I’ve read a lot of articles lately about Elena Kagan, who President Obama has recently nominated to the Supreme Court, and her incredible ambition. Her career path has been one of a single-minded focus on her ultimate career goal: becoming Supreme Court justice. Even at the young age of 17, she posed for her high…
I wanted to briefly post these two talks, which I absolutely absolutely loved recently. 1. Shashi Tharoor, on India’s “soft power” Click here to watch it (unfortunately TED won’t let me embed it for some strange reason). Shashi Tharoor was elected to India’s parliament in May 2009, representing Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala as minister for external affairs….
When I read Akhila’s e-mail about the possible opportunity to do a guest post about Being the Change, the first thing that came to mind was Palestine. I am a political blogger and a political individual, I will spare you all a fiery one-sided rant about who should be in the dock at The Hague…
The internet is awesome. I spend hours a week Googling and Twittering and Facebook stalking. The internet has brought us such gems as the “Hamster Dance” and full episodes of The Office. However, in this age of information, the internet can also make the world seem like a depressing place. It’s hard to miss the…
It’s a widely believed theory that the Internet, social media and other online tools and technologies can serve to undermine authoritarian regimes and help to spread democracies. As I wrote before, technology represents the ‘democratization of information’ – by which regimes no longer have a monopoly on knowledge. By reaching people who might never have…
Recently, I’ve been reading a really great book — In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, by Edward Luce. I was born in India but moved to the U.S. at a young age – and yet, I recently felt that I didn’t know enough about my birthplace’s political scene. So I…
Today, President Obama spoke to Africans in his speech to the Ghanaian Parliament. Before reading, I was kept in anticipation, exciting to hear the new vision of our President with regards to Africa. I was excited, especially, after the revelations in his Cairo speech – and I hoped that he would bring a fresh perspective…
I have a more in-depth post I’m writing, but in the meantime wanted to post this awesome video interview of rapper K’naan, as a follow-up to my previous post about Somalia’s crisis. K’naan is from Somalia and raps about various social and political issues affecting his country. His music is amazing and poignant, and I…
So, Refugees International beat me to this topic, but I’ll put my opinion out there anyway, because I believe it’s incredibly important to understand. Recently, I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about the pirate situation off the coast of Somalia. Currently, 15 ships and 300 crew members are being held hostage by Somali pirates. On…
As I’m currently on Easter Break, I’ve been constantly traveling. Right now, I’m at Northwestern University, visiting friends, studying for final exams, as well as catching up on meetings and activities. It’s been an exciting time, but since I’ve been so busy I haven’t had much time to update and write here. Forgive me for…