One out of three young Africans is unemployed, and the youth population will double by 2050. How can Africa create jobs for the young and avoid unrest? A man holds a poster marking South Africa’s Youth Day holiday in Soweto, South Africa, 16 June 2020. (AP...
A conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is heating up as the war in Ukraine prompts geopolitical realignments, with implications for outside powers including the West and Russia. Azerbaijani soldiers carry portraits of soldiers killed during fighting over...
Democracy is in trouble around the world and autocrats are on the rise. Why is there such dismay over the West’s predominant form of government? Supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump scale a wall of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, 6...
My family can barely make ends meet amid runaway inflation and shortages of foodstuffs. No wonder Sri Lanka has kicked out a corrupt ruling clan. Protesters take over the office of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, demanding he resign, Colombo, Sri...
News Decoder correspondent Feizal Samath provides an on-the-ground glimpse of life in Sri Lanka following months of inflation, essential shortages and protests that led to the ouster of the president and the ruling clan. Samath gives context to a situation that many outside of the region ignored until images of protestors storming the presidential palace flooded the media. By painting a picture of his own challenges in procuring fuel and everyday foods, Samath puts readers in the shoes of those whose lives have been disrupted by turmoil.
Exercise: Ask students to imagine a part of the world different from their own and write a first-person narrative of what life looks like for a teenager there. How do the political and economic realities impact their family, their schools or their daily routines?
Marie Colvin started as a journalist writing for a New York trade union. She ended up a war correspondent who changed people’s lives. Medical staff examine Marie Colvin in Colombo’s eye hospital in Sri Lanka, 17 April 2001. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe) A...
Susan Ruel reflects on the life and career of Marie Colvin, an accomplished foreign correspondent killed in Syria in 2012. Colvin reported on major conflicts in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, believing someone has to go there and see what is happening. “She always told the stories of the ordinary men and women who bore the consequences of the power struggles and wars waged by political leaders,” Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Robert Mahoney said. With more journalists murdered or missing this year than in nearly all of 2021, the rights of journalists in war zones cannot be taken for granted.
Exercise: Ask students to discuss how media coverage of war and conflict zones has evolved and what they think accounts for the increased threat against journalists.