Ukraine has had two revolutions and a war since 2004 but is still mired in conflict and graft. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in parliament in Kiev, Ukraine, 7 May 2018. (EPA-EFE/Mykhaylo Markiv) Four years ago, the then nascent war in eastern Ukraine suffered...
Watching news from Nicaragua, where protests are challenging the authoritarian rule of President Daniel Ortega, I’m transported back exactly 40 years. Anti-government demonstrators take cover behind a barricade in Managua, Nicaragua, 30 May 2018 (AP Photo/Esteban...
By Muna Matouq New feminist movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp may be shaking up the Western world, but in other countries, women still live without the legal protection the West takes for granted. Jordan is a prime example of this, with one of the worst rankings in...
Once one of the richest countries in the world, Venezuela now is plagued by hunger, poverty, shortages, crime and the highest inflation rate in the world. Patients protest over the scarcity of medical supplies, Caracas, Venezuela, 4 April 2018 (EPA-EFE/Miguel...
As a Jew, I can never forget the Holocaust and the slaughter of millions. But we must not persecute Palestinians for their faith. That is hypocrisy. Israeli and Palestinian women dance together during a mass protest near Beit HaArava in the Jordan Valley, Israel, 8...
Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but a foundation for peace and prosperity. Feminists fight not just for women, but all humans. “Feminism” was chosen by Merriam-Webster as its word of the year in 2017. New York, 11 December 2017 (AP Photo/Peter...
Joseph Kawesi is a transgender woman who risks prison for her gender identity. But she fights for her rights and those of Uganda’s LGBTQ community. Joseph Kawesi sits in her small home in a Kampala slum. Days before, this space was ransacked, apparently due to...
Colonialists exploited slaves on Caribbean islands for two centuries. Should France pay reparations to their descendants? Slave iron (Wikimedia Commons/Antoine Taveneaux) Canada or Guadeloupe? In 1763, the British would have to give up one of these territories to end...
Since this installment was posted in October, this story has been published by Explorer’s Eye Press in “Exceptional Encounters: Enhanced Reality Tales from Southeast Asia”. It is available for purchase here. This is the final installment of a five-part...
Do rivers and trees on Borneo have legal rights? A Southeast Asian court is asked to decide, and the answer is not as simple as it might seem. In the first, second and third installments of this story set in Southeast Asia, we met a U.S.-educated Malaysian lawyer who...