Nearly 500 miles of European land mass fell away, the English Channel hollowed out, the great earth shifted and the continent merged with the island to its west. When all came to rest, the medieval cityscape of Strasbourg, France, sat atop London… No, certainly not. But for many a Europe-weary Briton, it felt as such […]
Ironic as it may seem, it is a statement of controversy to assert that a genuine national reconciliation is needed in Somalia. To some, that has already happened; to others, there is no need for it since the country has emerged out of the transitional period and the current government is the officially recognized representative […]
The U.N. Environmental Programme (UNEP) recently highlighted some appalling figures pertaining to issues of food waste in a somewhat unexpected and innovative manner. The UNEP’s 2013 theme for World Environment Day on June 5, “Think.East.Save,” reports the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) data concluding 1.3 billion tons of food, or the equivalent of all […]
The internet went dark in Syria last week. Although media reports blamed the outage on a fault in optical fiber cables many in the tech community were skeptical. After all, it’s not the first time Syria shut down the internet in an attempt to prevent protestors from using social media to coordinate and share with […]
For much of the world’s employed, maintaining communication with those closest to them while completing their employment requirements is not a contemplated issue. Many workers can use their own personal or workplace phones, computers, and other devices to contact their friends and family if need be. Outside the workplace, most working people return home to […]
What does a country in the middle of collapse look like? This was the question filmmaker Lorie Conway attempted to answer in her new film on Zimbabwe, “Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law.” A recent showing by the United States Institute of Peace gave a venue for both the filmmaker and the film’s primary […]
An Interview with Gissou Nia, Executive Director of IHRDC To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the imprisonment of seven Baha’i Leaders in Iran, on Monday, May 6, the U.S. Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs is hosting an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. This event is part of the Baha’i International Community’s “Five […]
The single band of light slashed across the shelves catches the metallic detailing on the spines of the neatly lined books set upon them. The shine creates what looks to be the only source of real illumination in an otherwise darkened room, perhaps an intentional set up to reflect the gravity of the interview. Seated […]
In what is often being labeled the “Korean Crisis” or “Korean Missile Crisis” the latest outward displays of military prowess by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have prompted concerted international efforts on not only strategies of military containment, but of human rights inquiry. Comprehensive investigation into the domestic human rights record of the […]
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The vice grip of prolonged violence suffocating Syria is sending the humanitarian situation there careening towards the fading lights of a blackout. With a death toll looming somewhere between 70-90,000 and a refugee population of over a million in two years time, international intervention to this point has been largely limited to food aid and […]
The modern workplace and the requirements of jobs in the high-technology era have brought what was an outlying issue in the past to the forefront of the debate on employment arrangements. Some major technologically inclined corporations have come to different conclusions. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer banned telecommuting arrangements via a memo and Google CFO Patrick […]
After weeks of negotiation, and, predictably, right before his already-extended deadline was set to expire, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a majority coalition in the Knesset (Israeli legislature). The coalition, in addition to including the pre-election alliance between Likud, the main right-wing party, and Yisrael Beiteinu, the Russian immigrant-oriented party headed by […]
Tomorrow, March 15th, will mark the final day of the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW57). As mentioned in my previous post, the theme running throughout the session is the issue of violence against women (VAW). If you’re unsure as to why this is a necessary focus, please remember that […]
Give the people sports and they will forget all about politics. Such a maxim could be attributed to all manner of political figures from Commodus to Machiavelli. We can now add Kim Jong Un to that list after the North Korean leader welcomed former NBA weirdo Dennis Rodman to Pyongyang for a basketball game between […]