Harmful Drugs, Harmful Policy
For Mike, every day is the same. Shivering nights mercifully give way to morning while he watches the people in his neighborhood get ready for school and work. Although Mike has no job, he has the same plan every morning, afternoon, and night: make money to score heroin. Tuesday is trash day, which means […]
Big Brother Is Here To Stay
Big Brother is here. Earlier this year, Edward Snowden exposed the full reach and extent to which the American government spies not only on its own people, but on foreign governments and even its supposed allies in Mexico, France, Germany, and the European Union. The National Security Agency (NSA) collects massive amounts of phone data, […]
Discrimination Against Minorities in Pakistan: a Look at the UDHR
December 10th, 1948 was a momentous day for human rights. The still-young United Nations (UN) unanimously, with eight abstentions, passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is a 30-article guideline that promotes “universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction of race, sex, language, or […]
The Carbon Crunch
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may be remembered as one of the few politicians to extend term limits in office, but pragmatism will be his ultimate legacy. If Mayor Bloomberg is the ideal pragmatist in politics then meet Dieter Helm, his counterpart in the climate change arena. Like Bloomberg who’s known to champion social […]
H&M: Fashion’s Human Rights Faux Pas
In the midst of a thick smog and blistering heat, they stand in huddled masses on overcrowded trucks. The young women, in groups of around 20 or 30, are on their way to a new day at work in the Kandal province, only a short trip from the heart of Phnom Penh. Noticeably in pain, […]
Women, India and Change
A country bound by culture, belief, religion and hope for a new tomorrow has recently become a symbol of misogyny. For several decades, women in Indian society have experienced a number of atrocities, some of which go unrecorded, while others are recorded but never publicly acknowledged. History narrates stories of early marriages, which sometimes involved […]
GOP Can No Longer Afford to Ignore Winning Ticket: Condoleezza Rice
The game is changing, and only one team is successfully adapting. Democrats won a 2012 presidential election in landslide fashion that, in the average Republican’s view, the GOP should not have lost. In the month before the election, the unemployment rate was hovering around 8 percent, federal spending was still high, and the economy had […]
On Violence In America
Virginia Tech. Tucson. Aurora. Newtown. Each name evokes frightful images. You knew where you were when you heard about Aurora, when you heard about Newtown. It is time that we, as Americans, sit down and talk about guns and the violence dilemma that we face. Something must be done. All solutions are on the […]
Drones, Deception, and Double-Tapping: the Obama Administration is Killing Innocents Abroad
For Waleed Shiraz, 22, life in northwest Pakistan was once uncomplicated. A former student of Political Science and foreign languages, Shiraz recalls days spent studying in the hujra, a traditional guest drawing room – he liked it there because it was “peaceful and quiet.” The oldest of three brothers, Shiraz hoped to pursue his Master’s […]