For the past couple of days I have been receiving a series of disturbing photos from a part of the world that I had once reported on. The struggle for human rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara is on that has endured for over thirty years. In the hot desolate deserts in […]
This week, a series of maps caused the blog-o-sphere to erupt in lively debate over the origins and future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The maps in question… …were posted by Juan Cole last week, picked up by Andrew Sullivan the next day, and subsequently criticized by Jeffrey Goldberg. It turned into Cole and Sullivan vs. […]
My previous post notwithstanding, Mexico continues to be one of the largest sources of drugs headed to the United States. As in Guatemala, drugs and corruption go hand in hand. And, despite what U.S. law enforcement might like to attest, this is true on both sides of the Rio Grande. While it may be possible […]
You may recall the diplomatic storm that raged last week when Vice-President Biden visited Israel and was greeted by news of a new construction project in East Jerusalem. Biden and the Obama team reacted as if this was an unprecedented provocation by Israel and a dire threat to Mideast peace. As The New York Times […]
There was a huge outcry in the United States in 2008, when the Pentagon awarded a $40 billion contract for tanker refueling aircraft for the Air Force to a consortium including a European competitor – EADS, parent of Airbus. EADS won the bid in partnership with Northrop Grumman, the U.S. defense contractor, beating a rival […]
There’s a new Global Internet Freedom caucus in Congress. This is not necessarily a big deal – there are a lot of caucuses. Some are extremely active, and others, not so much. (Congressional Ski and Snowboard Caucus?) Considering their name, this one will likely be focused on issues raised by the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, […]
Allegations that “as much as half” of UN food aid for Somalia was diverted to militias, local power brokers and even UN staff based in Somalia, were detailed in a recent UN Security Council report. The New York Times, which initially presented details of the report last week, has reported today that some of the […]
Last week the Commission on the Status of Women finished up a two-week review of how successful the world has been in implementing 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and where we need to improve as a global society in advancing women’s rights as called for in the Declaration. Known as Beijing +15 and […]
The unstoppable force and immovable object may have begun their tango: it looks like China and Google are heading for a collision. Reports from the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal (sorry, lame-o subscription) say that talks between the Chinese government and the search giant are at an impasse. The Chinese, meanwhile, have insisted […]
Early this month the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma convened in New York City. At the Tribunal the testimonies of twelve women outlined atrocities committed by Burmese officials against women during the longest ongoing conflict in the world. Representatives of the witnesses recounted brutal gang rapes, torture and murder committed by Burmese […]
The Irish Oireachtas (Parliament) has been languishing over a Constitutional Referendum on Children over the last 2 years. Over the last decade a number of milestones have been achieved to safe guard the rights of children in Ireland including the publication of the Towards Redress and Recovery – The Ryan Report , by the Commission […]
Bombshell from Iran, on a couple of metaphorical levels: the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, everyone’s favorite bad guys these days, hacked a couple dozen web sites of human rights activists working in Iran, claiming they were agents for American intelligence services. In Farsi, “rights defender” apparently translates as “American spy”. Then the regime’s increasingly brazen goons arrested 30 […]
Moody’s issues shot across the bow to warn US about expanding Federal debt burden.
Though I tend to stick to climate related topics, new-to-me OECD foreign aid data (via William Easterly’s blog) seemed particularly relevant to draw attention to here. Below is a graph showing all U.S. aid, by recipient, from 2004-2008. It’s like an ugly joke, rendered useless by illegible font and an unapparent color scheme. But with […]
Late getting the blog out this week; traveled most of last week and over the weekend and am just now getting over jet lag. As I rouse from my travel induced stupor, I find I have Iran on the brain. The latest issue of Foreign Affairs magazine has an excellent article called “After Iran Gets […]