Weave Blogs

Today, many human rights activists who closely watch stories of war-minerals and violence acts committed daily in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), were alarmed by information of surrendering of one of the most cruel warlords Bosco Ntaganda to The United States Embassy asking for a transfer to The International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague. One of those activists, who I know personally, pointed out how rarely violence in DRC makes it to the mainstream media headlines, but also how much this entire case is covered with question marks. After all, not every day fugitive criminals who are believed to kill, rape, and conscript children as soldiers, knock at the door of the embassy and kindly ask for a trial...?!

Although we cannot find certain explanations for that, there are two other issues I would like to mention. First of them, is that the 'surrender' happened in Kigali...

Several years ago I read a book entitled The Physics of Star Trek. My memory of it is vague, but I can say with confidence that the chapter that fascinated me the most was on Star Trek's relationship to matter: transporting, warp drive, and the holodeck. In other words, vaporizing humans and reassembling them at a chosen geographical location, traveling one-to-nine times the speed of light, and virtual reality programs. It all seemed very improbable, but the author did a very adorable job appraising the probabilities and potentials of our technological capacities meeting those of the crew of the Enterprise. And, quite paradoxically, the seeming impossibility of ever witnessing or putting my hands on the most farfetched Star Trek-featured technology seemed to be what made the the book such a compelling read.

An...

In multiple stories and talks regarding the death of President of Venezuela – Hugo Chavez, some statements made me wonder about how Chavez is represented in the world of media, or rather how his actions and his persona is labeled by some as “CONTROVERSIAL...” Despite many things that we may not like about Chavez, he is the one to increase literacy rates and elevate people from poverty thanks to various social programs and revamped welfare system paid at large thanks to Venezuelan nationalized oil resource…

Oil created by natural processes and 'stored' on the land inhabited by the group of people called “Venezuelans” - hence why those people should not be able to benefit from that resource? And, if there is a leader who is able to think about...

Ask anyone you know: when you hear the phrase “segregated buses,” what comes to mind?  Most people will respond by referring to the racist laws that prevailed in the southern United States during the infamous Jim Crow era that lasted (formally) until the mid-1960s.  While these laws affected many different aspects of people’s everyday lives, the racial segregation of public buses remains one of the best-known aspects of the Jim Crow era thanks to the efforts of courageous civil rights activists like Rosa Parks, who was recently honored with a statue at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC.  Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Parks’ birth, the unveiling of the statue appeared to mark a...