...for the World Food Program
In all seriousness, I'm glad the actress is drawing attention to the issue of inherited hunger. Here is how you can help.
...for the World Food Program
In all seriousness, I'm glad the actress is drawing attention to the issue of inherited hunger. Here is how you can help.
If you're living in an industrialized country, the chances are, when you go to the doctor, you kind of just take for granted all the humming machines that keep track of your health, provide you with the care you need, and instantly convey information about your medical history.
Now imagine you need medical care in, say, Somalia, or Sri Lanka, or DR Congo. All those fancy gadgets start to seem a lot more important. It's a tragic perversity of the technological revolution that those who most desperately need advanced medical attention often have the fewest tools at their disposal to provide it.
The UN Foundation has partnered with the Vodafone Foundation and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to create the Humanitarian Technology Challenge to identify the most pressing technological gaps facing humanitarian workers in the field. The three major needs they've identified:
Providing humanitarian relief in conflict zones is, as I've previously articulated, not easy. Figuring out how to improve technological infrastructure will not solve all of the problems of providing health care in dangerous areas, but it will undoubtedly save lives.
(If you're in the DC area on June 1-2, you should consider registering your interest in attending the Humanitarian Technology Challenge conference -- where these big questions will be asked, discussed, and, hopefully, answered.)
One of the more disturbing aspects of the Israeli Defense Forces incursion and shelling of Gaza last winter was the fact that United Nations buildings and personnel were routinely hit. In fact, there were nine incidents in which UN staff or property came under attack.
Yesterday, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon forwarded a 27 page summary (h/t Innercity Press) of a UN report on the nine attacks during operation Cast Lead to the Security Council.
Reading the summary, a troubling pattern emerges in which 1) the UN gives GPS coordinates of its buildings to the IDF 2) civilians seeking shelter from IDF bombing gather at UN compounds or schools believing they would be safe 3) The IDF drops bombs on or near these UN compounds, killing or injuring the civilians therein 4) The IDF later says rockets were launched from the vicinity.
The report raises the serious question of whether or not the IDF deliberately targeted the UN during operation Cast Lead. Either way, it is clear that the IDF was not as vigilant as it could have been about avoiding UN targets -- and avoiding civilian casualties more broadly. For example, the report finds that the IDF used an incendiary substance called White Phosphorous in an attack on a UN compound and a UN school where hundreds of civilians had taken shelter.
Now, Hamas is a terrorist organization so we would not expect it to discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. And, indeed, the report finds one incident in which a likely Hamas rocket fell short of its target and hit a World Food Program warehouse.
Still, I think it is fair to say we should hold Israel to a higher standard. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much accountability in the offing. For one, Israel declined to cooperate with a UN Human Rights Council authorized investigation by the lauded jurist Richard Goldstone. Second, the IDF has dismissed claims by its own soldiers that its rules of engagement were lax. Third, the Secretary General, in forwarding the report to the Security Council, did not immediately endorse one of the recommendations that he appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate incidents beyond the nine attacks on UN facilities.
The saga continues.
Photo from Flickr user Ghasal
Question: Where are the top three movie-producing industries in the world?
Hint: Yes, they all end in "-ollywood," and, yes, one of them is in fact Hollywood.
What's more, it wasn't even close. Nigeria produced more than 400 more feature-length films than the U.S. in a year, and, even if fewer people have seen them, it's still an impressive cultural achievement. As UNESCO's Director-General puts it, with only a touch of bombast:
Film and video production are shining examples of how cultural industries - as vehicles of identity, values and meanings - can open the door to dialogue and understanding between peoples, but also to economic growth and development.
And as in other economic and cultural arenas, if the U.S. wants to keep up, it will have to acknowledge and interact with the burgeoning industries in the rest of the world.
(image of a sampling of Nollywood movies, from flickr user mtrank under a Creative Commons license)
Speaking of dedication, Michelle Obama honored a number of long-time employees of the mission, including 47 year employee Ivan Ferber. 47 years! That would mean that Mr. Ferber worked under every US Ambassador since Adlai Stevenson in 1962. Amazing. Check out Mark Halperin's pool report of the event.
