February 4, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
The “Day of Departure” rally has swelled the ranks of pro-democracy demonstrators occupying Tahrir Square. Reuters reports the prime minister has instructed the army to “assist” journalists and protect them from the armed pro-Mubarak gangs roaming the city. The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont gave an interview describing a harrowing experience of being detained multiple times by armed men, some wielding machetes, being forced “to kneel in front of a wall”, being detained for 2 hours by the army, which he described as “polite and disciplined”.
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February 3, 2011 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Ahmed Shafiq, the new prime minister installed over the weekend by embattled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, has made public apology for the violence that occurred yesterday in Cairo’s Midan Tahrir, or Liberation Square. Shafiq addressed the nation, saying “As officials and a state which must protect its sons, I thought it was necessary for me to apologize and to say that this matter will not be repeated”. He called the bloodshed “a disaster”.
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February 3, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Pro-democracy demonstrator tells Al Jazeera about the senseless chaos at Tahrir Square. She explained that they cannot leave the square, because if they abandon the cause, they will be “hunted one by one”. She described watching a fellow demonstrator “shot right through the head”, and urged the military, which is on the scene but not intervening. She urged the military to stand with the people and for Egypt and the world to come together and persuade Mubarak to resign.
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February 2, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
The suspicion now seems to have been demonstrated to be fact: news media across the world have shown images from Cairo of police ID cards recovered from rioting pro-Mubarak forces allegedly paid to assault journalists and pro-democracy demonstrators. The Mubarak regime has seized control of state media, is lying the Egyptian people, and is paying “goon squads” to brutally assault journalists and unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators.
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February 2, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Al Jazeera reports sounds of gunfire heard echoing across Tahrir Square, as “pro-Mubarak activists seize control of three military armored vehicles, escalating what appears to be a Mubarak-led crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. The assault on military personal may provoke a military response against the pro-Mubarak faction.
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February 2, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Less than 12 hours after Pres. Hosni Mubarak gave a defiant address on national television, and announced he would not seek another term as president but would remain in office until elections later this year, a group of “pro-Mubarak demonstrators” have reportedly clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators in Tahrir Square. Some are now calling the protest movement a “war of stamina”.
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February 2, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
Reporting from Tahrir Square in central Cairo, this reporter for Al Jazeera’s English service finds protesters are camped in the square and say they will not leave until more substantive change is made. Pres. Mubarak’s declarations last night are considered insufficient, and they say “nothing has come of this regime of 30 years”, that Mubarak [...]
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February 1, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
United States president Barack Obama addressed the nation and the world on live television this evening, explaining that first of all the United States supports non-violence. He commended the Egyptian military for showing restraint and coexisting peacefully with demonstrators. He added that second, the United States believes in universal rights.
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February 1, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Marking one full week of mass demonstrations, on the 8th day of the pro-democracy popular uprising, the Egyptian people staged the largest demonstration to date. Estimates for the size of the crowd at Midan Tahrir —or Liberation Square— range from 500,000 to 2 million. Some say more may have come to central Cairo but were unable to enter the square. The military pledged not to attack or interfere with demonstrators and the rally was peaceful. Security, both military and civilian, checked people entering the square to ensure there would not be violence.
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January 31, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
A new body, called the People’s Parliament, is planning a process of peaceful and orderly transition to an electoral democracy in Egypt. The People’s Parliament has 100 delegates, representing every major opposition party, including the Muslim Brotherhood (which holds 16 seats), and is reported to also have caucuses representing youth, academia, labor unions and professionals. The People’s Parliament has grown out of the National Assembly for Change, a coalition of opposition groups that has been organizing since 2009, to bring about this transition.
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January 31, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Thousands of Egyptian protesters are holding Tahrir Square, which has repeatedly been closed by security forces. Reports from Cairo suggest embattled Pres. Hosni Mubarak is moving to reassert control over major sections of the capital, but has yet to order an offensive against protesters in the main square. Mubarak told the nation he has asked his new prime minister to engage in dialogue with the opposition to promote democratic reform in Egypt.
