Last month, audiences flocked to see the film Gravity, a thriller set in the final frontier of outer space. [Note: Possible spoilers ahead.] Now, a short companion film made by Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón’s son, Jonás Cuarón, who also helped co-write the movie, is online. The film reveals who Sandra Bullock’s character, Dr. Ryan Stone, […]
For all the talk of China and the Arctic, there’s one dark horse that definitely made itself known at the Arctic Circle: Singapore. With a speech that hit all the right notes, Sam Tan Chin Siong, Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Member of Parliament, described the contributions Singapore can […]
Under the guidance of President Ólafur Grímsson, Iceland has strived to position itself as a new geopolitical center for the Arctic. While only a tiny portion of the country, the island of Grimsey, sits above the Arctic Circle, that hasn’t stopped it from claiming Arctic coastal statehood. With lots of shipping activity, plans to build […]
Asia in, EU not yet China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India and Italy have all been admitted as permanent observer states to the Arctic Council, while the EU will have to wait. Though technically admitted, it still must work out its differences with Canada. Countries are admitted as permanent observer states by consensus between the […]
In a subtle swipe at the Arctic Council, Icelandic President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson criticized, “The Arctic has suffered from a lack of global awareness and, as a result, a lack of effective governance.” Ostensibly believing that the Arctic Council is inadequate, Grímsson launched the possibly rival Arctic Circle in Washington, D.C earlier this month. ” The formation of this […]
Australia and the Arctic aren’t often mentioned in the same sentence. One tends to hear more about Australia and Antarctica, since the country has an Antarctic Division and carries out scientific research at the icy continent not so far away from Tasmania. But I think that a comparison of Australia and the Arctic, particularly the […]
In Russia, indigenous peoples have encountered a major setback. The Ministry of Justice has ordered the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East (RAIPON) closed until next April because their charter and operations ostensibly conflict with federal law. RAIPON, one of the six indigenous organizations that is a Permanent Participant of the […]
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt delivered a lecture to over 300 people at Carleton University last month entitled “Arctic Challenges and the Future Perspectives of Arctic Co-operation. He starts off by discussing how, “more than anything,” Canada and Sweden are linked by geography as they both extend into the Arctic. The two countries also share […]
Today marks the last day of a protest by the Awá, one of Brazil’s last remaining hunter gatherer tribes. The main message of the tribe is simple: we exist. The protest is largely in response to the comments made by the mayor’s office of nearby Ze Doca denying the existence of the tribe, which for […]
As I highlighted in my last post, violent crime is peaking in Brazil’s interior. A disturbing corollary to this trend is the high rate of targeted violence against indigenous communities. New data compiled by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) for a report on attacks on indigenous peoples underscores the severity of the problem. As well […]