Nepal is a tiny Himalayan nation sandwiched between two mighty Asian rivals: India and China. New Delhi and Beijing are using Nepal’s territory to wage a proxy war against each other. This interference in Nepal’s internal affairs has contributed to a political crisis that has already claimed one prime minister and threatens to undermine the peace process begun four years ago.
No matter what comes to mind when you think of Latin America, “Resilience,” the photography exhibition at the Instituto Cervantes, will challenge long-held concepts, ideas and stereotypes of this vast and diverse region. “Resilience” brings different aesthetics, perspectives, approaches and subjects together to paint a picture of the complexity and nuance of Latin America today.
Is Wikileaker SPC. Bradley Manning the next Daniel Ellsberg?
There are moments that define a war. Just such a one occurred on June 21, when Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry helicoptered into Marjah for a photo op with the locals. It was to be a capstone event, the fruit of a four-month counterinsurgency offensive by Marines, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, and the newly minted Afghan National Army (ANA) to drive the Taliban out of the area and bring in good government.
With widespread allegations of fraud, voter intimidation, and the withdrawal of nearly all opposition candidates, the conclusion of Sudan’s elections is unsurprising. Receiving 68 percent of the national vote, indicted war criminal Omar al-Bashir has maintained his grip on the presidency. Post-election Sudan appears very similar to pre-election Sudan.
Whenever the social forum speaks of itself as the future of the U.S. Left, vexing issues arise: Can any coherent political program emerge from an amorphous, multi-issue assembly? Can we formulate a vision of the Left without more serious participation from key progressive constituencies such as organized labor? Can the collection of radicals and community-based organizations that are present here become a political force with mainstream reach, or are they too self-marginalizing? The answers are not easy to come by, and non-starry-eyed attendees can easily grow wary in contemplating such imposing matters.
The infamous torture photos from Abu Ghraib were first released to the public in 2003. The horrific images of prisoners hog-tied and beaten naked, leashed like dogs with bags over their heads, and posed in forced sexual positions — all with grinning U.S soldiers in the background — rode with us on the morning commute, made their way onto our computers at lunchtime, and sat with us during the six o’clock news. The pictures were a challenge as well as a revelation. As editors Melissa Kwasny and M.L Smoker write in their introduction of I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights: “We suddenly seem[ed] to be asked to decide to what extent we will stand up and speak out for human rights.”
Israel seems to think that when Palestinians are outbid by violence, they’ll fold their hand and meekly comply.
In its 2011 budget, the White House asked for over $80 million in military programs for Africa, while freezing or reducing aid packages aimed at civilians.
By bringing together local women of different ethnicities in Kyrgyzstan to collaborate on rebuilding their communities, women are addressing the root causes of the violence in their region: years of unaddressed mistrust and separation among ethnic groups, as well as crumbling social infrastructure and welfare systems.