January 2011
65 posts
10 Must-Follow Twitter Feeds for Egyptian Protests →
The “January 25” protest in Egypt is setting itself up to be the one of the greatest moments of uprising since the fall of the Soviet Union. For the last 36 hours I have been unable to pry myself…
ElBaradei Dissatisfied with American Response to... →
Via AFP, Mohammad ElBaradei just expressed some strong disappointment with the American response to the crisis in Egypt.
“The American government cannot ask the Egyptian people to believe that a…
Head rush on the Middle East →
For the last days, I have been kept saying that uprising became a trendy in the entire Middle East. The Tunisian revolution emulated by Egyptian protesters and today the Egyptian unrest is entering…
Afghanistan Mourns Rights Advocate Killed in... →
New Haven, Connecticut - Prominent human rights advocate Hamida Barmaki and her entire family were among those killed when a Taliban suicide bomber blew up a crowded supermarket in Kabul on…
The bluff that saved Dayton: The Madeleine Award... →
The Interpreter blog
at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney, Australia-based foreign policy think tank,
today announced its four finalists for the Madeleine
Award, which recognizes foreign policy…
Blogging workshop photos in slide show →
Here are some pictures in slide show that I’ve been taking for past years, roughly between 2003 and 2009. Most of those recent-uploaded pictures are from my workshops that I have been teaching…
Reports that don't often make it to the surface →
A friend sent me this paragraph from an internal UN agency report this week. On 26 January XXXXX received reports that twenty seven women in Kasakwa (29 km southwest of Fizi) claimed to have been…
SG speaks out on Egypt, Davos addresses children’s... →
SG Travel: over the weekend the SG will travel to Addis Ababa to attend the AU Summit (as will PGA Deiss), which will run through Monday. He will co-chair a meeting on Côte d’Ivoire Saturday and…
Richard Falk: I'm not a 911 conspiracy theorist →
Richard Falk, the
U.N. rights researcher who provoked fury from the U.N. Secretary General Ban
Ki moon for saying the U.S. government and media had apparently covered up
evidence challenging the…
Afghanistan’s Beauty →
Band-e Amir was to become Afghanistan’s first national park in the 1960s, but due to the instability of the Kabul government at the time, this did not happen. In 2004, Band-e Amir was…
Improving Maternal Health by Addressing the... →
By Menekse Gencer
So far, one the of the hardest Millennium Development Goals to reach is goal number five, which seeks to reduce maternal mortality and improve access to reproductive health…
The Razing of Tarok Kolache →
Ed note: we are very pleased to have Christopher R. Albon join our roster of regular contributors to UN Dispatch. Christopher is a Ph.D. candidate at UC Davis researching human security, health…
Video: Sports of the World and Games People Play →
Accountability Commission for Women’s & Children’s... →
SG: In Geneva, the SG spoke at the first session of the Accountability Commission for Women’s and Children’s Health, emphasizing the need to track commitments made in September. Speaking to the…
SG condemns Falk’s remarks as “preposterous”, Lang... →
SG: Today in Geneva, the SG addressed the HRC, asking States to “examine the Council’s work not from the perspective of governments or experts, but through the eyes of people who need this…
Republican Congress to U.N.: drop dead →
The new Republican-controlled House leadership
sent a clear message that it intends to place the United Nations at the center
of its foreign policy mission, stepping up scrutiny of U.N. spending,…
Egyptian Protestors Taking Cues From Tunisia →
Protestors have now come out in thousands in the Egyptian capitol, Cairo, inspired by protestors’ apparent recent success in bringing an end to the nearby regime of Tunisian President Ben Ali. In…
Natural Disasters Cost the World the Equivalent of... →
The UN is out with a new report showing that natural disasters cost about $109 billion in economic damage in 2010. That’s compared to about $35 billion in 2009.
Surprisingly, the two mega…
Come fly with me: U.N. loans plane to accused war... →
The
French government issued a formal complaint to the United Nations last week in
protest against a decision to use an U.N. airplane to escort an accused Sudanese
war criminal to a meeting with…
A Korean Vessel Rescued from Somali Pirates,... →
Russia Boming, UN Women, Flotilla Update and More... →
Russia bombing: Today both the SG and the Security Council issued statements condemning the bombing at Moscow’s Airport and sending sympathies to the victims and their families, as well as…
Ban's 'quiet diplomacy' a 'facade of action' →
Human Rights Watch slammed U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon and other world leaders for relying on “quiet diplomacy” to gently
nudge despotic governments to stop brutalizing their people.
