by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In the early hours of April 25th, Tariro Gweru and her husband Wellington awoke to a deafening knock on their bedroom hut. Wellington says he identified the frantic voices of his two friends, Simon Takavada and Misheck Dzikamai, got up and quickly opened the door.

As his two friends made their way breathlessly into his house, Wellington knew there was something seriously wrong. Simon and Misheck indeed had bad news: while coming home after having a beer, the two spotted trucks packed with ZANU PF youths, war veterans and soldiers making their way to their village.

by Nancy Van Ness
- USA -

I knew it was bad, but I didn't know just how bad. Colonel Ann Wright, retired US Army, grabbed the audience’s attention at a panel called Women in the Military, hosted last month by Women Center Stage in New York City, when she said that one in three women in the military is sexually abused by her male colleagues. Ann wants to see huge signs displaying this statistic in every recruiting office, to let young women know what to expect if they sign up.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

How sad. Exxon Mobil, the universe’s largest publicly traded company, which also happens to be enjoying some of its biggest profits ever thanks to the almost doubled price of oil during the past year, didn’t quite live up to Wall Street expectations this week. In fact, its stock fell nearly 4% the day it announced its first quarter of 2008 earnings.

Unfortunately, this does not make the pain at the pump pulsing through the nation any more bearable. Apparently, Exxon could have made more profit, had it not chosen to hold back further gas price hikes. Instead, earnings in its refining business (which converts crude oil to gallons of useable gas) weren’t as strong as it had wanted. Yes, that’s right – Exxon would have made even more money had they passed more pain onto the public. They were just being “nice.” Right.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

"The moment the people stop supporting you, that's the moment you should quit politics."

These were the seemingly reasonable and even wise words President Robert Mugabe used in the Highfield suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, when he cast his vote on March 29th. He was responding to a journalist who asked whether he would step down in the event of defeat in the presidential election. Until Saturday it looked as if Mugabe might have spoken too soon.

by Megan Tady
- USA –

For Maureen Mullaney, helping her kids with their homework takes more than just proofreading their papers. Fed up with a painfully slow dial-up Internet connection at home, Mullaney often drives her children into town, where they sit outside the library to pick up a wireless Internet signal on their laptops in order to do research.

“How silly is it that in this day and age, you have to get in your car in the middle of winter, drive to the center of town, sit in your car with it running, while your child can research the traditional clothing of Chile?” asks Mullaney, who lives in Ashfield, Massachusetts.

Mullaney says her children’s ability to do research for school reports is “ridiculously hampered” by their dial-up connection, particularly when they need to include images with their assignments. “You can’t see [the images] quickly,” Mullaney says. “You click on one and then you wait. And oh, that’s the wrong one.”

The process can be so frustrating, that sometimes Mullaney and her kids give up. “I just say, ‘Forget it, I’ll look it up for you when I get to work,’” she says. “So then I end up doing their research? What’s that all about?”

by Vera von Kreutzbruck
- Germany -

Andrzej Wajda was 13 years old when World War II broke out. Together with his mother he lived most of his life in the vain hope that his father might have survived the war: his father’s name had never appeared on any official list of Polish soldiers killed in combat. The truth, discovered years later, was that Captain Wajda had been shot cold-bloodedly by the Soviet secret police in a prison in the western Soviet Union. Andrzej and around 22,000 other people had waited for their loved ones in vain.

by Michelle Chen
- USA -

Tanya McLeod’s marriage was hurting, but her husband thought he could make it up to her when he brought her a cute dog as a “peace offering.” The family stayed together and the dog grew up alongside her children—until the day her husband decided to destroy the animal with his bare hands.

