emanated from the presidential candidates. Each one underscored the distinctions on Iraq and...
by Daniel Widome at March 27, 2008 06:07 PM -08:00 GMT
RUSI lecture on military robots Prof Sharkey gave what sounds like an interesting lecture at RUSI last month. In particular, I'd draw out Sharkey's emphasis on how 'terrorists' and others might be able to take advantage of this technology - especially as prices fall and...
by jon_mendel at March 8, 2008 10:34 PM +00:00 GMT
The problem with language Partway through Arundhati Roy’s essay, “Power Politics”, she makes a memorable observation about the use of language in the development world: “In March 2000, I lived through a writer’s bad dream [the World Water Forum at the Hague]. I witnessed...
by gowriv at March 5, 2008 09:21 AM +05:30 GMT
Pakistan's political heir The mourning period of Benazir Bhutto’s tragic assassination has passed this week with a surprisingly calm election and Pakistanis will no doubt begin to approach her son and political heir Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in various ways to express their hopes and fears for the country. As one such citizen, I write this article at the eve of the publication of his mother’s notable book and also after a pivotal election victory for her party. You may ask why I write to give advice to a nineteen year old who couldn’t even run in the election? The answer is simple: reform is far easier to advocate to those who are new to the process than to those who are entrenched in entitlements of the old system. Perhaps that is why so many Americans are gravitating towards an inexperienced but youthfully optimistic senator named Barack Obama.
by Saleem Ali at March 1, 2008 08:12 PM -05:00 GMT
All apologies Earlier this month, Australia's parliament passed a resolution formally apologizing for one of the country's most egregious practices of institutionalized mistreatment of indigenous Australians. In issuing this apology, Australia is not alone. Apologies for past, state-sponsored misdeeds have become a...
by Daniel Widome at February 28, 2008 12:30 PM -08:00 GMT
From Alma Ata to the Global Fund From Alma Ata to the Global Fund: The history of International health policy is a report prepared by the Italian Global Health Watch, published in the journal of Social Medicine (Volume 3, Number 1, January, 2008). This paper traces...
by Syamak Moattari at February 14, 2008 07:03 PM -05:00 GMT
Torture I continue to despair about the U.S. use of torture. Nick Kristof's column "When We Torture" (2/14/08) certainly pricks my conscience. I wish there were louder voices joining together on this everywhere. The senate just passed bill prohibiting water-boarding, the...
by Andy Blackadar at February 14, 2008 09:22 AM -05:00 GMT
Fair and balanced assessment of the risks of modernity Sometimes satire can be the best response to fear-mongering, and eclectech's wonderful response to scare stories about the Internet is a good example. Here in the UK, we're regularly warned about the dangers of the Internet: paedophiles, identity theft, hackers,...
by jon_mendel at February 14, 2008 12:40 AM +00:00 GMT
Health, market or essential human right that is the question Last week in a Medical Care Class at the BU school of public health, we discussed about the health market, professor said that the health market is an imperfect market, because it doesn't have the characteristics and assumptions adhered...
by Syamak Moattari at February 10, 2008 11:56 AM -05:00 GMT
Mistaken identities Identity politics has become a defining force in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. From New Hampshire to Nevada to South Carolina, some uncomfortable questions have been raised: Do whites tell pollsters they support Sen. Barack Obama but privately...
by Daniel Widome at January 31, 2008 07:15 PM -08:00 GMT
Indonesian Islam is "greening" In a remote part of Central Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, there is a rather unusual form of environmentalism taking root. Shadowed by the great Merapi volcano and surrounded by fertile fields of rice and sugarcane, a small school is graduating environmentalists whose commitment to the earth is not based on Western conservation texts but rather predicated in values derived from Islam. The head of the school, Nasruddin Anshari, frequently uses the refrain “one earth, for all”, just as much as he does the usual Islamic invocation of Allah-u Akbar (God is Great).
by Saleem Ali at January 21, 2008 12:14 PM -05:00 GMT
Incident with Iran was almost a horrible accident? There's a fascinating story in today's Guardian - it looks like the "heckling radio ham known as the Filipino Monkey, who has spent years pestering ships in the Persian Gulf" might have been responsible for the recent incident between the...
by jon_mendel at January 14, 2008 03:15 PM +00:00 GMT
Health and Human Right Surprisingly Health and Human Right as a unique field (one concept) is a young, but rapidly growing and dynamic field. When we think about public health, unconsciously we consider it as a human right, these two words had evolved...
by Syamak Moattari at January 9, 2008 11:44 AM -05:00 GMT
Results of the Election 2008 I wrote this note last week before knowing about Iowa caucus's result. Today is the day of New Hampshire primary vote. We are looking forward to learn about the results of "Super Tuesday" and so on. It is too...
by Syamak Moattari at January 8, 2008 11:58 AM -05:00 GMT
Needs Assessment, a weapon for change Needs assessments play a vital role in strategic planning and in program and policy development process. In the needs assessment process, we try to learn about current needs for services and an assessment of effectiveness of past programs to...
by Syamak Moattari at January 7, 2008 12:54 AM -05:00 GMT
Why Public Health? When I was a medical student in 80s a friend of mine who studied Philosophy at that time, always quoted a message from one of the Greek ancient philosophers about “Physicians”, the quote was something like: The “mean Docs” want...
by Syamak Moattari at January 6, 2008 01:45 PM -05:00 GMT
Benazir Bhutto's Tragic Demise
Benazir was a charismatic yet polarizing politician who showed remarkable courage in returning to Pakistan earlier this year despite numerous threats to her life. It is a tragedy for the country that those who follow absolutist ideologies are armed to the teeth and can inflict such damage both literally and figuratively to Pakistani society. The only way to address the problem is to have a massive campaign to disarm militants, and also strengthen civil institiutions so that people have a voice and the fanatics lose their recruiting ability. At the same time it is important for Americans to keep things in perspective about Pakistan. While this is a terrible tragedy, America has also shown to the world that strong societies can recover after such dreadful assassinations and the vast majority of Pakistanis have a vibrant national commitment that will allow them to recover as well. The next few weeks will be crucial in terms of how fast this recovery will be -- the international community must remain engaged with Pakistan's transition towards democracy and keep the pressure on President Musharraf to hold free and fair elections in coming months.
Linked below is a long audio interview that I gave to our local press about the Bhutto tragedy which they have posted online with a slide show about Bhutto's life and tragic passing which can be heard from the link below:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/legacy/slideshows/122707bhutto/index.html
by Saleem Ali at December 27, 2007 10:38 PM -05:00 GMT
Balancing Islam in Academe Defying the stereotype of many Muslim youth who are often branded as killjoys, Isra also knows the importance of enjoying life. She is an avid fan of American football and plays sports regularly (one of the criteria for evaluation in Cecil Rhodes bequest for the scholarship). The ability to connect with youth through sports and peer-mentoring programs is so essential among social activists and Isra has used these skills in her work with the Inner-city Muslim Action Network in Chicago. Such programs bring positive competition to youth that might otherwise be indoctrinated with radical absolutist ideologies and are gaining momentum in Muslim communities.
by Saleem Ali at December 23, 2007 06:20 PM -05:00 GMT
Home stretch As the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary rapidly approach, the “real” presidential campaign is about to begin. The first actual votes are about to be cast, lending a visceral certainty to a campaign season that has at times...
by Daniel Widome at December 20, 2007 11:54 AM -08:00 GMT
The costs of meeting the global demand for oil I'm doing some research for the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation - looking at the post-invasion ab/use of Iraqi resources. I'm going to be using this blog to write about some of what I find out. A good place to start, I...
by jon_mendel at December 5, 2007 01:40 PM +00:00 GMT
Baghdad Fabulists, Left and Right *This post was also included on the Ethical Blogger Project's blog, a project I have been working on as part of the Global Media Project at Watson and with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, Demos--The Think Tank...
by Christina Kim at December 5, 2007 01:36 PM -05:00 GMT
Salvaging Peace with Syria We are once again at the brink of a Middle East peace conference and Syria's attendance remains unlikely. U.S. and Israeli policy makers continue to speculate about the sincerity of Syrian involvement, and consequently the Syrians have dismissed the forthcoming meeting as a "waste of time." The most significant point of contention between Syria and Israel remains the disputed mountainous region of Golan, which Israel has occupied since 1967. In order to have meaningful engagement from Syria, creative solutions to the Golan conflict must be on the agenda of the proposed Annapolis meeting that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is planning.
