Groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS often come to mind when someone says the word “terrorism,” but there’s another name that you should know: Boko Haram. Most of the world was introduced to Boko Haram in 2014, when the group kidnapped 276 school girls; however, Nigeria was already well-acquainted with the group through years of worsening […]
The Tibetan Government-in-exile held elections in late March to determine their group’s newest administration. It was the second election since the Dalai Lama stepped down as the head of government in 2011 to focus on his role as the country’s spiritual leader. Approximately 80,000 Tibetans from across the globe registered to vote, electing incumbent Lobsang […]
Two weeks after being named the “Shark Enemy of the Year” by the conservation NGO Sharkproject International, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís stood before a room of the world’s premiere shark experts and professed his commitment to conservation. “I firmly believe that the double responsibility to conserve the environment and serve the people is […]
Australia has long been considered an international human rights leader. Right now, the country is competing with France and Spain for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. However, according to the Human Rights Watch 2016 World Report, the country has dropped the ball when it comes to its treatment of refugees and […]
According to a British government-commissioned review of the threat of superbugs resistant to antibiotics, more vaccines are needed to reduce the use of antibiotics. The report, which was published last month, focuses on antimicrobial resistance. Head of the review is Lord Jim O’Neill, former chief economist at Goldman Sachs and currently Commercial Secretary to the […]
The Arab Spring uprising may have come to Egypt in 2011, but the country had been in turmoil for decades. After simmering in the 1980s under the increasingly corrupt and repressive dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, the country’s unease boiled over in the January 2011 revolution that ousted him. However, in the years since the Arab […]
It’s 5:30 am on my last day in Burma. The full moon was last night so I was hoping for a setting moon in the morning over the city. On the shores of Yangon’s Kandawgyi Lake, the black birds were assembled by the hundreds. Shwedagon Pagoda at Sunrise Their familiar ‘kaw kaw’ combined with the […]
I was finally headed to Mrauk U (pronounced “Mraw Oo”) after a failed attempt in February 2014. This ancient royal city had been on my travel map since my first trip to Burma in 2011. Founded in 1430 A.D. it was the seat of the Rakhine kingdom for more than 300 years. It sits about […]
I arrived in Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, for the third time in four years and things felt different. It seemed calmer, the sense that someone was watching you wasn’t there anymore – that is until I arrived in Rakhine State. Fisherman – Sittwe, Burma Upon arrival in Sittwe, my passport was examined closely, numbers […]
