Categories
Iraq Middle East 2012 Politics

Meet Kurdistan: The “Other Iraq”

Think of Iraq. What pops into your head? Romanticized visions of Baghdad? Ancient Mesopotamia? A war-torn country filled with cities you’ve heard about on the news, like Mosul or Fallujah? If you want to travel to this Iraq these days I’m sorry to tell you that it sure as heck ain’t gonna be easy. Tourist […]

Categories
Israel Middle East 2011/12 Palestinian Territory Photos Politics

Photo Essay: Graffiti on Bethlehem’s “Security Wall”

Bethlehem and Jerusalem are practically neighbors. The trip from Jerusalem’s Old City takes no more than 10-15 minutes. At least it would if you didn’t have to cross “The Wall…” Israel‘s 8-meter (26 foot) high “Security wall” separates Israeli-controlled Jerusalem from the fully Palestinian-controlled areas of the “West Bank” (or, as one Palestinian said to […]

Categories
Politics USA Washington DC

My Day at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

It began with a rallying cry for reasonableness from Jon Stewart, who is quite possibly one of the most influential people in the country. From the moment he announced that he and his fellow Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert would host a “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” in Washington DC on October 30, I […]

Categories
Asia 2006 Politics Thailand

Return to Normalcy…or at least as normal as it gets in Thailand!

I’m sure you all have heard by now that on Sunday a new temporary Thai civilian Prime Minister was named and sworn in. Despite the fact that he is a former general, he is a highly respected and trusted individual. Directly prior to this he was a member of the Privy Council, the advisory council […]

Categories
Asia 2006 Politics Thailand

A crisis averted…but for the better?

Okay, so on Tuesday the school hosted this forum on the coup which I attended and was quite interesting and informative. Part of it involved tracing the events leading up to the coup. One in particular that seems to contribute to why the military acted when they did, is that on September 20, the day […]

Categories
Asia 2006 Politics Thailand

Political Turmoil??

Well, I must say, 36 hours after the coup that made world news, things in Thailand (well at least in Hua Hin) are very calm. I went into town last night, and if you hadn’t heard about what was going on in Bangkok, you wouldn’t have known it by the state of things in Hua […]

Categories
Asia 2006 Politics Thailand

COUP D’ETAT

Wow! Who knew being abroad could be so exciting! So if you hadn’t heard by now, there was a coup d’etat in Thailand last night! Anyone on the other side of the world heard about this way before I did, as it happened in the middle of the night here. I found out this morning […]