Picture for a moment, a non-English speaking Muslim tourist in – name your location – Sydney, Amsterdam, New York. What are the chances she would be taken, literally, by the hand, by a group of uni students who knew absolutely nothing about her, and invited into their activities for the afternoon as if she were […]
Darfuris in Cairo
June 9, 2009 by 1 Comment
I did several interviews with Darfuri refugees here in Cairo today. Each person requested anonymity, and I understand why. Not only are they still scared for family and friends remaining in Darfur, but life for them here is not easy either. I’ll leave that issue there for now, but suffice to say, making it out […]
Genocide/crimes against humanity/war crimes into law (on paper anyway)
June 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment
A list of items that the Arab League’s Envoy to Sudan gave me on Sunday night (to show me the progress Sudan has been making) included the recent incorporation of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes into Sudanese criminal law. I was caught out. I prepare thoroughly for interviews, but this was news to […]
Serendipity on the streets of Cairo
June 7, 2009 by 1 Comment
Tonight I’m set to have my first interview with one of the African heads at the Arab League. I was told to meet him at the Egyptian Diplomatic Club – but no address was given. No one where am staying seemed to have any idea, I couldn’t reach my contact person, and google offered me […]
Perceptions from outside the U.S. #5: Poland
June 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Kris Kotarski is a journalist and peace and conflict researcher. He grew up in Warsaw, Poland before immigrating to Canada in 1991. In the last year, he has been based somewhere between Calgary, Ottawa, Warsaw, and Berlin He contributes regular columns to the Calgary Herald and 3 Quarks Daily. Is there an advocacy movement for […]
Open Letter: Research update 1/3
June 5, 2009 by 1 Comment
Hi everyone I’m now one third of the way through my incredible year as an Open Society fellow, and about to embark on three intensive months of interviews in Africa, so it seemed like an appropriate time to send an update. The bulk of my U.S. government interviews are now complete. High profile highlights to […]
Obama in Cairo
June 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment
The wonders of modern technology had me watching “the speech” live on youtube, while receiving incoming tweets (check out: #cairospeech) of people’s reactions from around the world (the twittersphere is hardly representative, but for what it’s worth I’d say the reaction was 85% Can we give this man the Nobel Peace Prize; 15% This is […]
Podcasts now available on i-tunes
June 4, 2009 by 1 Comment
Hi everyone You can now subscribe (it’s free) to the podcasts on this site through i-tunes by going here. To somewhat state the obvious: The benefits are that you no longer need to be at your computer to listen – it can travel on your i-pod with you on the metro – plus I’ll be […]
Silence is the Enemy – but whose silence?
June 2, 2009 by 3 Comments
I’m really torn over a blogosphere initiative that has started to take off over the past 24 hours. It’s called Silence is the Enemy. It was launched yesterday on a blog called The Intersection (it’s worth reading the full post), where Sheril Kirshenbaum describes her personal experiences, announces the initiative to “to help a generation […]
Darfuri women: Nowhere to turn
May 31, 2009 by Leave a Comment
A report released today by Physicians for Human Rights and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative documents “the scope and long-term impact of rape and other sexual violence experienced by women who fled attacks on their villages in Darfur and are now refugees in neighboring Chad.” The report is based on 88 in-depth interviews with women at […]
