YouTube As Civil Rights Advocate?

"YouTube and its ilk mean that today anyone can tell human rights stories. And as Hamad's video shows, if the stories are told with enough brio and skill, the public will pay attention, and the government may be more likely to respond. Critics pooh-pooh the importance of all of this by pointing to the fact that civil rights advocates have traditionally had a friend in the press. But they're missing the point: YouTube goes where the mainstream media can't or won't go. It's visceral. It's story first, message second. And it gives advocates instant access to an audience in a way that press releases and op-eds never can."
-Andrew K. Woods-

Could YouTube really be a new tool to promote human rights? In his Slate article "The YouTube Defense" lawyer Andrew Woods argues yes. Woods explains that as user-generated outlets "grab an ever-greater share of the media market, human rights activists will increasingly depend on online tools to change the cultural landscape and with it, they hope, the legal one."

New Trade Agenda On The Horizon

It is expected today that House Democrats, led by Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) will introduce a trade initiative emphasizing environmental protection, access to low-cost medicines and labor rights in all new international trade pacts. As The Wall Street Journal reports, "In the near term, the Democratic gambit appears likely to frustrate White House hopes of winning rapid votes this spring on pending free trade deals with Panama, Peru and Colombia. Beyond that, it lays out more clearly the wider set of issues the administration must confront in getting President Bush's trade agenda on track during his final two years in office." Hopefully, we'll see a renewed focus on global labor rights as American trade policy is notoriously vague on the subject of worker's rights.

"God Grew Tired of Us"

"Orphaned by a tumultuous civil war and traveling barefoot across the sub-Saharan desert, John Bul Dau, Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Blor were among the 25,000 "Lost Boys" (ages 3 to 13) who fled villages, formed surrogate families and sought refuge from famine, disease, wild animals and attacks from rebel soldiers. Named by a journalist after Peter Pan's posse of orphans who protected and provided for each other, the "Lost Boys" traveled together for five years and against all odds crossed into the UN's refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. A journey's end for some, it was only the beginning for John, Daniel and Panther, who along with 3800 other young survivors, were selected to re-settle in the United States."
-"God Grew Tired Of Us"-

I saw an incredible documentary film this past weekend. "God Grew Tired of Us" follows the lives of three "lost boys" -- Sudanese men -- from their long journey out of Sudan to years spent in a refugee camp in Kenya to new lives in two Northeastern cities. Along the way they learn new languages, cope with cultural difference and strive to reconcile lives forged in the face of extreme tragedy. Throughout their struggle to create new lives, the "lost boys" do not lose sight of their families (whom they persist in trying to locate) and the other "lost boys" still living at the refugee camp in Kenya. The three men profiled become leaders in the United States as they work in conjunction with local communities to bring awareness and change to their beloved but deeply troubled country. They work to develop a national network for the lost boys, raise funds to make change in Sudan and apply their academic study toward developing solutions to the region's most pressing problems (Daniel goes back to Africa to build a school, John develops a non-profit to raise funds for medical needs in the region).

The film puts a human face on a largely forgotten tragedy, but strays from becoming overly sentimental, choosing rather to remain true to the three men profiled, finding humor in a visit to an American grocery store, joy in a mother's reunion with her son after 17 years, loneliness in a isolating American city, community under horrendous conditions, and ambition in the desires of three young men to live lives of purpose. Check out John Dau's Direct Change Sudan Project. You can read about what other humanitarian groups are doing here.

Subsidizing Whom?

"It has become relatively accepted that the current system of subsidies aren't working and the 2004 WTO ruling against American cotton subsidies has provided an additional impetus for reform, but there's no easy way of fixing the system. Analysts say that simply eliminating agricultural subsidies all together would encourage further production and drive prices down even lower."
-Alina Hoffman-

The United States Department of Agriculture has made recommendations for the 2007 Farm Bill (renewed every five years) and has commenced presenting recommendations to Congress. Providing over $4 billion over the next five years, the bulk of which is devoted to agricultural subsidies for producers of only a few major cash crops (90 percent goes toward corn, cotton, wheat, rice and soybean production), the subsidies have become, as Hoffman writes, "an incentive to overproduce the subsidized crops, thus raising supply and further driving down price, to the detriment of smaller farms that can't compete." Read more of her article, "Debating the Farm Bill".

For a comparative look, take a look at what FarmSubsidy.org is doing to investigate where the European Union Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) farm subsidies are being spent. As in the United States, the budgets under CAP are huge (in 2005 farm subsidies comprised nearly half of the entire EU budget) but opaque, with little information publicly available. As FarmSubsidy.org co-founder Jack Thurston contends: "For too long people have been misled to believe that farm subsidies are about protecting small and family farms. This data shows conclusively that most of the money goes to large agribusiness and wealthy landowners."

Power and Voices

"I've heard horror stories all week about forced marriages, sexual violence, illness and death, and frightening statistics on how long we still have to go before even half of the world's women can say they live under acceptable conditions. Yet the meeting has been met by deafening silence by most media, including blogs and the alternative press. The only ones who haven't missed a beat are the anti-abortion Christian right."
-Solana Larson-

Larson covered the United Nations meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) this past two weeks. Read her article "How Power Works For Women" for her reaction to the event, her analysis of how improved conditions for women improved can alter society as a whole and her criticism of media coverage of the event. Though Larson spent two intense weeks at the United Nations, she seems to have left with only a few answers and many more questions.