by Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge,

Women have increasingly been incorporated into armed forces worldwide, both in conventional and guerilla armies. For many years however, the roles of women in war and other types of violent conflict remained almost invisible throughout the world. Accounts of war tended to cast men as protectors and doers while women were portrayed as the passive, innocent victims. As women’s experiences have become more broadly known, it has become clear that there are many different ways in which women live through and participate in wars: as fighters, community leaders, social organizers, workers, farmers, traders, welfare workers, among other roles. Nonetheless, many conflict narratives highlight a common theme of women seeking to minimize the effects of violence through their different social roles. The bravery of those women who go against the general tide of opinion, and sometimes literally place themselves in the line of fire, has come to be much celebrated.

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Watch Columbian artist Shakira and Haitian/US artist Wyclef Jean perform their 2006 hit song “Hips Don’t Lie”

by Pervez Hoodbhoy

Rumor has it that the World Bank is on its way back to Pakistan with a bagful of loans, together with plans for how we must spend the money. A major focus of the Bank’s efforts will be higher education reform. No one doubts the desperate need for reform of Pakistan’s education sector, or the need for assistance, especially since we have shown little capacity to fund or plan our education ourselves. But recent experience suggests the Bank’s help may be a poisoned chalice. If it is to be otherwise, the Bank will have to avoid local snake charmers and be more skeptical of what bureaucrats and ministers claim.

Said to be the world’s biggest research institution working on developmental issues, the Bank employs thousands of technical people at its Washington headquarters and abroad. Typically, a highly paid World Bank team of experts, trained in the use of sophisticated mathematical and statistical tools and report writing, is parachuted into a Third World country. They could be charged with fixing broken down systems of education, healthcare, agriculture, or electricity. But although its researchers and team leaders are often accomplished individuals, experience suggests they are not adequately equipped to understand the complexity of local issues. As important, the Bank depends on government agencies and cannot easily bite the hand that invites it in and provides access.

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By Savitri Hensman

Ethnic nationalism has a quasi-religious appeal, and in times of conflict the state may be treated as a god
Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.
So wrote Lasantha Wickramatunga, in a chillingly powerful editorial published after his death. The editor of the Sunday Leader, a vigorous critic of the Sri Lankan government, was gunned down in broad daylight in the capital, Colombo, on 8 January.
At times of war, journalists can come under enormous pressure not to report inconvenient truths. This comes in part from governments intent on appearing in a favourable light. For example, the Sri Lankan authorities have been keen to publicise the successes of their military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who have been battling for a separate state. They have been less willing for the cost of the conflict, and the plight of ordinary Tamils, to be exposed. Neither side has given priority to the safety and welfare of civilians, or seriously sought a political solution based on strengthening equality and regional democracy.
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Noam Chomsky On Gaza – 2009.01.13 – MIT (5 of 11)

By Yasmeen Hassan

Monday, January 26, 2009
I have such fond childhood memories of summer holidays in the Swat Valley in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, a place well known among Pakistanis for its breathtaking views, cool summer climate and lush fruit orchards. But today the Swat Valley is experiencing heartbreaking pressures, as the Taliban strike with disconcerting regularity and, among other atrocities, impose a ban on the education of girls.
Even before this ban was put in place on Jan. 15, more than 100 schools for girls in Swat, as well as more than 150 such schools in the greater Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), had been shut down, many after being bombed or torched, leaving approximately 100,000 girls out of school. Radio announcements warned girls that they could be attacked with acid if they dared to attend school, and teachers have been threatened and killed. Last Monday, five more Swat Valley schools were bombed.
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Fri, 01/23/2009 – 7:12pm

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — flanked by President Obama — introduced Richard Holbrooke as the formidable new U.S. envoy to South Asia at a State Department ceremony on Thursday, India was noticeably absent from his title.
Holbrooke, the veteran negotiator of the Dayton accords and sharp-elbowed foreign policy hand who has long advised Clinton, was officially named “special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan” in what was meant to be one of the signature foreign policy acts of Obama’s first week in office.
But the omission of India from his title, and from Clinton’s official remarks introducing the new diplomatic push in the region was no accident — not to mention a sharp departure from Obama’s own previously stated approach of engaging India, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a regional dialogue. Multiple sources told The Cable that India vigorously — and successfully — lobbied the Obama transition team to make sure that neither India nor Kashmir was included in Holbrooke’s official brief.
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“Washington’s policy towards Russia endangers U.S. national security, says renowned Russian studies scholar, Stephen Cohen. He says relations between the two are now worse then during the Cold War, and Obama’s administration is unlikely to change that.”
Marina Portnaya interviews Stephen Cohen on the US/Russia relations on Russia Today TV

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