groundhog day
towards new solutions to old problems
a (faux) interview with gob beldof
Bryn – Gob, I want to thank you for taking time out of
your busy life to talk to me here on
groundhog day. I also want to apologize for the timing of
this interview, I gather you don’t take much pleasure in
Mondays. Also, I want to mention that someone in Africa visited my
blog last week.
Bryn – So let’s cut to the chase here. You and
Al Gore were in sort of a public [...]
Gob– That’s fantastic, Bryn. I personally love
carting out African anecdotes to prove how effective I’ve
been in my career as well.
small triggers for small fingers
It was quite the shock, upon arriving in Chad, to drive around the town and see the generic baggy camouflage uniforms barely hanging on to their young hosts. With their black berets drooping over their eyebrows, it was hard not to snicker at the sight even though that beyond appearances there was nothing funny about it.
One of my bosses sneered at the sight, calling them all 'little Colonels' in a surprisingly contemptuous voice, given his usual stoic demeanour.
Later on during my time in Chad, once [...]
splitting a very big hair
One poorly understood distinction in the world of displacement is the difference between a refugee and an internally displaced person (IDP). Though both groups are either fleeing human rights abuse or violence, one steps over a border and the other does not.
Check. Understood. Seems embarrassingly basic, actually.
But while the lines that divide countries, for instance between Chad and Sudan, were arbitrarily created and often lack clear demarcation, the difference they make cannot be understated [...]
awwwwkward....
It's still a pretty awkward marriage, aid agencies and
humanitarian intervention forces. Everyday the public and media
scream for soldiers and helicopters to enter a given conflict and
almost as often, aid groups working on the ground decry these
forces for compromising their neutral image.
Afterall, it would be pretty difficult to explain that both soldier and aid workers wearing the European Union flag are actually so different.
Doctors Without Borders, one of the more fiercely independent agencies, [...]
Afterall, it would be pretty difficult to explain that both soldier and aid workers wearing the European Union flag are actually so different.
Doctors Without Borders, one of the more fiercely independent agencies, [...]
killing the messenger
Almost any conversation of summer weather in Canada makes a passing reference to bug season. We've grown accustom to 'getting chewed' by the ‘mozzies’ in our great outdoors. And who doesn’t remember pressing Xs into their mosquito bites with a fingernail or lathering themselves in DEET.
The way we so casually deal with or exterminate them (electric tennis rackets!) makes the bug season little more than a nuisance to gripe about. So much so, that we often tend to forget just how dangerous they [...]