At that point, McLeod says, “I knew that he was capable of killing me.”

by Katie Thompson
- USA -

Elections invite a whirlwind of campaign promises: some that are feasible, some that are not, and some that will be forgotten on Inauguration Day. One of the most prominent issues for the Democratic candidates has been healthcare reform, a campaign promise the American people definitely won’t let the new president forget. In the United States, the National Coalition on Health Care says 47 million people are without health care coverage. In addition, according to Consumer Reports, 43% of Americans who have health insurance coverage say their coverage is inadequate to deal with an expensive medical emergency. Clearly, healthcare is an issue that requires a solution. The real question is whether a national healthcare plan is a feasible solution. I would argue that it is not.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

“Rape has always been used as a weapon of war” is the opening line of the new documentary film The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo. For 76 minutes the film exposes the incredibly brutal civil war that has raged for over ten years in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Not only have over four million people been killed, but over 250,000 women and girls have been raped, kidnapped, and tortured.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On Saturday, March 29th, I was one of the millions of Zimbabweans who went to the polls to choose a new president. I cast my vote to choose both a lower and upper house of assembly representative in parliament and a councilor in my constituency.

• MDC opposition, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, claims victory in Zimbabwe's presidential election. Photograph courtesy of the Movement for Democratic Change. •

They say “your vote is secret” but mine is not: I went and voted President Robert Mugabe and his cronies out of power. I believe their time is up -- they have done enough damage to our lives. This is why I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning to vote, just like many other disheartened Zimbabweans who are ready for change. I was determined to vote dictatorship and tyranny out.

And, so far it appears we have succeeded.

by Ellen Snortland
- USA -

Midnight. Intensely urban downtown neighborhood in Los Angeles where the alleys reek of urine and garbage. Dark Craftsman house in the Carpenter-Gothic style. My home. I cross the threshold and meet an interrupted burglar who raises his knife, ready to plunge it into my throat or heart. My scream is so intense he drops his knife, grabs his ears and runs like hell. “Thank you, mister,” I neglect to yell, because I was yet to know the impact this event would have on the balance of my life.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

What kind of leader does tomorrow’s America need? And who among the presidential candidates is best suited to meet the challenges that the next leader of the world’s superpower will face? These are some of the questions American voters face as they are showered with political propaganda and a pumping, election-driven news flow where “experience” is weighed against “leadership for change.”

“What type of leader is needed depends entirely on the times,” says US anthropologist, psychoanalyst and leadership consultant Michael Maccoby, whose 35 years studying leadership have broken ground within the field. His recently published book, “The Leaders We Need and What Makes Us Follow,” finds him being frequently interviewed by American media about leadership styles, and which of the current candidates is best suited for the presidency.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Tinashe Choruma and his wife Irene live in the suburb of Epworth here in the capital, Harare, where many of city's poor reside. The housing is poorly constructed - some homes are made from mud and pole, with no clean water or sanitation services. The suburb could very much pass as a shanty town.

Tinashe came to the city in 2000 from rural Murehwa to take up a job as a librarian; he was staying with his wife and their two children in the high-density suburb of Glen View. But after Robert Mugabe ordered all "illegal" houses to be destroyed during Operation Murambatsvina, the backyard cottage he used to call home was destroyed. He was left homeless.

by Sandra Nyaira
- UK -

On a chilly Saturday afternoon as rain drizzles continually from the grey London skies, Trafalgar Square slowly fills with women from all walks of life, braving the winds and cold. Exiled Zimbabwean men and women now living in the United Kingdom descend on the Square from all directions to support the fight for democracy in Zimbabwe, to restore dignity to its long-suffering women and to highlight their vital role in the country’s struggle for freedom.

by Nancy Van Ness
- USA -

In a heap on the studio floor as though they had collapsed under some disaster, fallen birds present a scene of despair. I am drawn toward them. They are a very powerful artistic reinterpretation of the Japanese tradition of the thousand cranes that people traditionally make from beautiful origami paper as signs of hope (most recently that would be hope for peace).

A closer look reveals that the defeated origami cranes are made from newspaper accounts of war, violence, cruelty; indeed these birds have succumbed under the weight of the torment and anguish of needless human suffering all over the world. I found them when I visited another studio at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska, where I was briefly in residence.

by Rose-Anne Clermont
- Germany -

When Pam’s fiancé, Charles, was deployed on his second tour to Iraq in December of 2004, he feared what awaited him. On his first tour, a year prior, he had witnessed the chaos and the bloodshed, the friends who didn’t return home. Charles had escaped with a shot to his jaw the first time, but, preparing for the worst, he gave Pam power of attorney for his belongings. Still, in a hopeful moment before his deployment from Fort Bragg, Charles put an engagement ring on Pam’s finger. “I cried all night when he left,” remembers Pam.