In the wake of the first confirmed death of an American citizen due to swine flu, the Post is reporting that the Obama Administration is considering an "unprecidented fall vaccination campaign," which would add two new shots targeting swine flu to the existing regime (currently just one shot). The program would cost billions of dollars.
Seems Obama is taking a page out of Margeret Chan's book: "I'm not predicting the pandemic will blow up, but if I miss it and we don't prepare, I fail. I'd rather over-prepare than not prepare."
Discussing the still sketchy alleged Russian-backed coup attempt in Georgia, Robert Farley offers three possibilities behind what happened: an operation with active Russian support, without (or with prior) Russian support, or one manufactured by the Georgian government. His conjecture -- and it's hard to know for sure because the details are still rather fuzzy -- that the answer lies in "some combination of options 1 and 2."
Georgian forces surrounded a tank unit that it accused of being involved in the plot and President Mikheil Saakashvili entered the base to negotiate the unit's surrender. In a televised address, Mr. Saakashvili said the plot was an attempt by Russia to derail the planned exercises, which he called a "symbolic event." [emphasis mine]
A little Yeltsin-esque almost (no irony intented), no? And then there's the fact, already acknowledged, that Saakashvili did seem to, well, exaggerate; the Georgian Interior Ministry line has morphed from alleging an all-out coup attempt to an intended disruption of NATO military excercises scheduled to start up in Georgia.
I don't have the full evidence, but it seems that, if Russia were upset about the increasingly prominent NATO role afforded to Georgia, and has long been antagonistic toward Saakashvili, choosing a publicized NATO event would not be a particularly wise time to try to bring him down (particularly when they've already made their displeasure with NATO felt). On the other hand, with NATO's eyes on Georgia, the country's leaders certainly aren't shying away from playing up the card of Russian aggressiveness.
At least Saakashvili didn't blame the notorious Irish-Croat-Hungarian assassination alliance that (allegedly) went after Evo Morales.
Via UN News Center, I've just learned that the small Indian Ocean island nation of the Maldives has pledged to become the first country in the world to go carbon-neutral.
This is significant because Maldives is probably the most vulnerable nation in the world to climate change. Some 400,000 inhabitants live on small islands that rise no more than six feet above sea level. Even the most modest sea-level rise could literally wipe the country off the map. Of course, compared to major economies of the world, Maldives is responsible for a negligible amount of carbon emissions. Still, it is heartening to see that the country with the most at stake in climate change is willing to lead by example.
Photo from flickr user romsrini
The United Nations Refugee Agency has just revised its guidlines on how countries receiving refugees from Iraq should approach Iraqi asylum requests. I think you can file this one under "good news" in the sense that UNHRC believes the situation in certain Iraqi regions is stable enough for the return of refugees. From the Washington Post:
Under the new UNHCR guidelines, governments reviewing asylum requests from Iraqis from the semi-autonomous northern region and the south are urged to assesswhether claimants are at direct risk because of their religious, ethnic or professional affiliation, or their sexual orientation.
"We are now saying rather than blanket consideration, these people can be given individual interviews to determine their status," Redmond said, saying that specific groups of people in those regions may still require protection.
These include public officials, U.N. and other aid workers, journalists, human rights activists, homosexuals, and people seen to be affiliated with opposing armed groups, political factions, multinational forces and foreign companies, he said.
While it's great news that parts of Iraq are stable enough for return, UNHCR still believes that Iraqis from large swaths of western Iraq, including Baghdad and the Anbar province, still require blanket asylum. I, for one, would like to see the United States accept a greater number of Iraqi asylum seekers. According to a recent report from Human Rights First, only 4,200 Iraqis have made it to the United States since 2003, though at least 20,000 have applied for asylum. The report says that progress has been made since Congress passed the Refugee Crisis of Iraq Act in January 2008, but there is still a long way to go for the United States to live up to its obligations to accept more Iraqi asylum seekers. It seems to me that for having started this war, the United States has a special obligation to help people uprooted from violence in Iraq.
Photo of an Iraqi refugee in Damascus from Flickr user Catholicrelief.