Christian Science Monitor (US)
26 June 2010
As the G8 countries this weekend emphasized the need for more accountability on their aid pledges, relief groups decried the fact that many pledges at previous G8 summits have gone unmet.
TORONTO - It is no small irony that Canada has focused on G8 accountability as a priority in this past weekend's summit.
Nor that it was a Canadian, the iconic internationalist Lester B. Pearson, who came up with the 0.7 percent pledge - later adopted by the United Nations General Assembly - that rich countries would give 0.7 percent of their Gross National Product in development aid to the world's poorest.
Today, Canada's percentage of GNP going to aid is less than half the standard set by Mr. Pearson, and as the Group of Eight nations wrapped up their meeting in Huntsville, Ontario yesterday, many aid advocates questioned not only the Canadian hosts' commitment to development, but the entire group's very credibility.
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Sunday, June 27, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Risky Business
Carleton University Magazine
Spring 2010 issue
With dwindling staff budgets, freelancers are the go-to source for media content, but free agentry is rife with work hazards. One woman's story of being booted out of Sudan for asking too many questions
KHARTOUM - It was just before 2 p.m. when I arrived at the departure hall of Khartoum International Airport, heading home to Canada to spend Christmas 2008 with my family. I dragged my worn suitcase through the front doors, barely taking two steps when I heard someone calling my name.
I turned to find a large man with an unsmiling, unfamiliar face. "We'd like to see you in the office," he said in Arabic. A sick feeling swallowed up the pit of my stomach. Having been stopped once before by national security officials in Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region, I knew what this meant. National security controls everything in this country, including who flies. I had no choice but to follow.
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Spring 2010 issue
With dwindling staff budgets, freelancers are the go-to source for media content, but free agentry is rife with work hazards. One woman's story of being booted out of Sudan for asking too many questions
KHARTOUM - It was just before 2 p.m. when I arrived at the departure hall of Khartoum International Airport, heading home to Canada to spend Christmas 2008 with my family. I dragged my worn suitcase through the front doors, barely taking two steps when I heard someone calling my name.
I turned to find a large man with an unsmiling, unfamiliar face. "We'd like to see you in the office," he said in Arabic. A sick feeling swallowed up the pit of my stomach. Having been stopped once before by national security officials in Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region, I knew what this meant. National security controls everything in this country, including who flies. I had no choice but to follow.
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G20: Less-developed nations still struggle to shape agenda
Christian Science Monitor (US)
25 June 2010
TORONTO - As Brazil's ambassador to the European Union once put it, "there are new kids on the block" in world politics and trade. That's evident at the G20, where Brazil and other "new kids" Russia, India and China, collectively known as the BRICs, expect to have an equal voice at the table during this weekend's summit.
"No one asks anymore: 'What are you doing here?' Because it's obvious what Brazil is doing there. It has the weight," says Ernesto Araujo, deputy head of mission at the Brazilian embassy in the Canadian capital, Ottawa.
But as their stars have risen, other less-developed countries in the G20 and worldwide have been left wayside. G20 members South Africa, Mexico, Argentina and Indonesia - along with the world's least developed countries, which aren't even at the table in Toronto - remain overshadowed.
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25 June 2010
TORONTO - As Brazil's ambassador to the European Union once put it, "there are new kids on the block" in world politics and trade. That's evident at the G20, where Brazil and other "new kids" Russia, India and China, collectively known as the BRICs, expect to have an equal voice at the table during this weekend's summit.
"No one asks anymore: 'What are you doing here?' Because it's obvious what Brazil is doing there. It has the weight," says Ernesto Araujo, deputy head of mission at the Brazilian embassy in the Canadian capital, Ottawa.
But as their stars have risen, other less-developed countries in the G20 and worldwide have been left wayside. G20 members South Africa, Mexico, Argentina and Indonesia - along with the world's least developed countries, which aren't even at the table in Toronto - remain overshadowed.
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Sunday, May 9, 2010
Nazia Quazi case encourages Canadian Muslims to speak out
The Christian Science Monitor (US)
7 May 2010
OTTAWA - It is Saturday morning in a downtown restaurant, and Shahla Khan Salter sits three other local Muslims. They've been brought together by a 24-year-old Indo-Canadian who has been trapped in Saudi Arabia since 2007 due to a practice that requires women to have a male guardian's permission to travel. Ms. Khan Salter has assembled the group to brainstorm ways to help the young woman, Nazia Quazi, return to Canada.
Whlie Ms. Quazi's case is unusual, what it may reflect about changes within Western Muslim communities is equally noteworthy. Historically, Western Muslims have been apathetic when it comes to civic engagement, but increasinly Islamic communities in the West, like those helping Quazi, are beginning to buck this trend.
