Wednesday, July 30th, 2014

Laos, US Legacy, and Unexploded Ordnance

JULY 23, 2014 / PROSPERCSIS For decades, Laos’ economic development and relationship with the United States has been strained by unexploded ordnance (UXO), a legacy of the Vietnam War. Roughly 30 percent of the two million tons of bombs that the United States dropped in Laos during the Vietnam War failed to detonate on impact. To date, only about one percent of affected land has… [Read Full Article]

Tuesday, July 29th, 2014

Press Conference: Advocates Call for End of U.S. Support of African Tyrants

IPS' Foreign Policy In Focus joins a diverse U.S. based activist coalition focusing on Africa is calling on U.S. leaders to cease their support and empowerment of brutal dictators across Africa. A diverse U.S. based activist coalition focusing on Africa is calling on U.S. leaders to cease their support and empowerment of brutal dictators across Africa. The Coalition will host… [Read Full Article]

Friday, July 25th, 2014

MAG - Focus on Vietnam

For 25 years, MAG has been working to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance and, for 15 of those years, we have been in Vietnam. As a result, we have staff there who have spent their careers with MAG, working to make their country a safer place. Most of the stories in this newsletter are written directly by those staff, so you… [Read Full Article]

Thursday, July 24th, 2014

MAG - Focus on Vietnam

Two more children die 40 years later I have worked for seven years for MAG in Quang Binh as a Community Liaison Officer, and have heard about so many accidents in the poor villages: two 14-year-old boys, one killed and one badly injured when they set off a submunition in the schoolyard; a man, who is still suffering from the… [Read Full Article]

Monday, July 21th, 2014

Online School for Girls puts focus on connection, collaboration

By SARA HAYDEN Much to English teacher Ed Raines' surprise, his students had never heard Puccini's soaring melodies that inspired David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly," nor the way Louis Armstrong could make a trumpet talk in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man." In the middle of a faculty meeting at Westridge School in Pasadena, he passed his colleague, a music teacher, a note.… [Read Full Article]