What Sudan and Who-ville Have in Common
Forget about Linda Polman. We humanitarians need to listen more to Lt. General Omar el-Bashir. Of course, we do care about Ms. Polman’s crucifixion of the aid business. After all, she’s hitting us...
View ArticleThe Bad Colonel
A throng of gunmen haul a 69-year-old man through the dusty street. His chest lays bare, face bloodied. He is beaten and sodomized and shot. What kind of person does not feel compassion? Well, me, the...
View ArticleAltered States
Ever heard of Piltdown man? He would have stood four feet tall and was the talk of the scientific town 100 years ago. If you are an evolutionary biologist, you probably know exactly who I am talking...
View ArticleEF Inhumanity
Let me start off with a good old American colloquialism: It ain’t over till the fat lady sings. Well, in terms of my career with MSF, the fat lady is warming up her voice. After 15 years, today is my...
View ArticleLessons From Charlie Hebdo
What do David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas have in common? Well, probably lots of things. Here’s one you weren’t thinking of: All of them attended Sunday’s massive...
View ArticleRefugees and Migrants: A New (old) Narrative
Imagine the scene. A desperate mass of stricken, exhausted, frightened people find refuge. Perhaps for the first time in years, they sleep with two eyes shut. Bam! A powerful group wrenches the money,...
View ArticleAesop Visits the Modern World
Once upon a time there was a shepherd boy who cared for the village sheep. Every day, the boy would take the sheep into the fields to graze. It was not fun, and the boy had to stay there all by...
View ArticleBrexit Now vs UK EU
The Referendum on staying in the EU strikes me not as a “great festival of democracy” but more an invitation for tyranny of the majority. Issues this important and decisions this enduring should be...
View ArticleThe Three Ds of Search and Rescue
A hand stretches from water and another from the side of a boat. A rare moment of purity in humanitarian work. The hands clasp, and a life is saved. It is far from coincidence that this purity...
View ArticleThe Advocacy Tax
The Advocacy Tax Did you miss this excellent piece of journalism, exposing the oversimplified story of how conflict minerals are being stopped by international countermeasures such as the Dodd-Frank...
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