by Charukesi Ramadurai
- India -

• Buddhists in Ladakh are often seen spinning a prayer wheel, a practice believed to bring wisdom and good karma or merit. All photographs © Charukesi Ramadurai. •

It is true that Kashmir is a war-torn region, however, the turmoil does not touch Ladakh, a good 280 miles from the capital city of Srinagar. Nor are there any foreign invaders intent upon destroying Buddhism to establish their own faith.

Today, the (perceived) threat to Ladakhi Buddhism is from a different kind of invasion - globalization - brought by travelers and their notions of modernity that invariably spread along with them. And with this comes concerns about the erosion of a faith and way of life that is centuries old.

by Alice Speri
-Haiti-

Eleven-year-old Carmen Suze quarreled with a classmate and ended up in jail. Barely audible, she explains that her friend had lifted her skirt and had been the first to throw a rock. The plastic butterfly hairclips holding her braids together make her look even younger. Suze says that she did not realize how badly she had hit her back. Her father had offered the girl’s parents some money to take her to a hospital, but they did not. Her classmate died eight days later.

Suze is the youngest of 58 minors currently incarcerated in Port-au-Prince’s penitentiaries - held next to adult inmates, with no trial, and in degrading conditions.

by Danielle Johnson
-USA-

Danielle Johnson, The WIP’s Community Outreach & Development Coordinator, is currently working in Alabama as a Bird Rehabilitation Technician for the International Bird Rescue Research Center. –Ed.

During my time with wildlife rehabilitation in Louisiana and Alabama, I have come in contact with many species of birds - pelicans, herons, loons, and gulls. Some birds came in oiled, some had been caught in the booms, some exposed to dispersants, and others captured for unknown health issues. I have had the opportunity to assist in every step of bird rehabilitation - intake evaluations, washing with Dawn detergent, feeding, siphoning dirty pools, administering medication, drawing blood, releasing into the wild, and euthanasia.

It was explained on my first day that it is better to euthanize a bird not healthy enough to tolerate treatment than to release it, knowing it could suffer and die in the wild. The process of capture and rehabilitation is stressful on the already weakened birds. This “mercy” was a comforting way to cope with euthanasia. It worked for a while. I was aware of the various birds that were put down for open lesions on their carpals, hawk pox, gunshot wounds, and the intestinal deterioration caused when birds ingest oil.

by Emily Wilson
-USA-

I admire boldness. So Katrina Rodabaugh’s The Dresses / Objects Project, a multi-disciplinary installation combining a dizzying array of artistic forms appealed to me. Through poetry, dance, fashion, photography and letterpress, Rodabaugh embraces a broad swath of disciplines and takes on a wide range of ideas. She uses women’s clothing to explore gender and femininity, the line between art and what is generally considered women’s crafts, and how context affects the way we view things.

Rodabaugh’s The Dresses / Objects Project was inspired by Gertrude Stein’s book of experimental poetry, Tender Buttons, published in 1914. Rodabaugh, a poet and an artist, loves the way Stein played with language, focusing on the sound of the words. She finds poems like A Petticoat modern and moving almost 100 years later:

A light white, a disgrace, an ink spot, a rosy charm.

by Pushpa Iyer
-USA-

Dr. Pushpa Iyer was in Sierra Leone leading a two-week course for fourteen Monterey Institute of International Studies and Middlebury College students. In this series of articles and student blogs, Dr. Iyer and her students reflect on the challenges to building peace in this war-ravaged country. -Ed.

Two bandaged stubs where his hands should be. While I contemplate how to greet him without a handshake, he gives me a bear hug. Completely taken aback and ashamed at my lack of response, I finally give him a smile as he welcomes me to sit down next to him. I am meeting with Ngwaja, a Sierra Leonean whose limbs were chopped off by the rebels in the country’s decade long war - a war that was undoubtedly one of the most brutal and violent in recent history.

by Victoria Aitken
-UK-

The Sinai desert has a new underground radio station - the only one to escape a ban on live radio transmissions - and it is breaking records for a radio station of its size. Radio Sharm’s secret location in the Sinai desert and its Disc Jockey’s code names like “The Mad Monk,” “The Girl with No Name,” and “Little Miss Slumdog” add mystique and character to Sharm el-Sheikh’s only live radio station.

