Archive for the ‘Elsewhere’ Category
Happy Earth Day, kill a tree
Or an acre of them. That’s what Glenn Beck did. Glenn Beck, for those of you who’ve been dodging reality for awhile, is the Hot New Thing in Conservative Cable. Ie, he has a huge show on Fox News. I haven’t seen it, but I hear it’s an even more, ahem, robust version of his [...]
New Yorker in the dock, take II, or, How to accuse indigenous people of awful things (without really trying?)
How do you know if the truth is truly true? Yeah, you read that right. But first, a background note or two: Rhonda Shearer, who runs the watchdog group I referred to in my earlier post, brings up some good points in her comment. First: my own error. Shearer didn’t send 40 anthropologists to New [...]
It's never the women, is it? Always the pigs.
The New Yorker is in some hot water over Jared Diamond’s article last year,about Papua New Guinea. Diamond, you may recall, is a Pulitzer- and MacArthur winner, the man behind the tome that is Guns, Germs and Steel. I haven’t read the story, but Forbes summarizes it like this: …Jared Diamond describes blood feuds that [...]
"No, I said I'd only waterboard if I HAD to, and then only for 20 minutes…."
The Obama Administration released some previously top secret documents about tactics used by the CIA today, at the same time that he promised those who implemented these tactics immunity from prosecution. I make no judgment on the latter, though I do wonder to myself whether the same tactics described in these memos will continue over [...]
Burundi ain't Rwanda
It gets treated that way. “They both have hills!” “They both have Hutus and Tutsis in the same proportions!” “They both even had genocide…except nobody really knows about Burundi’s.” But anyone who’s taken the Kigali-Bujumbura express knows, hills and Hutus and mutually intelligible languages that no one else in the world speaks aside, these countries [...]
Vox justus. (Cuz that sounds like it would be Latin for justice…): An interview with Luis Moreno-Ocampo
My personal picks for “best of” the ICC prosecutor’s sit-down with Newsweek: NEWSWEEK: Bashir responded to the ICC’s arrest warrant by expelling foreign-aid groups from Sudan. Did you expect that? Moreno-Ocampo: We have evidence that he has been committing massive crimes since 2003. Expelling the aid groups was just another step. …. NEWSWEEK: Does the [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [