AIDemocracy.org

This page consolidates all of the blog posts from across the site. Posts are also featured at the bottom of each relevant issue or author page, as well as the 'Take Action' and 'Build Skills' pages. Post a comment - we’d love to know what you think! Happy reading!

US Nuclear Arms Reductions: It’s About Time!

February 22, 2012 By Ron Leave a Comment

Recently, the Obama Administration has announced it is considering several different unilateral nuclear weapons reductions. The current nuclear arsenal is estimated to be slightly over 1,700. Current plans being considered range from limiting the arsenal to between 1500 and 300 weapons. In the past year or so, more and more academics and military strategists have been advocating for lowering and modernizing the US nuclear program. Republicans have been vehemently opposing any and all lowering of the number of warheads, while the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security

Upcoming Iranian Elections Pose New Questions about Country’s Press Freedoms Part 2: The Western Response

February 22, 2012 By Emily Leave a Comment

The Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei

Iranians may wonder about all the fuss of SOPA and PIPA if they accessed foreign news. Unfortunately, most foreign media is blocked in the country. Most domestic media is either blocked or propagandized. One of the worst instigators and promoters of state-run oppression is the government’s Fars news agency, which proliferates false information about the upcoming elections. According to Saeed Dehghan’s article in the Guardian on January 10, the Fars news agency reported that “more than 1200 reformists had put their names forward for the elections … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: blogger, Candidates, democracy, election, Government, human rights, internet, Iran, Islam, law, media, reform, sanctions, war

War against Iran: an ambitious attempt

February 20, 2012 By Ana Ila 1 Comment

According to Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, Iran has the missile capability to reach Eastern Europe and the entire Middle East. Though the US is militarily the most powerful country in the world, Iran is capable of significant retribution for any U.S. or Western attacks. Iran can significantly damage US interests in the region. According to Lt. Gen. Burgess, Iran can close the Strait of Hormuz and reduce the oil supply to the world. Iran can bomb all of Eastern Europe, including US allies. Iran can bomb US facilities in Iraq or Afghanistan. It can also … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: Afghanistan, Cold War, Iran, Iraq, nuclear weapons, sleeper cells

Upcoming Iranian Elections Pose New Questions about Country’s Press Freedoms Part 1

February 20, 2012 By Emily 4 Comments

By Milad Avazbeigi (DSC_6986_resize) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

SOPA. PIPA. ACTA. PCIP. In the United States, any piece of legislation designed to restrict first amendment rights is certain to be met with the cries of enraged protesters pouring down crowded city streets. Public demonstrations in response to such acts, such as those staged by Wikipedia and Google in the past month, have raised awareness and concern about America’s increasingly draconian Internet regulations. Do these bills indeed violate American press freedoms or do they truly serve “to promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: Candidates, community, Corruption, election, Government, internet, Iran, Islam, law, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, media, Political Participation, United States

Discrimination and stigma in healthcare for gay and bisexual men in parts of Africa

February 17, 2012 By Tiffany 1 Comment

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8008170.stm

By Billy Tsang Much of Africa’s leadership has and continues to see HIV as a heterosexual epidemic. This is not surprising, as most of Africa still deems homosexuality as illegal and punishable by law. Lane (2008) expresses that even in post-apartheid South Africa, the “only African nation with legal guarantees of equal rights for gay and lesbian citizens and highly visible gay and lesbian communities”, there has been little attention given to the HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM). Academic literature has widely … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Sex and Justice Tagged With: Africa, AIDS, discrimination, Gay RIghts, healthcare, HIV, HIV/AIDS, Homophobia, Men, MSM, Research, Sexuality, Social, Stigma

Transformative Reform Needed for Healthcare Education: The HIFA2015 Campaign May Be an Answer

February 15, 2012 By Tiffany 2 Comments

http://borgenproject.blogspot.com/2011/10/ugandan-midwifes-mission-to-save-lives.html

By Sofia Ahsanuddin Nursing and midwife education plays a pivotal role in developing an innovative and transformative approach to sustainable healthcare. In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) drew attention to a critical shortage of more than 4 million doctors, nurses, and midwives worldwide. In 2010, a report issued by a high-level Commission on Education of Health Professionals and the Sub-Saharan African Medical School Study stated a mind-blowing statistic about the mentioned shortage of trained health professionals; between 1985 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Sex and Justice Tagged With: healthcare, HIFA2015, maternal health, Midwife, Nusing, reform, Sub-Saharan Africa

Federal Budget 2013: What it means for us

February 13, 2012 By emma 1 Comment

This morning, President Obama presented his proposal for the United States’ 2013 Budget. He proposed a $3.8 trillion budget request that attempts to move the United States forward by increasing taxes on the rich and increasing investments in infrastructure and education. But with this budget, the United States will expect to create a deficit of over 1.3 trillion, which is a $38 billion cut from last year. President Obama plans to further reduce the deficit to a little over 900 billion by the end of 2013. President Obama’s budget plan makes a clear … [Read more...]

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Understanding the Rights of the Marginalized: Haiti’s LGBT Community

February 13, 2012 By Tiffany Leave a Comment

By Carly James In the wake of the second anniversary of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, much of the world is directing its attention to the social, economic, and political progress that Haiti has made. Since that historic moment in Haiti’s troubled history, considerable strides have been made in terms of rubble removal, medical assistance, and resettlement of displaced persons. In fact, the country was proud to inaugurate the ultra-modern Roi Henri Christophe University, currently one of Haiti’s largest buildings, in mid-January. Secretary … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Sex and Justice Tagged With: discrimination, Haiti, human rights, LGBT, minority, religion

Biofuels are killing climate efforts

February 13, 2012 By emma 6 Comments

Biofuels were supposed to be the solution to global climate change. We could slowly reduce our dependence on crude oil by using fuels from corn or sugar cane instead. This fuel would be renewable, because we could just keep growing more! These plants would help to prevent more greenhouse gasses like carbon from entering the atmosphere because they would absorb carbon dioxide in the air as well as create a renewable fuel source when harvested. But scientists and environmentalists quickly learned that biofuels were not the perfect solution they had … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Climate Change, Featured Less

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan: bad news for aid agencies

February 13, 2012 By Ana Ila Leave a Comment

According to announcements in November of 2011, the US will withdraw 30,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2013. Other NATO countries will withdraw 10,000 altogether. However, negative effects of this withdrawal are already felt in multiple areas, aid being one of them. Whether the Afghani government is able to take on these projects is questionable. Many aid agencies suffer losses as a result of the decreased US military presence. Financial allocation to aid agencies in Afghanistan decreased from $4 bn to $2 bn. CARE and Mercy Corps are some … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: Afghanistan, aid, budget, foreign aid