I visited this holiday location on the Red Sea famous for its picturesque beaches, coral reefs, and year-round sunny weather; and discovered Radio Sharm. Who has ever heard of a secret radio station in the desert? Just the inhospitable location was intriguing enough to want to discover more about the radio station.

by Lesley D. Biswas
-India-

Anjali Das, an elderly woman, sits in her bright yellow Bou cart at a strategic road crossing in Salt Lake City, Kolkata. She is selling hand packed edibles, spices, jute handicrafts, dry fruit, and colorful dry flowers. She earns a little over $3 a day; yet despite her meager income, she is still smiling.

“Now my husband respects me and I have a say in the family’s decision making process,” says Das, her newfound confidence shining through her weary eyes. Previously Das was dependent on her husband to provide for her and was regularly scorned for being unemployed.

by Deepa Krishnan
-India-

Journalist Deepa Krishnan traveled to Uganda as part of The Africa Reporting Project, an Initiative of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. –Ed.

There is hardly a day when Chance Christine wakes up at leisure. Sometimes it is her crying babies. Sometimes it is her backyard chickens, clucking for their morning feed.

Most times, it is both. Holding her fourteen-month-old she unlatches the door of her chicken coop to survey the birds. Amid the fluttering, she spreads the feed into a thin wooden trough. The birds noisily rush to the feed, forgetting about their eggs. Christine picks the brown eggs, holds each one to her ear, and shakes it. She quickly counts her eggs and fills her blue bowl.

It is a typical day for Chance Christine. It has been for some time, and this could well be a charmed life. Just a few years ago she was barely making ends meet by selling porridge on a roadside in Buhoma, a rural town in Uganda. Now, thanks to the chickens, she has a reasonably comfortable life - a nice house with a backyard where her children can play, and land to plant banana trees.

by Moira Birss
-Colombia/USA-

Fulfilling expectations after a solid showing in May’s first round, former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos handily won Colombia's June 20th presidential run-off election. Though Santos and his contender, Antanas Mockus, the former mayor of the capital city Bogota, had been neck-in-neck in opinion polls leading up to the first round of elections, the May 30th results gave Santos a substantial lead that he never lost. On June 20th Santos won 69% of the vote.

by Jessica Mosby
-USA-

The Chinese have ruled Tibet since 1959. For Tibetan refugees living around the world, the dream of returning to a free Tibet continues to define their existence in exile.

The new documentary film The Sun Behind the Clouds captures the plight of Tibetan refugees and their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, with a very personal approach. Filmmaker Tenzing Sonam, who also narrates the film, was born to Tibetan refugee parents living in Darjeeling, India. He and his filmmaking partner and wife, Ritu Sarin, approach their subject matter with insiders’ knowledge.

by Melissa Hahn
-USA-

When Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 into law, she thrust the state into the national spotlight as a catalyst for immigration reform. As the reverberations pulse across the country, the law is best understood in the context of Arizona’s unique circumstances.

Locally, immigration has been a hot-button issue since the 1990s, when increased border security in California and Texas transformed Arizona into the nation’s illegal immigration artery. Across nearly two decades, the number of estimated illegal residents in Arizona jumped 500% as prosperity north of the border was matched by instability to the south. Census data shows that between 1990 and 2009, Hispanics rose from 16% to 30% of the population- double the national average.

by Lien De Coster
-Netherlands-

Entering the courtyard I immediately find it difficult to breathe. There is an energy loaded with such strong emotions it seems impossible not to be affected. The courtyard is packed with people, mostly women dressed in black. I am glad to see one of my colleagues; and with some effort, I go and sit next to her.

This is not just another November afternoon in Guatemala City. Today we are not just covering another story. We are visiting Sobrevivientes, an organization that supports family and friends of femicide victims. Or, to put it bluntly, those whose mothers, daughters, or friends were murdered simply because they were women. I wrote my thesis on this subject, but today is the first time I actually see people testify about femicide. I could not be more shocked.

