Why Afghanistan is called the graveyard of empires is made crystal clear in this short documentary. Journalist Paul Johnson made this film last year by traveling to Kandahar, one of Afghanistan’s deadliest regions that breeds young Taliban converts. He shows the aftermath of roadside bombs in part by turning the camera on civilians. The lack […]
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has released their “Rural Poverty Report” for 2011. Some of the major points of the report are as follows: The population of the developing world is still more rural than urban: some 3.1 billion people, or 55% of the total population, live in rural areas. At least 70% […]
To day we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as all who followed and continue to follow in his footsteps. King’s fight for human rights is a legacy left for all children regardless of race, religion, or color. The fight he led for civil rights in the United […]
What a difference a few days make. Since writing my post on the demonstrations in Tunisia on Wednesday, President Ben Ali went from claiming that only terrorists and fanatics were protesting to announcing that he would not run for re-election when his current term expires in 2014. He also assured the population that […]
As a phenomenon like the continuing production and growing stocks of greenhouse gases by our industrial societies intensifies, it creates a warming effect that thaws the cryosphere – that part of the planet that is frozen. So, more melting gives more dark surfaces which leads to the earth absorbing more solar radiation which makes it […]
Read recent posts from the Foreign Policy Blog network that also relate to food security issues. Yuppies to the Rescue from the Development Aid blog As Goes the Price of Corn from the Mexico blog Enjoy!
I hope all my readers enjoyed the holidays and are enjoying the new year. Much has happened in my absence. For one, I came across two discussions/debates that are related in a way that people rarely acknowledge. The first one, from Lawfare, is about the legality of long-term detention of enemy combatants. Benjamin Wittes, in […]
We’re in that lull after the holiday season where gyms are crowded, but the days still feel short and cold (up north at least). Most everyone probably had an experience where two relatives were arguing about the best way to stuff a turkey, or who should have to sit next to Aunt Marge at the […]
FPB blogger Sarah Repucci wrote recently about the frustration over which drove “…a single jobless youth set himself ablaze as a statement…” to protest against corruption and “the regime’s self-enrichment.” Soon after, protests against the government of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali picked up in intensity until the president ended his 23-year reign and fled […]
This week, the president of Tunisia, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, fled the country amid massive demonstrations against his administration’s authoritarianism and corruption. It was a success for those who believe that corruption should not be tolerated and corrupt officials should be driven from power. While the protests began after a single jobless youth set himself […]
Stephen Rapp, the U.S. Ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, declared this week in Bangladesh that “(p)re-charging detention is not automatically a violation of international standards.” This statement could be taken innocuously – as arguably true; or it could be taken as an implicit nod of approval by the U.S. for the illegal detention and torture […]
The battle against smoking in Indonesia continues to rage on. The extreme nature of the problem was first brought to international attention when in May of last year a video of a two-year-old from the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, astonished global viewers as it went viral. The video of the toddler chain-smoking has been […]
President Obama visited Tucson last night to attend a memorial service for those killed and injured in Saturday’s shooting rampage. I hope you will forgive the departure from our usual “U.S. Role in the World” focus as I note this decidedly domestic event. As a resident and native of Tucson it’s a subject that I […]
Incessant flooding in Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland is battering the area and could take a toll on global food prices. According to the Associated Press: “Queensland…has been devastated by weeks of pounding rains and overflowing rivers. Eighteen people have died since late November and about 200,000 have been affected by the floods…Queensland officials have […]
Invoking a rarely used feature of the Clean Water Act that allows EPA to bar actions that would cause “unacceptable adverse effects” to the environment, water quality, or water supplies, the agency halted a major mountaintop removal mining project. The EPA release quotes EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Peter S. Silva: “The proposed Spruce No. […]