Restarting and Moving

As you may have noticed, I haven't written on this blog for a good few months. The reason being that I had an blogger-existential crisis.

I wasn't happy with the posts that I was making, so I just stopped. Then school started, and crazy election stuff is going on, and I desperately wanted to display my opinions on a public forum.

I've decided to switch to WordPress because its just better for my purposes. Visit my new blog, The Odalisque Project: Version 2.0!!

Things that make me lose faith

Video footage of a 16 year old Canadian citizen suspected of terrorism detained in Guantanamo Bay has been released.

I desperately want to be optimistic. Or at least optimistic when it comes to justice being served in my own country by my own country. When stuff like this happens, I want to say its the fault of a few corrupt individuals and not an entire system. That way, things can be corrected. But this is different. I don't think the stories that come out of Gitmo can be chalked up to a few corrupt individuals. It is a failure of the government.

This boy's story is especially disturbing because he is now my age. What justification can be given for his detainment? I don't see any. I don't even think there's any way to possibly prosecute those responsible for his treatment either.

That blows. Major. =-(

Iraq, another reason to hire me after graduation

So I'm really not paying that much attention to the '08 election. At least not as much as other people think I am. Its more out of cynicism than actual ambivalence. My area of expertise (ha ha, expertise. that's funny) is in foreign policy, and I don't think the next American president is going to change it very much. American foreign policy since the Cold War has remained fairly static, even as the sphere in which it operates has changed dramatically. Military aid is given strategic countries no matter what regime is in power, democratic appearances are more important than practice for our allies, etc. Some things will definitely change because there is intense pressure to do so. Namely, the war in Iraq.

I will be voting for Obama in the coming election. I didn't vote for him in the primaries because my registration is for Florida and therefore not counted, so I just didn't vote. However, I don't like what he's saying about the US role in Iraq. This excerpt was taken from a BBC article, where I get most of my news. Because I usually like my news to not be ridiculous.

'In his speech at the International Trade Center in Washington, Mr Obama said: "This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st Century."

Al-Qaeda has an expanding base in Pakistan that is probably no farther from their old Afghan sanctuary than a train ride from Washington to Philadelphia Excerpt from Barack Obama speech Read the speech in full [48KB] Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Download the reader here

He said the conflict in Iraq must be brought to an end as "the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was".

Mr Obama said that as president he would take the US in a new direction, and a priority would be to finish the fight against the Taleban and al-Qaeda, which has an expanding base in Pakistan.

He said the troop surge policy had actually hurt America's overall strategic interests, by diverting resources away from Afghanistan, just as the situation there was deteriorating.

Mr Obama said a withdrawal from Iraq would allow a much-needed redeployment of troops.

He said sustained co-operation was needed between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nato to root out al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

"It is unacceptable that almost seven years after nearly 3,000 Americans were killed on our soil, the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 are still at large," he said.'

Yes, I do think the War on Terror had nearly no gains in invading Iraq, but guess what...it does now. al Qaeda's presence to date is minimal and not really welcomed but an unstable Iraq has obvious consequences for American security. If Iraq fails, again, the blow back would be even worse. There are many many different attitudes towards the invasion going around in Iraq and there is no reason to suppose that the "Americans did us a favor and we're better off" view will be the one to survive. Leaving Iraq entirely will leave many grievances unheard and untended to and the area will be ripe for conflict again and again. We cannot afford to leave Iraq nor Afghanistan without better efforts at reconstruction.

So yeah, another reason why I should be gainfully employed once I get my master's. I'mma rebuild me some nations. Yay Peacebuilding!

Seriously, there's really no reason for all of this

At present, I don't have anything to say about this topic. Only I'm really really not looking forward to it.

My prayers are with the Israeli people in the hope that they won't get dragged into another unnecessary war and with the Iranian people that they won't be made to suffer for their governments.


I'm not trying to downplay any real grievances that are spurring this on, but come on. Shooting missiles at each other offers short term gains and long term disadvantages.

Love of bombs makes people do crazy things.

Afghanistan Should Motivate You to Hire Me

Amid reports of the bombing on the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan, I started thinking more about just how completely devastated that country is. It is quite possibly worse off than Iraq. At least Iraq gets more American attention. Afghanistan is just screwed, there is little hope for reconstruction as long as the US has to concentrate all its efforts in Iraq.

Corruption is rampant, and no one in the international community really seems at all motivated to do anything about it. The people most effected and the most motivated are powerless.

Peacebuilding is a lot more than negotiating cease fires and I hope the next administration starts sending more experts into those areas that need it the most and ease up a bit (or a lot, hopefully) on the military aid.

Come on, Obama. I've got one more semester. Give me a job. Preferably in December.*



*Of course, I'm not proposing entry level Peace Studies undergrads get sent off to random F@cked-up-istans. But at least start moving them in that direction.

Religion a Determinant of Doucheness

Over the holiday weekend, I went to see Mongol and caught a glimpse of a new Bill Maher documentary. Its called Religulous and surprise! It's Bill Maher acting like a d!ck. The only thing that might save this movie, in a non-religious way, is the interviews with Andrew Newberg who is religion positive.

I really don't have anything against Bill Maher, but I hate it when people mock religion as though it only has destructive consequences. That and its cruel to attack something that is sacred to someone else and is a constructive force in their lives. I hope the movie at least says that not everything about organized religion and its followers are bad, because the trailer certainly doesn't.

I've written a lot about my stance on religion, and I'm thinking about getting a grad degree that deals with religion and peacebuilding. If someone says Jesus is their inspiration for feeding the poor, what's the problem? Assuming they're not doing something bastardish like cutting up chunks of Bible and adding to the soup, there should be no reason to attack belief in Jesus or any other faith tradition. And if someone is being an ass in the name of God, the concept of God deserves no more criticsm than the color shirt that person is wearing. God is incidental and unrelated to their behavior.

Religious beliefs (or absence of them) do not a douche bag make.

Also, Bill Maher can seem a little too self important for my taste. He carries himself as a moralist/political analyst first and then a comedian second and that's just a little disingenuous.

Anyway, I'm happy I got to use dirty words in the post. I won't do it too often.

Slavery, Making a Comeback But It Never Really Left

I posted a little bit last week about human trafficking and forced labor, and today I came across the story of a US couple of SE Asian origins who have been convicted of keeping two Indonesian slaves.

The story of a rich couple hiring two Indonesian girls as housekeepers, and then keeping them past their visa expiration may be a unique example of modern day slavery in the US. Yet I have a feeling that such forced and unfair labor is not at all uncommon. Back in the day, slaves were forcibly imported. But now with increased global migration and stark differences in nations' stability and wealth, the world's poor need little coaxing to leave their homes. What's different is they are promised a better life and they unfortunately believe those promises will be delivered by putting their lives entirely in someone else's money grubbing hands.

Slavery has existed for thousands of years under thousands of different names and forms in different circumstances. There is no reason to believe that just because we had an abolitionist movement that it doesn't exist anymore at all. It'd be great if it didn't, but enslavement is one of those old human vices that just keep coming back.