Jul 21
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the Horn of Africa is currently experiencing one of the most severe droughts in history. For countries like Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, the drought is forcing families to flee to overcrowded refugee camps and leaving hundreds of thousands of children homeless and malnourished. Unfortunately, conditions in …
Jul 19
So long as South Sudan relies on massive exterior aid, it cannot achieve true, lasting independence Today’s post is going to be a little bit different than usual. I’ve spent a good portion of this past week preparing for my webinar, and every slide I create gets me more excited about hosting it. So I …
Jul 15
If you have been paying attention to the news for the past few weeks, you know that there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the United States’ debt ceiling. Theoretically, we have a debt ceiling to control federal spending. This ceiling puts a cap on the amount of bonds the Treasury can issue. If …
Jul 13
2)Biofuels: a Trojan horse? In a previous post I discussed one of the reasons why some crops (such as corn and soybean) have gained so much importance in our agriculture. Our food system and our food quality are set up in a way that inevitably increases the demand of these two crops, and economical and …
Jul 12
The food market is a difficult one. Production depends on weather and soil, prices are very volatile (they fluctuate a lot) and products are easily perishable. In spite of these difficulties, a few crops have managed to dominate the agricultural market. They have become the “king crops“ (in reference to the great documentary King Corn), …
Jul 07
Al-Shabaab’s decision to allow non-Muslim aid organizations to once again work in Somalia is great news – but will the good news last? Every morning when I wake up, I fire up my laptop and check out the BBC’s news homepage. More often than not, the headlines are full of discouraging events, sometimes leading me …
Jun 30
President Hu Jintao’s pledge to continue investing heavily into Sudan raises a few cautionary flags In my post on Sudan’s wildlife, I briefly mentioned how countries that rely on Sudan’s oil reserves will continue to be among the country’s strongest supporters. I cited China as a key example of this, seeing as how 2/3rds of …
Jun 24
Ending the vicious cycle of prostitution and sex trafficking is no easy task. For years, the focus has been on criminalizing the “suppliers” of sex, most of whom are women and children that have been lured into ‘the life,’ or ‘the game,’ by exploiters who control and manipulate them. With radical feminist and religious activists …
Jun 24
President Obama’s announcement on Wednesday night of his intention to withdraw around 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next summer is a much-needed precursor to the end of our military engagement there. The nation-building that needs to be done in Afghanistan is not something we are able to make happen with the sword: …
Jun 23
Pulling out from Afghanistan without leaving behind a native security force capable of handling the job would be a mistake Towards the end of my second deployment to Iraq, I was offered a rather unique opportunity. Through a hookup from a fellow Arabic linguist, my coworkers and I were allowed to join a police training …