by Saleem Ali at November 24, 2007 06:09 PM -05:00 GMT
Pakistani perils In recent weeks, Pakistan has been wracked with a level of turmoil and uncertainty unique to that already unsteady state. Given its proximity to Islamic extremists—in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, and possibly within the government itself—as well as its nuclear arsenal,...
by Daniel Widome at November 22, 2007 08:50 PM -08:00 GMT
AVAAZ's call on ASEAN to ACT NOW ***The 19 ONLINE PETITIONS/PLEDGES FOR BURMA HERE.*** __________________________ For those in Asia, please help put the pressure on ASEAN to act now! from AVAAZ: Asia: Act Now for Myanmar's People On November 21, China, India, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia...
by social justice at November 20, 2007 10:47 AM +08:00 GMT
Burma the Most Corrupt and Worst Government in the World ***The 19 ONLINE PETITIONS FOR BURMA HERE.*** __________________________ Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption, puts out an "annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), first released in 1995, is the best known of TI’s tools. It has been widely credited with...
by social justice at November 19, 2007 04:02 PM +08:00 GMT
NEED-Burma and the Food Security Crisis in Burma ***The 19 ONLINE PETITIONS/PLEDGES FOR BURMA HERE.*** __________________________ Last week, I began helping out part-time with the Network for Environment and Economic Development (NEED-Burma), an NGO that works on training Burmese on sustainable agriculture methods. Because of poor economic policies,...
by social justice at November 19, 2007 03:54 PM +08:00 GMT
AVAAZ's Boycott on Total Oil, Chevron, and Their Subsidiaries ***The 19 ONLINE PETITIONS/PLEDGES FOR BURMA HERE.*** __________________________ ***The petitions and pledges are now up to 19.*** AVAAZ also is launching a global boycott of Total Oil and Chevron and all their subsidiaries that operate in Burma. You can sign...
by social justice at November 19, 2007 03:50 PM +08:00 GMT
TAKE ACTION! The Petitions for Burma For those who care about human rights, please sign the NINETEEN(19) PETITIONS below if you have not done so already. Please take the 5 minutes to do this. It's easy and CAN and WILL bring concrete results to the suffering...
by social justice at November 17, 2007 11:58 PM +08:00 GMT
US Citizens, Help get the Block Burmese JADE and the Burmese Democracy Promotion Acts Passed ***The 17 ONLINE PETITIONS FOR BURMA HERE.*** __________________________ US Citizens, please help get the Block Burmese JADE (Junta Anti-Democratic Efforts)Act and the Burmese Democracy Promotion Act passed. Put the pressure on your Representatives and Senators for the toughest US Sanctions...
by social justice at November 17, 2007 11:46 PM +08:00 GMT
LA Times: "Airport tests reveal major security flaws" The LA Times reports that Los Angeles International Airport screeners failed to spot simulated bombs in 75% of tests last year...
by jon_mendel at November 16, 2007 06:31 PM +00:00 GMT
Human Terrain System, Memory and "A CORDS for the 21st Century" Being forwarded the American Anthropological Association's statement on the Human Terrain System (HTS) Project, I looked back over some of the materials on this project. One thing that surprised me was a reference [PDF link] to HTS as "A CORDS...
by jon_mendel at November 13, 2007 06:18 PM +00:00 GMT
Pakistan's Lessons from Lebanon Peace is fragile in a fractured world and until institutions of human tolerance and economic and political justice are carefully nurtured at the most fundamental level in societies, there is little chance that either elections or martial law can salvage countries as far afield as Pakistan or Lebanon from such perennial cycles of crises.
by Saleem Ali at November 10, 2007 01:08 PM -05:00 GMT
About Dasara and documentation A few weeks ago, with some excellent company, I had the opportunity to see the Dasara festival in Mysore for the first time. Up until now, my experience of Bangalore only held validity between the months of June and August....
by gowriv at November 7, 2007 12:04 PM +05:30 GMT
Inferiority complex In recent weeks, the House of Representatives has dipped its toe into a pool of international and historical animosity. The partial success of a resolution condemning the 1915 mass killings and deportations of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire—it passed a...
by Daniel Widome at October 25, 2007 05:17 PM -08:00 GMT
Press from the conference... Thought these links would be useful to see other press, blog, etc. coverage/observations from the weekend: From the Brown Daily Herald: Bloggers, soldiers recount Iraq's front lines The Providence Journal: Media feeds disconnect over Iraq From SFC Toby Nunn, one...
by Christina Kim at October 24, 2007 02:49 PM -05:00 GMT
Convergences so, this past weekend, Watson played host to a conference focusing on soldier voices coming from Iraq (and Afghanistan, a bit, as well): Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories. it was organized with the help of the Watson Institute's...
by Christina Kim at October 23, 2007 09:21 AM -05:00 GMT
The Nobel Prize and Gore Climate change continues to be a pervasive source of dissent and discord within the scientific community as well as among policy-makers. However, such dissent should not be an excuse for inaction, specially in these heady days of preventative warfare. Comparative security analysts might also argue that since the United States is willing to incur over $500 billion dollars in preventative wars in the Middle East over a five-year timeframe, some measure of serious consideration to preventative strategies on climate change is also in order. Towards this larger goal of prioritizing policy, Al Gore must be commended for drawing our attention to issues of global salience beyond our all-consuming fear of terrorism.
by Saleem Ali at October 12, 2007 01:44 PM -05:00 GMT
Blog post taken down by homeopathic complaint: a chill wind is blowing I've previously blogged about attempts to censor a UK blogger, and the problems that this caused to the would-be censor. It seems like chill winds are blowing, again: the Quackometer blog has just been forced to take down a post,...
by jon_mendel at October 11, 2007 12:41 PM +00:00 GMT
Bush administration lobbying to use pesticides to eradicate Afghan opium poppies - what are they smoking? Reported in today's NYT: After the biggest opium harvest in Afghanistan’s history, American officials have renewed efforts to persuade the government here to begin spraying herbicide on opium poppies, and they have found some supporters within President Hamid Karzai’s administration,...
by jon_mendel at October 8, 2007 03:48 PM +00:00 GMT
About bubbles and numbers Maybe it’s a good sign, but I’ve stopped pausing every few days to remark to myself about how long I’ve been in Bangalore, how long I’ve been at Akshara, and what on earth I’ve been doing. A cause (or maybe...
by gowriv at October 8, 2007 12:12 PM +05:30 GMT
Military Accidents Interesting RAF story in the news yesterday - they accidentally dropped a 14kg bomb from a plane during an exercise. Luckily, it was a practice bomb (with a fuse, not live) and didn't hit anybody but, still, it's quite a...
by jon_mendel at October 4, 2007 07:55 PM +00:00 GMT
Patriot Act surveillance provisions ruled against by US courts Sorry for the lack of blog entries - just got my PhD submitted :) which has been keeping me fairly busy lately - but in terms of getting back into the swing of things, here's a link to an interesting...
by jon_mendel at October 3, 2007 04:09 PM +00:00 GMT
Indigenous Rights and the Quartet After two decades of deliberations, the United Nations General Assembly finally adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples on September 13. The voting demographics were most interesting: 143 nations in favour, 11 abstaining and 4 against. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States were the quartet that voted to deprive indigenous people of a largely ceremonial endorsement of their fundamental rights. Pakistan happily voted in favour of this resolution, though I wonder how much our government really appreciates the status of our tribal populations.
by Saleem Ali at September 28, 2007 07:45 PM -05:00 GMT
Hyperbolic insight As the first primaries of the 2008 presidential election rapidly approach, the campaign rhetoric has heated up. Desperate to consolidate their leads or topple the front-runners, the presidential candidates have become increasingly comfortable with hyperbole, exaggeration, and obfuscation. Although these...
by Daniel Widome at September 28, 2007 11:11 AM -08:00 GMT
Workaholics Anonymous From a CNN article on workaholism: According to Workaholics Anonymous (WA), working more than 40 hours per week can be an indication of workaholism. ... Mudrack says two major indications of workaholic behavior are spending time thinking of ways to...
by Barron YoungSmith at September 27, 2007 03:09 AM +02:00 GMT
Israel and Pakistan: comparative perspectives on the judiciary At the end of the day, Israelis, Palestinians and Pakistanis alike seek justice just as much as any other human community. The perception of how justice is configured and dispensed on either side of an issue is just as significant for conflict resolution as the substance of the cases themselves. It is high time that the West and the East become more discerning about giving credit and censure where it is due, regardless of our own political proclivity.
