Archive for May, 2009

Keep your fingers off our Facebook profiles!

Facebook has recently been showing totalitarian tendencies, that I am frankly surprised the mainstream press has yet to stand-up and take notice of. Facebook has started threatening users with suspension for adding too many friends, too quickly. An algorithm is apparently in place for monitoring such behavior. When a certain limit has been reached, Facebook [...]

Iraqi asylum seekers forced repatriation a divisive issue.

There has been a renewed interest in the local media for the fate of Iraqi asylum seekers, after the Danish government has successfully negotiated an agreement with the Iraqi government, regarding the return of “illegal” asylum seekers, despite objections from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
There are a number of the asylum seekers [...]

Clean water and air convention.

There has been much work done on how people impact the environment. Unfortunately, despite warnings about future conflicts based on access to basic resources, not much has actually been done in the area.
I propose the drafting of an international human rights convention that will guarantee access to basic, natural resources such as clean water and [...]

Activism versus propaganda.

Activism can be defined as deliberate action to bring about social, political, environmental, economic or ethical changes. Activism can take place through protest or dissent, but can also occur through persuasion. Propaganda is often defined as the spreading of information for the purpose of influencing the opinions or behavior of people. Influencing people to bring [...]

Defend the right to basic medical care.

The current outbreak of influenza A and the potential of it reaching pandemic proportions brings a number of interesting and as of yet, unanswered questions to the top of the current agenda. How has the commercialization of epidemiological research affected organizations like WHO? Are developing countries in general reticent to hand over epidemiological samples when [...]