Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: wsj

Beijing Claims Wide Support in Dispute with Manila

Beijing Claims Wide Support in Dispute with Manila

A court in the Hague is due to issue this month a ruling on a case against China brought by the Philippines over maritime territory in the South China Sea.

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Morsi Ouster: Is There a Backstory?

Morsi Ouster: Is There a Backstory?

  There usually is. The Egyptian military, mirroring, it says, the will of the Egyptian people, has thrown Morsi’s band of Islamists out of office and set in motion the kind of parliamentary and electoral process that millions of neighboring Syrians want to see materialize in their own country. Instead, the Syrian people remain trapped […]

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CDC, U.S. Health System Bungles WNV: Biosecurity Belongs to the Military

CDC, U.S. Health System Bungles WNV: Biosecurity Belongs to the Military

Bite me. You might as well go outside and shout it loud, because there isn’t enough DEET in your medicine chest to fend off the bloodlust of Culex pipiens, Anopheles, Aedes vexans, and dozens of other species of infected mosquitoes blanketing the United States. And West Nile virus season has just begun—consider August 2012 a preview.

Don’t get me wrong. Health organizations, federal, state and local, have spent buckets of money on nice-looking, easy-to-understand websites that calmly advise citizens to douse ourselves with bug spray, wear light, long-sleeved clothing (think Out of Africa), eliminate standing pools of water, and, of course, just stay inside the damn house until the Center for Disease Control (CDC) sounds the all-clear.

All good. But hardly sufficient.

West Nile virus—how it got here, how it travels, how it kills, and how health officials could, but often fail to mount the most effective responses—is a complicated story, a cautionary tale, some would say, about power, ego, bureaucracy, preparedness, ignorance, incompetence, and disparate champions whose voices routinely go unheard and whose counsel is too often ignored.

Right now, the highbeams are on Dallas, Texas, ‘Ground Zero’ for West Nile—and Mayor Mike Rawlings has indeed declared a state of emergency in the municipality. As the number of victims escalates, however, so does the anxiety of state and local officials, as well as the complaints of constituents, who’ve begun to question and criticize the city’s response to the health crisis….

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The Iranian Women in American Journalism Project (IWAJ): Lisa Daftari

The Iranian Women in American Journalism Project (IWAJ): Lisa Daftari

Lisa Daftari is an independent journalist and analyst from Los Angeles. Lisa has appeared on leading American news organizations including Fox News, Front Page Magazine, Newsmax Magazine, NPR, Daily News, Wall Street Journal, NBC, Voice of America, Russia Today, Wikistrat and PBS. As a rising figure on the American media scene, Lisa is firmly focused on bringing the […]

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Pakistan's Failure

The strangely bizarre and comical launch of Musharraf’s so called Muslim League (or whatever name he is using) forced me to examine Pakistan. And, believe me, this time; I really looked hard not only at today’s Pakistan but also at its short, but awfully tumultuous history. And, it is extremely distressing to realize that nothing, […]

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A Message from Insanity

According to the New York Times, Pakistan’s military is maneuvering to remove the current government. This, according to the paper, is because of corruption and lack of proper response to the flood. What is missing from the report is that once this government is gone, angels and superheroes are going to takeover and they will […]

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Flood & Aid to Pakistan

It is true Pakistan has been dealing with awful scenarios one after another since 1947, but at some point, the masses must take charge and work toward changing their destiny. Crisis or no crisis, people in Pakistan by now should have perfected, and if not perfected, at least gotten a good grip on how to […]

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Paksitan has done it again!

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” Saint Augustine According to a report in Dawn, once again, Pakistanis have embarrassed themselves, and ironically enough, their struggling country the other day at Washington Dulles Airport by acting awfully. Bravo. It is unfortunate to note that there has […]

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