by Saleem Ali at September 16, 2007 04:42 PM -05:00 GMT
Goodbye Dar-es-Salaam Hello Blog Readers, Much time has passed since my last substantial blog entry and I have returned to the States just a few days ago. My last weeks in Dar were bittersweet. Saying good bye to my friends and leaving...
by Julia Hazen at September 5, 2007 09:51 PM -05:00 GMT
Greening Pakistan's Cities With growing urbanisation rates, Pakistan will have to contend with the challenge faced by our cities immediately. The solutions are not as far-fetched as we may initially consider. The amount of money needed for green planning is usually no more than what is invested in many other misguided infrastructure projects
by Saleem Ali at September 5, 2007 08:10 PM -05:00 GMT
Bleak comparison Parallels between the war in Iraq and the war in Vietnam practically draw themselves. Many have long since noted the most obvious similarities: In each conflict, the United States struggled to defeat an unconventional enemy, using unorthodox tactics, in an...
by Daniel Widome at September 3, 2007 11:43 PM -08:00 GMT
Back in the U.S.A. The one thing I appreciate after being in the land of green and yellow is the proliferation of the stars and stripes in Washington, D.C. Here Connecticut Avenue expresses its patriotism with its multiple "flagation." (Maybe I'll start a...
by Hazen Kazaks at September 1, 2007 07:55 PM -05:00 GMT
Petits Plaisirs “This is the best kind of voyeurism; hearing joy from your neighbors.” - Chuck Sigars (August 12th) Nyamirambo is the Muslim neighborhood of Kigali. There are two mosques, lit up with white and green fluorescents so they look somewhat like...
by Caitlin Lee Cohen at August 31, 2007 04:06 PM -05:00 GMT
What, exactly, is Caitlin doing in Rwanda? I work for WE-ACT, a group that does HIV-related care for women who are positive as a result of rape during the genocide. They also have a family program, income generation, peer education, and numerous other related programs.
by Caitlin Lee Cohen at August 31, 2007 04:02 PM -05:00 GMT
Betwixt the tealeaves and gorillas, Rwanda has a macabre industry: genocide tourism. (July 26th) At Ntarama I found a pass card. It had holes in it, the photo was torn off, but the boxes next to Hutu and Twa were empty, and there was a small innocuous looking X next to Tutsi....
by Caitlin Lee Cohen at August 31, 2007 03:56 PM -05:00 GMT
Open policy Over the past few weeks, amid of the summer's political doldrums, the 2008 presidential campaign has heated up. On the Democratic side, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) has found his foreign policy views placed under increasing scrutiny by his competitors and...
by Daniel Widome at August 24, 2007 02:25 PM -08:00 GMT
To quantify justice. One can define justice broadly, but IJM’s definition has a clear, straightforward component, and that is the abuse of power used to take from another human what is rightfully theirs—life, dignity, or the fruits of their love and labor. Such...
by Carrie Lutjens at August 20, 2007 08:15 PM -05:00 GMT
Approaching "the end", but really "just the beginning"... My time in Uganda is rapidly coming to an end. To my sadness I will shortly be departing. To my joy, I will leave with a large collection of things that one can’t put their hands around, so called “intangibles”: diverse experiences, accomplishments, challenges, frustrations, friendships, lifelong friendships that border...
by Vijay Narayan at August 20, 2007 11:44 AM +02:00 GMT
Data in the classroom? After almost two months at Akshara I can finally claim to have interacted with at least a few people at almost all levels of the system; the core of KLP, teachers, the most recent addition to my list of people...
by gowriv at August 17, 2007 12:11 PM +05:30 GMT
Work and Play A child outside a Christian church in Umpium Camp. A playground in Tham Hin. Waiting for the volleyball game to begin. A cow herder and his cattle in Nupo Camp. Playing under a house. Launching a kite in Umpium....
by Bremen Donovan at August 15, 2007 09:34 AM -05:00 GMT
Names People in the camps have occasional access to television, where Western cultural norms are learned through the filter of popular media interpretations of those norms. One of the quirky results of this particular situation is the late profusion of Western...
by Bremen Donovan at August 15, 2007 08:51 AM -05:00 GMT
David Shayler is the reincarnation of a BCE Jewish revolutionary. Apparently. I've previously blogged about the MI5 whistleblower, and prominent 9/11 'truth' movement member, David Shayler: he allegedly advocated a lot of David Icke-style beliefs around aliens etc (although, when Schnews reported this, he denied much of it). However, things get...
by jon_mendel at August 10, 2007 12:16 AM +00:00 GMT
Suggested Reading about Dar es Salaam and microfinance Hello Watsonblog readers! Work is pretty hectic right now but I thought I should suggest some resources for those who might be interested in learning more about microfinance, Dar es Salaam or microfinance market research. For a very thorough introduction,...
by Julia Hazen at August 9, 2007 05:50 AM -05:00 GMT
How to stop the Arctic from going Communist Ok, post-communist. Scott Borgerson of the Coast Guard Academy writes in the IHT that it's time to internationalize the Arctic, just as we did the Moon and the South Pole. Fact is, sometimes a treaty is the only way to...
by Barron YoungSmith at August 8, 2007 07:32 PM +02:00 GMT
Election Images 2 MHP banners in Eyup, Istanbul...
by Jill Luxenberg at August 8, 2007 04:16 AM -05:00 GMT
Election Images I meant to post these during the campaigns, but they got lost in the excitement. I wish I had pictures for all of the parties, but I only managed to snap a few. Here is an image of CHP banners...
by Jill Luxenberg at August 8, 2007 04:08 AM -05:00 GMT
Privacy and Harassment on the Internet - Kassiane Sibley Privacy on the Internet is clearly a concern - pictures, e-mails, blog entries etc. that one would not want the world to see can now circulate incredibly easily. Online harassment can also be a concern (for example, the problems faced...
by jon_mendel at August 8, 2007 12:37 AM +00:00 GMT
Moving ahead with the actual "adolescent transition clinic and peer support program" The research study assessing the needs of adolescents has been a core part of my work this summer, laying the groundwork for creation of the adolescent transition clinic and peer support program by ascertaining whether it is even needed, why it is needed, and in what ways such a program...
by Vijay Narayan at August 7, 2007 11:56 PM +02:00 GMT
The Pope's Woods, my cool buildings, and an UFO? After going to the Oscar Niemeyer museum (also called the "Eye" museum because that's what it resembles), I got this shot from an adjacent park. A wooded area dedicated to John Paul II is also nearby. Can you spot...
by Hazen Kazaks at August 7, 2007 09:41 PM -05:00 GMT
Vibrant Mural Downtown Curitiba This mural is located near where I work, and on the way to a good vegetarian restaurant. The Governor's Palace is right next door....
by Hazen Kazaks at August 7, 2007 09:35 PM -05:00 GMT
T minus Two Days Well, well, well, My 9 weeks in Brazil are almost up. In 48 hours, I hope to be in some stratosphere-plying vehicle headed for North America. However, in the meantime, I am in the process of organizing my data, acting...
by Hazen Kazaks at August 7, 2007 01:44 PM -05:00 GMT
On foreign policy: Obama's choice After months of enduring repeated accusations that he lacked policy substance, Barack Obama now faces the opposite problem. In recent weeks, as the Illinois senator has fleshed out his foreign policy agenda, he has encountered increasing criticism from across the...
by Daniel Widome at August 7, 2007 04:01 AM -08:00 GMT
Camp Conditions 1: Housing and Life at Home Building a new house in Umpium Camp. A house in Tham Hin Camp. Children playing in the street between their houses, Nupo Camp. A child waiting on his porch. A grandmother and her grandchild in the living room of...
by Bremen Donovan at August 6, 2007 06:59 AM -05:00 GMT
The Campaign Continues The goal of our information campaign, a collaborative effort between the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Rescue Committee’s Overseas Processing Entity (IRC-OPE) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is to ensure that...
by Bremen Donovan at August 6, 2007 03:02 AM -05:00 GMT
About data and how to use it It’s amazing that after over a month at Akshara I continue to learn more about how the organization works. In the past two weeks, I’ve met more cluster volunteers, two BEOs, some BRPs and CRPs, P, the academic who designed...
by gowriv at August 4, 2007 12:09 PM +05:30 GMT
Finding out the needs: the research study (Part 2) Continuing with describing the study tools: after finalizing the needs assessment questionnaire, we formulated focus-group discussion guides---to guide the moderators in facilitating the discussions. The questions and probes were most carefully conceived to find very specific data just as the quantitative questionnaires were. Yet as I mentioned, FGDs (focus-group discussions)...
