“I have come to realize more and more that the greatest disease and the greatest suffering is to be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, to be shunned by everybody, to be just nobody (to no one).” -Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) To think of any child being unwanted or unloved is heartbreaking, but a sad reality […]
Remember that study linking Barack Obama and actor Brad Pitt as distant cousins? By the same token, Pitt's partner Angelina Jolie was related to Hillary Clinton. I clearly remember that overly fawning interview with the ladies from The View when this critical campaign issue was addressed. The fact was used as supporting evidence to promote Obama's star-like charisma and […]
The AP is reporting that internal documents show former detainee Yaser Hamdi, released in 2004, was undergoing psychological problems as a result of his confinement in Charleston, South Carolina's consolidated naval brig where U.S. citizens designated “enemy combatants” are detained. Hamdi was eventually released and deported to Saudi Arabia on the condition he give up […]
In the past few weeks some 40,000 residents of Mogadishu have fled a violence that has continued unabated since the removal of Somali leader Siad Barre in 1991. The origins of this conflict like so many on the continent are remnants of a civil society torn apart by colonialism and then again by US/Soviet proxy […]
Our colleagues at The Grotian Movement have obtained the only English language translation of the decision on the Anfal campaign, an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Kurdish population in the north of the country. The repercussions of the Anfal campaign are apparent in the disputed provincial elections law. Iraq lawmakers passed a long-awaited provincial elections […]
Last week, on October 3, 2008, President Bush signed the Child Soldiers Accountability Act into law. The Act “makes it a federal crime to recruit knowingly or to use soldiers under the age of 15 and permits the United States to prosecute any individual on US soil for the offense, even if the children were […]
Serb general Momcilo Perisic's trial began in front of ICTY late last week. Perisic served as Yugoslav army commander during the conflict. The indictment against Perisic filed by the office of the Prosecutor charges Perisic with command responsibility for failing to punish war crimes committed by subordinates, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws […]
In another blow to the Bush administration's authority over so-called enemy combatants, a federal judge ordered the release of 17 Chinese Muslims of the Uighur sect released from U.S. custody at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said Tuesday there was no evidence to suggest the Uighurs were “enemy combatants” […]
“Every 2.2 seconds, a child loses a parent due to war, natural disaster, poverty, disease and other causes. Today, there are 133 million children who have lost one or both of their parents, and 15 million are orphaned due to AIDS.” This week is World Orphan Week (October 5-11, 2008), and in support of the […]
Tina Fey as Sarah Palin gets "mavericky" on the wars, global warming, Israel and Cuban food. Not as funny as the Palin/Clinton and the Couric/Palin skits but still pretty funny. My hat is off to Queen Latifah for her fabulous performance as NewsHour's Gwen Ifill.
The Bush Administration's fundamental view that a “shock and awe” invasion of Afghanistan would somehow compel the Taliban into compliance has failed. Instead the soft power of grass root initiatives are slowly taking shape. It is hard to believe that any progress for gender equality could be made in Afghanistan. An article in today's International […]
YEMEN: Protecting women, children from violence A Netherlands-funded project is aiming to provide better protection for women and children exposed to violence and sexual abuse. In June 2008 Interior Ministry statistics revealed 2,694 cases of violence against women in 2007, with cases ranging from killing to harassment; 130 women died as a result, 88 of […]
Marie Stopes International, a major London-based family planning organization, will no longer receive condoms supplied by USAID to African governments. The move comes in an apparent retaliation by the United States for the charity's work in China with the United Nations, which is accused by the Bush administration of condoning forced abortions. As The Guardian […]
The Irish Times notes that the Secretary-General's office has announced it will retain Rwandan General Emmanuel Karake Karenzi to serve as second-in-command of its Darfur peacekeeping force. Rwanda had threatened to withdraw from the force if Karenzi was removed. Karenzi served as a high-ranking officer in the Rwandan Patriotic Front during the civil war. The […]
“Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.” – Grace Abbott (American Social Worker & Child Labor Reformer Director, Children's Bureau, U.S. Department […]