Feb 21

Drug Lords Can’t Advertise

Sometimes people don’t bother to learn about global issues…because they’re global.  Many think that some issues are so big that they are best left to the government and to agencies like the United Nations.  The Mexican Drug War is one of these issues that has become so involved among different countries that people feel better just looking away.  I definitely do think it’s a problem that has become unmanageable at the government level.  However, I think that we should break down the issue to parts where we can analyse them.  Let’s think about the Internet and how it can be related to the powerful drug lords in Mexico. 

 

In effect the drug war is much like a business, run on supply and demand (with the exception that it’s not legal of course).  So it’s an underground business that is advertised through connections and word of mouth.  Until now, the U.S. and Mexican governments have been combating narcotics with force–treating it as a national security issue.  Which it is.  However, because of the complexity of this so-called business, I think that there needs to be more unconventional ideas that can help combat drug trafficking. 

 

So…to the Internet.  As you all can see, the Internet is a very powerful tool.  Legitimate businesses advertise on the Internet all the time.  Of course, the drug cartels of Tijuana and Sinaloa really can’t advertise.  So my main point is that we should advertise more on the prevention of drug use (the demand side of the business).  There’s a lot of talk about how the U.S. is just as responsible about this drug war because the demand comes from here.  Hillary Clinton directly addressed the Mexican drug war and compared it to Colombian Cartels years before.  It’s clear that the U.S. is involved in this business as a buyer.  But why are we bombarded with advertisements about the Real Housewives (of who knows where) when we should be advertising against drugs?  If there is any advertisement against drugs that we do see, it’s limited to marijuana and cigarettes.  I think that the dog talking to the kid high on marijuana is just not enough.  Drugs are a harsh reality in our society and to some degree our internet ads discouraging substance abuse should reflect so.  Let’s make this complicated U.S.-Mexican drug war comprehensible to people who are unaware of this.  It could be that a socially-responsible person who has fallen under the influence of a drug sees this add.  Could it change the mind of everyone? Maybe not. But awareness is key in making these ads more effective.  Ads on the internet are handled at the federal level through the Office of National Drug Control Policy in partnership with non-profits like Drugfree.org and the Ad Council.  Unfortunately every state and even every county has a different problem with drugs and with different types of drugs.  To tackle this huge problem, I think that some of the campaigns have to be delegated to the local level through high schools and local districts.

 

If people really are concerned about this growing problem that is equally rooted in the U.S. as in Mexico, we need to re-think how we’re approaching this matter.  Everyday more and more people go into rehabilitation for Continue reading

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Feb 21

Community Support and Race to the Top

Last week I was watching Jon Stewart where he interviewed Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, when they discussed the education system in America and the new Obama plan of Race to the Top. You can watch the interview here, but essentially it is Stewart criticizing this new system, which has been a lackluster attempt to overcome the Bush era’s No Child Left Behind policy.

A week back, one of our writers Areeba discussed Race to the Top (R2T) in a post about states that are opting to not participate in the new initiative. Essentially R2T is a system of awarding points to high performing schools in an attempt to spur competition among states for rewarded funding. In changing education policies, promoting the elevation of nationwide standards, and increasing the number of charter schools; R2P has had to face growing criticism from politicians and educators alike.  One point that I appreciate Stewart brining up in the interview was how this new initiative, which was implemented in 2009, is similar to No Chile Left Behind because it continues to teach to benchmarks and performance tests. This was where the majority of the criticisms for the previous policy stemmed from: the emphasis on teaching to pass a test instead of teaching with a more holistic approach to education.

One of the most informative parts of the interview, however, was when Duncan called for schools to act more as community centers and to provide “wraparound services”. This means that schools should be more available to the community, and allow the public to access libraries, computers, and classrooms when the classes are not in session. This asks that at night and on weekends offer the space to be used as health clinics, adult education facilities, and recreational areas.

Being in the development field, this seems counterintuitive. Organizations today who work towards building schools in developing nations would not dream of building a school with such limited functionality. Today, most organizations work towards fostering the neighborhoods with the schools they construct, taking into account community needs and other purposes the schools can serve. It is amazing to think that all the while this practice has not also been being used within our own communities here in the US.