by Vijay Narayan at July 31, 2007 04:05 AM +02:00 GMT
Wanderings in the Haven of Peace Sorry for the inexcusably long blog silence. Things here are at FINCA Tanzania have been really hectic. I am working with the newly formed Marketing Office. We have been undertaking a market survey of Dar-es-Salaam. To situate our research within...
by Julia Hazen at July 30, 2007 04:42 AM -05:00 GMT
Somehow it's been a month... Sorry for the delay—I have to make sure to only post State-approved information, so there can be a bit of a delay sometimes! The past week has probably been my busiest and most exciting so far. I went on a...
by Jill Luxenberg at July 30, 2007 01:51 AM -05:00 GMT
Terror questions As Congress engaged in another round of contentious debate over the Iraq war—this time, complete with a successful overnight filibuster by Republicans—the country was reminded of the nagging, perpetual fear of terrorism. A spate of attempted and botched terrorist attacks...
by Daniel Widome at July 28, 2007 11:05 AM -08:00 GMT
Falls, Fog, and Frontiers I traveled out to the city of Foz do Iguaçu to kick off another round of interviews with sugarcane growers. This time, we talked to farmers who grew sugarcane not for fuel ethanol, but for the potable type of...
by Hazen Kazaks at July 28, 2007 12:56 AM -05:00 GMT
Iguaçu (Iguassu) Falls Here we are at the falls....
by Hazen Kazaks at July 28, 2007 12:53 AM -05:00 GMT
Water, Water, Everywhere Here is another closer, view. With this volume of water, it’s no wonder how the nearby Itaipu (Itaipú) Dam can claim to be the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. We also got a lot of spray being...
by Hazen Kazaks at July 28, 2007 12:46 AM -05:00 GMT
Paraguay! With Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil forming a triple border near Foz do Iguaçu, we took advantage of their proximity and visited all three nations. While in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, I took the obligatory shot of some Paraguayan flags...
by Hazen Kazaks at July 28, 2007 12:43 AM -05:00 GMT
The ethics of translation in Iraq I have just found a fascinating BBC piece on the use of translators in Iraq by US-led forces. Given the unfortunately limited language skills of many UK troops in Iraq, the translators used clearly play a significant role. They can...
by jon_mendel at July 28, 2007 12:09 AM +00:00 GMT
Local Geopolitics While in the southwest corner of the state of Paraná, my translator André and I entered into Argentina (we also visited Paraguay-see other entry.) As you can see, the Argentine-U.K. dispute over the Falklands-Las Malvinas still nurses unsettled feelings....
by Hazen Kazaks at July 27, 2007 11:40 PM -05:00 GMT
Finding out the needs: the research study (part 1) The study we are in the process of conducting seeks to determine the needs of HIV-infected adolescents at the IDI, and what specialized care they may require. There is a dearth of literature and knowledge on transitional care of adolescent/young adult patients in general. In the initial literature review I...
by Vijay Narayan at July 23, 2007 02:43 AM +02:00 GMT
My tongue, the spoiled hedonist I guess I should be writing on how my thesis research is going, how I have been having outstanding meetings with Brazilian sugarcane experts, and how even with serious linguistic barriers, I have managed to have productive, informative, and...
by Hazen Kazaks at July 21, 2007 10:05 PM -05:00 GMT
The occupation in Iraq and international law Earlier this week, there was a very interesting BBC radio programme on the occupation in Iraq: listen again here. The programme discusses how the occupation was viewed in international law, and how this relates to issues of sovereignty. There's also...
by jon_mendel at July 21, 2007 03:47 PM +00:00 GMT
Election correction: Turkey and the EU On Sunday, Turks will go to the polls to elect a new parliament. This earlier-than-expected election will be the latest chapter in the decades-long debate over secularism and democracy that has defined modern Turkey, as well as the culmination of...
by Daniel Widome at July 19, 2007 09:22 PM -08:00 GMT
The Why After all we are talking about love, passion, happiness, beauty and popularity, not something practical or definable.
by Leona Rosenblum at July 19, 2007 02:01 PM -05:00 GMT
Bearings and Famous 'Abolitionists' An entire month into my internship, I've found my bearings at IJM, started my own assignments, and gained a sense of how much I can share without jeopardizing the efforts of the organization's field offices around the world. So welcome...
by Carrie Lutjens at July 18, 2007 03:37 PM -05:00 GMT
Conceptualizing the model for the "Adolescent Transition Clinic and Peer Support Program" I left off in the last entry giving the background of my project to create a specialized support and clinical care model for HIV-infected adolescents. The idea for this project—way back when— came from the observations and testimonies of a number of people involved in the care of IDI adolescent...
by Vijay Narayan at July 16, 2007 02:19 PM +02:00 GMT
About fractals and mountain-climbing It’s now the beginning of my fourth week at Akshara. It seemed impossible at first, but I feel I’m starting to find a place for myself here. Reviewing literature on libraries worldwide gave me a chance to do what I...
by gowriv at July 16, 2007 12:07 PM +05:30 GMT
A Day in the Life... Reading over my last entries, I realized that I haven’t given a very good picture of what I actually do on a daily basis. Every day is different here, but I’ll try to give a sense of my work life....
by Jill Luxenberg at July 16, 2007 04:25 AM -05:00 GMT
Field Work I briefly mentioned in an earlier entry that I am in Brazil to research the social and environmental dimensions of sugarcane production in Brazil (particularly for ethanol). Well, as my absence from the blog scene for about a week and...
by Hazen Kazaks at July 15, 2007 11:39 PM -05:00 GMT
Tropical Scene While north of the Tropic of Capricorn and south of the Tropic of Cancer, I took this picture along the banks of the Paranapanema River, which divides the states of Paraná and São Pauo. I was also far enough...
by Hazen Kazaks at July 15, 2007 11:18 PM -05:00 GMT
Mmm...Sugarcane...Yum! Here I am in one of the sugarcane fields, doing research, and...chewing on a piece of sugarcane and enjoying it. If you never have tried it, the consistency and after-taste of the stuff hints at watermelon, besides being watery...
by Hazen Kazaks at July 15, 2007 10:57 PM -05:00 GMT
Northern Paraná landscape Here's what the landscape of the sugarcane growing area of Paraná, a southern state of Brazil, looks like. My guide and I were on our way to getting lost when this picture was taken. Haha....
by Hazen Kazaks at July 15, 2007 10:54 PM -05:00 GMT
Peril in Pakistan The challenge of preventing cooptation of Islamic institutions by external interests for political conflict, while preserving their independence and social service is reaching a critical juncture in Pakistan and across the Muslim world.
by Saleem Ali at July 15, 2007 05:23 PM -05:00 GMT
Update on the project! I’ve now been in Kampala, Uganda for over a month, and it’s more than about a time I provide some updates on my work here! To start it has been wonderful to back in Uganda. I was here for four weeks over winter break, working with a rural development NGO...
by Vijay Narayan at July 10, 2007 04:34 PM +02:00 GMT
Sleek High Rise
by Hazen Kazaks at July 9, 2007 08:53 PM -05:00 GMT
My Place of Work
by Hazen Kazaks at July 9, 2007 08:38 PM -05:00 GMT
sin bandas, drogas, y Colombianos I guess political freedoms and rights don’t always seem like the most important things. And dictatorship has always been attractive for the vast scale and efficiency of what can be accomplished when no one has a chance to disagree, (under Mussolini, the trains ran on time).
by Leona Rosenblum at July 8, 2007 07:50 PM -05:00 GMT
Look Both Ways I’m never quite sure what wakes me up. Sometimes it’s the traffic, other times it’s the welder across the street. There are even times where going to bed at 10 pm has paid off, and I wake up naturally....
by Guy Bloembergen at July 8, 2007 09:57 AM -05:00 GMT
Cool Buildings Well, here are the photos of the cool looking buildings. Don't they resemble what you might find inside an iphone or other high-tech gadget? Anyway, these high rises are near where I work (the blue and black one with the...
by Hazen Kazaks at July 5, 2007 09:53 PM -05:00 GMT
Kiziba The Kiziba camp is nestled onto one of the hilltops just under the highest mountain in the region, a 45-minute wash-board drive with some incredible views of the lake. When you round the corner to the road that continues to the camp, you can see the white tarpaulin cover from afar. The camp looks almost organic, like a fungal growth on a log. Even when you draw close it is hard to imagine that it is home to 18,000 people. You can see the schoolhouses first, long and rectangular, and the sprinkling of students dressed in strikingly sharp blue-colored uniforms wandering in and out for their morning break. Some of the students had wandered a little far on their recess; on the road to the camp we passed several youth dancing a little jig of freedom, the dance of “youth-cutting-class”. We pulled the car over to scold them in several languages for their lack of attendance.