• Sgt. Charles Eggleston with friends in Iraq. •

Seven months after he’d said goodbye to Pam, Charles’ front-line unit was hit by an IED in Mosul. Six of his fellow soldiers died in the attack and, amidst the confusion, Charles, known as Sgt. Charles Eggleston, was counted amongst the dead. The call to Charles’ mother had been a mistake — one that Pam had been lucky enough not to know about until she’d finally talked to Charles again, three days after the attack.

by Grace Kwinjeh
- South Africa -

Last week Zimbabwe’s civil society and opposition held a commemorative vigil marking the anniversary of the gruesome torture of opposition leaders (myself included) at the hands of the Mugabe government. The world watched in shock and disgust at the media’s images of our battered leaders, days after our illegal incarceration and brutal beatings on March 11, 2007 by the country's security forces. After being tortured, we were hidden and held illegally for almost 72 hours in various police stations, denied access to our lawyers and much needed medication as many of us had suffered broken limbs, internal head injuries, soft to deep tissue injuries and assorted traumas. Four women suffered on that day: me, Sekai Holland, Memory Kumupaya and Christine Mhaka.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

The Starbucks, sidewalk and subway comments continue to flow abundant as New Yorkers processed the country’s latest made-for-TV sex scandal. The reality that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Time Magazine’s former Crusader of the Year, the man now dubbed “George Fox” and “Client #9,” had repeatedly gotten too hot and heavy with various high-class call-girls broke in salacious bits. This is the stuff that causes political dreams in America to dissolve even faster than the seismic destruction unleashed by the subprime mortgage crisis and the economic recession that has followed it.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

The hope for change is tremendous after nearly eight years of George W. Bush in the White House – both in America and around the world. But regardless of who becomes the next president, we are all in for a big disappointment cautions Strobe Talbott, director of Brookings Institution, one of America’s most influential and oldest think tanks. He warns that the expectations concerning what the US will be able to accomplish as an international actor are exaggerated.

“Never ever in American history has a new president in the White house faced foreign-policy challenges of this magnitude or of this complexity!” The slender and energetic 61-year-old Talbott sighs deeply and shakes his head as he talks about the challenges that lie ahead. At the time of the interview, which takes place in his open and inviting home in Washington, Talbott lights a fire in the living room to defy the chilly weather outside, eagerly assisted by his two hunting dogs.

by Philo Ikonya
- Kenya -

The women of Kenya have always been aware of injustice in our society, all through the years. And they have fought for justice: in 1922 Mary Nyanjiru faced the colonialist’s gun fearlessly after stating that if the men would not fight, they could give her their trousers and she would don them and do the fighting. She died for her rights, as Mekatilili Wa Menza did before her, who fought just as courageously for her people. Analysts say that what Kenya has experienced in 2008 has its roots in colonial times. Well, the stifling of women’s voices is no exception.

• Without a voice in policy, women in Kenya have few opportunities to better their lives or those of their children. Photograph by Angela Slevin. •

Many women, though recognizing the charm of the slogan, have never been convinced that the hakuna matata (no problems) mentality worked in the real lives of people. What a shame that we neglected women’s voices, the most resourceful and prophetic we have. I was at Limuru for a conference on poverty in 2005, when a woman from a pastoral community presented the Vice President with the mini household items she was able to purchase with less than a dollar. A tiny bit of salt, a little bar of soap (to wash her husband’s clothes), a tiny bit of fat and sugar - all acquired in what we call the kadogo (mini) economy. Of course, even in the mini economy, none of it was for her.

