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 […]
Time has listed the top ten news items connected to religion in 2008. The first article was about the economy and how the recession turned out to be far more important for voters in the presidential election than the politics of religion. David Van Biema wrote about how many incidents in the campaign centered on […]
I've lauded the many virtues of the "Financial Times" and its sister publication, "The Economist," on any number of occasions here, and referenced scores of their articles. This series from the FT, for instance, is well worth your time. Here is some more: In "The Economist" this week is a series on the Sea. Here's […]
Happy New Year. We’ll resume a full posting schedule this coming week; in the meantime, here's the 2008 review for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (drafted before the recent Bagosora conviction by the tribunal's spokesperson), and here is Balkan Insight on the War Crimes Chamber of the State Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina. In […]