While opening schools to the community and R2T do not seem to coincide with one another directly, I argue that they are more interrelated than one would imagine. The connecting piece to this puzzle is the movement towards the two-generation strategy. This strategy essentially recognizes the fact that we need to educate parents as well as kids in the hope of future success. There is a correlation between low performing schools and districts where parental involvement and education are also low. By opening the school doors to parents and community members for afterschool technical training and education opportunities, I believe that we will also see an increase in academic success among students.

One organization that is promoting the concept of a two-generation strategy is Ascend. They are recognizing and bringing attention to the connection between educational achievement and economic security. In working to foster educational success together, parent and child, Ascend hopes to break down the hurdles of economic stagnation that arise from low levels of education. While not directly functioning with R2T, this policy will help to strengthen the support that children will receive at home with regards to their education.

No doubt education is a multifaceted issue, where many opinions come into clash and debates over best practices become vocal. I do not yet know if R2T is the best policy towards improving education standards or if it will be just another failed economic reform. However, I do believe what Duncan said in the Stuart interview is true: “I think we have become too complacent…. We have flat lined… We have to be willing to challenge the status quo”. The idea of opening the schools to the communities seems to be an obvious first step. Another is to attempt to offer opportunities for parents to increase their levels of education in step with their children. Perhaps these two factors towards education should take a higher priority in education reform as opposed to focusing on testing numbers and results. I believe that this is where the changes and improvements will become the most visible in our education system.

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Feb 21

Violencia Sin Origen

View this post in English

El alto nivel de violencia que los centroamericanos viven todos los días se puede atribuir a un millón de diferentes factores, entre ellos uno de los principales problemas es la deficiente infraestructura de sus gobiernos. Sin embargo, no es sólo la intervención del gobierno (o falta de) que ha facilitado un extraordinario nivel de violencia, sino también la definición obscura de lo que está en control del gobierno. A lo largo de los años de guerra civil en estos países, ha sido los paramilitares (entidades quasi-militares que son privatizadas) que han causado terror en las calles de estos países; quince años después, Guatemala sigue siendo afectada por ello.  Los paramilitares son creados del sector militar, pero no son responsables al gobierno y operan su fuerza de una forma no convencional, lo cual ha dado paso a la violencia que sería de otra manera inaceptable en el sector militar del gobierno.  De hecho, creo que una de las mayores fallas en la creación de estos paramilitares es el efecto directo que tiene sobre los ciudadanos del país. En cierto modo, la pérdida de confianza en el gobierno puede ser atribuida por esta definición borrosa de lo que es parte del gobierno y lo que no, y si el gobierno tiene el mejor interés de las personas al permitir la existencia de estos grupos paramilitares.

Un gran ejemplo de los efectos de estos paramilitares es Guatemala. Guatemala ha tenido una estructura de gobierno turbulenta en las últimas dos décadas.  En 1996, el gobierno de Guatemala firmó un tratado de paz con la Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG), después de 36 años de guerra civil. Fue entonces que el sistema de patrullas civiles, que era una entidad paramilitar, se disolvió. Hay años de historia y una convolución de sentimientos encontrados con respecto al sistema de Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil (PAC). En teoría, era una buena idea creada por el gobierno de Guatemala a fin de combatir la insurgencia creado por la URNG.  Sin embargo, en términos prácticos, el PAC creo un nivel de violencia en el estado que no fue visto como legítimo por el pueblo. De hecho, no era legítimo, ya que no estaba dentro de los límites del gobierno. Uno de los objetivos del gobierno en la creación del PAC, como su nombre ilustra, era involucrar a la comunidad guatemalteca en la lucha contra la insurgencia para que la insurgencia no se extendería más allá. Una de las principales cuestiones que atribuyen la violencia extrema a este paramilitar es si la participación de la gente, que fueron en su mayoría indígenas (principalmente mayas) campesinos, fue voluntaria o no.  Más que una respuesta simple, hay experiencias concretas que viven los guatemaltecos a través de esa violencia extrema directamente asociado a estos paramilitares. Cuando la mayoría de los ciudadanos de este país han sufrido violencia como resultado de esta identidad creada por el gobierno pero no dirigida por el gobierno, la legitimidad del gobierno y de los paramilitares se convierte inexistente. Como resultado de ello, lo que inicialmente era un método para estabilizar el gobierno de Guatemala se convirtió en la fuente de estragos de Guatemala, y más importante es que creó violencia debido a la falta de confianza en el gobierno.