If anybody knows what poverty is - the kind of poverty that for many girls means missing school because they have their period and not having a pad to wear, try banana fibers instead - it is the women. If anyone knows what it means to have little children who need to be bathed but who must “rush-rush” to the well to fetch water to make tea for a visitor - again it is the women. Women alone know how to let a baby suckle their drying breasts during a famine - those awful times when in parts of Kenya everything withers and even the camels (the animals most resilient to drought) die in the relentless scorching sun.

by Bia Assevero
- USA -

It didn't take a genius to predict that Nicolas Sarkozy was going to be a president, the likes of which France had never seen before. But no one, not even Nostradamus, could have predicted where things would stand after Sarkozy’s first nine months in office.

His approval ratings are plummeting, hitting new low after new low, but it’s not because of his politics. Truth be told, Sarkozy has made very little progress on the reforms that he swore he would execute, but he’s hardly the first politician to break campaign promises.

So why then, are the French people cringing in horror at their president’s behavior?

by Philo Ikonya
- Kenya -

Dear Njeri,

Tonight, I am unable to sleep. You see, my country - our country - is on fire. It is almost the end of February: is it the end of Kenya as we knew it? Kenya beloved and full of potential. Kenya our country.

• A woman seeks refuge in a church, one of the many internally displaced people fleeing Kenya's violence. Photograph courtesy of the Human Coalition. •

Before we had passed the years when we could only turn on BBC for trustworthy news even before we elected Kibaki on a reform platform in 2002, let me come back to how I feel and why I am unable to sleep. It is because of you Njeri, my sister in the struggle. It is because you told us how you have received persistent death threats because you believe in human rights and standing up for the truth. I have to write this letter to you tonight, even if it is an hour to midnight.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On March 11th, 2007, 64 year old Sekai Holland woke up unusually early. She was restless and anxious because of the scheduled protests that her party was going to go ahead with against the police's will. She knew it was going to get nasty.

by Shailja Patel
- Kenya -

A February 7th article in The Economist, "Ethnic Cleansing in Luoland," dangerously presents the crisis in Kenya as an issue of inter-communal violence. It focuses on the violent attacks on Kikuyu Kenyans in Western Kenya, by their Luo neighbors, following the December 27th election.

The term "ethnic cleansing" is both inaccurate and unhelpful to Kenya's current crisis. It fuels the buildup by the Kibaki (Party of National Unity) camp to the declaration of a state of emergency, the deployment of the military or, worse, the usurpation of civilian governance by military governance.

Unquestionably, victims of the current violence experience the violence as being directed at their ethnicity. But the violence is politically instigated. It finds ethnic expression or manifests itself ethnically because Kenyan politics are organized ethnically.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

Depending on the measure of ‘liberalness’ used to evaluate past voting records, there is next to no difference between Clinton and Obama. In fact, with all her emphasis on ‘experience’ and his on ‘change,’ their voting patterns are almost identical. Both follow the party line, 97.1% of the time for Clinton, 96.5% for Obama - which doesn’t particularly highlight unique experience nor change.

• Finding her voice, Clinton campaigns in Arizona. Photograph by Dugi Jenkins. •

So, does the mere rhetoric of change trump the reality of past behavior? And is unity amongst political views – ‘no red states or blue states, just the United States’ - really a philosophy that will provide the majority of Americans (not the middle class, but the non-wealthy class) a more secure domestic future? Will that philosophy be able to drive more legislation and assure that funds are spent on equalizing citizens? What is needed is to lower the cost and expand the availability of necessities like health care, education, gas and energy, a home that the banking system isn’t stealing, and financial stability from birth through retirement.

by Bia Assevero
- USA -

Are you bored yet?

Have you seen one talking head too many?

Does exit poll sound like a dirty word?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then fear not. You are very probably not alone. We are one year on from the launch of the party nomination campaigns. By the time the next President is elected in November 2008, we will have survived nearly two years of constant and intense political bombardment. In a country that is big on instant gratification and where attention spans can be shorter than one episode of American Idol, this is to put it mildly, a problem.

