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VideoHurting or helping the hungry?
by Michelle Chen on June 8 2009, 4:15PM
Let’s say you’re hungry. In your backyard, dewy tomatoes dangle from robust vines, and hormone-free Holsteins graze in the shade of lush fruit orchards. But you’re mysteriously pulled down the street into a sprawling supermarket, where your shopping cart…
Topics: Global Affairs
Salvadorans Hope for Change with New President
by Guest Columnist on June 5 2009, 12:57PM
Cindy Von Quednow This week El Salvador’s new president took office, ending 20 years of governance by the conservative ARENA party. The new president, Mauricio Funes, represents the leftist Farabundo Martin National Liberation Front (FMLN). I was in El…
Topics: Global Affairs
Reading between the lines in Cairo
by Michelle Chen on June 4 2009, 9:21PM
President Obama’s speech in Cairo aspired to recast America’s relations with the “Muslim world.” The response of Muslim observers in the so-called Western world ranged from cautious hope to detached cynicism. But across the board, people noted Obama’s careful…
Topics: Global Affairs
Bill Clinton Named New UN Envoy to ‘Stabilize’ Haiti, a Country He Helped Destabilize
by Guest Columnist on May 19 2009, 3:18PM
by Jeremy Scahill This post originally appeared on RebelReports. Former US President Bill Clinton has been named by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as his special UN envoy to Haiti. Clinton will reportedly travel to the country at least…
Topics: Global Affairs
Just words?: Human rights and the White House
by Michelle Chen on May 12 2009, 5:24PM
The United States took a seat today in the the U.N. Human Rights Council, thawing the chill set by the Bush administration between Washington and the world’s highest human rights body. Yet membership on the Council hardly guarantees progress…
Topics: Global Affairs
by Michelle Chen on May 8 2009, 5:00PM
The ethical questions at the intersection of psychology and national security can make your head spin. Newly released email exchanges, from a listserv associated with the American Psychological Association, affirm various other news reports that document’ how psychological professionals…
Topics: Global Affairs
Indigenous perspectives on climate change
by Michelle Chen on April 27 2009, 9:26PM
Representatives of indigenous peoples from around the planet convened in Anchorage, Alaska last week to discuss the challenges that climate change poses to their communities. The Indigenous People’s Global Summit on Climate Change called for holistic solutions to global…
Topics: Environment, Global Affairs
by Michelle Chen on April 22 2009, 2:21PM
On this Earth Day, those of us living in a world of carbon offsets and tempeh may want to step back and contemplate the most environmentally burdened communities, at home and abroad, for whom sustainability isn’t a matter of…
Topics: Environment, Global Affairs
From Trinidad & Tobago: Change or More of the Same?
by Guest Columnist on April 20 2009, 8:13PM
By Carlos Jimenez The V Summit of the Americas, and the counter IV Peoples’ Summit, has brought a wide representation of peoples and communities of all colors and histories to the small island of Trinidad. While both gatherings have similar…
Topics: Global Affairs
The racial divide across the Atlantic
by Michelle Chen on April 17 2009, 2:58PM
In the global context, America’s problems with racism, diversity and segregation are unique in some ways, typical in others. The Center for American Progress has published an analysis comparing different challenges of racial and ethnic integration on both sides…
Topics: Global Affairs, Immigration
At the Summit of the Americas, Obama Must Break The Stalemate with Cuba
by Tammy Johnson on April 16 2009, 4:11PM
In September 2005, not long after Hurricane Katrina, I attended Jubilee South’s second global assembly, held in Havana, Cuba. I was able to wander Havana streets and take in a small piece of people’s daily lives. I grooved in…
Topics: Global Affairs
by Michelle Chen on April 9 2009, 4:26PM
A multinational oil giant may be headed for its day of reckoning in a New York City courtroom next month. The lawsuit, Wiwa v. Shell, centers on charges of rampant human rights abuses by Royal Dutch Shell against the…
Topics: Global Affairs
by Michelle Chen on March 31 2009, 9:13PM
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke uttered some bold words when he announced that the Obama administration would be focusing on promoting “fair trade.” In a Wall Street Journal interview, he argued for “minimum standards that other countries should abide by…
Topics: Economy, Global Affairs
by Michelle Chen on March 27 2009, 8:17PM
Thousands flock to America’s doorstep each year to flee torture, political persecution and other abuses. But many of the world’s huddled masses don’t get to breathe free after they land within U.S. borders. Thanks to draconian immigration laws, more…
Topics: Global Affairs, Immigration
Ugly diplomacy from Geneva to Johannesburg
by Michelle Chen on March 25 2009, 2:49PM
In the lofty universe of international diplomacy, concepts such as “peace is good” and “racism is bad” might seem like no-brainers. But two summits that were supposed to celebrate these principles—an upcoming United Nations conference on racism and a…
Topics: Global Affairs
by Michelle Chen on March 23 2009, 2:42PM
Lately, politicians have made some bold pronouncements about violence along the US-Mexico border. Yet the economic downturn is posing a different, though related threat in Mexico, fueled by the volatile ebbs and flows of “free trade.” Dan LaBotz at…
Topics: Global Affairs, Immigration
by Michelle Chen on March 20 2009, 5:27AM
Just days after huddling with Latino members of Congress on immigration issues, President Obama has zeroed in on the issue of border security, and the air of change is starting to smell a bit more like leftovers from the…
Topics: Global Affairs, Immigration
Double-vision on Mexico’s “drug war”
by Michelle Chen on March 11 2009, 4:21PM
On the U.S.-Mexico border, drug-related violence rivals immigration as a media fixation, projecting images of a so-called “failed state” and a “wave” of killings. The New York Times cites a National Drug Intelligence Center report calling Mexican cartels “the…
Topics: Global Affairs, Immigration, Politics
by Michelle Chen on March 5 2009, 3:26PM
The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is stoking debate on how the international community should define and address conflict (particularly the United States, which has not formally recognized the ICC)….
Topics: Global Affairs
More on the U.N. racism conference, post-racial edition
by Michelle Chen on March 2 2009, 4:25PM
As Roberto Lovato notes in his column, Washington’s potential/probable boycott of the upcoming United Nations summit on racism suggests the U.S. continues to stonewall international action on race issues (namely centering on Israel’s aggression and human rights abuses, the link…
Topics: Global Affairs
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