You are here

International

Europe Vlogs 2015

We thought these vlogs that Finn made on our 2015 spring break trip to England and Germany had been lost to history because he had deleted them off Youtube at some point...but recently he and I were excited to find copies in old computer files. Enjoy.

Reporter

Tonight I finished watching the documentary Reporter (2009).  From it's web site:

REPORTER is a feature documentary about Nicholas Kristof, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the New York Times, who almost single-handedly put the crisis in Darfur on the world map. The film puts the viewer in Kristof’s pocket, revealing the man and his methods, and just how and why real reporting is vital to our democracy, our world-awareness, and our capacity to be a force for good. But REPORTER has a second agenda. By tracking a newsman, we track his news.

I give it 4 out of 5.

The Agenda: The Terrorist Next Door

I just found out that Lisa's first cousin Jonathan Birdwell was recently on Canadian TV on a panel discussing:

...how can you grow up in middle class Canada, and yet become so radicalized that you to turn to terrorism?

The discussion was prompted by the recent arrests of three men in Canada who were charged with conspiracy to facilitate a terrorist activity (link):

Three Ontario men accused of taking part in a domestic terrorist plot and possessing plans and materials to create makeshift bombs had allegedly selected specific targets in Canada, sources told CBC News.

The suspects are alleged to have discussed attacks on specific government buildings and city public transit systems, security sources told CBC News.

But none of the targets was in the United States, sources said.

Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, and Hiva Alizadeh, 30, both of Ottawa, and 28-year-old Khurram Sher, of London, Ont., have all been charged with conspiracy to knowingly facilitate a terrorist activity.

Here is the video of the discussion:

Cheers for Kiki

A friend at work showed me this video of this 7-year-old boy Kiki who was rescued after 7 and half days in the rubble from the earthquake in Haiti.  His smile and the cheers of the rescue workers as Kiki emerges from the rubble are wonderful.  It reminds me of another round of applause that I witnessed in person about 3 years ago (link).

The Emoticon Was a Nice Touch

From The Week:

Happy new year—not: A top Iranian soccer official has resigned in disgrace after accidentally sending a New Year’s greeting to Israel’s soccer federation. Mohammad Mansour Azimzadeh Ardebili, head of foreign relations for the Iranian Football Federation, sent the e-mail through FIFA, soccer’s international governing body. It was meant to go to every FIFA member except Israel, but was evidently forwarded to Israel. Iran does not acknowledge the sovereignty of Israel, which it calls the “Zionist entity,” and Iranian athletes refuse to compete against Israelis—even at the Olympics. Israeli soccer officials sent a reply wishing a “happy new year to all the good people of Iran”—and added the emoticon for a wink.

Pages

Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer