The David Citadel Hotel stands in Jerusalem's Old City. Inside, a large room is reserved for a trilateral meeting between secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. A breakthrough, promised by Rice to end the six-year Palestinian Israeli deadlock is overshadowed by Israeli bulldozers ploughing away at the al-Aqsa […]
I enviously read about all of the fantastic jewelry Condoleezza Rice received from Arab governments in the past year. The gifts are worth at least $316 million‚ and that's with the U.S. foreign policy being wildly unpopular. According to the Associated Press: In January, Jordan's King Abdullah II gave Rice an emerald and diamond necklace, […]
Palestinian human rights officials suggested the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank may file formal war crimes charges against Israel in international court for activity in the Hamas-held Gaza Strip. Israeli forces launched their twelfth day of assaults on the tiny enclave on the border with Egypt. Hamas, the militant leadership of the Gaza Strip, […]
Coal Ash – I wrote last week about the horrific spill of coal ash sludge in Tennessee. (See Jan. 1 below.) Hundreds of Coal Ash Dumps Lack Regulation is the story today from the “NY Times.” There are more than 1,300 of them, “most of them unregulated and unmonitored.” What do they contain? “heavy metals […]
The issue of child marriage is in no way a new issue, it is one that has plagued children, especially young girls across geographical divides, while child marriage is more prevalent in some cultures, the true cause for the high levels of child marriage is more often economic than socially based. At the root of […]
I’ve written before about concerns surrounding Bosnian political stability. Within the international community, the chorus of worried voices is getting louder. Thomas Barnett argues the risk of further dissolution is endemic to the creation of a new nation. Stop Genocide blog, however, notes this piece by Morton Abramowicz and Daniel Serwer, arguing that Bosnia and […]
It's hardly news now – but the biggest Darfur story over the holidays was definitely this piece by the always-excellent Nicholas Kristof. Kristof lays out a set of serious actions the United States emissary to Sudan has been proposing to President Bush, and argues President-elect Obama should consider them immediately. Among the proposed actions: * […]
I read a disturbing article in Le Monde about a former Le Monde journalist who is facing serious charges by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The UN body is mandated to prosecute individuals for egregious crimes against humanity. And on August 8, 2008, the Hague Tribunal decided to prosecute journalist […]
U.N. Tackles Rising Threat of Urban Hunger in AfricaTypically tapped to distribute food and deal with crises in rural areas, the UN World Food Programme has been forced to adjust to Africa's large, dense urban centers, where high food prices have introduced the scourge of hunger. The WFP is considering new tactics in order to […]
This film is gentle, touching and warmly humorous. It centers around a young man and his family living in East Germany. The man's mother, a true believer in socialism, falls into a coma soon before the Berlin Wall falls and the country runs at breakneck speed toward unification. Her coma lasts six months. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/i7EB47ENNV0″ […]
With the dawning of a new year, we've moved passed our parties and our family functions and are now sitting and thinking what will I do this year to make a change in my life and make a difference for others. As you sit-down and thin of your New Year's resolutions, remember life is not […]
I’ve enjoyed the philanthropy chatter of the past two weeks, the year-end reviews and the predictions for 2009. While nodding along with the jargon we’d like to see banished, contemplating pitfalls of new philanthropists, and musing on how Madoff worked out his whole scheme – I found myself focusing intently on two topics, scale and support. […]
The violence in Gaza and the current Israeli ground offensive have absolutely no direct connection to the politics of religion. Depending on your point of view, the key is either Israel's legitimate war on terror or the fundamental human rights of Palestinians. However, if you have been following the news reports of protests and statements […]