Following the questions of one Haitian-born, Canadian-raised woman, Adopted ID raises questions of identity, and the politics of international adoption. To a lively soundtrack, which carries the film when the visuals blur, the documentary follows the emotional journey of Judith Craig Morency on her first trip back to Haiti after 27 years raised in a […]
Bradley Strawser, an assistant professor of philosophy at the Naval Postgraduate School, recently (and somewhat predictably) took some flak after the Guardian published a piece in which he appeared to make a fairly unequivocal moral case in support of U.S. drone policy. “It’s all upside. There’s no downside. Both ethically and normatively, there’s a tremendous […]
The Arab Spring awoke people to the power of social media in a political context. Of course, you would have to be living under a rock to think it was the first time Twitter was ever used to coordinate mass protests — it was hugely prominent in Iran during the 2009 protests, Moldova, and the Greek riots in […]
Although recent media attention on North Korea has focused on its new first lady, the emergence of a significant humanitarian crisis has quickly replaced the sensational headlines. Compounding recent reports of malnutrition among North Korean children and the “…[estimation] that two-thirds of North Korea’s 24m population suffer from a chronic shortage of food…” , the […]
Child marriages spike among Syrian refugees The young teenage daughters of Syrian refugees in Jordan are increasingly being married to older Syrian men — against the laws of both countries — as a form of financial and other security against a backdrop of conflict and instability. “We’re concerned about early marriages — using that as […]
Kofi Annan, on August 2, resigned as joint special envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League for Syria, effective as of the end of the month. He had been assigned the difficult task — a “mission impossible,” as he himself put it — of negotiating a peaceful solution to the current crisis in […]
Given the criminal billions available to ambitious ‘private wealth handlers’ inside the world’s biggest banks, the historic willingness of financial institutions to ‘look the other way,’ and the paltry repercussions, fines and deferred prosecution, for AML (anti-money laundering) non-compliance—it’s clear that powerful incentives continue to drive (and reassure) high-wire account executives ISO under-the-table commissions from traffickers (1-2 percent), and big bonuses from appreciative employers…
For years, the US government, along with FATF (the talking head for the AML community), has told banks the key is to ‘know your customer.’
Wrong.
The message should be “Know your banker.”
Listen.
The easiest way for criminals to launder dirty dollars is simply to pay a banker to do it, someone who manages millions a year for a financial institution that will never look him in the eye and announce, no-punches-pulled, that money laundering is a criminal offense, the kind that can land you in jail.
Want to tackle child hunger in your area? This fall, “Run 10 Feed 10” campaign, launched by Women’s Health magazine and FEED Foundation, aims to raise funds through a series of 10K runs in selected cities and an online fundraising effort for those who cannot participate directly. According to the Run 10 Feed 10 campaign, […]
The U.S. is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war. As we approach the anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, it’s an appropriate time to take a look at the state of U.S. nuclear policy. American nuclear policy has changed dramatically under the Obama Administration. True or false? It’s true […]
A couple of days ago, over 600 million people (that’s not a typo, six hundred million – 600,000,000) lost electrical power when three electricity grids in India collapsed. The cause was simple, demand outstripped supply, and the mechanisms in place to manage the imbalance were just not up to the job. This is not just […]
Back in 2005, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) tabled a huge $18.5 billion offer for the American oil company Unocal. Despite the logic of strategically buying up Unocal for its Central Asian prospects, improving its Shale gas infrastructure and the tempting ‘all-cash’ nature of the buyout, the deal ultimately floundered on the banks […]
I would like to point readers interested in the geopolitics of oil to a very interesting interview the Oilprice.com’s geopolitical editor Daniel J. Graeber gave to Infowars.com yesterday evening. Among the topics discussed, I would especially like to draw your attention to the following: How do the tensions in the Middle East impact oil prices? How to […]
The reinvention of the U.S. industrial sector promises far-reaching global consequences Pushing back against the deluge of punditry about America’s strategic eclipse, my last post argued that the U.S. global position is being bolstered greatly by a revolution in domestic energy production that began to take shape in the past few years. Although it has not […]
The International AIDS Conference was held last week in Washington, D.C. This was the first time the conference was hosted by an American city in more than 20 years, a nod to President Obama’s 2009 lifting of the ban on people living with HIV from entering the United States. Although there is way too much […]
So often the news, and commentary on it, focuses on when things go wrong. Things going wrong usually involve drama and confrontation, which makes for interesting stories. I am have been guilty of contributing to this trend myself in commenting on when democracy goes wrong, i.e., election fraud and impeachments. But recently I was reminded […]