By Nora Maccoby
-USA-

Energy equals civilization. Our modern society is managed by computers and an electrical grid system that are extremely vulnerable to outside forces, both natural and man-made. Several causal factors are now in play that could bring life as we know it to a stand-still.

I am a civilian. For the last six years I have worked off and on with the United States military, most recently as a Senior Communications Specialist for The Energy Conversation. The U.S Armed Services are leading the fight to get our nation off of oil and into renewables - mostly because of common sense, but also because they make us more independent and therefore more secure.

by Patricia DeGennaro
-USA-

Israel’s May 31, 2010 attack on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters garnered nothing more than global condemnation. The assault on six ships with approximately 700 activists carrying 10,000 tons of aid to the besieged Gaza strip is a shocking reminder that the Israeli government feels that the only way to continue the Palestinian occupation is with overwhelming military force.

After the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 a brief hope existed that Israel and an independent Palestine could coexist peacefully. The reality on the ground, however, quickly extinguished any optimism. Mutual recognition appeared to do little good and casualties on both sides continued to accumulate. The beginning of the second intifada in 2000 and the growing strength of the Islamic and more radical Hamas led to more Israeli casualties. But the numbers continue to be lopsided and far more Palestinians have been killed.

by Maureen Nandini Mitra
-India/USA-

Arthur Yee wants a son.

“It’s important. As the oldest son in my family, it’s my duty to continue the bloodline,” says the Los Angeles based media professional whose wife, Kimme Setzo, is three months pregnant. Though he’d love to have a girl too, not having a son would diminish his status in his extended family, he says.

Yee comes from a traditional Chinese family that immigrated to the USA in the 1970’s. Like most first generation immigrants, his parents still cling to the cultural values of their original homeland where social norms favor sons. Hence parental pressure on Yee and Setzo to produce a boy is great. Setzo, though personally neutral about the gender of her forthcoming child, also hopes her first-born will be a boy, “just so that the pressure will be off.”

by Anna Kirey
- Kyrgyzstan-

The small, mountainous, post-Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan rarely makes international news. When it does, the headlines are either related to the presence of US and Russian military bases or protests against the government.

Years of government corruption, nepotism, and severe restrictions on political freedoms led to the popular uprising on April 7th, 2010 that resulted in the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Over eighty people were shot by security forces during an the attack on a government building in the capital city of Bishkek. Young men from all over Kyrgyzstan lost their lives.

by Maureen Nandini Mitra
India/USA

In March this year, a court in the northern Indian state of Haryana sentenced five family members to death for killing a young couple who married within the same sub-caste. It is the first time an Indian court has awarded such a harsh penalty in an honor killing case. But, even as women’s rights activists are hailing the decision as a landmark judgment, honor killings continue unabated and defiant khap panchayats - village councils that order such killings – are calling for an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act to fit their beliefs regarding sub-caste and inter-caste marriages.

by Moira Birss
-USA/Colombia-

Colombia prides itself on being Latin America’s oldest democracy. Unlike its neighbors, Colombia has not suffered brutal military coups and dictatorships and, with one brief exception, has held regular presidential elections since the mid 19th century. Nonetheless, in a country mired in internal conflict in which armed actors attempt to influence outcomes through violence, vote buying is not an uncommon practice and dozens of senators have recently been convicted of collaboration with paramilitaries. Election season in the country highlights the danger and complexity in which the country continues to live. And, as Colombians prepare to elect the successor of Álvaro Uribe, tensions are high and some surprises are surfacing.

by Alice Alech
-France-

The British have discovered an uplifting, social, healthy way to promote sustainability - care for the environment by growing their own fruits and vegetables while at the same time interacting with fellow gardeners. Allotments, or small parcels of land rented for the purpose of growing food crops have grown in popularity as concerns about carbon footprints, saving money, and good nutrition have increased.