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January 30, 2011 :: staff :: 4 Comments
A pro-democracy student movement has staged pro-democracy demonstrations in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and at two universities. According to VoA: “Hundreds of students took part in the protests, shouting slogans that criticized high prices, the government, and President Omar al-Bashir.” Security forces clashed with demonstrators, and reports suggest stones were thrown and police attacked demonstrators with batons.
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January 30, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 5 Comments
NBC journalist Richard Engel told the weekly program Meet the Press today that Egypt is experiencing a “basic collapse of law and order” and that looting overnight, prison breaks and street violence are being blamed on Pres. Hosni Mubarak, whom many say is using the unrest to make freedom appear undesirable. There are rumors that prison breaks have been “allowed” in order to frighten the people and that police have been withdrawn in order to justify their return with extreme brutality.
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January 29, 2011 :: staff :: 7 Comments
This video from Daily News Egypt shows a street leading to Tahrir Square, where early Saturday morning, demonstrators were confronted by armed police. The police fired shots into the air, apparently a warning to go no further. Three armored military personnel carriers are seen moving into position between the protesters and the police, apparently in an effort to prevent injury to demonstrators and/or to prevent an attack by police.
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January 29, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 5 Comments
Day 5 of the Egyptian pro-democracy uprising against the 30-year rule of Pres. Hosni Mubarak saw massive crowds of tens of thousands marching through Cairo, Alexandria and other cities across the country. While many images show demonstrators standing with or even riding joyously with military personnel on security vehicles, there were clashes near the Interior Ministry, where government snipers killed at least 12 demonstrators.
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January 29, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 5 Comments
Two days ago, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was similarly artful in her response to the protests: she called on “both sides” to refrain from violence and urged the administration of Hosni Mubarak to honor the “universal rights” of the people of Egypt, including the rights to assembly, association and expression. Mubarak has not been seen or heard from publicly since the crisis began, and observers speculate he may be considering concessions that would allow him to remain in power, at least temporarily.
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January 28, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 7 Comments
Pro-democracy protests are spreading across the Arabic-speaking world. After popular middle-class protests ended the authoritarian reign of Pres. Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt has been gripped by mass street demonstrations, in Cairo, in Alexandria, in Suez. Hosni Mubarak’s regime has responded with brutal attacks in demonstrators and an expanding ban on Internet usage and other forms of communication. Now, a pink revolution has flooded the streets of Sana’a, the capital of Yemen.
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January 26, 2011 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: 8 Comments
Yesterday, in defiance of a total ban on public gatherings, tens of thousands of Egyptians marched in Cairo, decrying the authoritarian methods of the regime of long-time president Hosni Mubarak. Organizers said they planned to repeat and expand the protests today, but thousands of military and riot police are reported to be lining the streets of Cairo, and the government has shut down all access to Twitter inside Egypt, in an effort to prevent social media organizing.
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January 16, 2011 :: staff :: 3 Comments
The hardline government of Tunisia, which had ruled for 23 years, was toppled this week by street protests which at times turned violent. Clashes between police and demonstrators raised questions about whether authorities would be able to quell an uprising. The president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced to flee the country, after one of [...]
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January 10, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
South Sudan, a region that lives every day with the deep wounds of a long-running civil war that took more than 2 million lives, yesterday saw democracy play out peacefully, as locals went to the polls to vote in the referendum promised by a 2005 peace treaty with the Khartoum government in northern Sudan. The referendum will decide whether southern Sudan secedes from the larger nation, and with international observers and aid groups staging a formidable presence, and Khartoum sounding peaceable, day one of the vote was free of violence, and much like a celebration.
