New School Global Studies

knowhomo:

2012 Lesbian and Gay Rights in the World Maps

Maps from: IGLA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association)

For larger images, click on direct post  and then click images.

timelightbox:

The photographs in this gallery are from the book Bosnia 1992 – 1995, available July 2012. You can pre-order the book here on Kickstarter.

March 1996. Near Srebrenica. Photo: Gary Knight—VII

This photograph is taken in a ditch at the foot of a mountain path that connected the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica to Bosnia. Thousands of men fled for their lives down this path and across the adjacent fields after the fall of Srebrenica in 1995. Approximately 8,000 men and teenage boys from the enclave were killed as they fled by Serb forces who poured machine-gun fire, anti-aircraft cannon and artillery down on the path. Some survivors spoke of Serb soldiers in white coats coming out of the forest with syringes and injecting them.

Theodor Menon, the presiding judge of the Appeals Chamber at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugolsavia, made this statement about Srebrenica: By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the 40,000 Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity.”

apaxicana:

end it NOW!

(via riotgrrrljacksonville)

dreams-from-my-father:fredjoiner:

The Stories That Europe Tells Itself About Its Colonial History

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie breaking it down…

“She said once she was shocked that her son while being taught Belgian history, was taught nothing about Congo. She said “They teach my son in school that he must help the poor Africans, but they don’t teach him about what Belgium did in Congo.” Of course, all countries are evasive about the past for which they feel ashamed, but I was shocked by what seemed to me not evasiveness but an erasure of history. 

If her son doesn’t learn that the modern Congo State began a hundred years ago as the personal property of a Belgian king, who was desperate to get wealthy from ivory and rubber, if her son doesn’t learn that the hands of Congolese people were chopped off for not producing enough resources to meet the king’s greed, if her son doesn’t learn that the Belgian government later led Congo with a deliberate emphasis on not producing an educated class, so that Congolese could become clerks and mechanics but couldn’t go to university, if her son doesn’t learn that more recently, even thought it was the Americans who installed the Mobutu’s dictatorship, Belgium was a major force behind the scenes propping him off, if this young Belgian boy, knows nothing about these incidents, then, at some point, they would perhaps no longer have happened because the past after all is the past because we collectively acknowledged that it is so. 

This young Belgian boy would grow up to see Africa only as a place that requires his aid, his help, his charity with no complications for him. A place that can help him show how compassionate he can be, and most of all, a place whose present has no connection to Europe. 

It is not that Europe has denied its colonial history. Instead, Europe has developed a way of telling the story of its colonial history that ultimately seeks to erase that history”

(via raphaellaskies)

smartercities:

Cape Town Without The Freeways | Sustainable Cities Collective

Cape Town’s Foreshore freeway strangles the city and cuts it (and its people) off from the Port and water’s edge. With a comparison to San Francisco’s Embarcadero, Gareth Pearsonquestions what would happen if we did away with the Foreshore section of Nelson Mandela Boulevard altogether.

When Capetonians talk about the freeway along the Foreshore, there’s a good chance it involves a joke about the mysterious unfinished sections. It’s not the unfinished sections that I care about, it’s the entire thing.

The footprint of the freeway as well as the land in between each section is wasted, restricting the development of this lifeless area of the city. There have been a number of interventions proposed, as mentioned some time back in a post  by Andrew Boraine. More recently, the City of Cape Town, is proposing a 3 storey parking building to sit between the freeways, to support a new tower, as part of the Convention Centre expansion.

There is often talk of sinking the freeway below ground, a monstrous project not disimilar to Boston’s Big Dig. Sure, this is an option, as with any project it has its advantages and disadvantages. But what if the freeway was removed entirely? What if it was replaced with a tree-lined boulevard that accommodates public transport, bicycling, and walking?

brooklynmutt:

MSNBC Mistakenly Labels Nicolas Sarkozy A ‘Prostitute’

(Mediaite)

Whoops

(via thenationmagazine)

thedailywhat:

In Case You Missed It of the Day: With an assist from Jay-Z and Kanye, François Hollande defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday to become France’s first Socialist president since François Mitterand in 1995. “Austerity can no longer be something that is inevitable,”Hollande said following his win.

In related news, “austerity” is currently ranked No. 7 on Google Hot Trends, the real-time ranking of international search keywords.

[death+taxes]

Let’s make a decision to change the kind of world this is.

shortformblog:

Ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister struggles in prison: On the left, Yulia Tymoshenko as people knew her from her Orange Revolution days in 2009. On the right, Tymoshenko in prison, days after she says prison guards attacked her when she resisted being taken to a local hospital. The former Ukranian leader, imprisoned months after leaving office for many in the West suggest were political reasons, refuses medical treatment for her severe back pain out of worry they’ll just make things worse. A sad look for a once-powerful figure. (AP Photos)

publicradiointernational:

A judge in the Netherlands has approved a government plan to ban foreign tourists from cannabis cafes. (Image: A cafe in Amsterdam, by budgetplaces, Flickr)

According to Dutch officials, the ban is designed to discourage drug tourists and end cross-border crimes.

The cafes will become members only clubs and will be able to issue up to 2,000 membership cards to residents over the age of 18.

The ban starts in the southern provinces of the Netherlands in May, and roll out to the rest of the country in January of 2013. Cafe owners and some city officials fear the ban will hurt tourism.

More.