"I definitely think that there is increased civic engagement, says Nadia Roumani, director of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, which helps Muslim leaders and non-profit organizations develop the skills to get involved in anything from politics and education to interfaith work. "It's not pervasive, but there is a critical mass."
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7 May 2010
OTTAWA - It is Saturday morning in a downtown restaurant, and Shahla Khan Salter sits three other local Muslims. They've been brought together by a 24-year-old Indo-Canadian who has been trapped in Saudi Arabia since 2007 due to a practice that requires women to have a male guardian's permission to travel. Ms. Khan Salter has assembled the group to brainstorm ways to help the young woman, Nazia Quazi, return to Canada.
Whlie Ms. Quazi's case is unusual, what it may reflect about changes within Western Muslim communities is equally noteworthy. Historically, Western Muslims have been apathetic when it comes to civic engagement, but increasinly Islamic communities in the West, like those helping Quazi, are beginning to buck this trend.
"I definitely think that there is increased civic engagement, says Nadia Roumani, director of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, which helps Muslim leaders and non-profit organizations develop the skills to get involved in anything from politics and education to interfaith work. "It's not pervasive, but there is a critical mass."
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Sunday, October 11, 2009
How Kenya's 'Little Mogadishu' became a hub for Somali militants
The Christian Science Monitor (US)
26 August 2009
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0826/p06s02-woaf.html
EASTLEIGH, KENYA - The streets of Eastleigh, a Somali enclave of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, are crowded and dirty. Sewage and rotting garbage flow through gullies. Police are virtually nonexistent; restaurants are locked, even when open, for safety reasons; and guns are readily available for sale at the market.
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26 August 2009
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0826/p06s02-woaf.html
EASTLEIGH, KENYA - The streets of Eastleigh, a Somali enclave of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, are crowded and dirty. Sewage and rotting garbage flow through gullies. Police are virtually nonexistent; restaurants are locked, even when open, for safety reasons; and guns are readily available for sale at the market.
No one ever said "Little Mogadishu" was paradise, but now the sprawling neighborhood has become a hub of financing and recruiting for militant Islamists waging holy war in neighboring Somalia, according to residents, security analysts, and diplomats.
"Those who kill people in Somalia are also here – scattered all over the place," says an elderly Sufi Muslim sheikh matter-of-factly. "This is the hotspot of the Somali fundamentalism.... They are recruiting right here in Nairobi."
In the latest chapter in a civil war that has raged since 1991, Somalia's radical insurgents this week rejected the Western-backed transitional government's call for a cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Militant and moderate Islamists are battling for control of the rubble-strewn streets of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, fighting that has forced more than 1.4 million people to flee their homes and caused what the United Nations on Wednesday called the country's worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years of war.
But here in Eastleigh, the war takes a different form.Continue reading
How one youth was drawn to jihad in Somalia
The Christian Science Monitor (US)
19 July 2009
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0714/p10s01-woaf.html
19 July 2009
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0714/p10s01-woaf.html
ISIOLO, KENYA - A smattering of wispy clouds dots the blue sky as white-robed worshipers trickle into Taqwa mosque for Friday prayers. Our car is parked outside the mosque, slightly hidden by a hedgerow of tangled savannah brush that defines the mosque's perimeter. A cool, dry wind blows across this arid town – refreshing against the equatorial heat, but leaving a blanket of dust on the whitewashed buildings.
The car's tinted windows are rolled up to protect against the fine film of dust – and to conceal me from sight.
Isiolo is smack in the center of Kenya, far from Somalia. But the sermon pouring out of the mosque's loudspeakers is in Somali. We listen for a few minutes before the driver abruptly pulls away.
"If they catch us spying on them, we'll be stoned," he says.
Continue readingRecruiting Somalis in Kenya
Public Radio International's "The World"
14 July 2009
http://www.theworld.org/2009/07/13/recruiting-somalis-in-kenya/
ISIOLO, KENYA -Somalia has experienced almost constant conflict since the collapse of its central government in 1991. The long-running instability has created misery for its people. And it’s spilled over into its east African neighbor, Kenya, home to many ethnic Somalis.
Heba Aly has the story of one Kenyan community – hundreds of miles from the border – that’s lost one of its young men to the insurgency.
Listen here
14 July 2009
http://www.theworld.org/2009/07/13/recruiting-somalis-in-kenya/
ISIOLO, KENYA -Somalia has experienced almost constant conflict since the collapse of its central government in 1991. The long-running instability has created misery for its people. And it’s spilled over into its east African neighbor, Kenya, home to many ethnic Somalis.
Heba Aly has the story of one Kenyan community – hundreds of miles from the border – that’s lost one of its young men to the insurgency.
Listen here
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