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January 4, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
In this 2007 TED talk, the novelist Isabel Allende speaks about passion as a guiding, even humanizing principle, about the “best four minutes” of her life, walking the Olympic stadium at the Torino Games, Rose Mapendo’s amazing story of struggle and survival, and the tragic inequity women suffer across the global economy. “Although women do two-thirds of the world’s labor, they own less than one percent of the world’s assets. They are paid less than men for the same work, if they are paid at all.”
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December 24, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The small west African nation of Ivory Coast (also known by its French name Côte d’Ivoire) may be on the brink of civil war. After delaying presidential elections for 5 years, Pres. Laurent Gbagbo is reported to have disqualified over 500,000 ballots from opposition strongholds and is refusing to accept the results which show his opponent as the winner. Yesterday, the UN General Assembly (representing all member nations) formally recognized Gbagbo’s opponent, Alassane Ouattara, as president, in a unanimous vote.
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December 23, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
William Fitzgerald, Deputy Assistant US Secretary of State for African Affairs, told the PBS NewsHour today that the United States fears a “brutal situation” could unfold in Ivory Coast, if Pres. Gbagbo, who lost a recent presidential run-off election, does not step down. At least 176 people have been reported killed, with dozens more reported to have been abducted or subjected to torture, in what appears to be an authoritarian crackdown against supporters of the victorious opposition leader.
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October 2, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A new report on the intricacies of regional involvement in the brutal civil war that was fought in the Democratic Republic of Congo, between the late 1990s and early 2000s, whose resulting chaos, factionalism and scarcity, continue to take huge numbers of lives every month, has found that other nations contributed to the hostilities and that some alleged atrocities might constitute war crimes or genocide. Rwanda, Burundi and other nations, say the report is flawed and they were not involved in any such crimes.
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September 26, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
“One person alone cannot push an elephant.” The proverb tells us a great deal about how this film explores the crisis in human connection that comes with conflict. How pervasive, how multifaceted, how horrifying, to find that all sense of community has unraveled in the worst assaults and intensities of a save-no-soul total war. But from there, from the aftermath of this horror, even in the midst of it, Rose Mapendo would tell us we can plant the seeds of something better, nobler, more generous.
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June 4, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Malaria Kills Millions Every Year in Africa. It is responsible for anywhere from 1 to 3 million deaths per year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts to eradicate the disease are mounting: in the year 2000, just 3% of children under 5, in sub-Saharan Africa, slept with mosquito nets; by 2008, that figure had risen to 56%. Aid groups now project that aggressive preventive measures can protect 100% of the population by the end of 2010 and reduce the number of deaths to near zero by 2015.
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March 13, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
El ciber-diálogo de Gender Links, para el jueves, 4 de marzo 2010, efectuó una conversación robusta sobre cómo mejorar el ambiente mediático de la Copa Mundial del 2010 respecto a los derechos de la mujer. Los, partícipes, en Nueva York y en Sudáfrica, se entrevistaron, cambiando ideas y comparando ambientes socio-culturales según favorezcan o no la entrada de las mujeres y las niñas en el ámbito del fútbol. Un ejemplo clave fue el caso de Estados Unidos, donde las niñas muchas veces tienen acceso a programas de deporte de la comunidad o a através de la escuela y donde las figuras más conocidas del fútbol internacional son mujeres como Mia Hamm.
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March 10, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
On the second morning of the 54th Commission on the Status of Women, Gender Links and the African Woman and Child Feature Service —through the Gender and Media Diversity Centre— hosted a roundtable dialogue involving Marren Akatsa-Bukachi of the Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), Francisco Cos-Montiel of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Revai Makanje of Hivos, Norah Matovu-Winyi of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network, and Jennifer Lewis of Gender Links as facilitator, with Mwendabai Yeta Mkhize and myself providing event support and reporting.