¿Cuáles son las repercusiones?

La violencia es una presencia constante en Guatemala. La mayoría de las veces las noticias nos habla de las Continue reading

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Feb 20

The UN on Human Rights

The Human Rights Council, a part of the United Nations, is made up of 47 states that are all to be looked at as examples responsible for ensuring and strengthening universal human rights. The UN General Assembly created the council in 2006 in hopes of greatly improving and instilling the values that are listed in their Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Before 2006, another council, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, was in charge of these duties. This council, however, was repeatedly criticized for including member states that continuously violated the very human rights that they were being held accountable for protecting.

The new Human Rights Council (HRC) developed a Universal Periodic Review that is meant to help them in the process of assessing each UN member state on their human rights practices. The review is meant to enhance cooperation for the promotion and protection of human rights, it should reflect the principles of universality and equal treatment, and should fully integrate a gender perspective. While these all seem like positive guidelines, I can’t help but notice that some of the HRC member countries might not be the best ones to instill human rights values around the world. The UN apparently created a new council to push out its contradicting member states, but I cannot help but criticize a couple whom currently hold positions in the group.

Saudi Arabia and China are both on the UN Human Rights Council. In 2011, they were also both on Freedom House’s list of worst human rights offenders. Wait a second…if they’re the ones pushing for human rights around the world, shouldn’t they be setting a positive example with their own people?

The UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Within this document, global rights state Continue reading

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Feb 20

Let’s Get WWOOFing

Do you have any regrets?  I have one.  A few years ago a couple of friends were looking for a summer adventure.  When they stumbled upon an opportunity to live for free in Hawaii for two months, I was more than intrigued.  When they explained they would be conducting manual labor for six hours a day, I became a little less than totally enthralled.  But, regardless I would have loved to join and still look back with regret on my missed chance to share with them one of the best, and most enriching times of their lives.

Have you ever wanted to try new things, learn from experts in the field, and meet great new people in exciting locations?  World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is a unique program that allows you to do just that.  Matching willing workers with farmers in need, the WWOOF program has presented an innovative way to help two particular segments of the population.   WWOOF works by offering volunteers the opportunity to work on organic farms all across the globe.  In exchange for their work, WWOOF host farms offer the volunteers free room and board.  WWOOFers’ stays can range from days to weeks to months, but they are required to work four to six hours a day.  Similarly, their accommodations can range from a backyard tent to a bed and breakfast style suite.  It is the equal partnership and common exchange of services that has made WWOOF a successful and replicated program.

The WWOOF program was started in 1971 by a city resident in London.  The program was inspired by her (and many other city dwellers’) desire to escape the city and witness the countryside.  Sue Coppard first established WWOOF as a weekend farming trip, where people from the city had the opportunity to travel to the countryside and work in exchange for fresh air and knowledge about farming.  This mutual exchange gained popularity quickly.  The program from the start was able to recognize the needs of both the workers and the hosts, and operated under the mindset that constant improvement and feedback from participants would make the program better.  Because of this philosophy and equal partnership, the WWOOF concept can be, and was, replicated around the world.

Just under forty countries have a national WWOOF registering program and thirty others have independent WWOOF farms.  With this scope, WWOOFing is possible in a huge variety of places.  The basic structure makes this program sustainable and duplicable as it spreads across the globe.  Due to the rising number of participating countries, an international WWOOF convention was held in 2000 where delegates from 15 WWOOFing countries met to discuss a base guide for what it meant to be a WWOOF host and what it meant to be a WWOOFer.  Additionally, the convention expressed their commitment to helping developing countries increase their WWOOF farms and opportunities to willing workers.

Farming abroad has brought concerns about the nature of the work and has called into question the role of these Continue reading

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Feb 20

Working on College 2.0

Not long ago I wrote a blog post on the changes that President Obama wants to bring to universities.  Many of his changes revolved around student loans, and helping young people get the best out of their higher education experiences.  The president has been calling for education changes in rapid succession, and recently asked Congress to create a fund that would train students attending community colleges for jobs in fast growing industries.  In an era where the economy has been a major cause for contention, the president has been trying his best to provide solutions at an educational level.  The question, as always, is will the changes bring about the necessary solutions?

