December 24, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: No Comment Yet
The Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri died this past weekend, opening a period of seven days of mourning for one of the nation’s most influential clerics. The seventh day of mourning happens to coincide with the Shi’a holy day of atonement, Ashura. Ashura marks the killing of Hossein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed, by the Caliph Yazid, in the year 680. Yazid is often portrayed as a tyrannical ruler in Shi’a tradition, and the festival lends itself to an expression of the very anti-dictatorship language used by the reformist opposition.
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December 14, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: No Comment Yet
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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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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July 9, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: 3 Comments
Niger is the third leading source of uranium in the world, after Canada and Australia. Uranium accounts for as much as 70% of Niger’s export revenue. Pres. Mamadou Tandja ordered a referendum be held to amend the constitution, permitting him to remain in office. That order was overturned by the nation’s constitutional court, which Tandja subsequently dissolved, replacing the justices with jurists he believed would be more favorable to his interests.
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June 9, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: No Comment Yet
Gabon’s president Omar Bongo has died, aged 73, while undergoing treatment for cancer in a clinic in Barcelona, Spain. Bongo took over the country in a 1967, after Leon Mba, Gabon’s first post-independence president, under whom Bongo was vice-president, died. Bongo had ruled for 22 years through an authoritarian one-party system based on legislation he had introduced granting himself the right to rule for life, then for another 20 years, after he was forced to legalize opposition parties by spreading political unrest.
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May 8, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: 2 Comments
The World Health Organization has found that 1,500 women are dying every day across Africa from pregnancy-related complications or during childbirth. The figure has not improved over the last decade, largely due to the lack of adequate medical facilities. An extremely high rate of maternal mortality, as many as 1,000 per 100,000 live births (fully 1% of women giving birth), makes the situation an extreme threat to women’s health.
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April 28, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: No Comment Yet
Earlier this month, Cuban president Raúl Castro made the stunning announcement that Cuba was “ready to discuss everything” with the Obama administration, including political prisoners, economic policy, and democratic electoral processes. Pres. Obama has been firm but cautious in his declarations of a willingness to open a new era of engagement with the Cold War enemy just 90 miles from the Florida coast.
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March 5, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
The indictment of Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court means the nation of Sudan itself is, under international treaties to which it is party, obliged to arrest and extradite its own president. But the regime of the authoritarian ruler has, unsurprisingly, rejected that obligation and says the indictment is a conspiracy against Sudan by western powers.
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February 11, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
The crisis in Darfur continues to worsen, as the Khartoum government continues to support groups attacking civilians indiscriminately under the guise of counter-insurgency. Various rebel groups in Darfur have sprung up as the crisis has worsened, making a political solution increasingly difficult, as Darfuris refuse to accept the rule of the Bashir government in Khartoum. Meanwhile, the killing goes on.
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January 3, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
John Atta Mills, leader of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, has won the presidency, paving the way for Ghana to again demonstrate its standing as an established democracy in which a peaceful transfer of power is the accepted process.
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December 10, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
The governments of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo / DRC) are accused of fighting a proxy war by providing aid to rebel militia in the eastern DR Congo, according to a new draft report to be presented to the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee. The BBC is reporting that the draft report accuses Rwanda of “supplying aid and child soldiers to Tutsi rebels” and the army of the DR Congo of collaborarating with “Rwandan-Hutu militia, the FLDR”.
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December 9, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
The spread of cholera due to Zimbabwe’s foundering hygienic infrastructure is reaching crisis proportions. UNICEF is calling for an emergency fund of $17.5 million to fight the spread of cholera in Zimbabwe, calling the outbreak “a cholera crisis of unprecedented levels”. With 13,960 cases already declared and an estimated 589 dead to date, the UN warns upwards of 60,000 people could become infected if drastic and immediate action is not taken to contain the epidemic.
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December 8, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
Reports from Ghana suggest turnout was historically high and the elections peaceful and without significant irregularities. While many voters were forced to wait in long lines for hours, and some began forming lines at polling stations the night before the vote, there were few reported incidents of serious problems. It is expected the election will result in Ghana’s second successive peaceful transfer of power, which the AP cites as “a litmus test for a mature democracy and a feat that only a handful of other nations in Africa have accomplished”.
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November 28, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
Warning that a military crackdown in the wake of last week’s failed coup attempt could destabilize the West African country, the UN Peace-building Commission has called on teh government of Guinea-Bissau to guarantee civilian rule and the rule of law. The sitting president, João Bernardo “Nino” Vieira, initially came to power in a coup, was ousted during the 1998-99 civil war, and returned to power in the 2005 elections.
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November 24, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
As civilians have fled clashes among rebel militia and government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, calls have been mounting for UN intervention to restore peace, prevent atrocities against civilians and ensure the delivery of much needed humanitarian aid. The UN Security Council (UNSC) voted last Thursday to send reinforcements of 3,085 additional soldiers to try to better secure the region now inflamed with rebel-government clashes.
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November 18, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
A federal judge in Miami has ordered the Curação Drydock Company to pay $80 million in damages and fines for enslaving workers shipped to Curação from Cuba. The workers were reportedly forced to work up to 112 hours per week at just 3 cents (US$0.03) per hour. As CSM reports: “Their passports were seized at the airport and they were rarely allowed to leave the shipyard complex…”
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November 17, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
Socio-economic issues linked to the disparate treatment of racial groups still plagues much of Brazil’s population and impedes the modernization of its economy. Though the Amazon nation is booming, and has become a world leader among developing market economies, the current president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, took office promising to finally rid the dense, remote rainforest of de facto slavery.
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