Ethiopia has long been celebrated by the United States for its economic growth and its willingness to engage in the battle against the Somali extremist group al-Shabab. Generous U.S. aid has been granted. But the EPRDF regime, which won 100 percent of parlimentary seats in last year’s elections, is not interested in democratic reform or human rights. It continues to clamp down on independent media and censor information. The country remains among Africa’s most prolific jailers of journalists.
Year: 2015
‘Returning citizens’ are still one of D.C.’s most marginalized and motivated groups
“I was unfocused. I was very violent at one point, and they taught me how to conduct myself, as a human being, as a father, as a man and a citizen of Washington, D.C.”
Empire of Cotton: A Global History
Empire of Cotton” starts by describing cotton cultivation and the trade in cotton textiles going back to the Bronze Age. India and China were the most important early locations, but the continent with the least cotton in early times, Europe, was destined to play the major role in the cotton manufacturing that sparked the Industrial Revolution
The Fortunes of Africa: A 5000 Year History of Wealth, Greed and Endeavor
Africa has been coveted for its riches ever since the era of the Pharaohs. In past centuries, it was the lure of gold, ivory, and slaves that drew fortune-seekers,merchant-adventurers, and conquerors from afar. In modern times
All Eyes Are Upon Us: Race and Politics from Boston to Brooklyn
If, as many believe, America’s experiment in postracialism is over, then “All Eyes Are Upon Us” is a prescient book that offers a great deal to explain a national self-deception of stunning brevity. According to
A lonely road: For the poor in the Deep South’s cities, simply applying for a job exposes the barriers of a particularly pervasive and isolating form of poverty
She set off on the latest day of job hunting wearing tiny star-shaped earrings that belonged to her 18-month-old daughter and frayed $6 shoes from Walmart that were the more comfortable of her two pairs. In her backpack she had stashed a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, hand sanitizer for the bus and pocket change for printing résumés at the public library. She carried a spiral notebook with a handwritten list of job openings that she’d titled her “Plan of Action for the Week.”
Inside Eritrea: Conscription and poverty drive exodus from secretive African state
Russom, whose name has been changed here for his own protection, was giving a rare account of a military bootcamp in Eritrea, one of Africa’s most secretive totalitarian states. It forms part of a compulsory “national service” for young men and women, an indefinite purgatory that robs them of the best years of their lives and is the key to understanding why so many flee its borders
This superintendent has figured out how to make school work for poor kids. Jennings, Mo. schools leader added more mental health care, a food pantry and shelter for homeless kids
JENNINGS, Mo. — School districts don’t usually operate homeless shelters for their students. Nor do they often run food banks or have a system in place to provide whatever clothes kids need. Few offer regular access to pediatricians and mental health counselors, or make washers and dryers available to families desperate to get clean.
The most unconventional weapon in Syria: Wheat
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60 million people have been forced to flee war
GENEVA, Dec 18 (UNHCR) – With almost a million people having crossed the Mediterranean as refugees and migrants so far this year, and conflicts in Syria and elsewhere continuing to generate staggering levels of human suffering, 2015 is likely to exceed all previous records for global forced displacement, the UN Refugee Agency warned in a new report today.
