May 2010
100 posts
Embedded With Afghan Civil Society - Part 5 -... →
One her first morning in the remote district of Yakawlang, UN Dispatch Afghanistan corespondent Una Moore uses a village public bath and meets a Spanish-speaking Afghan soldier. What would…
As the "Freedom Flotilla" Sets Sail, Reality... →
Update: Since this article was composed, the Israeli Navy has fired on the Freedom Flotilla, killing at least 10 international activists. The official Israeli line, via Haaretz:…
Francophone Africa : blogging about African... →
I became the grand prize winner →
I want to express appreciation to all who supported me and voted for photos in the contest. The photo contest which is called “Why Afghanistan Matters” was launched last year by NATO. According to…
Memorial Day Poems, Sketchpads, and Rolling... →
While driving through Washington, D.C. yesterday with an old friend who just returned from serving with the U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan, we came upon a low rumble, a growl from the…
Commitment to WMD-free Middle East in doubt as NPT... →
More than 150 nations agreed on a nuclear pact Friday aimed at strengthening the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty after the United States and Arab governments agreed to convene a 2012…
And all we got was this lousy paragraph →
United States President Barack Obama presented his
52-page long National Security Strategy expressing the need to reassert U.S.
leadership in shaping a new “international order.” So where does…
Welcome MONUSCO →
The Security Council will vote either today or tomorrow on a new mandate for MONUC. According to a draft, which is currently being debated, here are the outlines: The mission will be named …
Peacekeeping pullout emperils refugees →
U.N. peacekeepers in Chad will begin packing their gear this
week, the first step in the U.N.’s phased withdrawal from a politically fragile
African country that has grown weary of hosting more…
Congress tries to halt award endowed by African... →
Senator Patrick Leahy,
the powerful chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Department of State and
Foreign Operations, has raised concerns about UNESCO’s plans to administer a…
Yo Soy El Army: Latino Youths Targeted By U.S.... →
If the struggle for immigrant rights is one of the defining issues of our time (globally and not only nationally), as many including myself have believed for years, then how host country…
Sierra Leone Scores Another One for the Peace Team →
There have been few tides of war more destructive and shocking than when Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front retaliated against government corruption and militia games by storming the…
Unrest in Lubumbashi →
On Sunday evening, the town of Lubumbahsi was alerted by large movements of military personnel through town, deploying to the airport, the presidential residence and various other places….
The Independent and news accuracy →
Unbelievably, The Independent has changed and deleted most parts of the article after my critic about its exaggeration and almost lying about Afghanistan’s administration position…
That’s my Motherland you’re messing with →
For U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the North Korean torpedo attack on a South Korean
naval vessel is more than just another international crisis.
It’s personal.
Ban has served as a…
Is the U.N. complicit in Sri Lankan war crimes? →
Louise Arbour,
the head of the International Crisis Group, called for an internal review of
the U.N.’s conduct during Sri Lanka’s bloody 2009 civil war, telling Turtle Bay that the…
Visiting Haiti's Orphanages Four Months After the... →
I woke up at 6:00am to make my way to the porta-potty. The sun was already blazing hot. It was my third and final day in Haiti on one of the most meaningful trips of my life.
There was a…
Andrew Feinstein on the Arms Trade and Corruption... →
Open Society Fellow and former ANC Member of Parliament Andrew Feinstein recently spoke at OSI about his work investigating a corrupt weapons deal involving senior members of the ANC government a decade ago. The episode was a moral turning point for South Africa’s young democracy and led to his resignation from parliament in 2001.
Somalia: Time for Pro-People Public Relations →
The struggles facing Somalis keep droning on and on, and so many development issues are shelved simply because there is still a jagged security barrier for nearly half the country. The good…
Recent Floods in the Country →
Environmental Protection
Environmental protection is one of the important issues, which has been neglected during different government periods in Afghanistan. There wasn’t any particular entity…
Recent Heavy Floods in Afghanistan →
Environmental Protection
Environmental protection is one of the important issues, which has been neglected during different government periods in Afghanistan. There wasn’t any particular entity…
Embedded With Afghan Civil Society - Part 4 - The... →
Una Moore leaves Bamiyan city and travels on to the remote mountain district of Yakawlang with the director of the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization. Along the way, she…
Ground Rules for Expat Parties in War Zones →
As a longtime champion of living wildly while pursuing peace, as well as taking time out to rock when trapped in a war zone, I’m compelled to clarify a few ground rules punk peaceniks…
Egg Seller →
“Early morning my mother gave me these eggs to sell them in the street in order to buy food. It was too cold to hold these in my frozen hands. The eggs were supposed to help us…
Afghanistan: Beckham in Helmand? →
Oil Spills and National Security: BP, Halliburton,... →
The environmental catastrophe that continues to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico has deep reverberations in another prominent gulf halfway across the globe: the Persian Gulf.