President Obama laid out his community college plans on Monday, February 13th.  He appealed Congress to make an $8 billion fund that will train community college students for jobs in industries that are currently in high demand.  In the plan, known as the Community College to Career Fund, more than two million people will be trained for jobs in the healthcare, transportation, and advanced manufacturing industries.  Colleges will be given financial incentive and support through the fund to train students in the above mentioned fields.  Furthermore, the fund will help create paid internships for low-income students, and try to get community colleges to work with local businesses so that students have an opportunity to obtain long-term jobs in their communities.  Essentially, all three aspects of the fund are linked to one another, starting off with community colleges being provided with financial incentive to train students.  Local businesses and industries will also receive support so that they can identify in what areas they need workers.  Finally, the paid internships will give young low-income students a chance to gain hands-on experience in high-growth industries, and then land a job once graduating.

 

There are a few highlights to the Community College to Career Fund, and they are important to look at when assessing the strengths of the program.  First and foremost, the fund is targeting a myriad of students from low-income backgrounds, and shows that President Obama is thinking of higher education from various angles.  Not only did he talk about financial assistance for students in universities last month, but he is also thinking about students who attend community schools.  It is extraordinarily important for the president to remember that millions of students attend community colleges and vocational schools, and they cannot be left out of the financial changes he plans on bringing to the education system.  In order to help bolster the economy, the president and Congress need to focus on all student demographics and education opportunities.

 

However, it is slightly disconcerting to see how President Obama plans on utilizing the $8 billion in the fund.  The money is to be distributed within community colleges, internships, and local businesses, making it seem as though the fund will be stretched rather thin.  The question is whether or not the fund will be able to adequately support the thousands of community colleges in the United States, and also be able to support the high-growth industries that the president is targeting.  Furthermore, the president has already asked Congress for financial support in regards to other universities, Pell Grants, and various loans.  There is a chance that Congress may not agree to finance so many funds due to the fact that it has been divided in where federal money should be allocated.

 

Nevertheless, the Community College to Career Fund is a remarkable financing endeavor, and it is wonderful to see President Obama focus on all tiers of the higher education system.  There is no reason for universities to receive financial incentive, and community colleges to be neglected by the government.  As the changes to the education system are being planned out, it is interesting to see what the president has outlined and where he believes the government should get more involved.  If nothing else can be said, at least government spending is being increased for the education sector; a phenomenon that should have occurred long ago.

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Feb 17

RIO+20: The future we want?

This coming June, the UN will have an important conference on Sustainable development, Rio+20. As my fellow intern Katherine has indicated in a recent post, the objective of the conference is to renew political commitment of UN’s member states to secure sustainable development, and it will focus on two key issues: promoting a green economy and creating an institutional framework to promote sustainable development. To renew political commitment is a weak objective by itself, without further pointing out that the concept of “green economy” remains highly ambivalent and subject to many interpretations. The current discussions are all revolving around the three driving pillars of sustainable development: the environmental, the societal, and the economical. There will be seven main issues addressed, of which you can learn more of here.

The Rio+20 conference is the follow up of a previous conference that took place 20 years ago, in 1992. In this conference, more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992 adopted Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the Statement of principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests.

One major achievement of the 1992 Rio summit was the conclusion that governments alone could not achieve sustainable development. Civil society needed to be represented and separated into different categories. As a consequence, Agenda 21 formalized categories through which all citizens could participate in the UN activities on achieving sustainable development. Those categories are now called “major groups” (they include, woman, children and youth, indigenous peoples, etc.). Major groups are allowed to present statement as well as to directly participate in the conference. This will definitely make the conference a more transparent process, but it will be harder to reach a consensus because more interests are at stake. For example, Australia has noted that mining was a green job and an excellent example of sustainable development, but I am sure that many indigenous groups would oppose this statement because mining affects their way of life (for an example: Huichol people in Mexico).

So far, the preparatory meetings have lead to a zero draft (available here), that has created a wide arrange of reactions from member countries. The discussions have been heated and for now, a reasonable consensus seems difficult to be reached. There’s a major divide between the North and the South. Developed countries have insisted that the Zero Draft has to be short so that it could be “understood” by the public. Developed countries such as claimed “brevity at the expense of content?”

