For The Atlantic: On June 29, 2012, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi stood before millions crowding Tahrir Square on the eve of his inauguration, telling them “you are the source of power and legitimacy. There is no person, party, institution or authority over or above the will of the people.” A year later, millions of Egyptians have gathered in cities across the country demanding his resignation. Morsi won the country’s first free elections, but since then he and his party, the Muslim Brotherhood, have alienated one…Continue Reading “Seeking New Leadership, Millions of Egyptians Take to the Streets”
For the Christian Science Monitor: As the Egyptian opposition’s demands for the resignation of President Mohamed Morsi and fresh elections gain momentum, the beleaguered president’s supporters are slamming the opposition as secular and hostile to Islam. In the deeply religious country, it is a serious criticism, and it has brought many Egyptians to Mr. Morsi’s side. But his opponents point to support from the leading voice of the Sunni establishment in Egypt. Earlier this month, Ashraf Abdel-Moniem, a conservative preacher and a vocal supporter of…Continue Reading “Egypt's top religious authority: It's not anti-Islam to be anti-Morsi”
For the Wall Street Journal: According to the United Nations Development Program, more than 60% of Karachi’s residents live in illegal housing areas, many in unplanned slums like Orangi. These settlements are off the grid and often the scene of deadly shootings between rival gangs. Orangi’s residents are now turning to confront who owns the land they live on and OPP has expanded its work to help residents get rights to land and clean water. But by widening the focus, the NGO says it has…Continue Reading “In Asia’s Largest Slum, Development, Danger”
For The Revealer: The city of San Cristóbal de las Casas sits at more than two thousand meters above sea level, surrounded by cloud-topped green mountains, its innermost streets paved with beautiful pink stone that has been smoothed by five hundred years of pedestrian traffic. Ciudad Real, as it was called for centuries, was established as a base for Spanish conquistadors as they went about subjugating the last Mayan resistors in this, the southernmost part of Mexico. San Cristóbal is the cultural capitol of the…Continue Reading “Searching for God and Justice in Mexico’s Rebel State”
For the IRIN News Agency: LAHORE, 10 May 2013 (IRIN) – On the frontline in the fight against dengue fever in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, the authorities have a sharp eye for spare car tyres. “When the police show up, we will throw all these tyres into the basement,” said Rohil Ayub, 18, who runs a downtown repair shop. “The police fine us a lot, thousands of rupees every time,” he said. Every few days, police inspectors fine anyone who leaves tyres outside –…Continue Reading “Marshalling smartphones, gravediggers to fight dengue in Pakistan”
For the Wall Street Journal: Rights groups welcome Pervez Musharraf-era reforms to Pakistan’s electoral system, which helped put religious minorities on an equal footing with Muslims. But Ahmadis say they were left out, and some other religious minorities say they still don’t have adequate representation in Parliament. “We want to be part of the mainstream, but they [the government] won’t let us. They are keeping us out of elections,” a spokesman for Pakistan’s Ahmadi community said. Muslim extremists in Pakistan persuaded the government to pass…Continue Reading “The Pakistanis Who Won’t Vote”
For Upside Down World, published February 28, 2013: On December 21, 2012, fifty thousand members of the Zapatista movement, wearing their famed balaclava masks, silently assembled in the town of San Juan Chamula and marched south to the city of San Cristobal de las Casas. It was a highly symbolic gesture. San Cristobal has changed more in the last two decades than in its entire five hundred year history. A once small town that barred indigenous peoples from staying overnight has been transformed into…Continue Reading “Inspired by the Jungle: The Zapatistas and the Rise of an Indigenous City”
For The Nation, with Connor Guy In March of last year, Javier Sicilia, one of Mexico’s leading poets, suffered a fate that is far too common in his country today: his 24-year-old son was murdered by a drug cartel. With over 40,000 dead since 2006 from cartel-related violence, and more than 9,000 unsolved disappearances, Sicilia’s plight is in many ways emblematic of his country’s. Shortly after his son’s death, he wrote and circulated an open letter addressed “To Mexico’s Politicians and Criminals,” in which he…Continue Reading “Interview With Javier Sicilia; The Movement for Peace and Justice in Mexico”
For the Indypendent Reader with Michael Kaplan
Bulldozers stationed in lots slated for redevelopment in West Baltimore’s Poppelton neighborhood represent the first step forward in a long-delayed and underfunded plan to revive the historic area. A sign, surrounded by overgrown bushes and weeds, proudly displays a map of the neighborhood promised by a redevelopment zone. Now five years behind schedule, the underfunded and overly-ambitious urban renewal plan has left residents uncertain of their neighborhood’s fate. Like the sign, Poppeleton also suffers from neglect.
Continue Reading "Poppleton: A Neighborhood in Waiting"