Silence

I'm in the process of adjusting to life back at my home in Maryland. Spending time with family, biking to coffee shops just for the enjoyment of the ride, sitting on the screened-in porch and listening to the sounds of the night -- it's easy to nurture an appreciation for this life. But at the same time, it's Friday evening and I don't have any clue how I will entertain myself throughout the weekend. My house is silent, except for the intermittent hum of the air conditioner. There's such a thing as too much solitude. But reconnecting with old pals is a lot easier said than done. Despite all our little electronic devices of communication, some people are hard to get in touch with. Plus, people change. Finding words to fill the empty spaces between us is no simple task. I know that many of my friends are busy with the lives they've been contently living in my absence, just as I was busy with a life I created thousands of miles away from the folks who call this area their home. Yet, despite the challenges, I'm happy to be where I am.

My job search has been fruitless so far (if anyone can offer an tips, connections, guidance, etc. -- please get in touch), but I know I'll find employment eventually (perhaps in 2012?). In the mean time, I do enjoy the slow pace of my life. I'm reading a lot and catching up on movies and shows that are old to most people but still seem new and strange to me. But this slow pace is unsettling when I contrast it against the frenzied development of the tragedies and frustrating realities that I just spent a year studying.

For example, Honduras is a wreck. Reports are emerging that the police have been on a rape spree since the coup. Suppression of the media and other human rights violations are rampant. But this story has faded from news headlines. In an effort to draw your attention to the appalling reality of the situation in Honduras (and the Obama administration's deafening silence in response to it) I beseech you to read this article: Obama's Deafening Silence in Honduras. An excerpt:

The millions of Americans who gave their votes, contributions or energy to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the hope that he would change U.S. foreign policy probably didn't expect to see this administration fishing around for rightwing allies to help block Latin America from trying to reverse a military coup. But that appears to be the reality.
-by Mark Weisbrot

Black and White

The colors of a pirate flag. Or alternatively, "black and white" can represent an utterly simplistic view of the world. East versus West. Us versus Them. Good versus Evil.

It's never that straightforward. Unfortunately however, taking a black and white view of the world makes it easy to write eye-grabbing headlines and project the idea that you have the answer to every problem. Economist/New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (author of The World is Flat) drives me crazy with his black and white view of the world. In his famous book, Friedman argued that technology has made the world a fair arena of competition for everyone. He claimed that since it's easier to communicate and share information, the world must be completely fair.

Um, Tom, let's not forget about the fact that economic inequality has increased almost exponentially since the industrial revolution, and the skewed plane on which people compete has only become tilted further in favor of those with the goods since the dot-com explosion of the 1990s. The rich keep getting richer much faster than everyone else. How does that make for a flat world?

More recently, Friedman took the opportunity to espouse more black and white nonsense. Only this time it's worse: he's lecturing the world on a topic in which he doesn't even have expertise -- U.S. diplomacy. Friedman says the pirates in Somali waters are likely to cooperate with al-Qaeda, and the U.S. should employ a surge of military power to gain control of the pirates.

From John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies:

The lumping together of Islamists and pirates obscures the only real solution to Somalia's manifold problems. Piracy is not going to end through the greater exercise of outside force, no matter what New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman may think. . . Indeed, the sniper killing of three pirates by three U.S. Navy Seals has, to date, merely spurred more ship seizures and hostage-taking.

Read the whole article here.

Responsibility to Protect

This semester, I have dedicated a lot of time and energy to the study of complex emergencies, or complex humanitarian emergencies, as they are often called. This includes instances of state failure, civil wars, genocide, and more. In 2001, Canada led the charge in promoting the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) approach to intervention by the international community in such situations. One of the masterminds behind the approach is the International Crisis Group's Gareth Evans. He gave an excellent speech on the topic back in December. I recently accessed the text online and read it over. The main gist follows.

The Responsibility To Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All

By Gareth Evans

...The core idea is very simple. Turn the notion of 'right to intervene' upside down. Talk not about the 'right' of big states to do anything, but the responsibility of all states to protect their own people from atrocity crimes, and to help others to do so. Talk about the primary responsibility being that of individual states themselves - respecting their sovereignty - but make it absolutely clear that if they cannot meet that responsibility, through either ill-will or incapacity, it then shifts to the wider international community to take the appropriate action.

Focus not on the notion of 'intervention' but of protection: look at the whole issue from the perspective of the victims, the men being killed, the women being raped, the children dying of starvation; and look at the responsibility in question as being above all a responsibility to prevent, with the question of reaction - through diplomatic pressure, through sanctions, through international criminal prosecutions, and ultimately through military action - arising only if prevention failed. And accept coercive military intervention only as an absolute last resort, after a number of clearly defined criteria have been met, and the approval of the Security Council has been obtained...

FULL ADDRESS AVAILABLE AT http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5830&l=1