For as much as Republican and Democratic candidates have bandied about the word change - as if it was the latest “in” word, something a teenager might use in lieu of “whatever” or “as if” or “wicked” – the process itself is unchanged. The candidates’ policies and positions are forced to take a back seat because the elections process itself is flawed.

by Lelety Mabasa
- Zimbabwe -

There was chaos and pandemonium at Harare’s city center on January 23rd, as thousands of ordinary people came face-to-face with the wrath of the police’s riot squad, who were summoned by Zimbabwe’s aging President, Robert Mugabe. That day, about 40,000 people, including shoppers, workers on lunch break and those who were in bank queues joined together to form the largest procession ever seen in Harare. They were intent on peacefully expressing their disgruntlement over the country’s continued economic meltdown, now in its eighth year. Thirty-seven Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters were injured in the skirmishes, 21 of them seriously, when the police tear gassed and beat them up as they headed towards Glamis Stadium where MDC’s president, Morgan Tsvangirai was due to address them.

Before dawn at 4:30am, plainclothes policemen from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Law and Order section had swooped down on Tsvangirai’s residence and arrested him. They also arrested two other MDC officials, Ian Makone, the party’s Secretary for Elections, and Dennis Murira, Director of Elections. The three were detained for more than four hours at Harare Central Police Station where they were quizzed about their party’s intention to “cause mayhem in the city.”

by Michelle Chen
- USA -

Feb. 5th - Today marks Fat Tuesday in New Orleans and the most celebrated day of Mardi Gras festivities. As thousands of visitors flock to the city to celebrate, thousands more have yet to return home. - Ed.

• Despite demonstrations and resistance, the demolition of New Orleans' public housing continues. Photograph by
Mavis Yorks. •

Her home survived Hurricane Katrina, but it will crumble under the city’s plan to demolish low-income housing in the name of “redevelopment.”

To the 33 year-old single mother of three, the officials pushing to raze St. Bernard are carrying out disaster by design. “How could they just get away with it?” she asks.

The pending demolition of the St. Bernard, B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, and Lafitte projects has confirmed the fears of the city’s poorest, blackest, and hardest hit communities: that New Orleans’ “recovery” in the wake of the storm is built on the city’s old demons of racial and class strife.

by Susan Lavine
- USA -

Quoting from a historic speech given by Robert F. Kennedy during his visit to South Africa in 1966 to show solidarity with Martin Luther King and South Africa’s struggle for civil rights, Barack Obama brought his campaign to American University in Washington, DC. As Obama eloquently calmed the crowd he recited the words, “It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In my last article I wrote that the situation here is so dire that many Zimbabweans, including myself, can now only pray for divine intervention to rid us of this dictator, Robert Mugabe.

Based on events that are currently unfolding, I think God may be answering our prayers in a way that we couldn’t have ever imagined!

I reported previously that by using former war veterans to help him garner support, Mugabe was "endorsed" as the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s (ZANU PF) candidate for the harmonized March elections.

Mugabe joined the presidential and parliamentary elections through a constitutional amendment. In previous years these two elections were held two years apart. When I vote in March I will drop two ballot papers: one for president and one for a legislator or member of parliament.

The “harmonization” is part of Mugabe’s exit plan; after these elections are held simultaneously, he can elect his trusted party members into ministerial posts and then retire. By doing so, Mugabe will have ensured that he will not be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

by Roshi Pejhan
Community Outreach & Development, The WIP
- USA -

by Neeta Lal
- India -

While Benazir Bhutto’s tragic assassination has rudely jolted Pakistan – a country already torn asunder by political instability and terrorism – it has also had a strong resonance across all of Asia especially in India. As its immediate neighbor, India has always shared a volatile relationship with the Muslim nation.

What does Bhutto’s death really signify for India? For one, it will have far-reaching political ramifications. The death of Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s (PPP) charismatic leader, a frontrunner for the 2008 elections, will deal a severe blow to Indo-Pak peace talks. It will also mean a go-slow on bilateral talks on many key issues: like the Kashmir imbroglio, terrorism, the Siachen glacier - called the ultimate symbol in the dispute over Kashmir, and the much-needed strengthening of cultural ties between its people. None of these developments augur well for the sub-continent in these times of heightened political tension and unrest.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

Harold Bloom, Yale literature professor and cultural critic, is one of America’s most prominent and provocative intellectuals. Unabashedly, he has always spoken up for what he calls “the fight for truth and beauty” making a lot of foes in the process, but also some friends. As one of the first critical voices against the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, Bloom landed in the hot seat with the satire “MacBush” in 2004. Lately, he sparked worldwide outrage by calling Harry Potter “garbage”. Speaking at his home in New Haven where he is recovering from a recent health scare, a pale and weak Bloom seems to have symbolically embodied what he calls the “poor state of the nation”.

“I am 77 years old and I have never seen this country in such a bad state. It is madness. What we are seeing is the fall of the Roman Empire, only now it is the fall of America, the glory of our Empire. This war is what Parthya was to Rome.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

In Zimbabwe 2007 closed on a very sad note. December was a very eventful month: it was President Mugabe’s busiest and most desperate month, as he fought to stamp out the criticism of his leadership arising even from within his own party, in order to cling to power.

• In a desperate bid to maintain power, Mugabe coordinated a massive march aimed at intimidating his rivals. Photograph by Sibongile Mlilo. •

It required an “extraordinary special congress” in order for Mugabe to be able to be chosen to stand in the March 2008 election; however some within the party ranks were opposed to Mugabe’s re-election, while others supported his appointment.

Katharine Daniels
Founder & Executive Editor, The WIP
- USA -

Every year this nation’s priorities move further and further away from the concerns of the majority of American citizens, making daily life harder and harder. The prices we pay for housing, utilities, medications, transportation and food are all going up. Meanwhile, big business interests, profiting every time we lose, monopolize our policymakers’ attention. While companies boasting record profits are rewarded with tax breaks, ordinary citizens struggle each day to get basic needs met for themselves and their families.

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 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 Michelle Chen
- USA -

After spending years living in the homes of strangers, Andreah Moyer finally found her way back to her grandfather at the age of seventeen.

• Over half a million children are in foster care today, many of them shuttling from placement to placement. Photograph by Michael J. Fajardo. •

For her first eight years, Moyer’s grandparents helped raise her in rural Iowa. But her parents’ substance abuse eventually forced the household apart. Moyer and her two brothers were swept into the state’s foster care system, and she spent most of her adolescence isolated from her family. By the time she left foster care in her late teens, Moyer had bounced through more than 15 state-funded substitute homes.

After they reunited, her grandfather told her that throughout those years, her grandparents desperately wanted her back home again. But as a farm family living on a fixed income, they were convinced their hearts stretched beyond their means.

by Rose-Anne Clermont
- Germany -

BERLIN - Seventy years ago, every kernel of a German’s identity was accessible by the government; financial statements, personal correspondence, family and religious information remained unprotected and defenseless. Private was what could be hidden in an attic, in the lining of a coat, or quickly swallowed in desperation. The absence of data protection allowed for Nazi officials to easily pick apart its citizens and brand them with a star or deem them racially superior.

• Patriotic Way in Rostock, Germany. Photograph by Fabian Bromann. •

“There were some things we just didn’t say outside of our house,” remembers Barbara Boock, 73, of both regimes. “One never spoke about politics outside of the family.” Boock was born in a small eastern town outside of Jena, in 1934, a year after the Nazis came to power. Because her parents were Anthroposophist, (a spiritual philosophy known mostly for Waldorf schools and biodynamic agriculture) the family was scrutinized by the Nazis. “I remember coming home from school and watching the Gestapo storm through our house and take away all of our Anthroposophist books.”

by Susan Enuogbope Majekodunmi
- Nigeria -

Nigeria is an oil-rich country in West Africa also endowed with other mostly unexploited natural resources, such as coal and tin, iron ore and other valuable minerals. Colonized by the British, their influence is still evident in many ways; an obvious legacy is that Nigeria’s official language is English. Nigeria gained its independence on October 1st 1960 and was initially ruled by democratically elected officials. However, from 1966 to 1999, the country was ruled by military dictators who seized power in coups d'état; the only exception was a short-lived second republic from 1979-1983. Upon assuming power, each democratic or military government has promised reforms, but none ever delivers. This roller coaster ride of regimes has allowed widespread corruption to flourish and has created both political and economic instability, and as a result many people have chosen to build a better life elsewhere.

by Aralena Malone-Leroy
France

When in 2002 President Jacques Chirac resuscitated a proposal for the creation of a museum of immigration, he was honoring an unpopular dream that had been in gestation for nearly 15 years. First proposed in 1989 by Zaïr Kedadouche, a second-generation Algerian municipal councilman, with support from a small group of historians, the project was considered too politically risky by then-President François Mitterand. Almost ten years later, in 1998, riding high on the euphoria of France’s post-World Soccer Cup win, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin tried to renew interest in the project, even recruiting representatives from the Human Rights League and various public officials to launch a proposal for a site - but the initiative stalled and faded again.

By Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

I am always left cursing and depressed and angry after covering assignments where I meet with People Living With HIV and AIDS. (We call them PLWAs here.)

• Weighing only 90 pounds when she began antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, this woman has benefitted greatly from both the New Life Support Group as well as ARVs. She now weighs a healthy 132 pounds. Photograph courtesy of PSI-Zimbabwe. •

I know almost everyone's "story", including deep secrets they say they never have and never will tell anyone else. I am invited to their private family parties; they ask me to cover their support group functions. They even phone to update me on their health; when they are too sick to call me, they ask their relatives or spouses to do it on their behalf.

I always listen, comfort, offer advice and help where I can; I have become very close to many people affected by AIDS. I appreciate the fact that they trust me that much. And I love talking to them. But when these " friends" confide in me, they usually have problems and depressing news.

Often I am left stressed, because I cannot help. This special community of friends all know I have no financial means to help them, being the underpaid journalist that I am. They know that I, too, struggle to make ends meet in this harsh economic environment that is Zimbabwe.

What is my life like? I have chosen to work for the so-called independent press. Supposedly I am playing a very crucial part in writing the history of Zimbabwe. Yet I live on less than $0.43 USD a day! Here is how I calculate this $0.43 USD cents per day: it’s very simple. I currently earn a salary of Z$13 million a month. When divided by 30 days in a month, this means that I earn $43 USD per month!

by Louise Belfrage
News Editor, The WIP
Argentina

• Flag of Argentina. Centered in the white band is a radiant yellow sun with a human face known as the Sun of May. Courtesy of CIA World Factbook. •

True, but nonetheless, the always-crowded Plaza de Mayo was empty that night. No one was there except for the usual scores of doves flying about.

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP
USA

On Monday afternoon Managing Editor Patricia Vásquez and I changed gears and filmed seven questions The WIP wants answered by the next President of The United States. Reporting to you from behind a camera is something I will certainly have to get used to, but nonetheless these powerful questions coming from Bahrain, Malawi, Argentina, Germany, Zimbabwe and the USA get to the heart of the US policies that matter most to the international community.

by Suad Hamada
Bahrain

Women’s empowerment apparently clashes with the not-so-hidden agendas of Kuwaiti and Bahraini parliamentarians. Dirty politics have resulted in the recent resignation of the first two female ministers ever to join the cabinets in either country.

In Kuwait, Health Minister Dr. Massouma Saleh Al Mubarak resigned shortly after being grilled by the parliament over irregularities in her ministry, as well as about a fire that broke out in a public hospital that caused the death of one patient and injuries to others. Last month in Bahrain, Health Minister Dr. Nada Haffadh resigned over conflicts and arguments with Shiite Conservative MP Mohammed Al Mizal so heated that they made newspaper headlines.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

In times of war and during the peace process, women have played key roles, particularly in the protection of their rights and those of their children.

• Cultures clash in the Philippines as US military presence targets Muslim schools and mosques in the ongoing war on terrorism. Photograph by
Dominic G Diongson. •