Op-Ed columnist Thomas L. Friedman feels that the single greatest obstacle to peace in Syria (and in Iraq, for that matter) is trust. For a pluralist democracy to work – which seems to be the goal, in Syria, of everyone in the world except the people that actually live there – the various religious groups [...]
About Jonathan Lutes
Jonathan Lutes is an American writer, journalist, translator. Born in Portland, Maine, he has lived and worked in Berlin since 2004.Signs of the NY Times: Talks of Syrian talks. Haitian angst. Persecution in Pakistan. Iraq descending.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher R. Hill, has high hopes for the upcoming talks between Russia and the U.S., as they try to facilitate steps to ending the civil war in Syria. In his recent Op-Ed piece in the NY Times, he expressed these hopes while criticizing U.S. diplomacy early on in the crisis, [...]
Signs of the NY Times: Private schools in Bangladesh. Water shortage in Yemen. Quagmire in Syria. Civil war in Iraq?
Opinionator Tina Rosenberg has detailed the remarkable educational innovations and success of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO. Although BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) has rather large field of action that includes health, microfinance, agriculture and water, its chain of “private” schools is perhaps its most inspiring. BRAC schools are private in that they [...]
Signs of the NY Times: Collapse of Bangladeshi Textile Factory. The Keystone XL Pipeline. The Downside of Energy Independence.
This past week there were two Op-Ed contributions spurred by the horrific collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh. The death toll is 300 and rising. Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairman of the antipoverty organization BRAC, makes a strong case for the argument that boycotting Bangladeshi goods manufactured in such factories would have no [...]
Signs of the NY Times: Myanmar hangs in the balance. Syrian refugees. African self-reliance. The end of Fayyadism.
Op-Ed contributor Aung Zaw, founding editor of the Irrawaddy Publishing Group, is warning his home country of Myanmar that a precious opportunity may soon be lost. The two-year old democracy is struggling for its acceptance in the greater community of nations, yet recent examples of religious and racial discrimination and violence, along with government in-fighting, [...]
Signs of the NY Times: Syria, Syria, Syria. The End of Diplomacy? Fracking after all?
In an uncharacteristically blunt Op-Ed contribution, the U.N. under secretary general for Humanitarian affairs, the executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the executive director of the U.N. Children’s Fund and the director general of the World Health Organization are pleading for help of any kind to stop [...]
Signs of the NY Times: The legacy of Malala. The silver lining of the Iraq war? Ag-Gag is winning. Authoritarian state media. Friedman on Morsi.
In case anyone thinks the girls’ education crisis in Pakistan has been solved or has even died down since Malala survived the attack by the Taliban and, in the process, gained so much sympathy and publicity for the cause. In the past two weeks alone, two teachers, both of whom had met with Malala in [...]
Signs of the NY Times: Touch and go in Myanmar. Pessimism in Kenya. Farming meets YouTube. Science and the U.S. economy.
M.I.T. grad Rikin Ghandi has implemented perhaps the world’s best synergistic cooperation between communications technology and agriculture. Vexed at how difficult it was to share important agricultural developments with the farmers that need them most, he developed Digital Green, a platform and process for sharing and extending knowledge among farmers in the most remote areas. [...]
Signs of the NY Times: The NRA versus Iran. Kristallnacht in Myanmar. Hunger strike in Bahrain. Water problems in China.
Senate Republicans in America will be faced with a vexing dilemma in the coming weeks, as they will be asked to vote on a treaty governing the global trade of conventional weapons. Provided that the U.N. General Assembly passes the measure by majority vote and that President Obama signs it forthright – two uncertain, yet [...]
Signs of the NY Times: Inequality in Peru. Ivory horror. Education in Pakistan. Abuse in Sri Lanka. Obama in Israel.
Op-Ed Guest Columnist Marie Arana reminds us that there’s a dark side to the economic boom in Peru, perhaps the country least affected by the global financial crisis. Peru’s skyrocketing wealth is based around its gold mining industry; yet, as seems to be a recurring historical theme, the profits earned from this industry are concentrated [...]
Signs of the NY Times: The disenfranchisement of drug abusers. The facts of fracking. Kenya’s new president, controversy. Civil rights in Iran.
Op-Ed contributors Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Ruth Dreifuss make a salient point in exposing drug abusers as one of the last demographic groups that is widely deprived of basic human rights. Drug users often find themselves on the margins of society, and their mistreatment – excessive incarceration, lack of medical care, physical abuse and sometimes [...]
Signs of the NY Times: Crowd-funding the future. Female farmers in crisis. Syrian refugees reach one million. End the Arab boycott of Israel.
Opinionator David Bornstein is touting a new strategy in the fight to solve global warming. As opposed to the most common approach – which is to attempt to scare people into consuming less, recycling and buying green by reminding us of all the horrible consequences that our grandchildren, children and even we will suffer if [...]
