by Katharine Daniels and Patricia Vásquez
- USA -

Headlines around the world are reporting the news of the shocking yet seemingly inevitable assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi this morning. In Al Jazeera’s report “Daughter of Tragedy,” Kamran Rehmat describes what happened as “An inescapable aspect of the near-Greek tragedy governing the Bhutto family.” He comments that “What ever else the mind-numbing killing of Benazir Bhutto in Thursday’s suicide attack will mean for Pakistan’s future, there is little doubt that politics in this south Asian country will never be the same again.”

Benazir Bhutto was killed just a few miles from the scene of her father's execution 28 years earlier. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister and the founder of the party that Benazir led, was executed by hanging on charges of conspiracy by the then-military regime. That event motivated Benazir to devote her life to politics.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

The movie, Atonement, is a heart-breaking love-story, a historical WWII saga. Without giving away the ending, which must be seen to be adequately felt, it tells the tale of two lovers’ lives irrevocably changed by false testimony against one of them - for a crime he did not commit. Thus, it’s also a condemnation of unreliable witnesses, the willingness of people to believe the worst, particularly of those in a lower economic-class, and the havoc that a false accusation and conviction can wreak upon human life. It’s a film and message that every judge, jury member, and prosecutor should see and consider before convicting or sentencing anyone accused of a crime.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

Including the word “orgasm” in the title of your documentary film is a bold move. After seeing the film Passion and Power: Technology of Orgasm at the Mill Valley Film Festival, I wanted to talk to the equally bold women behind the film: Bay area filmmakers Wendy Slick and Emiko Omori. During our interview, Slick provided greater insight into the creative process of an independent documentary filmmaker who chooses to focus on women’s social and political freedoms as viewed through sexuality.

• Co-producer and co-director Wendy Slick •

by Rose-Anne Clermont
- Germany -

When we think of children killed by their parents, we may recall a news documentary about a poor Indian family with an unwanted girl. Or, the media has helped us conjure the image of a Chinese family terrified of violating the government’s one-child policy. For those of us in wealthy, western countries, it is easier to believe that infanticide and child killings are tragedies unique to poor and quickly developing nations.

• Infanticide and child killings in Germany have cast a light on a phenomena that was previously considered a problem of developing nations. Photograph by Marian Steinbach. •

Every newspaper in Germany has run a headline similar to “How Could This Happen?” or “Who Will Protect the Children?” Politicians have given swift reactions to the recent tragedies. Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Germany to develop “a culture of looking” at families in potential crisis and has scheduled a conference on December 19th to address child protection in Germany. Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen is pushing for mandatory medical check-ups so that children, especially those being abused and neglected, don’t fall through the cracks.

by Anna Clark
- USA -

There comes a time when a reader is starved for something new.

A lot of tremendous fiction is being published these days, but most people don’t ever hear about it. In a time when big publishers pay to place their titles on the front tables of bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders, when book reviews are slashed in most periodicals, when smaller publishers simply don’t have the cash to send their brightest talents out on book tours—then the avid reader tends to hear about the same authors over and over again, while work they might fall in love with slips through the cracks.

I love Cynthia Reeves’ new book, Badlands, winner of the 2006 Miami University Press Novella Contest. Being the work of a debut author and published by a small publisher, I might not have heard of it if I hadn’t attended graduate school with Reeves. The two of us entered the fiction program at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina in 2004. Reeves worked on this book as a student, which meant that I was lucky enough to see the beginnings of Badlands. I was drawn to her creative sensibility; her story tells itself not in the traditional “first this, then that” chronology of mainstream fiction. Rather, her characters are developed through the juxtaposition of their dreams and memories with their present lives.

by Nadezhda Banchik
- USA -

On December 3rd, Russia had yet another parliamentary election. Here in the US elections are a normal part of a citizen’s life and changes in power aren’t extraordinary, “revolutionary” events. Here no leader of a party who calls his opponents “enemies like hungry jackals seek[ing] money from foreign embassies” would even get elected; instead he would be regarded as crazy and dangerous.

• Massive banners declaring, "Moscow Votes with Putin!" were posted throughout the city's most trafficked areas during the elections. Photograph by Dusdin. •

Younger generations who didn’t live through the Cold War might not understand how damning the President’s message is.

I am from the Ukraine. I was raised during the Brezhnev era, when Russia and the Ukraine were unified; that Soviet Union was also deaf to dissenting voices. Then during Gorbachev’s turbulent Perestroyka (or “Rebuilding”), I witnessed new independent states emerging from the ashes of the old communist empire. I watched as the difficult but seemingly peaceful birth of the new Russian Federation unfolded. We hoped that it would not draw us into another apocalypse. I held my breath happily during the coup in August 1991 that eradicated what we hoped would be the last attempt of the old regime to regain power. And Boris Yeltsin reigned victorious as President of a new Russia. However, before long any opponent of his administration, whether at the local level or at the very top, was considered an “enemy” of the state who should be arrested. And “elections” only offered a single candidate who “ran” unopposed.

by Patricia Meehan Vásquez
Managing Editor, The WIP
- USA -

In 2006, what to Saudi society seemed a routine case settled in Sharia court, exploded into headlines of outrage, protest and disbelief across the globe. Qatif is a center of the very large Shia minority in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, near where I lived for almost eight years. Most of Saudi practices the Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam.

• Taken with a camera phone, public photography is banned in Saudi Arabia. Photograph by Majib. •

by Sandra Miniutti
- USA -

I quickly outgrew my position at the museum and I jumped at the opportunity to work at the newly launched Charity Navigator. Think of it as consumer reports for donors. A non-profit itself, Charity Navigator’s mission is to help donors make informed giving decisions by rating the financial health of thousands of the best-known charities.

by Pilirani Semu-Banda
- Malawi -

Veronica Yakobe has been living a nightmare for more than two decades. Twenty-three years ago, during a prolonged labor when giving birth to her fifth child, the unborn baby was pressed so tightly in her birth canal that blood flow was cut off and the surrounding tissues died. Then a hole or fistula broke through the vaginal walls between the bladder and rectum. Obstetric fistula is serious medical condition which usually occurs during home births or in poorly equipped local clinics when access to emergency obstetric care is not available. Unfortunately, that was the case for Veronica. She has been unable to control her bodily functions since, and leaks urine and feces uncontrollably. In a bitter irony, after all that struggle, her baby was still-born.

by Nalini Jones
- USA -

Tomorrow evening, I fly to India. My bag is mostly packed and is a source of consternation to my dog, a sensitive soul who fears imminent departure. For me it is a sort of icon, a reminder of dozens of other trips to see my family in India. I remember the care with which my mother packed, the strong sense that every available space must be used. We were trafficking in whatever was rare or difficult for our family to find, from our own school pictures to electronics, from the sort of nightgown my grandmother favored to the peanut butter we American kids liked to eat, even on our chapatis.

by Hayward Hawks Marcus
- USA -

For years, many people have painted Yoko Ono as the cold and controlling monster who broke up the Beatles, ran John Lennon’s life, and probably made the pop legend unhappy, even if he himself wasn’t aware of it. Allen Tannenbaum’s new book, a collection of photographs he took of the iconic couple, defies this persistent myth. Springing from many of Tannenbaum’s photos is undeniable visual evidence of John and Yoko truly relating to one another, in a deeply heartfelt and human way not often seen in photos of the famous. One cannot dispute the affection for each other lighting John and Yoko’s eyes when caught by Tannenbaum’s lens. In a starstruck world, where pretty celebs are often seen hanging on each other’s arms like sparkly but soulless Tiffany baubles, images such as these are both rare and refreshing.