Yesterday, April 6, marked the17th anniversary of the assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana which catalyzed a genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis (a Rwandan minority) and moderate Hutus (part of the majority) were systematically murdered in a three month span. A former supervisor of mine was in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) …
Category: Awareness Building
Apr 05
The Problem with Gitmo
Yesterday, US Attorney General Eric Holder made a statement declaring that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, will be tried by a military tribunal in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Although somewhat inevitable, it comes as a disappointment for those who supported President Obama’s original plan to transport the Guantanamo detainees to …
Apr 04
Help or Not – Series 1
Microsoft’s Bing Japan Earthquake Tweet That was the tweet that got people asking: Was Microsoft Wrong to Use the Japanese Earthquake for Marketing? It all started with what some people consider the age old scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back concept i.e. to donate $100,000 and at the same time use that effort …
Apr 01
Responsibility to Protect
Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a relatively new concept in political theory. Basically, it is the idea that governments everywhere have a responsibility to uphold and protect the human rights of their citizens. And, if a state is unwilling or unable to do so, it is the duty of the international community to step in …
Mar 28
8th Annual African Economic Forum (AEF)
Friday and Saturday, March 25th & 26th, 2011, were two amazing days in New York City. On both days, Columbia University held the 8th Annual African Economic Forum (AEF), organized by the graduate school of business, the School of International Public Affairs (SIPA Pan African Network – SPAN), and the Africa Law Students Association at …
Mar 25
The Economic Atom Bomb
On the 11th of March, at precisely 2:46 p.m., a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck Japan leaving destruction in its path. The loss of lives and property are constantly rising even today. But probably one of the biggest blows to Japan was the crumbling of its economy. Questions arose of whether the 3rd largest economy in the …
Mar 24
Censoring Revolution
The Tunisian Revolution ignited protests across Northern Africa and the Middle East, but they have not been the only areas affected. Much to the Chinese government’s dismay, human rights and pro-democracy groups in China have used the Middle Eastern and African protests as an inspiration for their own campaigns. This has led to incredible censorship …
Mar 23
Water Changes Everything
Yesterday, on the 22nd of March 2011, was World Water Day. It was a day to raise awareness for something most people in developed nations take for granted – clean drinking water. Right now, almost a billion people don’t have access to clean and safe drinking water. That’s about one in every eight people. Only …
Mar 22
Human Rights vs. Oil
On March 17th, the United Nations Security Council voted to establish a no-fly zone over Libya, which allows for all measures short of foreign occupation. This is an addition to Libya being referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which I wrote about in my blog on March 3rd, and which itself was unprecedented in …
Mar 21
FDA Warns: Raw Milk May Pose Health Risk!
In my post “To test or not to test“, I talked about the possibility of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) beginning tests on milk (from farms that repeatedly sold cows tainted with drug residue). Well, earlier this month, the FDA put out the above poster as a warning to the public. Apparently, the FDA …