Cultivating hope in Congo: Masika’s story
Due to the nature of the subject matter, some may find the content of this column disturbing. Forty-eight women are raped every hour in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Masika Katsuva was one of them. While a decade of ethnic conflict and war in the DRC officially ended in 2003, armed militias and the Congolese [...]
I have a First World phobia. It’s not an official fear in a worried, heart-racing, hand-sweating sort of way, but it’s something I think about often—especially when I’m in unfamiliar places. It emerged one summer weekend when I was five years old. My parents decided our family would take up camping. After purchasing a Coleman [...]
Continue reading …I have a love-hate relationship with the United Nations. I love the idea of 193 nations working together to solve international problems of economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian significance. But I hate that U.N. members place priority on their national agendas, often preventing the body from formulating solutions to global issues. I hate the reality [...]
Continue reading …The world consumes three million tons of cocoa per year, earning chocolate manufacturers more than $62.1 billion U.S. annually, while those relying on cocoa growing for their livelihoods struggle to survive. Facing harsh economic realities, cocoa farmers do what they feel they must in order to make a living. That often involves human rights violations [...]
Continue reading …It was the first day of classes of the winter semester of 2012, and her foreboding statement expressed her expectations of the three months ahead. “It’s going to be hell,” she said. She was a St. Thomas University student, probably barely recovered from the demands of exams and multiple paper deadlines all coinciding in one [...]
Continue reading …For centuries, Africa’s been known as the “Dark Continent”—filled with a supposed mysterious, piteous, primitive people in need of civilizing and evangelizing. As 2011 drew to a close and a new year arrived, it became apparent that a new perception of Africa had not come with it. While efforts to help Africans have historically been [...]
Continue reading …I fear there’s a mushroom cloud on the horizon, but we may be shocked by who drops the bomb. Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that Iran possesses the technology and material to build a nuclear weapon in a matter of months. It confirmed the fear that’s gripped Israel and others for years. [...]
Continue reading …Peering at a Blackberry, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exclaimed, “Wow! Huh.” This was her unguarded response— before quickly composing herself for the official one—to the news that Muammar Gaddafi, brutal leader of Libya for 42 years, had been killed in his hometown of Sirte. Details of Gaddafi’s Oct. 20 death have been sketchy and vary from the initial claim that he’d been [...]
Continue reading …On Oct. 2, Julie Campbell’s daughter escaped from The Moncton Hospital where she’d been admitted following an apparent suicide attempt. The 15-year-old and two other young people overpowered the only nurse on duty in the provincial child/adolescent psychiatric unit and were later found at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant. The teen was returned to the unit and Campbell began [...]
Continue reading …They call them machay, meaning “wasps.” The locals know danger is near when they hear buzzing overhead. Though people try to take cover, no one can outrun the unmanned aerial vehicles— “drones”—that launch missiles and hunt “militants” in Pakistan. The mourners who’d gathered for funeral prayers were unable to escape the three drone missiles fired on [...]
Continue reading …Half a million people dragged themselves across a dusty, barren, carcass-strewn landscape this summer, through conflict zones and rebel posts, hoping to find aid in overcrowded refugee camps. For many, the journey took weeks and upon arrival at the Dadaab camps in Kenya—now the haven for 400,000 Somalis—they faced another crisis: not enough supplies, space or staff to meet their needs. While Ethiopia, Djibouti, and [...]
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