http://muddynotebook.com Journalist Carolyn Davis blogs on humanitarian issues Sat, 04 Sep 2010 22:42:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Why has the flow of aid money and humanitarian relief been so slow to Pakistan to help its flood victims, versus the huge amounts of aid that went to Haiti after its earthquake? A number of news outlets have looked at that question, including the Christian Science Monitor, PRI's The ... http://muddynotebook.com/?p=387 It's a phenomenon that's disturbing to see: Armed groups targeting aid workers. It's not a new phenomena, though its increasing frequency suggests that such attacks are becoming an accepted tactic by some, much as suicide bombing has been embraced by some armed groups as a legitimate tactic. It's not. Suicide bombing and ... http://muddynotebook.com/?p=383 The news that Swiss authorities are freeing film producer and child molester Roman Polanski is simply sickening. The LA Times looked at the important question as to how Polanski's original sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old girl compared against the sentences of others who committed the same crime and had the same plea deal, in ... http://muddynotebook.com/?p=381 [caption id="attachment_378" align="aligncenter" width="73" caption="Nate Henn"][/caption] Nate Henn, 25, was one of the victims in yesterday's bombing in Kigali, Rwanda of a rugby field where the World Cup final was being televised on a giant screen. Nate listed himself as a 2007 graduate of the University of Delaware. When I was on ... http://muddynotebook.com/?p=377 [caption id="attachment_375" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Your computers' bloody contents"][/caption] The Enough Project has produced this great spoof of the Mac-PC commercials to educate the public about how computers, yes, the ones in our homes and offices, are made with conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Militias do the mining and then ... http://muddynotebook.com/?p=374 Here's part of a great story from IRIN that raises the same question: How can such a small group of rebels endure and cause such havoc in so many countries, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo as examined by IRIN. The story doesn't give many satisfying answers, except to say that ... http://muddynotebook.com/?p=369 It's the NGO's annual State of the World's Mothers report and it's just out and available here from Save the Children. A cause being important and worthy, and a product about it, such as this report, coming from a well-regarded organization, doesn't mean journalists and others will automatically give them ... http://muddynotebook.com/?p=366 AlertNet has posted a blog article today written by a Myanmar Red Cross worker and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent on how some Myanmarese are doing two years this month after Cyclone Nargis struck the already-troubled Southeast Asian nation. It by no means gives a complete ... http://muddynotebook.com/?p=364 ZQ735X2FXTFZ http://muddynotebook.com/?p=362 I got the following press release this morning from the International Crisis Group, which points out the continued, bloody existence of the Lord's Resistance Army. As much as I respect the crisis group, the conclusions in its new report aren't new at all. The LRA has been a regional menace for years. ... http://muddynotebook.com/?p=358