• Allotments at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Photograph courtesy of Flickr user muggers! •

by Barbara Callahan
-USA-

On April 20, 2010 the drilling rig the Deepwater Horizon - owned by Transocean, the world’s largest offshore oil drilling contractor, and leased by the multinational oil company BP - exploded approximately fifty miles off the Louisiana coast in 5,000 ft of water. The resulting ocean floor rupture has been continuously gushing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the past four weeks. In a closed-door briefing with members of the US Congress, BP officials conceded the rupture could be spewing as much as 60,000 barrels a day. Many officials worry the leak could go on for months.

• Image of an oiled Pelican. Photo courtesy of the author. •

by Nusrat Ara
-Indian-Administered Kashmir-

It is Sunday noon. I am standing outside the only functional cinema in all of Indian administered Kashmir.

Located in the city of Srinagar, the shabby Neelam Cinema sits quiet. It looks more like a war torn military post, with coils of razor wire and bunkers, than a cinema. A paramilitary guard looks out from a bunker above as we approach the tin door. “No film today,” he says. “Go back.”

• The Neelam Cinema, Srinagar, Kashmir. Photograph by Nusrat Ara. •

“I would ditch school to watch a movie. It was difficult at times to get a ticket from the counter. Mostly we had to rely on the black market,” said businessman Shameem Ahmad, 38, about the pre-insurgency days.

The guard lets us in only after we convince him we have to meet the manager.

Inside we learn that they have been waiting for a movie to arrive for three days. “We are getting it by this afternoon,” Muhammad Ayub, the projector operator tells us. The big poster for a film assures us that we are in the right place.

by Mridu Khullar Relph
-India-

Banav Bibi is not a Bangladeshi. She wants everyone to know this. She shouted it to the policeman who accused her son of being an illegal immigrant, arrested him, and beat him up. She said it to the rich madamji in one of the homes from which she picks up trash, when she was accused of stealing and not allowed to enter. And she told the jamadarni, the neighborhood head of the waste collectors, who hired goons to run her out of the area.

If they want proof, they can look at her identity card. "Bangladesh is an entirely different country," she says. "They have a different way of talking. We are from Calcutta, which is in India."

by Paula Humphrey
-USA-

The Obama administration has worked furiously in the past year to leverage new strategies against two primary threats: the illicit production of nuclear weapons, and their potential use by terrorists or “rogue” states. Arriving this week at the Eighth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the U.S. boasts a historical year of significant changes in the terrorism and nuclear realm. However, also important and less discussed, are the minor policy shifts that may indicate a broader change in U.S. diplomacy overall. One of the more remarkable of these is the decision to reframe the definition of the war on terrorism.

• The bilateral meeting room during the Nuclear Security Summit. The Nuclear Security Summit logo in the background is what prompted Fox News Channel to note a resemblance to the crescent moon appearing on many Muslim Countries’ flags. Photograph courtesy of the U.S. State Department. •

by Nora Maccoby
- USA -

"The question for me has always been: How can I help the world?" Mara Haseltine smiles - her large aquatic blue eyes bright and passionate. "Because it's a race against time. We have to engage people into a scientific narrative so that everyone can be part of the solutions."

In her thirties, Haseltine is both a professor of Environmental Studies at The New School in New York City and a ground breaking artist - merging science, functionality and art. She was one of the first people in the world to be exposed to bio-informatics, the 3D representation of molecular and submolecular data that went along with the Human Genome Project, run by her father, Dr. William Haseltine.

"With the discovery of how proteins function, we saw how we could advance medicine from the dark ages to a new renaissance. What I saw with proteins was that function follows form," Haseltine explains. "So I began making sculptures with molecular and submolecular armature/shape. Taking things you couldn't even see and making them giant."

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

Nash traveled the world filming the effects of climate change. The footage is startling as a human face is put on the world’s worst natural disasters. The heart of the film is Nash’s interviews with victims of natural disasters. In Bangladesh, “ground zero” for climate change, Nash interviews victims of 2007’s Cyclone Sidr, which killed over 10,000 people and cost $450 million in damages. The victims’ testimony is heart-breaking as they describe losing their families and homes.