The draft contains mainly passive verbs such as “we recognize”, “we support”, “we encourage” and “we endorse”. This indicates that the current (weak) political commitment will not likely increase. Furthermore, the draft lacks proposed methods to enforce implementation of the objectives. Indeed, without a description of necessary steps to be implemented or without reliable indicators, there will be no significant improvement towards sustainable development. Those are key aspects that need to be considered in the last preparatory meeting that will be held in March. Member states have to increase their commitments and be clearer on the goals to achieve if Rio+20 is to be a success. If they don’t, it would be better to call Rio+20 not as “The Future We Want” but “The Future We May Want To Consider in the Future”.

 

 

 

 

 

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Feb 17

Rape: A Weapon of Choice in War

Mathilde, a mother of six, lived a quiet life in her village in Rwanda. One day as she went to the field towards her crops, she saw two men approach her. She ran when she recognized that they were wearing the insignia of the FDLR, a militia group, on their clothing. As she fled, she was found by another man, who hit her on the head with a metal bar and proceeded to beat her. Mathilde fell to the ground. Once he finished, he left her sprawled on the dirt. The first two men she had seen then approached her and proceeded to rape her. Then, they left her to die.

Mathilde’s situation is sad but common during war. War rapes or rapes committed by soldiers and other participants (civilian or combatants) have become a weapon of choice during conflict. These assaults are usually orchestrated by men to victimize women who are directly or indirectly linked to the opposition.

During war, rape is frequently used as means of psychological warfare in order to humiliate the adversary and bring down morale. War rape is about power and is often encouraged by military leaders. Because of its ongoing use in conflict throughout the world, the Geneva Convention addressed this by condemning the practice and calling it a crime against humanity and a war crime.

History shows that this phenomenon has been widespread. For example, an estimated 200,000 women were raped during the battle for independence in Bangladesh in the 1970s. Also, more than 100,000 Guatemalan women were victims of sexual assaults during the 30-year civil war in this Central American nation. Currently, war rape is still prominent especially in ongoing conflicts in Colombia, Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan.

In Colombia, rival groups sexually assault, torture and kill women and girls in order to impose fear and punish entire towns. While the rapes tend to be more biased towards one gender, it does not discriminate on the ages of those victimized. A charity worker in the Congo interviewed approximately 500 victims. She reported that the youngest survivor was a one-year-old girl and the oldest a woman of 90.

What these attacks do is not only try to destroy the dignity and self-worth of the victim, but also expose them to diseases such as HIV/Aids. At the community level, rapes cause fragmentation of families, rejection of children born as a result of the attacks and add a negative stigma to the girl or woman subjected to such violence.

Despite the Geneva Convention’s denouncement of war rape as a crime against humanity, its survivors are not receiving adequate protections. The charity worker working with Congolese women mentioned above also reported that the women shared that the presence of aid agencies, the UN and local government was scarce. The UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, admitted that in villages and towns where the militants are still present, they only maintain a “minimal presence.”

Mathilde’s story was first shared in The Economist. This same article, “War’s Overlooked Victims,” also reported that it is up to the international community to help prevent these atrocities, provide protections for victims, and prosecution for the perpetrators. They list the following steps as a necessary part of the solution:

  1. The UN should center global attention on this crime to facilitate more accurate and regular reporting of rape cases.
  2. In areas where judicial institutions are weak, hybrid courts should be established to travel to villages in order to gather direct accounts and evidence, and to facilitate the quick prosecution of cases.
  3. Foreign aid needs to be used to build an adequate prison system to detain rape suspects and criminals.
  4. Aid needs to be directed to train police in the administration of effective laws to protect the rights of women.
  5. All aid agencies and UN personnel should be provided training to allow them to identify and report rape cases quickly.
  6. Aid funding needs to be allocated to provide social services to victims.

All this can be accomplish when there is a commitment from all parties to stop war rape, funding to build a comprehensive system that will adequate address the program, and a desire to look into the root causes of the conflict which created this practice. Is there anything else you think is necessary to stop this form of violence against women? Are more laws necessaries or special groups that need to be created? Let me know what you think.

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Feb 16

U.S. Domestic Violence Laws in America: How They Fail Women?

Domestic violence is a painful issue that women have faced for centuries in the United States and abroad.  As time goes by and our legal system becomes more progressive addressing complex issues such as cyber terrorism and modern day piracy I am amazed how domestic violence laws haven’t made much progress.  In fact it may seem laws which are meant to protect women from violence are barely effective.

