Author: Danielle Levy

My young nephew who’d enlisted in the Marines and was sent to Afghanistan was injured recently. He lost his legs. Today’s technology is such he may be able to avoid being in a wheelchair and even if not he will go on to live a productive life. Until then though there will be a lot of rehab and a lot of steps to go through. So far he’s been stoic and so strong. After all, his father told me, he is a Marine. But at some point he’ll have to deal with the loss of his legs. They are gone, amputated completely and irrevocably. It’s fashionable for our politicians to invoke supporting our troops. Are they including the thousands of young men and women whose lives like that of my nephew have been altered? We consider ourselves lucky, so many are enduring far more difficult losses and injuries. Yes, he was awarded a Purple Heart, but I wonder though, who will thank my nephew and the thousands of others for their sacrifice? Will the Afghan people? Will the nation manage more than a few words meant for political effect? Will the world? Sadly it may depend on whether or not we can prevail and push back the extremists who wreck so much harm.

There’s another way to look at Africa besides wars, famines and corruption. The business and economic research arm of the McKinsey Global Institute paints a very different picture. Since 2000 316 million people have signed up for cell phone service, that’s more than the entire population of the U.S. And what’s more the one billion people who make up the continent spent $860 billion in 2008, that is more than did India’s population of 1.2 billion. Despite the economic downturn, Africa was one of the two regions (Asia was the other) where collective economies in 2009 rose by %1.4 through the global recession. In addition, surprisingly the number of serious conflicts, that is where at least 1000 people die annually have declined. The report had more interesting figures, but one lesson remained: Too often we allow our ignorance of a subject to determine our perception.

The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy based in India reported that one of Tibet’s richest man has apparently been sentenced to life in prison. Dorje Tashi, the owner of the most famous hotel in Llasa, The Yak Hotel, has it seems been found guilty of helping exile groups. He is believed to be in his thirties and once met the President of China. The harsh sentence is attributed to the crackdown on well known Tibetans and part of the increased repression taking place in the country.
Nelson Mandela was once so unheard of. Doubtful Dorje Tashi will be the next Mandela. That’s not important. What is is that he stands as a reminder that in many countries of the world, Myanmar, North Korea, Zimbabwe to name but three, people are convicted for a pretext, held because their convictions are deemed a threat to an authoritarian regime.
Amnesty International often makes their names known. But known or not they exist and at the very least deserve the highest respect and admiration we can give them.

We read about the results of so many surveys without knowing what good comes of the knowledge. So it was particularly comforting to read about a campaign to each young people about the First Amendment. A survey had shown that only one in 25 can name all five freedoms listed in the First Amendment—religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. It’s a troublesome finding and it’s therefore reassuring that several organizations such as American Society of News Editors, and the Gannet Foundation are sponsoring the effort. In fact the American Society of News Editors had conducted its own research showing that education and advertising were key to increase awareness. Hopefully young or old we shall be exposed to their work, and when we encounter it feel glad that perhaps 1 in 25 of us knowing all 5 First Amendment freedoms will hopefully soon be history.