In the nearly…
Beckham visits Helmand →
This news is on the Independent website that says David Beckham flies out to visit British troops in Helmand. But this part must be a joke: The Afghan government was keen for Beckham to also…
A View From the Tent Cities in Haiti →
Captain Perry was very prompt and picked up comedian John Fugelsang and me at exactly 8:15am. We loaded into the white vans and drove onto the crowded streets of Port-au-Prince. From the…
Aid workers in Haiti trying to find the right... →
Embedded With Afghan Civil Society - Part 3 -... →
After a long and bumpy trip by road, Una Moore arrives in Bamiyan city with the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, an NGO that promotes human rights through arts and…
The 10 worst U.N. Security Council resolutions... →
As the world’s attention turns to whether yet another U.N.
Security Council sanctions resolution will convince Iran to stop enriching
uranium, Turtle Bay thought it would
be useful to look at…
Obama administration lifts sanctions on Russians... →
The Obama administration on Friday lifted
sanctions against four Russian entities involved in illicit weapons trade with
Iran and Syria since 1999, and acknowledged exempting a Russian-Iranian…
North Korea headed back to the Security Council? →
North Korea’s alleged torpedo strike in March against the
South Korean naval ship Cheonan is
likely to come before the U.N. Security Council next week, placing Pyongyang
back in its familiar…
From Waziristan to NYC: Drones Are No Joking... →
I’ve never been a fan of the contrived one-liners that routinely characterize the annual gathering of the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, but one of President Obama’s jokes…
Peter Beinart and the Existential Dilemma of... →
Former New Republic editor Peter Beinart, an observant Jew and noted “liberal hawk” who once called for the Democratic Party to purge anti-militarists from its ranks, sent shockwaves…
Egypt: No Longer Jewel of the Nile →
A Visit to Haiti, Four Months After the Earthquake →
I went to Haiti last week to entertain the U.S. troops who have been deployed there on a humanitarian mission in the aftermath of January’s catastrophic earthquake. Normally I go to war zones…
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The Arms Trade Treaty Primer « The International... →
I’m ashamed to say this—but I will in the hopes that someone else out there was in my boat: I had no idea the international community is moving toward an Arms Trade Treaty regulating the proliferation of conventional weapons.
In Dec. 2006, the UNGA passed Resolution 61/89 which compelled the UN Secretary General to take the temperature of member states on moving toward an ATT and establishing a...
Embedded With Afghan Civil Society - Part II - The... →
In May 2010, Una Moore spent three weeks following an Afghan human rights organization in the field. The first leg of her journey, overland to Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan, is…
Middle East: “Blood Borders” →
Grim picture of life →
Many of the impoverished families living in the caves say they are too poor to live anywhere else even though the government insists that they are doing damage to an the area, near the…
Thank You All →
Where to begin, what to say… I can’t remember anything right now for writing. I just come here to say: I deeply appreciate your kind expression of sympathy in my time of great sorrow. I know my…
Embedded With Afghan Civil Society - Introduction →
In May 2010, UN Dispatch Afghanistan correspondent Una Moore spent three weeks following an Afghan human rights NGO to diplomatic briefings, remote villages and urban slums.
…
Embedded With Afghan Civil Society - Part 1 -... →
UN Dispatch Afghanistan correspondent Una Moore embarks on a road trip with the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization.
In May 2010, I accompanied the Afghanistan Human…
Doss announces resignation; mining troubles →
Some news: In a letter distributed to MONUC staff yesterday, the head of the mission Alan Doss officially announced his retirement from the UN, to begin once the Security Council renews …
The big powers strike back →
For a day, Turkey and Brazil, two middling
powers, lived large on the international stage, brokering a dramatic nuclear
deal with Iran that was intended to stall the big powers’ march…
Who Is a Veteran? →
For a long time, I’ve wondered whether war and peace diplomats, humanitarian aid workers, rights advocates, doctors, and others who work to save lives while unarmed and unarmored in war zones…
These are a few of my favourite things →
So, i was a little down, thinking about a pick-me-up, and these are the things that made me smile, just to think about.
(AKA, the post that proved she was really really trying to get back to…
Clinton and Karzai Meet at U.S. Institute of Peace... →
If ever there was a high-level wartime meeting of state officials under propitious but also paradoxical auspices, this is it. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary…
Kadhalika →
I was thinking about blogging about developments in Rwanda, but Texas in Africa beat me to most of the stories here.
The US State Department has officially begun talks with representatives…