In the United States each state usually has its own set of domestic violence laws which is usually based upon how the public views this issue.  In many states the laws are still not encompassing the totality of the effects of violence on women.  Some states still don’t recognize that domestic violence involving pregnant women should be treated as a violent felony because it also affects the unborn child.  Even when domestic violence involves a pregnant woman, the abuser is often still awarded custody rights after the child is born because the law does not recognize the abuse against the pregnant woman as abuse against the unborn child.

Have you ever heard of the VINE service?  VINE stands for Victim Information and Notification Everyday and is a system that notifies victims on the location of the abuser and notifies them when he is released from jail.  This is a great service but did you know that in most states the abuser is allowed to return to his place of residence at least once to gather his belongings and no one has to notify the victim of when that will be?  In fact the police will accompany the offender to the residence but nothing is to keep him from talking to the victim or attempting to take things that don’t belong to him.  Plus he can show up usually anytime between 7 am and 10 pm on any given day.   Talk about feeling like a sitting duck.  The victim is subjected to further abuse because law enforcement is not required to notify the victim of their intended visit.

Did you know that there are states that do not protect women against Continue reading

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Feb 16

UN Resolution on Syria: What’s the Point?

I’ve written a lot about Syria these last several months, and if you’ve read any of my posts you know that I am not very optimistic about the situation.  Al-Assad has repeatedly promised the Arab League that he will end the violence in his country, and yet every day there is another story in the news about the latest violent government crackdown on protesters.  Syrian activists have long been requesting a no-fly zone like the one that was employed in Libya, and yet, for a variety of reasons, the international community has not responded.  So, it should not be surprising that I am less than enthusiastic about the latest development regarding Syria: an upcoming UN General Assembly vote on a resolution condemning the Syrian regime’s human rights violations and backing an Arab League plan aimed at ending the conflict.

Saudi Arabia drafted the resolution earlier in the week as Syrian tanks bombed the city of Homs, which has been getting increasingly desperate as supplies run low because of the siege.  The draft resolution supports the Arab League peace plan which was presented last month and called on al-Assad to turn over power to his vice president and allow the formation of a national unity government which would include members of the opposition. It calls for an end to the violence and lays blame for the human rights violations squarely on the Syrian authorities.  Though it encourages accountability for the guilty parties it does not specifically mention the International Criminal Court.  Also, it makes no mention to the Arab League’s call for the Security Council to authorize a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping force.

The Arab League has been looking for ways to intensify pressure on al-Assad, and the hope is that this resolution, if passed, will be the last straw for al-Assad’s regime.  It seems that the resolution will pass, too, since, according to an assembly spokeswoman, there are no vetoes and the resolution already has 60 co-sponsors—though it is possible that Russia, one of Syria’s strongest backers, could cause trouble. Russia’s UN ambassador has proposed some amendments to the resolution that Arabs and Western supporters of the Syrian opposition could not accept, since they equate al-Assad’s crackdown with the opposition’s uprisings against the crackdowns.

The vote will take place on Thursday 2/16, so we’ll find out soon enough if Russia will be successful in adding these amendments and thus forcing the General Assembly to veto the resolution, or if it passes.  What will remain to be seen, however, is whether or not this vote will have any effect.  Supporters of the resolution certainly hope that a strong “yes” vote will put so much pressure on al-Assad that he will be forced to step down, but, as we have seen time and again, al-Assad does not seem to be afraid of international condemnation.  Further, General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, meaning that if the resolution does pass, al-Assad will have no reason to comply with it—except of course that a “yes” vote means that the international community is very upset with the violence in Syria and would like to stop, please.

As always, I very much hope that the violence in Syria comes to a rapid end.  An estimated 7,000 people have been killed since March, cities and towns across the country ravaged, and every day the situation gets more desperate.  I strongly doubt, though, that this resolution will amount to anything.  What reason does al-Assad have to comply?  He has already shown that he has little regard for Arab League resolutions, and his allies Russia and China hold a lot of sway in the UN and on the world stage.  I think it’s going to take a lot more than this to end the violence in Syria.

So comment below and let me know what you think!  Are you heartened by this General Assembly resolution, or are you more pessimistic—or as I prefer, pragmatic?

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