On Burma

I've been wanting to check back in on Burma for a while now.  It seems there have been some positive signs, like this, the possibility of a new media law, and these two articles about Aung San Suu Kyi's political bid for parliament and here, and this photo essay about the release of political prisoners.

It's hard not to feel hopeful and so I wanted to find a picture of the general consensus.

This video and transcript is of a talk by Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Michael Posner, at the National Endowment for Democracy. For a government speech, I found it even handed and informative.

We all know that Burma has a long way to go, but we must celebrate victories where we can and remain vigilant in the meantime.

Sudan's pyramids

Because the situations in the countries that we focus on are so dire, we don't spend a lot of time considering much outside of the current situation and needs.  But it's also important to recognize the culture and history that came before all the of sadness and violence we see today.

For example:  Sudan has pyramids, and a lot of them. Over 200 as a matter of fact.  This article talks a bit about the pyramids and their history.  And this link will take you to beautiful photographs of the area by Andrew McConnell.

Reflections on Dadaab

Today, our blog is reflections on regugee camps from our Amy Biehl intern, Brendan.  Post follows:

Life in Refugee Camps

Refugee camps are town-like settlements of various sizes open to "refugees," people who have fled their home as a result of being unjustly persecuted by their home country (such as genocide), and are unable to resettle elsewhere.  Refugee camps usually provide refugees with very basic facilities.  The problem, however, is that life in these camps is very difficult in comparison to life in a typical city.  The camps are generally located miles away from cities in arid, hot, inhospitable climates, the exits lined with guards to ensure that nobody enters or leaves without permission.  Refugees normally must build their own homes and lack such things as electricity, sewer systems, and water lines.  It is a struggle each day to survive, with such basic needs as food, water, and hygiene difficult to satisfy.  And, even when the problem afflicting a person's country has ended, the person is not allowed to leave until they have permission to do so.  It is getting this permission that causes the refugee to be forced through a difficult and biased system of talking with officials.  Almost every person in a refugee camp has hopes of leaving.  But, sadly, very few refugees will ever see the outside of the camp again in their lifetime.

Currently, the situation is not looking very good.  One of the world's oldest and largest refugee camps, located in Dadaab, is twenty years old and currently holds 380,000 refugees, four times more than it was intended to hold.  This forces some of the refugees to set up shelter outside the camp.  There are other issues around the camp that also result from this.  These issues include sanitation, drought, and deforestation (the latter due to a shortage of firewood).  The area is a hotspot for sandstorms, and, due to the fact that these people do not have access to transportation, they must walk to the camp.  This, combined with the extreme heat, causes many individuals (in particular, children) to die either on route to the camp, or shortly after arrival.  Plus, with the population rising higher and higher, it's likely only a matter of years before the population becomes too massive for the camp to handle.  As the CNN Health site says of Dadaab, "Right now, this may be the most desperate place on Earth".  Unfortunately, none of these issues are specific to the Dadaab camp.  Most camps, no matter where they might be located, are currently facing similar issues.  And, like Dadaab, conditions in these camps are slowly growing worse, and they won't hold out for much longer.

These images from The Atlantic help illustrate Brendan's points

A Sudan Update

Good Monday morning to you!

One of the main issues with raising awareness of what's happening in countries like Sudan and the DRC and Somalia, is that the "news cycle" is so fickle.  Once the perception that something is "old news" has taken hold, we're not likely to hear about it again, and if we want to we have to do some serious digging to find the most current information.

In July last year, we, like everyone else, were laser-focused on Sudan; with the split between North and South, there was a lot to talk about.  But now?  We don't really see much about the on-going crisis, I guess because it's on-going.  Low-grade suffering doesn't seem as news worthy as acute suffering.    

But the troubles for the Sudanese people, from north and south, Blue Nile State, South Kordofan, Darfur, and Abyei continue.

If the situation this article addresses isn't resolved, we may again see Sudan on the front pages.  And the Sudan Tribune has this exclusive article.

And then, there's this crisis looming.

Regardless of what we can and can't read in the papers, there continues to be work to be done to make people aware of what's happening and keep the pressure on.

We (heart) conflict free gold, when we can find it...

With Valentine's Day rapidly approaching, we want to thank our friends at ENOUGH for reminding us to think about our gift giving choices, and we're specifically talking gold jewelry here folks.

It is still the case that the gold trade in Congo fuels the conflict.  Children work the mines.  There are environmental impacts.

Here's information about making Congo's gold trade conflict-free from ENOUGH.

This article in Al Jazeera English gives an idea of the conditions the Congolese work in when mining gold.

And this recent article from Bloomberg BusinessWeek about the current state of gold mining in Congo.

I wasn't able to find you a one-stop site that tells if the jeweler you want to buy gold from can trace it back to a reputable mining source, but there are quite a few sites that taken together can probably help:

Fair Jewelry Action

Fair Trade and Fairmined Gold

No Dirty Gold