The Earthquake in Haiti

Matthew Marek/American Red Cross
Our Fellow in Haiti, Pooja Bhatia, is uniquely positioned to write about the unfolding tragedy in that country with knowledge and understanding. You can follow her reporting and writing about the disaster on the following links:
As quoted in The New Yorker: www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/01/25/100125taco_talk_packer
In The Wall Street Journal, on the loss of the largest collection of Haitian
art in the world, with a slide show and video: online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703837004575013022647688144-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwNDEyNDQyWj.html
The New York Times: www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/opinion/14bhatia.html
On Twitter: twitter.com/bhatiap
FORMER FELLOW SPOTLIGHT
“The opportunity to spend two years living in villages and small towns across India through my ICWA fellowship was life-changing, in small and large ways. I had the time and space to examine the issues that I cared deeply about, to connect actual experiences through my immersion in life in India with larger policy questions, and to explore the country and the issues that appeared before me in a way that simply isn’t possible in most other opportunities. ICWA’s commitment to investing in people who have the potential to lead and contribute to international affairs and understanding is unique, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be a fellow. My fellowship experiences helped me to develop my understanding of both international and domestic migration, and my ability to lead and contribute on these issues today.” |
PRAMILA JAYAPAL Pramila is the founder and Executive Director of OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance the fundamental principles of democracy and justice through building power in immigrant communities in collaboration with key allies. Since its creation in 2001, OneAmerica has grown into one of the largest and most influential immigrant rights organizations in Washington State and in the country, providing leadership on national and statewide campaigns around immigration reform, due process and civil rights issues, and immigrant integration. OneAmerica is the recipient of numerous awards for its courageous community organizing and policy work, including City of Seattle's Civil Rights Award, the Washington Bar Association's Access to Justice Community Leadership Award, the Unitarian Universalists Holmes-Weatherley Award, and the Ecumenical Leadership Award from the Washington Association of Churches. In 2008, Pramila was appointed by Washington Governor Chris Gregoire to serve as Vice Chair of the Washington New Americans Policy Council, which advises the Governor on immigrant issues. Pramila appears frequently on local and national radio and television shows and is a featured speaker around the country to diverse audiences on issues of immigrants and immigration. She is the author of Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland (Seal Press, 2000), and her articles and essays have been published widely in numerous magazines and newspapers. Her previous work includes over twenty years in both social justice and private sector fields. An activist and writer, Pramila has been actively involved in international and domestic social justice issues for over 12 years, working across Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as domestically with immigrant and refugee communities in Washington state. From 1991-95, she was the Director of the Fund for Technology Transfer at PATH Seattle, overseeing a $6 million revolving loan fund for socially responsible health projects in developing countries. From 1995-97, Pramila was awarded a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to live in India and write about development and societal issues. From 1997-2001, Pramila was a consultant to several organizations on immigrant and refugee issues, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections Initiative. Prior to that, Pramila also spent several years on Wall Street in investment banking. She currently serves on several boards, including as Vice Chair of The Rights Working Group and the Executive Advisory Board for Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry. Pramila has a Masters in Business Administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and a B.A. from Georgetown University in English and Economics. Pramila was born in India, and raised in India, Indonesia and Singapore. She is the proud mother of a 12-year old son, born in India during her ICWA fellowship. |
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“The ICWA Fellowship is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - it was a pivotal moment in my career where I became what I wanted to be and no longer dreamed of what I could be. It's a pure expression of living for the moment—not reflecting on bygone years or waiting for the next stage of life—and knowing every day is an adventure in itself.” |
Peter Keller Peter’s ICWA fellowship opened doors to important roles in international resource management. After receiving a degree in Recreation Management from the University of Montana and a Masters in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, Peter entered a two-year Presidential Management Fellow program in Washington, D.C., which offered him assignments at the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. He worked with the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service in locations such as the Flathead National Forest and Glacier, Grand Canyon, Redwood and Yosemite National Parks, and then he became an ICWA Fellow. During his fellowship he chronicled the status of public and private protected areas in Chile and Argentina. Afterwards, from 2003-2006, he served as the U.S. Forest Service’s Regional Wilderness and Rivers Program Leader in California. Peter then served for two years at the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador as the Regional Environmental Advisor for Central America and Mexico with the U.S. Agency for International Development. In June 2008, he returned to Washington D.C. as the USAID Biodiversity Advisor for the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau. Peter, his wife and two kids live in Arlington, VA. |
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NEW BOOKS |
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Heart of Dryness “We don’t govern water. Water governs us,” writes James G. Workman. In Heart of Dryness, he chronicles the memorable saga of the famed Bushmen of the Kalahari—remnants of one of the world’s most successful civilizations, today at the exact epicenter of Africa’s drought—in their widely publicized recent battle with the government of Botswana, in the process of exploring the larger story of what many feel has become the primary resource battleground of the twenty-first century: the supply of water. The Bushmen’s story could well prefigure our own. In the United States, even the most upbeat optimists concede we now face an unprecedented water crisis. Reservoirs behind large dams on the Colorado River, which serve thirty million in many states, will be dry in thirteen years. Southeastern drought recently cut Tennessee Valley Authority hydropower in half, exposed Lake Okeechobee’s floor, dried up thousands of acres of Georgia’s crops, and left Atlanta with sixty days of water. Cities east and west are drying up. As reservoirs and aquifers fail, officials ration water, neighbors snitch on one another, corporations move in, and states fight states to control shared rivers. Each year, around the world, inadequate water kills more humans than AIDS, malaria, and all wars combined. Global leaders pray for rain. Bushmen tap more pragmatic solutions. James G . Workman illuminates the present and coming tensions we will all face over water and shows how, from the remoteness of the Kalahari, an ancient and resilient people is showing the world a viable path through the encroaching Dry Age. Walker & Company, NY. To Order Click here to watch a brief interview on the book Read an excerpt from the book or view a 20 min. documentary on the Bushmen situation. |
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The Great Gamble The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a grueling debacle that has striking lessons for the twenty-first century. In The Great Gamble, Gregory Feifer examines the conflict from the perspective of the soldiers on the ground. During the last years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union sent some of its most elite troops to unfamiliar lands in Central Asia to fight a vaguely defined enemy, which eventually defeated their superior numbers with unconventional tactics. Although the Soviet leadership initially saw the invasion as a victory, many Russian soldiers came to view the war as a demoralizing and devastating defeat, the consequences of which had a substantial impact on the Soviet Union and its collapse. Feifer’s extensive research includes eye-opening interviews with participants from both sides of the conflict. In gripping detail, he vividly depicts the invasion of a volatile country that no power has ever successfully conquered. Parallels between the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are impossible to ignore—both conflicts were waged amid vague ideological rhetoric about freedom. Both were roundly condemned by the outside world for trying to impose their favored forms of government on countries with very different ways of life. And both seem destined to end on uncertain terms. A groundbreaking account seen through the eyes of the men who fought it, The Great Gamble tells an unforgettable story full of drama, action, and political intrigue whose relevance in our own time is greater than ever. Available January 6, 2009 HarperCollinsPublishers Hardcover: $27.99 ISBN: 9870061143182 |
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