Archive for November, 2011
This Week on War News Radio: Best of Fall 2011
Posted by: | CommentsThis Week on War News Radio: Best of Fall 2011. First, we explore the memories of 9/11. Then, we learn about Afghanistan’s opium economy. Finally, we learn about a computer scientists analyzing global media to predict revolutions.
Afghan Railways: From the Great Game to the Modern Silk Road
Posted by: | CommentsNOLAN: If you look at a map of Afghanistan, you might notice the outline of the country is shaped something like a lamb chop. What would be the bone extends to the northeast until it reaches China, where the two countries share a 47 mile border. This narrow strip of land between Tajikistan and Pakistan–140 miles long but sometimes just 10 miles wide–reaches the end of the Himalayan range and is known as the Wakhan corridor. So why is it there?
SPOONER: in the 1870s the reason the British wanted to do this was in order to set up a buffer state between the British empire in south Asia and the Russian empire in central Asia because the Russians had kept moving south through central Asia and of course the British were concerned about their northwestern frontier because its the most vulnerable part of their empire in India.
NOLAN: That was Dr. Brian Spooner, professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and curator for Near Eastern ethnology at the Penn Museum. But why does this territory extend all the way to China?
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Weekly News Roundup
Posted by: | CommentsThe Arab League decided in an emergency session to suspend Syria’s membership in response to the government’s refusal to stop violent crackdowns on civilian protesters. Syria agreed to an earlier peace plan outlined by the Arab League on November 2nd, but has since failed to end the violence. In the 8 months since the protests started, Human Rights Watch has estimated that over 3,500 civilians and 1,500 security force members have been killed.
The Free Syria Army, a group of defectors from Syrian security forces, attacked multiple military installations around Damascus. The largest assault occurred when the group fired rocket-propelled grenades on a compound of the Air Force Intelligence directorate, a security branch that dissidents claim is responsible for the suppression of anti-government protesters. Although the Free Syria Army is thought to consist of only a few thousand defectors, the high-profile attack suggests that the group is gaining momentum.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai addressed the Loya Jirga, the traditional Afghan advisory council, outlining the details of a strategic partnership with the United States.
The International Monetary Fund has pledged a three year $133.6 million loan for Afghanistan after previously suspending credit to the country over one year ago in the wake of the Kabul Bank scandal.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Hussain Haqqani, is offering his resignation in the face of a controversial memo reportedly asking the United States to help control Pakistan’s military and intelligence in the period following the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. The Pakistani government is still deliberating whether to accept Ambassardor Haqqani’s resignation.
Tunisia’s moderate Islamic party Ennhada and the Congress for the Republic party – or CPR – elected Moncef Marzouki, a veteran human rights activist, as the country’s interim president in historic Constituent Assembly elections this week.
Three French aid workers have been released in Yemen after being held hostage for almost six months. The workers from the French charity Triangle Generation Humanitaire were captured in May by al-Qaeda-linked militants demanding $12 million in ransom.
Iran has dismissed a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear proliferation watchdog of the United Nations. Iranian officials including the Supremer leader attacked the report that detailed extensive research alleging Iran has advanced its nuclear weapons program for being politically motivated and based on false information.
This week on War News Radio:
Stop and Go
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This week on War News Radio: Stop and Go. We first learn about Afghanistan’s transportation industry. Then, We hear about the Afghan system of microfinance. But first, a round up of this week’s news – with a special report on Occupy Wall Street.
Nick Kristof visits War News Radio
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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Nick Kristof visited War News Radio for an interview and meeting Monday night. Kristof was visiting Swarthmore College for a lecture sponsored by the Cooper Foundation and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.
Look for more photos on the War News Radio Facebook page.
Monday at Swarthmore:
Nicholas Kristof
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From our friends at the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility:
“A Call to Action: Encouraging People to join the World’s Fight.”
Nicholas Kristof
Monday, November 14, 2011
7:30 p.m.
Lang Performing Arts Center
Swarthmore College
(maps and directions)
A Harvard graduate and former Rhodes Scholar, Kristof is a Pulitzer-prize winning author and one of the New York Times‘ most popular columnists.
Drawing from his experiences as a foreign affairs reporter that have taken him to six continents and 140 countries, Kristof will talk about covering such historic events as the protests in Egypt that led to Hasni Mubarak’s resignation, the genocide in Darfur, the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square.
His talk will also by informed by his most recent best-seller, written with his wife Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: From Oppression to Opportunity for Women World-wide. There they make a brilliantly-argued case that support for global women’s rights should be the human rights movement of our era, and that it will be where we find the solutions to the world’s poverty.
Sponsored by the Cooper Foundation and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.
Contact: langcenter@swarthmore.edu (610) 690-5742
