A lot of good reads I’ve come across recently. Enjoy the following!
- So you’re helping people with no skills…? Daniela Papi nicely destroys the rhetoric about poor people having no skills.
- Marianne Elliott has a beautiful series of posts chronicling her current journeys, re-visiting Afghanistan.
- A beautiful piece of writing by Jhumpa Lahiri, on writing, reading and her Indian identity growing up.
- The UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice has just adopted at a meeting in Vienna a ground-breaking resolution on “access to legal aid in criminal justice systems”. The OSI has a great post on it. I am so excited about this!
- Study Shows ‘Executive Mean Girls’ Are Keeping The Glass Ceiling Intact – Very depressing, but unfortunately seems grounded in some truth.
- India is embarking on a truly ambitious national identification scheme. Very exciting and I can’t wait to follow this program’s progress!
- Sarah Pierce analyzes the proposed version of the VAWA bill by House Republicans, which removes the ‘controversial’ updates included in the version of the bill that passed through Senate, and identifies important flaws. Contact your state representatives and let them know what version of the bill you support & want passed!
- Are export processing zones the new sweatshops, or drivers of development? A great Guardian article exposes some of the potential downsides of economic growth and development.
- Fact Sheet on the U.S. & Afghanistan’s newly signed Strategic Agreement. Big news that heralds the end of the Afghan war.
- Have you read “Why do they hate us?” by Mona el Tahawy? In my opinion the piece tried to simplify the whole gender equity debate into the fact that “men hate women” across the Arab world, but I feel that is an overgeneralization, not fully true, and does not include the historical context as to gender inequality. Not to mention, it reeks of orientalism.
- How not to write about Africa, by Laura Seay @texasinafrica. Great article on why we need more & better coverage on Africa.
- And finally, a huge international justice story recently – Charles Taylor’s conviction by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. I used to be a huge int’l justice junkie, but am less so now. Still, can’t help but recognize this momentous decision. And is the conviction of Charles Taylor seen as double edged? Find out here.
