As concentrations of carbon dioxide reach record levels, climate change experts warn that hundreds of millions of people will find themselves displaced in the next century due to desertification, floods, and rising seas. [The Guardian] The geopolitics behind the Syrian conflict and the instability in the Arab world. [The Guardian] After severe conflict in northern [...]
Tag Archives: Syria
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, [...]
MIDDLE-EAST NEWS ROUNDUP: Anti-Austerity Protests in Israel, Turkish-Syrian Tensions, Egypt’s Latest Controversy
Anti-Austerity Protests in Israel This may come as a surprise for those who thought that anger over austerity plans was a sentiment confined to Europe. However, in Israel public frustration over rising living costs has been growing for some time. Never before had so many demonstrators taken part in street protests like in 2011; with [...]
Press Review: Malaria in the UK & Preventing Landgrabs with Mobile Technology
Despite a statistical decrease in global poverty, the numbers aren’t as positive when China is removed from the picture. [CNN] Sexual violence in Syria is widespread, but international aid for the survivors of rape is non-existent. [Huffington Post] As the UK’s climate warms, health experts urge the British government to take immediate public health precautions [...]
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 [...]
Press Review: Arctic Ocean rapidly acidifying & Fighting desertification in the Sahel
Combating desertification in the Sahel is seen as a solution to the eradication poverty, hunger, and terrorism. [BBC] An Israeli airstrike near Damascus heightens fears that Syria’s civil war will expand outside its borders. [Washington Post] A former garment factory worker turn labor rights lawyer talks about the positive influence that multinational corporations and retailers [...]
MIDDLE-EAST NEWS ROUNDUP: Google & Palestine, Israel & Syria, Women’s Sport in Saudi Arabia
Google Recognises Palestine: If the twenty-first century truly is the century of the internet, it is no wonder that the recognition of Palestine by Google was accredited with considerable significance by the international media. This kind of evidence for the increasing interconnectedness between global politics and the online world is by no means a first. [...]
Syrian refugees straining health services in region, UN warns in new report
The refugee crisis sparked by the conflict in Syria is increasingly straining health services in surrounding countries, while refugees are finding it harder to access the quality treatment they need. In a recently published report covering the first three months of 2013 in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, evidence suggests that more than 1 million refugees [...]
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, [...]
Press Review: Burma Police allow violent riots against minorities & Executions on the rise in Taiwan
A video of riots in Burma shows police standing by as Buddhist rioters violently attack minority Muslims. [BBC] Human rights activists in Taiwan express horror at the government’s increasing use of the death penalty in recent months. [BBC] At least 185 people are dead after fighting between the Nigerian government and Islamist extremists in the [...]
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 [...]
Press Review: UNICEF forced to abandon Syrian refugee camps & Extreme weather harder to predict
The president of Refugees International assesses the situation at refugee camps on the Turkish border to Syria. [Huffington Post] Simple geolocation technology helps nonprofits reduce infant and maternal mortality. [The Guardian] Extreme weather caused by global warming is getting harder to predict. [The Guardian] After receiving less than 20% of the funds it requested, UNICEF [...]