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February 27, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
‘Psychic numbing’ is a relatively new term, assigned to the phenomenon which shows people tend to feel less urgent compassion, and tend to give less, when the suffering in question is shown to be more systemic and more pervasive, or affecting larger numbers of people. Some psychologists believe it is linked to our intuitive sense that if one suffers alone, the suffering is worse, but if one is accompanied, there might be some security in numbers, not just emotionally, but practically.
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February 15, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 6.9 million people in 12 years. No war has cost more innocent lives since World War II, and the level of extreme violence, brutality against women, and even the enslavement of families and villages, appears to be escalating. The world’s attention has yet to fully focus on the plight of the Congolese civilians living in a state of perpetual extreme crisis day after day.
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February 12, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC / DR Congo) has claimed an estimated 6.9 million lives since 1998. The International Rescue Committee has estimated, through a peer-reviewed study, that an average of 45,000 people are dying every month as a result of the ongoing conflict in the eastern DRC. This makes the Congo war by far the deadliest war since World War II, though there is shockingly little energy in the international community to act to stop it.
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January 2, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Because three issues alone will not adequately describe the breakthroughs we will experience in the coming decade, a second installment of the 2nd decade prognosis is necessary. While denuclearization pacts and a verification process for limiting the threat of nuclear weapons is likely to be key to international relations, and the green technology revolution will spur economic development around the world, international cooperation must also be directed toward issues relating to basic resources, like water and the food supply. Gender equality will be key to peacemaking efforts, and counter-extremism will be a leading aspect of collaborative development efforts.
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December 23, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
As ongoing global climate destabilization builds momentum, and fundamental climate-linked environmental processes come apart, we are hearing time and again that melting ice, whether in glaciers or in the Arctic Ocean, is “the canary in the coal mine”. The metaphor is very tempting, indeed, as coal is the most carbon-intensive fuel in use and a major contributing factor to global warming and climate destabilization, but the problem with the metaphor lies in the meaning of the canary being nothing more than an alarm signal. Glaciers are very much more important to human civilization than that.
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December 14, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
The World Bank is working with the Chinese government to fund major industrial development in specific areas across Africa, as part of an effort to spur development and create jobs. The effort is needed in order to breathe new life into African cities that are experiencing population explosions, with little new investment to match the demand for resources and jobs. But three key factors raise questions about whether the China plan for African industry will be good for Africa.
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December 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The global food supply is facing major security challenges, as warming global average temperatures and the destabilization of climate patterns and natural services undermine dependable agricultural cycles and threaten resources. The food supply is the most direct and visible connection between the breakdown of global climate systems and human health and wellbeing, but not the only link. The possible collapse of a major part of the human food supply means the collapse of agriculture, i.e. the breakdown of the human habitat.
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November 23, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Malaria is one of the 21st century’s great plagues. It is responsible for anywhere from 1 to 3 million deaths per year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts to eradicate the disease are mounting: in the year 2000, just 3% of children under 5, in sub-Saharan Africa, slept with mosquito nets; by 2008, that figure had risen to 56%. Aid groups now project that aggressive preventive measures can protect 100% of the population by the end of 2010 and reduce the number of deaths to near zero by 2015.
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November 10, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
This video is a report from Doctors without Borders (MSF) on their ongoing efforts to deliver much-needed medical aid to civilian populations across the war-torn Democratic Republican of Congo. MSF got into delivering aid to the DR Congo after the ethnic clashes in Rwanda that turned into the brutal Rwandan genocide. The mass exodus of refugees from that human catastrophe caused the violence to spill into DR Congo, and was one of the factors that sparked the brutal civil war there, which took 5.4 million lives between 1998 and 2008.
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November 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF/Doctors without Borders) is accusing the military of the Democratic Republic of Congo of firing on civilians at vaccination clinics it was running. MSF goes as far as to allege it was “used” as a means of luring large numbers of civilians to 7 different locations where Congolese troops allegedly fired into the crowds, in what appears to be an attempted assault on the rebel militia Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), operating in northeastern DR Congo.
