Kasturi is a senior at American University in Washington, D. C. and is majoring in History with a minor in Psychology. Originally from a rural town in Massachusetts, she has worked in the development sector of non-profit organizations around the Capital and has enjoyed learning new and innovative ways of communicating with donors and foundations. She is looking forward to exploring new methods of promoting the cause of Americans for Informed Democracy and reaching out to the greater D. C. community in the process. As a student of a highly politically engaged university in the nation’s capital, she believes that students must be heard and can contribute greatly to the country’s endeavors on the international scale. In her free time, she enjoys Indian classical dance and cooking.
Kasturi Puntambekar – Marketing and Fundraising Fellow
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Stand up and take charge
The following was written by Jonathan Skinner, an AID leader based in Göttingen, Germany, and currently working in the Berlin office. Responding to global criticism of UN transparency, accountability, and effectiveness, Secretary General Kofi Annan announced reform recommendations on Monday March 21. The pressing reforms, as mentioned in The Economist online, include a Security Council overhaul, the creation of a smaller, accountable human-rights council, and a new anti-terror treaty, with a universally accepted definition of terrorism. But what does it … [Read more...]
New U.Va. group hosts town meeting: Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations addressed global environment
by Jenny Hernandez Cavalier Daily March 23. 2005 Caption: The town hall meeting focused on the effects that global policies could have in the international community. The new group seeks to promote awareness of other nations. Last night a new non-partisan student organization, Americans for Informed Democracy (AID), hosted a town-hall meeting titled "U.S. Security and the Global Environment." The presentation was held in the Garden Room at the U.Va. Colonnade and focused on the effects that the U.S.'s global environment policies could have in the … [Read more...]
Raising Awareness
by Lindy Jurack Independent Collegian (University of Toledo) 3/17/05 A new organization is being formed at UT to raise global discussion and awareness on campus. Americans for Informed Democracy is a non-partisan, global organization. UT is joining more than 175 universities in 10 countries by opening a chapter of AID this spring. The national organization, which focuses on the United Nations, was started by Seth Green, a student at Yale Law School, in response to 9/11, according to Laura Hampton, acting president of UT-AID, who is also a … [Read more...]
Cornell Hosts AID Panel on UN Reform
by Benjamin Seligman Turn Left March 16, 2005 Ithaca, NY – On Tuesday, March 1st, the Cornell chapter of Americans for an Informed Democracy held a panel discussion on the need for reform of the United Nations and how such reform fits into larger US foreign policy. The panel consisted of Jeffrey Laurenti, a senior advisor for Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundation, Dr. Benny Widyono, a Visiting Fellow at the South East Asia Program and former UN diplomat, and Eugene Kogan of Americans for an Informed Democracy. Mr. Laurenti discussed the … [Read more...]
Call for Applications
Call for Applications for "Bringing the World Home" Retreats in Europe Americans studying abroad in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are invited to apply for Bringing the World Home retreats being held across Europe in April, May, and June. The retreats will bring together hundreds of Americans abroad for a weekend of workshops, speakers, and discussions focused on techniques for raising global consciousness in the U.S. Thanks to the generous support of Connect US, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Open Society Institute, the Hewlett … [Read more...]
How diplomacy can defuse the North Korean crisis
by Eugene B. Kogan The Japan Times 3/9/2005 WASHINGTON -- "The sure way to miss success is to miss the opportunity," a wise man once observed. Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit Japan "at the earliest possible opportunity" during a bilateral security meeting in Washington on Feb. 19. When that visit takes place, Machimura must urge Rice to take the above maxim to heart if the United States, Japan and their regional allies are to be successful in bringing North Korea back to the six-party … [Read more...]
Sudan in crisis while world yawns
by ISRA YAGHOUBI, Senior Staff Writer UCSD Guardian 03/ 07/2005 If thousands are massacred and no one sees it, did it really happen? If thousands are massacred and one of the world’s most powerful nations identifies it as genocide, will anyone try to stop it? I suspect that this piece probably won’t grab your attention. You see, I’m about to address yet another conflict that has ravaged a region of Africa, and, honestly, who gives a damn about Africa? Perhaps we should, since for the past 40 years, that continent’s largest country, … [Read more...]
Editorial Notebook: Young Americans for Dialogue
by Robert Mott Sacramento Bee It's easy to become cynical in an age when the horrors of terrorism, the dissembling of politicians and the seeming inability of governments and international institutions to confront, much less overcome, the challenges facing them are magnified and repeated ad nauseam via our 24/7 news media. Fortunately, there are antidotes to this infection, as I learned during a recent weekend retreat amid the greenery of the Sierra foothills with a group of 20 students from colleges in Northern California and Nevada. They came … [Read more...]
Panel addresses U.S., U.N. in Darfur
by Marie-Jo Mont-Reynaud Stanford Daily 3/5/2005 In an effort to discuss the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan in light of U.S.-African relations, a panel of academics and experts entitled “U.S.-U.N.-Africa: Darfur and Beyond,” convened Wednesday night. The speakers at the event addressed the alleged genocide in Sudan and the HIV / AIDS pandemic plaguing most African nations. Organized as the first town-hall meeting presented by the newly-formed Stanford chapter of Americans for Informed Democracy, or AID, in conjunction with the … [Read more...]
Videoconference Forum Brings Political Views Together
by Tiffany Leslie San Francisco State XPress 3/5/2005 SF State students and representatives from Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) met last night on the SF State campus, via conferencing technology. Students from around the globe were given a forum in which to discuss American power and global security. Using videoconferencing technology, students from the University of Denver, University of Illinois, University of the Philippines Manila, University of Canberra, Australia and SF State were able to not only see but hear each other in real … [Read more...]
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