Woodrow Wilson Fellow Scholar Pardis Mahdavi recalls her experience with an organization in Dubai that was created to help trafficked women workers, but was actually re-trafficking them. Mahdavi believes the creation of civil society organizations, or NGOs, will prevent this from happening in the future. (0:40)
Woodrow Wilson Fellow Scholar Pardis Mahdavi explains how the Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) damaged the civil society organizations that had been dealing with the trafficking of migrant workers in Duabi since the year 2000. (0:38)
By Meagan Wiseley – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
Woodrow Wilson Fellow Scholar and expert on Middle-Eastern studies Pardis Mahdavi spoke today about her findings on her ethnographic research on migrant workers and sex workers in the United Arab Emirates. She believes the creation of civil society organizations, or NGOs, aimed to support trafficked workers will end the abuse that is currently afflicting these men and women.
“My recommendation would be to actually strengthen civil society. There are a series of informal groups that are working on the ground to address the needs to migrant workers and sex workers,” said Mahdavi.
The 2009 annual Trafficking In Persons Report, or TIP, was released and placed the United Arab Emirates on the Tier 2 Watch list. The report defines nations on this list as having “governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.”
Mahdavi said that some of the recommendations made in the report are not designed to help trafficked people in the Persian Gulf. The report recommends a tightening of borders and an increase in police forces.
“Tightening borders typically actually only makes people more likely to end up in the informal economy, or more reliant on smugglers…they are more likely to rely on these shady middle men who put them in these cycles of violence,” she added.
Mahdavi emphasized the importance of accountability and transparency within these civil society organizations. She said if these NGOs are funded by the government and forced to comply with a series of standards in order to protect trafficked workers, abuses and more trafficking will be easily recognized and put to an end.
“What we need is transparency and accountability. These groups need to be accountable to one another,” she added.
Peggy Liu, Chairperson of non-profit group the Joint U.S.-China Cooperation on Clean Energy, says Friday in a discussion at the Woodrow WIlson Center that because of China’s large population, it must a sustainability leader in the world. (0:20)
Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Duke Energy David Mohler says Friday in a discussion at the Woodrow WIlson Center that China is developing so rapidly that it will be the trail blazer in technologies that deal with climate change. (0:17)
Selig Harrison, Senior Scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy, says President Barack Obama is not taking the necessary steps to appease the North Korean crisis. Harrison explains that not sending Al Gore to North Korea is a mistake because the former Vice President could try to negotiate the liberation of the two Current TV journalists currently detained in North Korea. Al Gore could also reduce the tensions between the North Korea and the international community. (0:28)
By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service
The U.S is not responding to the needs of its Hispanic citizens even though the population of Hispanics college students in the US rises and many industries are gearing their marketing toward this changing demographic, according to former director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Henry Cisneros.
Cisneros, now Executive Director at CityView and author of “Latinos and the Nation’s Future”, gave a speech on” Latinos and the Nation’s Future” today at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
“A very interesting phenomenon will be the growth of the second generation of Hispanic immigrants. The Pew Foundation says that this number, which is 11 million second generation Hispanics today, will be 30 million in 2030, so it will triple in 20 years or so,” said Cisneros.
Recently, the nomination of Hispanic judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has brought many criticisms from Republicans, who argue that she is not being sufficiently patriotic because she pronounces her name with a Spanish accent.The criticism of Sotomayor has renewed the debate on immigration integration.
Tamar Jacoby, President and CEO of ImmigrationWorks USA and co-author of “Latinos and the Nation’s Future”, said “For a long time, people have said that Latinos in American politics were the sleeping giant of American politics… The reason they thought that is because they said ‘look at these people, look at these demographics’… The political participation was below the potential.”
But Jacoby rejoiced of this complete turn for the best which began with the most recent presidential election of Barack Obama, saying that “In November 2004, 7.5 million Latinos voted; In 2008, 11 million Latinos voted.”
As a consequence of this Hispanic political awakening, Cisneros says that “We will see that the make up of community schools and colleges will be decidedly different in the time period we are describing… We will see that in markets as consumer products relate to the reality of these markets.”
Cisneros added that “Many industries view the growth of Latinos and immigration as the principal basis by which they will grow.”
“The sleeping giant woke up,” said Jacoby.
By Annie Berman – Talk Radio News Service
Most books about the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay concentrate on the detainees and their interrogation. Karen Greenberg’s book, “The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days” focuses instead on a group of U.S soldiers who tried to stop the Pentagon from bypassing the Geneva Conventions and implementing harsh policies, including torture policies.
Greenberg, the Executive Director of the Center of Law and Security
at the New York University School of Law, spoke today at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
“There’s a lot of talk about was this a systematic torture policy? The way that people have gone about answering the question is to focus on Washington, the Pentagon, Bush, Cheney, Paddington…Now we know [orders to torture detainees] came from the top,” Greenberg said.
In her research, Greenberg interviewed troops stationed at Guantanamo who worked at the detention facility when the first detainees arrived in 2002.
Greenberg believes that the 1,700 troops that received the first 300 detainees at Guantanamo followed the guidelines of the Geneva Convention and treated the detainees decently.
by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service
“Firearms from the United States civilian gun market are fueling violence on both sides of our border with Mexico…The United States, it doesn’t just make trafficking military style weapons to them easy it practically compels that traffic.” said Tom Diaz, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Violence Policy Center and author of “Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America.” at a Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing titled “Money, Guns, and Drugs: Are U.S. Inputs Fueling Violence on the U.S.- Mexico Border?”
Last year an estimated 6,290 drug-related murders occurred in Mexico and the death toll is still rising. Congressman John Mica (R-Fla.) said. “We’ve got to help them regain control with a plan and a policy of that country. It’s totally out of control, it is a slaughter house and its on our borders and it’s spilling into our cities.”
“Mexico matters to the United States…not just because Mexico is our neighbor…it is an issue where we are both deeply involved…U.S. drug sales account for as much as $10 to $25 billion each year that is sent back to Mexico to fuel violence and to support the cartels,” said Andrew Selee, the Director at the Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute. Selee offered three recommendations on how to stop the flow of guns and drugs between Mexico and the United States. Selee expressed that the U.S. should reduce the consumption of drugs by investing in drug prevention programs; second, to disrupt the billions of dollars that flow from drug sales in the U.S. and back to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico by developing the intelligence capabilities to detect where the money is being transported from and to where. Third, to limit the flow of high caliber weapons from the United States to Mexico by increasing the number of ATF inspectors at the border and to increase cooperation with other law enforcement agencies.
Jonathon Paton, Arizona State Senator gave his thoughts on how to stop drug and gun trafficking as well and said, “the other thing we could do is to look at comprehensive immigration reform…which will allow us to focus on the real problem at hand which is the smugglers and not the people that are trying to find employment in the United States.”
Other representatives expressed their thoughts on the issue like Congressman Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who said, “I think drugs are the scourge of the Earth, I think that anybody that deals in drugs ought to be put in jail permanently or killed. That’s how bad I think drugs are.”
The Washington bureau is covering a discussion on “Medvedev’s Challenges in Governing Putin’s Russia: What a New American President Should Know” at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a presentation on the 2009 Hunger Report on “Global Development: Charting a New Course” with Bread for the World, and a discussion on “The Big Lies about America: Combating Destructive Distortions about Our Nation” at the Heritage Foundation
Pentagon Correspondent S. Dawn Casey will be attending briefing at the Pentagon from Iraq. The Washington bureau will also be covering the Council on Foreign Relations’ conference call on their week-long visit to Afghanistan and a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities conference call to discuss the economic downturn’s potential impact on poverty and “deep poverty” in the United States.