by Caitlin Lee Cohen at July 5, 2007 10:37 AM -05:00 GMT
Resettlement and Refugee Camps along the Thai/Burma Border A small child is standing before me, with a haphazardly shaven head and two quarter-sized gold hoop earrings. His wobbly legs indicate that he has only recently learned how to walk. The child’s sweater has the look of a tenth...
by Bremen Donovan at July 4, 2007 08:32 AM -05:00 GMT
O livro está na mesa In Brazil, if someone does not know English very well, their fall back phrase is "the book is on the table." Because não falo o português muito bem, I use a parallel phrase. If I can't quickly respond to something...
by Hazen Kazaks at July 4, 2007 12:01 AM -05:00 GMT
Elections Background As promised, this entry will deal with the hottest topic in Turkish politics right now, the July 22nd parliamentary elections. These elections were originally supposed to be held in the fall, but because the Grand National Assembly (GNA) failed to...
by Jill Luxenberg at July 3, 2007 01:49 AM -05:00 GMT
Slip Sliding... Today, I played soccer with my Brazilian neighbors. The only *ahem* interesting aspect of the game was it was not on grass, but on sand, which apparently is routine down here, but I was not used to it. I guess...
by Hazen Kazaks at June 30, 2007 03:04 PM -05:00 GMT
Freedom of speech for academic bloggers - a good result I've previously blogged about Prof. David Colquhoun at UCL being forced to remove his blog from UCL's servers. However, UCL has relented: the blog will be restored, when Prof. Colquhoun has time to move it back. Clearly, this is something...
by jon_mendel at June 30, 2007 12:37 PM +00:00 GMT
Potholes Maybe this desire to travel back in time is why seeing Blockbusters, Dominos, McDonald’s, and Office Depots everywhere you go is so frustrating for the tourist.
by Leona Rosenblum at June 29, 2007 08:42 PM -05:00 GMT
Immigration compromise Of all the praise and criticism he has received over the past seven years, one thing can be said with certainty about President Bush. He has painted his presidency in big, bold strokes, displaying a remarkable degree of political stubbornness...
by Daniel Widome at June 29, 2007 07:05 AM -08:00 GMT
From the macro to the micro In a few hours I’ll have spent a week at the Akshara Foundation, or almost a week, excluding this weekend’s somewhat undeserved vacation. Looking back on it, the week went by quickly. When I left Harvard, I had the impression...
by gowriv at June 27, 2007 12:05 PM +05:30 GMT
Introductions and Arrival This is my first official blog, so bear with me while I try to figure things out. I’m a rising senior and I’m concentrating in modern European and Middle Eastern history. I’m keeping a Watsonblog because I was given the...
by Jill Luxenberg at June 26, 2007 01:54 AM -05:00 GMT
Gesundheit! Brazil has a similar overarching history to the United States. Both countries have had their own experience with European colonialism beginning in the early modern era, and the subsequent exploitation of continent-sized swaths of land, where the ocean-crossers found plenty...
by Hazen Kazaks at June 24, 2007 10:44 PM -05:00 GMT
Mwenge English class and Microfinance Market Research So the big news around here is that the Tanzanian National Football team (the Taifa Stars) beat Burkina Faso (1-0) in Ougadougou this weekend. If they beat Mozambique in September, they will proceed to the African Cup of Nations in...
by Julia Hazen at June 23, 2007 11:41 AM -05:00 GMT
pizza and pizza As part of being abroad in a foreign land, in my case Brazil, I have attempted to experience many interesting sights and sounds. However, there is something to be said about revisiting one place over time to get a good...
by Hazen Kazaks at June 21, 2007 03:23 PM -05:00 GMT
first entry Well, I arrived here in Brazil two weeks ago and only now getting around to blogging. (There have been some hiccups getting online, plus I only recently ridded myself of an unwanted Brazilian virus.) fast 1.45 AM impressions? Brazil is...
by Hazen Kazaks at June 20, 2007 12:38 AM -05:00 GMT
Ntarama altar- sight of the massacre of 5000 The Ntarama church, sight of the massacre of an estimated 5000 people. It has been left essentially as found: there are bibles, clothing, and bones between the pews. Photo courtesy of Kresa King Cutcher (camera_rwanda@yahoo.com), with permission....
by Caitlin Lee Cohen at June 19, 2007 05:21 AM -05:00 GMT
Mail me the carbon...
The road by my house is undergoing construction. This morning, when digging the sewer, three men uncovered several bones from a human’s remains. There was little ceremony. They dusted them off with a rag, purchased a plastic hallmark-style gift bag covered in hearts, and placed the bones inside delicately, though they had been driven on top of for years. I didn’t see what they did with the bag, but I imagined them leaving the cheesy valentines present on the doorstep of some neighbor. I imagined little kids ringing the doorbell and running away, and the horror on the face of the recipient. Is there any good way to receive half a dead body? Can the kitchy hearts, an expensive gesture in such a poor country, cushion the blow?
by Caitlin Lee Cohen at June 19, 2007 04:53 AM -05:00 GMT
They really do sell Panama hats here, just so you know... After a week of being lost in a new country, of the solitude of living alone for the first time, of trying to translate for people from dozens of countries in a language I’m not sure of myself, of immersion in the corporate culture of the UN, of struggling to make sense of a thousand acronyms, we ended with a few brief moments of actual human interaction with a bunch of little boys who would really like to play soccer. It all suddenly makes slightly more sense.
by Leona Rosenblum at June 18, 2007 06:47 PM -05:00 GMT
The seed of wisdom The seed of wisdom did I sow, And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow, And this was all the harvest that I reap'd, I came like water, and like wind I go -- Omar Khayyam Source :...
by Syamak Moattari at June 15, 2007 10:07 PM -05:00 GMT
"Square Root or Death" in Poland Poland and Germany are locked in a vicious squabble over proposed vote allotment in the new EU constitution. Poland's rallying cry? Under the system advocated by Merkel, EU countries would have votes according to the overall size of their populations,...
by Barron YoungSmith at June 15, 2007 05:22 PM +02:00 GMT
A sign in Seoul's city plaza on June 5, 2007 -- South Korea has the highest per capita emissions in all of Asia
by Saleem Ali at June 12, 2007 09:35 AM -05:00 GMT
RIP Richard Rorty Sad to hear, but the philosopher Richard Rorty died on June 8th. I remember struggling to get to grips with his writing for years - his work on human rights (especially a lecture delivered as a fundraiser for Amnesty) was...
by jon_mendel at June 11, 2007 12:58 PM +00:00 GMT
Karibu Dar es Salaam Hello blog readers, This summer I am working for a microfinance organization called FINCA Tanzania. FINCA Tanzania is affiliated with the American organization FINCA International, based in Washington DC. FINCA Tanzania has been operating since 1998 and has over 37,000...
by Julia Hazen at June 11, 2007 06:42 AM -05:00 GMT
Freedom of speech for academic bloggers - UCL forces Prof Colquhoun to remove his blog David Colquhoun's a chemistry professor at UCL, and also runs an Improbable Science blog - criticising dodgy 'scientific' claims. Sadly, Colquhoun has been forced to remove his blog from UCL's servers: Colquhoun reports that an item about claims made for...
by jon_mendel at June 10, 2007 04:38 PM +00:00 GMT
Kacyiru: Can a sewer be beautiful? I have moved from the downtown neighborhood to a place called Kacyiru, a mixed-class neighborhood tucked on the side of the hill under many of the government ministries. The road is soon to be paved, and thus the roads have been torn up and rained on. The mud forms thick cakes on the bottom of my flipflops, making them snap heavily against my heels and spray me with dirt. Rwanda’s compulsory community service program is funding the materials for a sewer system, and everyone comes out on the weekend to make solid and surprisingly beautiful stone-walled sewers. The sassiest women take part, wearing green caps and pants, straddling the edge of the sewer with their masonry tools. They shout “Muzungu! Witwande?” (Hey Whitey, what is your name?), and are surprised when I respond “Nitwan Caitlin” (I am called Caitlin).
by Caitlin Lee Cohen at June 10, 2007 05:03 AM -05:00 GMT
Albania to Bush: Please Occupy Us! All of Albania is gussied up for President Bush's arrival this week. Highlights from the festivities: Albanians' support for the war in Iraq is nearly unanimous and any perceived failings of U.S. foreign policy are studiously ignored. A two-day effort...
