Monthly Archives: January 2010
Roundup: SOTU Foreign Policy Reacts
Though many, including me, have said that Obama didn’t say much in terms of foreign policy (and related policies) last night in his State of the Union, there has been a lot said about the little he did say. Find a sample of those reactions below.
Senate Hearing on Haiti
A very refreshing hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Haiti just concluded. Paul Farmer who is Bill Clinton’s Deputy UN Special Representative on Haiti, RAND’s Jim Dobbins (a UN Dispatch favorite), and Rony Francois, the incoming director of public health for the state of Georgia testified on what is needed for Haiti’s long term recovery.
Aid Agencies Amplify Call for Civilian Delivery of Aid in Afghanistan at London Conference
“We must ensure that development does not falter in Afghanistan,” Mercy Corps UK director Mervlyn Lee said in his opening remarks to more than one hundred leading development experts, community leaders, civil society activists and government officials at a civil society conference in London Tuesday. Organized by the British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group (BAAG), the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) and the High Commission of Canada in London, the conference kicked off four days of events around a UK Government hosted summit on the way forward in Afghanistan.
Rebuilding Connections After the Quake
By Myriam Annette, read part 1 of Myriam’s
“Thanks to TSF’s calling operation, I could call my uncle in Venezuela. It was essential to reassure him about my family, to tell him that we all are alive. For me, the most important thing for survival is to keep the family connections, whatever the situation.”
President Buys Congress a Newspaper Subscription
Those of you who aren’t plugged into the matrix might have missed the fact that President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address to Congress last night, as U.S. presidents are, sort of, required to do (also, Apple released its tablet computer).
Note to Peretz: Don’t Put Down the Contributions of Arab States to Haiti’s Relief Effort
In a bizarre post at the New Republic, Editor in Chief Marty Peretz denigrates the contribution of Arabs and Arab states to the Haiti relief efforts.
The Arabs don’t care a fig, not for their impoverished and backward own, and certainly not for strangers. That’s why their presence in Haiti amounted to a couple of bucks from Saudi Arabia and maybe from some other sheikhs.
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The SC; HRC; DPRK; South Sudan
The SC: The Security Council today held its last consultations under the Council Presidency of ROK. Tomorrow, Russia will take over the rotating Presidency of the Security Council for March under Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.
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The SG; Mali; Middle East; Palestine
The SG: At the Fifth Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations in Vienna, Austria today, the SG emphasized the role of youth in ensuring a “prosperous, equitable and peaceful future.”
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The SG; DRC; HRC; Palestinian Prisoner
The SG: In Ethiopia over the weekend, the SG is now in the United Arab Emirates. Today he met with Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, where the two discussed developments in the region, including Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, and in the Middle East Peace Process.
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