The much discussed and fretted over rainy season has arrived in Haiti. No, you didn’t miss it—there hasn’t been an official hurricane yet, and all fingers are crossed that it does not arrive. But storms too small to be named, but big enough to tear down trees and tents and scatter rubble and garbage have […]
The use of child soldiers continues to be a plague on our global society, as thousands of children continue to be recruited into armed conflict by both government forces and armed rebel groups in spite global efforts to combat the continued use of children. UNICEF estimates there are some 300,000 child soldiers globally, while Human Rights, with […]
The conflicted nature of the U.S. relationship with Pakistan was on full display this past week as the U.S. released official figures on U.S. aid for flood relief while Pakistan closed an important transportation corridor to NATO supply convoys. The aid announcement by the State Department underscores both American generosity to a wartime ally as […]
The New York Times published an article titled “Raisins Give Hope to Afghan Farmers,” describing how “…an unusual alliance among Afghan farmers; Mercy Corps, an international aid organization based in Portland, Oregon; and Fullwell Mill, a British food producer…” is bringing Afghan raisins to British store shelves and providing a secure agricultural product for Afghan […]
This Friday, I went with some colleagues to the STAR-TIDES demonstration at Ft. McNair in Washington, DC. The exposition allowed professionals in the development field to interact, see, and discuss the policies, practices, technologies, and organizations that affect Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief, Stabilization and Reconstruction, Building Partnership Capacity, and Defense Support to Civil Authorities. My colleagues […]
It is that time of year when the ghouls and goblins begin to descend upon us to scare us with their howls and haunts. Stories of ghost and demons find there way into your homes and dreams. However what is even scarier, is the fact that the Cocoa industry often traffics children to work as […]
Let’s say a guy is asked publicly whether he condemns a certain terrible thing. But the guy doesn’t want to publicly condemn this thing. So to evade the question, he instead condemns the entire category of things into which this specific thing belongs. Is there a name for this? This is what Ahmadinejad did on […]
In my last post below, I once again lauded President Obama and his administration for taking action on clean tech. Hear the message on clean tech jobs and the economy from the President himself.
If we wait for the US Senate to create even adequate, let alone progressive, thoughtful legislation mandating a price on carbon, it will be too late. I have written about the manifestly undemocratic public policy graveyard that is the US Senate and its denizens a number of times. If you care about the parlous state […]
Remember when everyone in power claimed that prosecuting terrorists in federal court would inevitably lead to a breakdown in national security? That by providing accused terrorists with constitutional rights like habeas corpus we would be advancing our own undoing? While there are still those that agree with that position, it is also important to note […]
Advocates are worried for Afghan women’s rights There have been some significant gains in the fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan since the 2001 fall of the Taliban government, and advocates now fear women’s rights will be sacrificed as part of negotiations between the government of Hamid Karzai and the Taliban. While Afghanistan’s constitution guarantees […]
Big party on Sunday! Check out the action where you are and get your work shoes on. (They should definitely double as dancing shoes.) We’ll be at Honkfest in Cambridge, being free, green, laughing, dancing and generally spreading the word. For last year’s festivities, see this:
There was an interesting development yesterday in the case of Ahmed Ghailani, who the U.S. has brought to court for his participation in the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the court would not accept testimony from the U.S.’s key witness because the U.S. learned about this witness through coerced […]
New York-based dj Nikodemus of Turntables on the Hudson, along with a host of other key players in the global dance music scene, have teamed up with NextAid for what has been dubbed the Earthchild Project. Proceeds from the 6-songs, available as an $8.99 download here, go to Lovelife’s Go-getters program, which is working to […]
I talk to cab drivers in D.C. It’s part of the reason I take cabs instead of the Metro sometimes, I like hearing where they’re from, what brought them to the U.S. and what they think about current affairs in their home countries (especially the Africans). And, since living in Ethiopia, there’s the added inducement of […]