Posted on November 20, 2010
Xieng Khuang Province, Lao PDR – Looking down from a window of our airplane, I see that the lush green landscape of the high plateau is pockmarked with brown craters, still empty of vegetation more than 30 years after they were made.
These are the scars of the U.S. government’s nine-year-long “secret” bombing campaign over this small, landlocked country that borders Vietnam to the east. U.S. bombing records show that over 20,000 missions involving the release of roughly 46 million cluster munitions occurred over Xieng Khuang Province.
The area was of strategic importance as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, used Read More “Heavy Bombing Campaign In Lao Leaves Scars, Live Munitions”
Posted on October 26, 2010
Seattle – Now that the floodwaters in Pakistan are receding, officials from Islamabad to Washington are faced with a great possibility.
This disaster that swept so much away may actually provide an opportunity to sweep away the biggest roadblock to improving Pakistan’s stability, furthering its economic growth, and lessening its threat to global security: the widespread lack of landownership by the rural poor.
The landless poor have no meaningful stake in rural society, and it is often the Taliban who step in to use their grievances as grounds for recruitment.
For the poor, owning at least some Read More “Want Global Security From Terrorists? Give Land To Pakistan’s Poor”
Posted on September 2, 2010
“Like many who call the Rainier Valley home, I feel as if I live in two communities: The one where I wake up each morning and the one where my web of cultural and personal connections links me to. Nothing represents this as clearly as my work with the Blue Nile Children’s Organization.”
Local Diversity Drives Global Impact (OP-ED)
Rainier Valley Post | Selamawit Kifle, Blue Nile Children’s Organization | September 2, 2010 Read More “Local Diversity Drives Global Impact (OP-ED)”