by Barron YoungSmith at June 9, 2007 12:28 AM +02:00 GMT
Mr. Ahmadinejad, please turn your volume down What is your definition of National Interests? Each time you address something in your verbose talks, we start mourning in this country. Every time you start showing a hostile picture of our nation, I have to show hundreds of slides...
by Syamak Moattari at June 8, 2007 03:40 PM -05:00 GMT
The Moroccan-American Dialogue Comes to a Close...For Now And just a soon as it had begun, it was over. The two-day Rabat, Morocco, conference was a great success, drawing inquisitive, engaged young people from the US and Morocco to discuss two big issues: democracy and security. While...
by Laurel Rapp at June 6, 2007 01:37 PM -05:00 GMT
Settling In It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve arrived in Cambodia. My time has flown here – on the one hand I feel like I touched down in Phnom Penh yesterday, but on the other hand I feel like I’ve...
by Guy Bloembergen at June 6, 2007 04:45 AM -05:00 GMT
The Moroccan Democracy Conference Begins The first day of the Rabat, Morocco, conference has just come to a close! We’re all exhausted, but very pleased with the way it turned out! Al Jazeera (Qatar-based pan-Arab TV station) was there broadcasting introductions and two of...
by Laurel Rapp at June 2, 2007 08:15 PM -05:00 GMT
Dispatches from North Africa My name is Laurel Rapp and I’m a recent Brown grad (’06) and Watson Associate currently on a Rotary fellowship in Rabat, Morocco, for the year. I’m conducting research on female veiling practices, but I’m also planning a conference series...
by Laurel Rapp at June 1, 2007 12:47 PM -05:00 GMT
Watson as a international community After spending four monthes of happy time at Watson Institute, I am excited to come back Beijing to join my family and old friends to resume my normal life. However, I become to miss Watson Institute and the WISE guys...
by Shenghe Liu at May 30, 2007 08:14 PM -05:00 GMT
View from WE-ACT office, R. Noelle Bates
by Caitlin Lee Cohen at May 30, 2007 01:34 PM -05:00 GMT
Delphine, Perfectionism, and Recovery. The president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, runs a tight ship. The streets are named and numbered, there are public trashcans, the public parks have manicured lawns, there are no street markets, and moto taxi drivers are required not only to wear helmets but to bring them for their passengers as well. When I arrived in Kigali my plastic bags were confiscated at the airport, because they have been make illegal to cut down on trash. Kagame has been accused of micromanagement, and yet this country was in need of considerable structure, even if structure is manifest in neurotic details.
by Caitlin Lee Cohen at May 30, 2007 11:56 AM -05:00 GMT
Development Studies honors thesis Shortly, I will post something here outlining my idea for this blog. Until then, I've decided to use this as a portal to make my thesis available. It is entitled: "Dynamics of Transnational Advocacy: The Case of the Free Trade...
by Nick Renzler at May 29, 2007 05:23 PM -05:00 GMT
Critical Education The use of educational institutions for political ends is a well-established tradition across cultures and societies. Exemplified recently by anti-war activism at universities in the West as well as the rise of Marxist movements in schools in South America or the Ayatollah ascendancy at Tehran University, institutions of learning are often places of revolution. Ideas invigorate young minds to action but Alexander Pope’s prescient observation of “a little learning being a dangerous thing” is just as true today. While the independence of educational institutions must be maintained, some level of quality assurance and critical reasoning is also essential to ensure that captive audiences of students are not manipulated.
by Saleem Ali at May 28, 2007 01:37 PM -05:00 GMT
Climate change With each new scientific study and extreme weather event, the consensus that climate change is a real and man-made challenge grows stronger. Although a few politicians continue to be skeptical of the severity of the problem, their numbers are dwindling,...
by Daniel Widome at May 25, 2007 09:09 PM -08:00 GMT
Ian Fleming and the Litvinenko Affair Yesterday, Britain charged this man (see picture) with using a radioactive isotope to poison KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. A closer look at the accused's neckware reveals that he is sporting the dreaded Full Winsor knot. The knot was first immortalized...
by Barron YoungSmith at May 24, 2007 12:10 AM +02:00 GMT
Overthrowing Maliki is a Bad Idea The administration is contemplating a leadership change in Iraq, hoping that dumping al-Maliki will appease a restful Congress. I'm going to venture, based solely on the experiences of propping up the Shah in Iran and knocking off successive lame (and...
by Barron YoungSmith at May 21, 2007 04:34 PM +02:00 GMT
Cyberattacks on Estonia - a move to netwar? Some interesting arguments around cyberattacks on Estonia: The computer attacks, apparently originating in Russia, first hit the Web site of Estonia's prime minister on April 27, the day the country was mired in protest and violence. The president's site went...
by jon_mendel at May 21, 2007 02:14 PM +00:00 GMT
Arrival Sometimes you can't help but laugh. As a child, I had a sort of surrogate grandmother who used to cycle to our house to see us all the time. When it rained, she wore this ridiculous clear vinyl raincoat that,...
by Guy Bloembergen at May 20, 2007 03:50 AM -05:00 GMT
Blair, Brown and ongoing foreign policy failures If you haven't been living under a stone lately, you probably know that Tony Blair has announced that he will soon be going as UK Prime Minister; Gordon Brown is as near as possible to a sure thing for the...
by jon_mendel at May 14, 2007 01:26 PM +00:00 GMT
Degrees of Fortune American academia was shocked by the resignation of MIT’s dean of admissions Marilee Jones on April 26 for pretending to have degrees which she did not actually receive. As an alumnus of MIT, I feel obliged to consider this incident further since it raises fundamental questions about contemporary meritocracy.
by Saleem Ali at May 11, 2007 08:34 PM -05:00 GMT
Grief, anxiety, and the politics of remembering the 7/7 attacks With new information emerging about the 7/7 London bombings, there have been new calls for an independent inquiry. I'm particularly interested in what Blair had to say about this in the UK Parliament: "We have to be clear about the...
by jon_mendel at May 5, 2007 10:19 PM +00:00 GMT
New website launched as Social Network for HIV/AIDS Community Launched on March 1st, HIVConnect.net is a unique site that connects all sectors of the HIV/AIDS community. This new social network is a place of free dialogue for people with HIV/AIDS, Community Based Organizations, AIDS Service Organizations, and the family...
by Syamak Moattari at April 30, 2007 10:30 PM -05:00 GMT
Demography of Terror Former secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld, in a recently released confidential memorandum, posed the central question about the American war on terror: “Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassahs and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?” Starting with Rumsfeld’s question, journalist, Mark Danner has commendably approached this issue in detail and his answer is a resolute “no”.
by Saleem Ali at April 28, 2007 11:56 AM -05:00 GMT
Iraq pushback In the past few months, the Congressional debate over the Iraq war has come into much greater focus. In January, Democrats in the House and Senate—freshly installed as the majority party in each chamber—generated a raft of proposals to rein...
by Daniel Widome at April 26, 2007 11:44 AM -08:00 GMT
US Corporations and Chinese Labor Standards During my second year in China, while working for Yale Law School's China Law Center, I was intensively researching labor issues in China. The National People's Congress is currently in the process of revamping the legal structure of the labor...
by Aaron Halegua at April 18, 2007 08:55 AM -05:00 GMT
Hilary Benn "In the UK, we do not use the phrase 'war on terror'" UK International Development Secretary Hilary Benn has recently been in the news - arguing that In the UK, we do not use the phrase 'war on terror' because we can't win by military means alone, and because this isn't us...
by jon_mendel at April 17, 2007 01:17 AM +00:00 GMT
Downing Street petition about Navy prisoners selling stories The Prime Minister's Downing Street website now allows member of the public to post online petitions. One petition - about the recent decision to allow those Navy personnel held prisoners by Iran - has recently been getting media attention. The...
by jon_mendel at April 13, 2007 05:18 PM +00:00 GMT
Mapping the killing in Darfur with Google Earth The US Holocaust Museum has now released Google Earth layers, mapping out the crisis in Darfur. This looks like an interesting political use of the sparial and visual aspects of mapping - and apparently something that the Holocaust Museum plans...
by jon_mendel at April 10, 2007 05:44 PM +00:00 GMT
Max Clifford on propaganda and Iran With controversy building about the decision to allow the British Navy Personnel captured by Iran to sell their stories, the BBC has an interesting interview with the PR specialist Max Clifford - listen again here (about 10mins in). Clifford argues...
by jon_mendel at April 9, 2007 08:09 PM +00:00 GMT
A Success Story, Population Policy in Iran As health professionals interested in International health a lot can be learned from the Iran population policy story. The process of implementing the policy shows the importance of census data in developing countries, and also the value of a powerful...
by Syamak Moattari at April 8, 2007 09:41 AM -05:00 GMT
The joys of serious organised crime Just been trying to get on with my PhD work at the same time as laughing (harder than you'd think - my Dragon software doesn't know what to make of laughter). I've been listening to a Mark Thomas show -...
by jon_mendel at April 5, 2007 01:49 PM +00:00 GMT
Drugs, again - discussion of legalising Afghan opium production Interesting story in last Independent on Sunday: The 'IoS' can reveal Tony Blair is considering calls to legalise poppy production in the Taliban's backyard. The plan could cut medical shortages of opiates worldwide, curb smuggling - and hit the insurgents...
by jon_mendel at April 2, 2007 07:08 PM +00:00 GMT
Drug-taking troops provoke UK army crisis Lorna Martin in Sunday's Observer reports that: Fifteen British soldiers a week are being thrown out of the army for taking drugs, including heroin, ecstasy, cannabis and cocaine...Almost 800 troops were discharged last year after failing random drug tests. But,...
by jon_mendel at March 26, 2007 05:00 PM +00:00 GMT
Baghdad - Mapping the Violence Last week, I was talking with some of the people studying the 'war on terror' at Durham. One response to reports of sectarian violence in Iraq was to note how maps of the country would soon be coloured in with...
by jon_mendel at March 23, 2007 01:45 AM +00:00 GMT
Balance of power When Democrats won control of Congress last year, many speculated about how the Bush administration would respond. Without a supportive Republican-controlled Congress, would the administration become more conciliatory in its expansive interpretation of executive prerogative? Or would it become even...
by Daniel Widome at March 23, 2007 01:00 AM -08:00 GMT
Bush bans talk of Polar Bears and Global Warming Loose lips sink ships. Bush Administration Restricting Scientific Discussion on Polar Bears and Global Warming Gag Order Issued to Government Officials WASHINGTON (March 8, 2007) – The Bush Administration has issued an order that would halt free and open discussion...
by Barron YoungSmith at March 20, 2007 01:15 AM +02:00 GMT
How serious is Iran nuclear program Maybe you are overwhelmed with the news about our nuclear program, I don’t know much about this issue, and I have absolutely no idea about the standards of the nuclear scientists. Recently president Ahamdinejad gave a talk and he mentioned...
by Syamak Moattari at March 18, 2007 06:22 PM -05:00 GMT
Gen. Pace - homosexual acts are immoral Anyway, as far as international politics goes, the latest thing to catch my attention has been Gen. Pace's claim that "homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts". On the one hand, this...
by jon_mendel at March 16, 2007 01:50 PM +00:00 GMT
Pricing Nature and Harmonizing Economics Economists have successfully branded themselves as scientists with mathematical exactitude that allows them to artfully negotiate the vagaries of human consumption patterns through pricing mechanisms. Yet the life support systems that sustain the planet have eluded their grasp and have often been relegated to the residual category of externalities.
by Saleem Ali at March 14, 2007 11:21 PM -05:00 GMT
Is really Iran President is an Israeli secret agent? I am not a politician, and I do not know a lot about politics, but I found a note in an Isreali website by Guy Bechor, who writes periodically at Ynetnews, the leading source for Israel news, on his article...
by Syamak Moattari at March 13, 2007 10:33 AM -05:00 GMT
The Power of Hollywood for making Good and Bad Nations Despite the fact that 300 is not a historical film, and it is just a fiction, but Iranian community takes position against it, because of the fact that this film tries to show our ancestor like uncivilized, gory, bloody and...
by Syamak Moattari at March 12, 2007 12:23 PM -05:00 GMT
RIP Baudrillard Working late and listening to the radio, I've just heard that Jean Baudrillard has died, aged 77. At a time when Baudrillard's analyses of how "Virtuality retranscribes everything in its space [and] human ends vanish into thin air in virtuality"...
by jon_mendel at March 7, 2007 12:50 AM +00:00 GMT
No War With Iran Forget the NEWS and Propaganda against Iran, people in Iran like the other Nations are full of love and life. please check this out...
by Syamak Moattari at March 5, 2007 02:51 PM -05:00 GMT
Segolene Royal A Bit Authoritarian "Royal, during a recent trip to China, seemed to compliment her hosts by saying, 'Sometimes the justice is swifter than in France.' The period between arrest and execution in China can sometimes be only weeks, and Royal was criticized by...
by Barron YoungSmith at February 28, 2007 11:45 PM +02:00 GMT
Budget brawl Earlier this month, President Bush sent his proposed budget for FY 2008 to Congress. At this point, the “proposed” aspect of the $2.9 trillion, 2500 page document should be emphasized. By the time Congress gets done with it, the federal...
by Daniel Widome at February 25, 2007 11:20 AM -08:00 GMT
Ministry of Defence psychic research - remote viewing has "little value" There's echoes of Ronson's The Men Who Stare at Goats in recently revealed UK MoD research into the use of psychic phenomena. In these experiments: The previously secret tests - conducted in 2002 - involved blind-folding volunteers and asking them...
by jon_mendel at February 23, 2007 04:55 PM +00:00 GMT
UK Iraq troop withdrawal - now is not the time to 'move on' It was announced today that the UK is withdrawing about 16,00 troops from Iraq, and hopes to withdraw more over time. Surprisingly, I find myself with mixed feelings about this. The partial withdrawal may be a sign that, having dug...
by jon_mendel at February 21, 2007 11:54 PM +00:00 GMT
Demographic Transition, Population Policy and Fertility Change in Iran Since the adoption of a new population policy in 1988, Iran’s population growth rate dropped dramatically from 3.2 percent in 1986 to1.2 percent in 2001 and 1.1 percent in 2006.This reduction in an Islamic developing country in the Middle...
by Syamak Moattari at February 18, 2007 06:30 PM -05:00 GMT
Today is the constitutional referendum in Egypt. N... Today is the constitutional referendum in Egypt. Not a whole lot is being reported yet, though I am reading that very few Egyptians have decided to go to the polls.Abu Aardvark: Al-Jazeera is reporting "very low" turnout in the referendum...
by Watsonblogs at February 18, 2007 02:05 PM -05:00 GMT
bird flu update - problems with hygiene at Bernard Matthews The DEFRA report on the birdflu outbreak at Bernard Matthews points out that the firm had been warned several times before about hygiene lapses. There were several possible avenues for bird flu to move from imported turkey meat to its...
by jon_mendel at February 17, 2007 12:26 AM +00:00 GMT
Ex-BNP man with large arms stockpile - update I wrote a few months back about a large cache of arms found by UK police, with a man with links to the BNP. This has now gone to trial in Manchester, and is getting a bit of media coverage....
by jon_mendel at February 16, 2007 12:17 AM +00:00 GMT
Global Warming and Population Robert Hardaway and Judy Swearingen
As the global warming debate degenerates into a proxy fight between competing political ideologies which have little to do with global warming itself, it becomes clear that both sides to the debate have lost sight of the underlying issues.
Those who claim that global warming caused by human activity will be the cause of an imminent environmental catastrophe are essentially beating a dead horse—namely that the planet is being environmentally degraded by modern civilization and the inevitable consequences of the industrial revolution. True enough, although the experts continue to debate both the percentage of global warming due to human activity and the significance of recent warming when measured on a scale of billions of years and countless cycles of global cooling and warming. Not to be forgotten is that some of the same “experts” who are now predicting catastrophic global warming, twenty five years ago were predicting a catastrophic ice age.
by Saleem Ali at February 15, 2007 05:47 PM -05:00 GMT
When the BBC hits the blogosphere (or should that be the other way round?) The BBC's Profile programme recently ran a show about the political blogger 'Guido Fawkes'. The show was broadly positive, but the BBC's Nick Robinson was critical about the style and accuracy of the blog. This appears to have caused something...
by jon_mendel at February 15, 2007 12:29 AM +00:00 GMT
Google Earth in Iraq again - survival by satellite? According to a BBC story, the Iraqi League has included Google Earth in its advice to Iraqis on how to survive the ongoing sectarian violence in Iraq. Iraqis are advised to "draw up maps of their local area using Google...
by jon_mendel at February 13, 2007 09:48 PM +00:00 GMT
Arming the Iraqi insurgency - who's responsible? The Bush administration is currently emphasising that weapons are coming from Iran to Iraqi insurgents, and arguing that this is happening directly with Iranian government approval. In itself, this is pretty feasible, although it may be hard to establish any...
