Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category
When America says “genocide,” does anyone care?
This is the uncomfortable and necessary question author Rebecca Hamilton raises over at The Atlantic today. Hamilton is the author of Fighting for Darfur, an analysis of the anti-genocide advocacy movement in the United States, and her Atlantic piece is based on a newly declassified State Department memo which bolsters her book’s argument about the [...]
“Order of Ghastliness”: This week in Numbers Masquerading as Meaningful
When I and others wrote recently about a problematic study allegedly clarifying the number of women raped in Congo, there was a common refrain in the comments: All this talk about talking about rape, and nobody’s doing anything! What’s the point of arguing about the numbers? I don’t subscribe to that view, for very many [...]
Sometimes, a girl’s gotta stick up for change
Check out what I think will be a debate over at change.org, between me and the new editor of the Human Rights blog. (Awkard alert! I actually write there, and for him. At until Nov 1.) I think this because I disagree mightily, heartily, with his contention that “nothing, zilch, zip, nada” has been done [...]
Can diamonds be a (socially responsible) girl’s best friend again?
Recently, I learned about The Clarity Project, an effort to bring fairly-mined, fairly-sourced diamonds into the jewelry market. Impressed by the venture and the website, I did an email interview with Jesse Finfrock, one of the founders. In addition to making diamond engagement rings a possibility again, The Clarity Project is a fascinating exercise in [...]
The alleged power of one
Tom over at aviewfromthecave offers a critique of a recent Washington Post article about a couple, the Hughses, who went on safari in Tanzania and then decided to start a bike charity for residents of Karatu, a village near the safari site where the couple stopped at a local school and learned the kinds of things [...]
Why Enough will always get Congo “wrong” — and why we should maybe thank them for it
I’m going to go straight to it: Because advocacy is politics. Advocacy is aspirational; it is rhetorical; and it is manipulative. And none of those things is prima facie bad (though there are better and worse ways to do them). It seems to me we should no more expect advocates to offer a nuanced and [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [