Editorials

There is much we don’t know about Cuba – most notably that Cuba jails more journalists per capita than any other nation in the world. Perhaps that is why truthful news about this Big Brother-styled dictatorship is never published despite the fact that major news corporations are camped out in Havana ready to report “the big story” – the confirmation of Castro’s death.

Disentangling truth from myth-understanding has not often been helped by media that has focused its lens almost exclusively on violence perpetrated by extremist groups that have come to define the population in the Middle East at large.
Hope, however, lies in sitcoms like, Little Mosque on the Prairie as it promotes commonalities of disparate cultures and forwards thinking that we are all human beings sharing a common destiny.

BOGSATS (Big Old Guys Sitting Around A Table) seem to have a monopoly on determining international policy. But the under-40-year-old set is making inroads into established groups like the World Economic Forum and the World Social Forum.

A trip to Syria produced many surprises for this Voices reporter. Most Syrians freely voice their opinions about America’s policies and behind closed doors and windows shut tight some might even discuss their own country’s politics. All the while courageous youth push the envelope towards freedom but not without severe consequences.

Another deadly battle is brewing along the northern border of Iraq threatening the lives of Kurdish civilians and Kurdish relations with the U.S. The Kurds were one of the very few groups in Iraq to be organized and trained enough to help the U.S. in the war in Iraq. Yet this Voices reporter writes that some Kurds feel betrayed by U.S. foreign policy that seems to support Turkey’s ambitions to control the oil rich city of Kirkuk.

It’s tough to be an American and travel the world these days. Not only do you have to be prepared for the possibility that people might voice anti-American sentiment but even a trip to the birthplace of democracy held some surprises for this traveler.

As a generation of 42 million strong we confound our parents, the media and others who hope to pigeonhole us into a simple descriptive definition. Who we are and what we believe in was the topic of one recent documentary. Read this piece and join the discussion.

The 2010 World Cup may seem like a long way off, however, preparations are already in full swing and stadiums and infrastructure are being built to accommodate the millions of fans who will attend this event from all over the…

Political rhetoric is just not cutting the growing environmental problems in Hong Kong. Introducing sweeping reforms in new corporate regulations, environmental standards and legislative goals Chief Donald Tsang hopes to…

An editorial on whether to allow same-sex marriage.