Ending ‘Doormat Politics’ In Somalia

Somalia has been making political and economic progress recently, with an age of peace and prosperity seemingly on the horizon. What is necessary now, according to the author, is for the Somali people to put aside the division and depression left over from years of traumatic conflict and insecurity and embrace the future.

Ecuador and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Ecuador has long championed the struggle against colonialism and criticized exploitative neoliberal policies in Latin America, however, the government’s continued support of resource extraction on Indigenous lands have led them to repress legitimate protest movements, and to violate key legal documents including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the country’s own constitution.

X-Rated Reading: Literary Censorship in Iran

Literary censorship directly affects many aspects of media, in many countries of the world. This essay explores the ways in which the Islamic Republic of Iran has silenced national and international artists, thus banning their literary creativity. Chapters of contempt and scripts of scandal are classified as those that deviate from Iran’s much respected social, political and religious traditions. Hindering the free flow of imagination, of readers and writers alike, literature is kept hidden from the masses, in the name of maintaining Iran’s conformist state.

A Victory for Democracy: Bolivia

The Bolivian President has promoted a true transition: A constitutional reform, which introduces elements of direct democracy and allows for the postulation of independent candidates in municipal elections, the systematic depolitization of public posts, the ratification of reasonable and realistic agreements (which reconstructs the confidence in negotiation), the rejection to the old practice of “buying” leaders, the revision and reformulation of the Hydrocarbon Law.

Going back

This is part II of an interview with Yassir Kori relates his flight from Sudan that finally brought him to safety in the United States. Kori walked across Sudan and Ethiopia for over a month, working along the way to finance his trip as he tried to escape from a government that wanted to kill him.

A Long Walk

This is part I of an interview with Yassir Kori relates his flight from Sudan that finally brought him to safety in the United States. Kori walked across Sudan and Ethiopia for over a month, working along the way to finance his trip as he tried to escape from a government that wanted to kill him.

A New Look at Economic Development

Considering the most recent developments in Western societies, there is a growing consciousness that a deep change is needed in the type of economic development as well as the social values that are currently pursued.
The International Scope Review was created at the end of 1998 to bring an answer to this situation. In 2002, The Social Capital Foundation was created to support and manage the Review and to set up other types of actions likely to make the public aware of alternative approaches. This article discusses the underpinning theory and practice of the Foundation.

Morality in Development Aid

This paper addresses the wide gap between the good intentions of development aid and its actual consequences for the world’s poor. The analysis hinges on the central question of what role morality plays in the political and economic strategies underlying the provision of development aid.