Peace Studies
Thoughtful article by David Remnick on the Bombing suspects and their family
Quote: “The Tsarnaev family had been battered by history before—by empire and the strife of displacement, by exile and emigration. Asylum in a bright new land proved little comfort. When Anzor fell sick, a few years ago, he resolved to return to the Caucasus; he could not imagine dying in America. He had travelled halfway around […]
Representations of the Boston bombing, its culprits, and terror (an opinion piece)
This is a short, though wide-ranging opinion piece. One pull quote does not really give a sense of what the rest of it is about, but here’s one to think about: “Waking up at six-thirty on Friday morning and hearing what had happened in the night, I followed my own generational instincts, honed on Vietnam […]
Important news about China’s system of punitive, hard labor re-education
The link is here. From the article: “Rights advocates are pleased that the issue is on the leadership’s agenda but said that the devil would be in the details. Previous proposals for change, they noted, have included an 18-month cap on sentences, weekend furloughs for prisoners and access to lawyers for defendants. But such […]
World reactions to massacre at Newton, CN
Rupert Murdock, who owns Fox News, represents a sidebar to the world response generally, but his response is interesting in terms of the domestic U.S. debate regarding firearms: “Australia confronted a similar tragedy in 1996, when a man went on a shooting spree in the southern state of Tasmania, killing 35 people. The mass killing […]
Two developments concerning torture/enhanced interrogation
WaPo: A U.S. Senate committee concludes its 6,000 page report on enhanced interrogation, finding its harsh methods ineffective (link is here) while the European Court of Human Rights condemns a the U.S. abduction and torture of an innocent individual (the link is here). Regarding the senate report: “It could be months, if not years, before […]
Irma Marquez, GAC alum, and the Deferred Action Program (topic: Immigration)
– from MPR: “Officially declaring herself in the country illegally took a leap of faith, since she was, in effect, giving the government the very information it would need to deport her. But Marquez was anxious to gain even short-term legal status, anxious to finally get a driver’s license and a paying job where she could […]
U.S. officially recognizes the Syrian opposition as ‘the legitimate representative of the Syrian people’.
“… Mr. Obama praised the opposition, known formally as the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, for what he said was its inclusiveness, its openness to various ethnic and religious groups, and its ties to local councils involved in the fighting against Mr. Assad’s security forces. “At this point we have a well-organized-enough coalition […]
WaPo: “China: Self-immolators and their abettors will be charged with murder”
“An unprecedented 91 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the past 18 months, a sign of worsening despair over what many Tibetans see as a systematic attempt by the Chinese government to eradicate their culture.” The link is here.
“Thirty-one percent of U.S. correctional security officers suffer from PTSD”
The link is here. [Salon] “Thirty-one percent of U.S. correctional security officers suffer from PTSD, according to a report from Desert Waters Correctional Outreach — a nonprofit dedicated to corrections professionals’ well-being. The most recent National Comorbidity Study asserted that the prevalence of PTSD in the general population in 3.5 percent — nearly 10 times […]
U.N. Recognizes Palestine as a Non-Member, Observer State
“More than 130 countries voted on Thursday to upgrade Palestine to a nonmember observer state of the United Nations, a triumph for Palestinian diplomacy and a sharp rebuke to the United States and Israel.” “The new status will give the Palestinians more tools to challenge Israel in international legal forums for its occupation activities in the West Bank, […]