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November 9, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
By Maggie Mzumara She thought she had no choice. She really did not see any. What she saw was a desperate situation which needed a quick, if desperate, choice. Earnest enough! But the law and society thought otherwise. That the choice she made was criminal and not perpetrated in earnest at all. Just, where were [...]
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October 30, 2009 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
It’s a busy day as usual in the city-centre, with everyone moving about their daily business. Looking around, it seems that you will mostly find women and girls sitting by the roadside selling fruits and vegetables, while men are operating bigger businesses, like construction.
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October 26, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
The government of Ethiopia has issued an emergency appeal for food aid to prevent 6.2 million people from falling into chronic hunger. The collapse of harvests and prolonged severe drought conditions has made it near impossible for Ethiopia to provide food for its surging population. The new aid plea has international aid organizations and financial institutions scrambling to work out the real human need and arrange assistance.
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September 23, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: One Comment
The issue of women’s equality is a question as old as human history. And even now, in the most modern of democracies, which guarantee more or less political and economic equality for women, there remain fundamental imbalances in rights, privileges and enforcement. Women are often guaranteed freedom from discrimination, but nevertheless suffer essential inequalities that do in fact alter the landscape of their choices and freedoms.
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September 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The UN General Assembly, which brings together every head of government in the world, to offer their country’s position on issues, their country’s demands regarding trade and conflict negotiations, their country’s hopes for a more harmonious world, this year truly grapples with issues of global consensus. Economic recovery, for many parts of the world, will require an unprecedented expansion of women’s rights and sustained attention to responsible environmental stewardship.
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September 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old track-and-field phenomenon from South Africa, is a woman whose hormonal chemistry is unusual for the average adult female. Test results are reported to show that her body naturally secretes three times the normal female levels of testosterone, the dominant “male” hormone, which some competitors say gives her an “unfair advantage”. The issue has raised perhaps the most serious challenge to the notion of fairness in sport, and to conventional attitudes about gender.
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September 3, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The security of the global food supply is deteriorating rapidly, due to a convergence of forces all related to long-gathering crisis-level erosions of the human agricultural prospect. Desertification, water scarcity, massive toxic runoff and oceanic wildlife collapse, are all putting the global food web under unprecedented stress.
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September 1, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: One Comment
Tens of thousands of head of livestock are dying in Kenya, due to one of the worst recorded droughts in the east African nation’s history. The UN is requesting $230 million in aid, and says 4 million people may face hunger if food aid is not delivered. Goatherds report being unable to get their herds to water, having to leave their animals along the way and carry what small amount of water they can back to the dying animals.
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August 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Outrage ensued when it was announced that Europe could extract electricity from the Grand Inga dam project, in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, deep in sub-Saharan Africa. At present, less than 30% of the African population has access to electricity, and in some countries, the figure is below 10%. The World Bank has found that the diversion of electricity to wealthier customers in Europe may be necessary to fund the project.
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August 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Kenya’s famed big cat, the great lion of the African savannas, is suffering one of the most startling population collapses in the world. Losing more than 100 from the total every year for the last 7 years, there are only 2,000 wild lions remaining in all of Kenya, and experts fear they could be extinct there within 10 years. Habitat destruction and other environmental factors are key to the erosion of their numbers.
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August 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
A World Bank study has projected that the global financial crisis and resulting recession will plunge some 53 million people across “emerging markets” —like China and India— into absolute poverty, in 2009 alone. In China, tens of millions of people have lost jobs related to the export-dependent manufacturing sector.
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August 13, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Pres. Barack Obama yesterday hosted 16 new Medal of Freedom recipients at the White House, honoring their lifelong contributions to the expansion of human understanding and the promotion of individual liberty and human dignity. Among the recipients were scientists and activists, soldiers and political leaders, preachers and athletes, native Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans, Africans and Asians. The 16 laureates exemplify not only rare talent and indomitable spirit, but also a devotion to human dignity and understanding.
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