by jon_mendel at February 12, 2007 11:55 PM +00:00 GMT
Segolene Royal, fascist. Say it ain't so! Nicolas Sarkozy has oft been tarred as a law-and-order "rightist"; well, he's starting to sound like a moderate version of Royal. "In a two-hour speech to about 10,000 supporters north of Paris, she pledged to raise pensions, increase the minimum...
by Barron YoungSmith at February 12, 2007 01:08 AM +02:00 GMT
Obama and Islam Obama’s connections with Islam could be a means of improving America’s strained relations with the Muslim world through empathy and erudition. Sadly the American political landscape is still not ready to break the glass ceiling for a truly multicultural candidate.
by Saleem Ali at February 10, 2007 06:40 PM -05:00 GMT
On Faust... President Faust My non-analysis at Slate....
by Barron YoungSmith at February 10, 2007 01:55 PM +02:00 GMT
bird flu and globalisation I'm sitting here shivering with a big box of tissues, so issues around (bird) flu are looming larger in my mind at the moment. Bird flu (the H5N1 strain) has been found in turkeys in Suffolk in the UK, and...
by jon_mendel at February 9, 2007 05:14 PM +00:00 GMT
Independent Jewish Voices on Israel Interesting move towards more critical British Jewish stances on Israel. It looks like the debate on this will run - both on how open UK Jewish communities are to critical positions on Israel, and on what type of stances towards...
by jon_mendel at February 8, 2007 10:36 PM +00:00 GMT
Fukuyama "could not understand why everyone was applauding" An interesting interview with Francis Fukuyam was published weekend. He's talking about his turn against neoconservatism (the subject of his After the Neocons book). It starts by describing a dinner attended by rightwing thinkers at the Hilton hotel in Washington....
by jon_mendel at February 6, 2007 03:46 PM +00:00 GMT
Obama's challenge As events of recent weeks have only reiterated, Barack Obama is the early superstar of the 2008 presidential race. The charismatic Illinois senator draws massive and enthusiastic crowds wherever he speaks, and the media seems to hang on his every...
by Daniel Widome at February 6, 2007 09:50 AM -08:00 GMT
International Mother Language Day International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by UNESCO in November 1999, and observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. Today, about half of the 6,000 or so languages spoken in the world are...
by Syamak Moattari at February 5, 2007 12:12 AM -05:00 GMT
"Operation Persian Freedom is drawing ever closer"?
by jon_mendel at February 4, 2007 06:23 PM +00:00 GMT
Tony Blair's law Just been listening to this fascinating radio programme - with a panel of legal experts discussing the changes that Tony Blair has made to UK law (and the international impacts of this). Well worth a listen, both for a good...
by jon_mendel at January 30, 2007 04:28 PM +00:00 GMT
Missing the point Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) is a smart guy, and it was totally in character for him to hold these hearings today on the extent of Congress' war powers. It appears he's planning to follow-up on them: Tomorrow, I will introduce...
by Daniel Widome at January 30, 2007 02:40 PM -08:00 GMT
Tony Blair, Iraq and responsibility I've just watched Tony Blair give a fairly extensive interview to The Politics Show. Ugh - 'toe-curling' is the first word that springs to mind. There's no sense of regret, no sense that things could have been done better or...
by jon_mendel at January 28, 2007 12:31 PM +00:00 GMT
Irish State TV decides not to show Loose Change Just a quick update after this post. Apparently, after receiving a lot of complaints, the RTE TV station decided (correctly, to my mind) that Loose Change isn't suitable for broadcast. Yay :D From what I can tell, lots of the...
by jon_mendel at January 26, 2007 01:28 PM +00:00 GMT
Surge protection On January 10, President Bush announced plans to send a “surge” of 21,500 additional troops to Iraq. By most accounts, this was a bold move on his part. In November, the Democrats won control of Congress due largely to the...
by Daniel Widome at January 25, 2007 10:30 PM -08:00 GMT
Exploding pigs force far-right party out of Second Life The virtual world of Second Life became a better place last week: Jean Marie Le Pen's far-right Front National tried to establish an HQ there, but were forced to leave. When the Front National arrived, they drew protestors and (virtual)...
by jon_mendel at January 25, 2007 05:41 PM +00:00 GMT
Loose Change 9/11 Conspiracy movie to air on Irish RTE TV Oddly, it seems that the Irish public TV station RTE TV has decided to show the Loose Change documentary next month. Loose Change is a movie which argues and implies that the 'official' story that Al Qaeda were behind the...
by jon_mendel at January 24, 2007 05:37 PM +00:00 GMT
Tribal Targets For much of the Pakistan’s history the federally administered tribal areas (FATA) have been off limits to the central government both in terms of governance systems as well as social services. Governing the tribal belt was a tabooed topic that no one dared to advance in Islamabad’s halls of power. There was a stale sense of sanctity ascribed to this terrain that most were too afraid to tread upon. With scant investment in educational infrastructure and social development the tribal areas became a twilight zone for those who wished to cling to a bygone warrior era.
by Saleem Ali at January 22, 2007 09:45 PM -05:00 GMT
Police "colluded" with Loyalist murders in Northern Ireland While the bloodshed in Iraq continues, UK news has provided a reminder of a more 'old fashioned' type of terrorism. Nuala O'Loan - Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland - has reported that: Special Branch officers gave [Ulster Volunteer Force] killers...
by jon_mendel at January 22, 2007 07:11 PM +00:00 GMT
The Independent: How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches Writing in the Independent, Andrew Murray-Watson and Tim Webb report that: Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected...
by jon_mendel at January 20, 2007 09:43 PM +00:00 GMT
Google Earth used to target British bases in Basra It was reported last week (I've only just been forwarded the story) that "Terrorists attacking British bases in Basra are using aerial footage displayed by the Google Earth internet tool to pinpoint their attacks" This is a surprising (and creative)...
by jon_mendel at January 19, 2007 05:00 PM +00:00 GMT
Bush in a hole in Iraq, digging As I'm sure you've heard, the US is increasing troop numbers in Iraq; the hope is improve 'security' for Iraqis (in Baghdad in particular), to take military action against anti-occupation insurgent groups, and to take military action against Iranian and...
by jon_mendel at January 12, 2007 05:01 PM +00:00 GMT
Civil disobedience Fifty years ago, an African-American woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white man. Her act of civil disobedience and subsequent arrest and trial triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott,...
by Syamak Moattari at January 11, 2007 04:31 PM -05:00 GMT
Respect to Communities Thanks God to give me the chance to visit almost every single point of my country .I had this chance to see all of Iran’s borders with our neighbors including all of provinces. And also as a development activist and...
by Syamak Moattari at January 10, 2007 05:19 PM -05:00 GMT
Africa Command After years of general speculation and months of more specific rumors, I see that the Pentagon will officially create an Africa Command. This will replace the current arrangement, whereby military responsibility for the continent is divvied up among Central Command...
by Daniel Widome at January 4, 2007 10:38 AM -08:00 GMT
Saddam Hussein and European Responsibility The former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, has been hanged in northern Baghdad for crimes against humanity. I believe Saddam was executed when American soldiers captured him in a whole near Tikrit in March 2003. We saw a mountain man...
by Syamak Moattari at December 30, 2006 11:20 AM -05:00 GMT
Salvaging Islam in Sudan The perpetuation of the Darfur crisis has thus led to some soul-searching on the part of ideologues such as Turabi who now conclude that a culture of violence in many Muslim states is to blame for such conflicts. Inequality of resource distribution and competing land use policies, sparked by a cultural acceptance of weapons to resolve disputes are the key ingredients of Sudan’s predicament. If there is a silver lining to this tragic tale, it would be that extreme elements such as Turabi have been forced out of their martyring determinism. The dogmatic chapters, which such clerics still hold from their defunct political ideology, are maintained merely to calm the remnants of religious militias that have not yet been demobilised. Whether the peace agreement in Darfur holds or not, the West should pay close attention to the way this conflict is transforming the vanguards of Islam in Sudan.
by Saleem Ali at December 24, 2006 04:33 PM -05:00 GMT
At the Annual Earth Dialogues event in Brisbane, Australia with Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and colleagues...
by Saleem Ali at December 23, 2006 10:13 PM -05:00 GMT
Curing the Resource Curse We need an integrated natural resource management strategy that considers energy and material sources for our modern lifestyles across the supply chain. While society must be better prepared for depletion of non-renewable resources such as oil, we should not be constrained from harnessing resources to benefit communities that have limited alternatives.
by Saleem Ali at December 22, 2006 02:10 PM -05:00 GMT