The…
Afghanistan: Journalist attacked with acid →
Regional countries mull over the possibility of... →
As previously reported here, Rwanda, Burundi and the DR Congo met in Kigali last week to discuss the military situation in the eastern Congo. At the end of the meeting, they alleged that a new…
Why Western Military Contractors are a Terrible... →
Puntland Women’s Minister Asha Gelle and Innovator Fatima Jibrell in Garowe. By Daniel J Gerstle.
The Somali transitional government in cooperation with Western security realists is…
UNC members arrested, regional military meet →
According to diplomatic and NGO sources, two members of Kamerhe’s UNC party have been arrested in Kindu. According to these sources, the charge against them is insulting the head of state, although…
Afghanistan: A journalist attacked with acid →
World: Humor from around the world →
Don’t Let “Baby Doc” Distract. We Really Ought to... →
I have no special insight into why Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier returned to Haiti this week after a twenty-five year exile. Considering that his return promptly resulted in his arrest and…
DR of Congo : Discreet Commemorations of the 50th... →
Afghan Women’s Rights →
Sorya is a high school student, in her spare time, she helps her siblings collecting grapes on farm. Education under the Taliban went from bad to worse. Under the Taliban rule she…
Update on elections →
I made a few slight mistakes on my previous elections posting - A total of $98 million has been pledged so far to the electoral process through the Projet d’Appui au Cycle Electorale (PACE) office…
D.R. of Congo: Interviews of main presidential... →
The Forgotten Land →
Daikundi, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan but poorest, deprived and forgotten. Daikundi’s capital is Nili. It is located about 310 kilometres from Kabul, and falls…
Afghan journalist attacked with acid →
Let me begin by saying this that Afghanistan is not a safe place for journalists, writers and bloggers. If you think you are safe you must be either supported by the government or some Islamic…
Haiti one year on: a look at aid progress reports... →
Claire Provost | Global Development, guardian.co.uk
The first anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti comes with a deluge of progress reports from many of the NGOs and aid agencies involved in reconstruction and ongoing relief work. We select a sample
SG condemns Abyei deaths, UNMIS increases... →
Abyei: the SG has condemned the reported deaths in Abyei and is stressing the need for both SPLM and NCP leaders to resume and conclude negotiations. UNMIS has increased it patrolling in Abyei and…
Addendum: Constitutional Revision →
The exact vote count (h/t Rich) on the constitutional revision was 334 for, 1 against and 2 abstentions. The rest of the MPs apparently walked out in protest. For those looking for the actual…
Hello world! →
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
3.9 million Southern Sudanese at the polls, Fisher... →
Sudan: yesterday, the polls opened for the Referendum in Southern Sudan, which will run through January 15. Approximately 3.9 million are registered to vote, including 3.7 million in the South,…
Not all Good News From South Sudan →
The man the International Criminal Court acuses of having facilitated the Darfur genocide by plying arms to militias allied with the Sudanese government may be doing the same thing in the Abyei…
Policy recommendations for an election year →
I was in Washington this past week to participate in a brainstorming session on the Congo at the State Dept. I was asked to give a 5 minute presentation on what US policy should be - here it is, in…
Kash on the Congo →
Kash Thembo is hands down the best Congolese caricaturist. He has just released a new book, which you can order here: kilawou75@yahoo.com. The book has texts by Pascal Kambale, a…
Sudan Votes! Photos from the Historic Day in... →
Ed Note: multimedia journalist Jonathan Shuler sent these pictures to UN Dispatch from around Juba, South Sudan today. Here’s Jon:
When I arrived at Garang Monument in Juba for the opening…
Global Health: The Good News for 2011 →
In 2010, we were on the verge of some major breakthroughs in global health. In many cases, we were close enough that one more year will actually bring success. Three global health success stories I…
UNICEF releases report on children in Haiti a year... →
Sudan: today the SG commended the Governments of Sudan and Southern Sudan for their leadership ahead of the Referendum this weekend, urging all parties to do everything needed to ensure free,…
Southern Sudan referendum - photo story →
Controversy in Kinshasa as Kabila Tries to Change... →
Talk of changing the constitution and electoral law in the Congo is now mounting, with the national assembly debating the issue and parties tallying their members’ votes to see whether they can win…
D.R.of Congo: Mobutu's ex-Presidential Guards... →