2023-08-19 08:58
Most online accounts of Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Albert Speer mention that they were convicted at the Nuremberg trials but few accounts mention the testimony and evidence provided by Francisc… Read More
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A Passion To Understand Blog
passiontounderstand.blogspot.com
Apartheid, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. A passionate view of world events and a desire to understand why.
2022-03-09 19:02
More than one in three Turkish women have been domestically abused in their lifetime. Femicides are rising and in 2020, 409 women in Turkey died as a result of domestic violence. It is rare… Read More
2021-09-18 14:34
I'm reading Ann Petrila and Hasan Hasanović's Voices from Srebrenica: Survivor Narratives of the Bosnian Genocide. The book is a series of oral histories from survivors of the Srebreni… Read More
2021-05-28 14:52
If you've ever contemplated how people 'get over' war and genocide, Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura has the answer in her debut novel Letters from Diaspora: Stories of War and its Afte… Read More
2021-01-30 18:50
Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma was once home to a thriving African American community. On May 31st and June 1st 1921, a mob of armed white Tulsans attacked the community, killing as man… Read More
2020-10-04 14:57
I know very little about American civil rights history from the late 19th to early 20th century. This is not surprising; my focus has primarily been on Africa (especially South Africa) and o… Read More
2020-09-03 07:00
I’ve previously covered the suppressed history of Dutch atrocities in post-war Indonesia on this blog in 2012 and I was very interested to hear about Alfred Birney’s novel about… Read More
2020-06-14 11:12
The media played a critical role in the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994. There is still debate about the nature of that role; while it is unlikely that the media played a direct role in inf… Read More
2020-06-09 20:17
The news broke today that four members of banned far-right terrorist group National Action were convicted and sentenced to between 18 months and five-and-a-half years in prison. Typically… Read More
2020-04-19 15:02
I was very impressed with the South Africa response to the COVID-19 situation and the choice of President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare of a State of Disaster, not a State of Emergency as early… Read More
2017-01-22 18:20
In a world completely desensitised to images of violence and suffering, I suddenly realise that despite knowing about it, I haven’t seen much of what is actually going on in ISIS contr… Read More
2017-01-01 11:00
In the aftermath of the Arab Spring and the descent into war in Syria, one question that arises time and again is this: is Islam compatible with democracy? It is a question that John Esposit… Read More
2016-12-19 10:10
I was 12 years old when the Chernobyl disaster happened and I remember being quite aware of the dangers of nuclear events - I'd learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the enduring impact o… Read More
2016-12-11 16:20
On the evening of 14-15 April 2014, Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 female students from the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria. The girls became known the world… Read More
2016-04-06 08:17
On this day in history on 6 April 1994, the plane carrying presidents Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi was shot down just outside Kigali airport in the… Read More
A Discussion With Stephanie Hepburn, Author Of Conversation With My Daughter About Human Trafficking
2015-12-29 17:57
The reality of human trafficking is often so horrific that it remains one of the most difficult subjects to discuss with children. How does one get into a conversation with children ab… Read More
2015-12-29 17:57
Gaza, 2014. Following the kidnap and murder of three Israeli youths, the IDF embarked on a seven week campaign against Gaza. In that time, over 2,000 Gazans were killed, most of them civili… Read More
2015-12-29 17:57
Susan Sontag was iconic but she was an icon who warned against the entitlement of the observer and the assumption of a right to observe. She was renowned for being brilliant yet confoundingl… Read More
2015-12-29 17:57
Last night we caught the final performance of Guillem Clua’s Skin in Flames at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park. We sat in the smaller Park 90, an intimate setting with seats on thre… Read More
2015-12-29 17:57
Link: The Feminist Who Could Change Nigeria [The Atlantic, 8 October 2014] In a discussion about her documentary The Supreme Price, director Joanna Lipper talks to Chris Heller about her re… Read More
2015-12-29 17:57
Growing up in Apartheid South Africa, it feels second nature to see the direct link between policies and practices of the past and the enduring poverty and inequality in the country. Twenty… Read More
2015-12-29 17:57
At some point in nearly every opinion piece on the Islamic State (often referred to in the press as ISIS or ISIL), it seems inevitable that commentators will mention how little the internat… Read More
2015-12-29 17:57
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda and while it is ever important to remember the genocide in order to learn from it and prevent such an event from happening aga… Read More
2015-12-29 17:57
Last night we caught the final performance of Guillem Clua’s Skin in Flames at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park. We sat in the smaller Park 90, an intimate setting with seats on thre… Read More
2015-12-29 17:55
During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s, most press correspondents huddled in the safety of the distinctive yellow Holiday Inn in Sarajevo, sending out second-hand dispa… Read More
2015-12-22 16:07
Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, made a statement to the United Nations Security Council on the situation in Darfur last week. In her speech she gives a… Read More
2015-12-16 21:20
The 16th of December is a public holiday in South Africa. It used to be a racist Apartheid holiday marking the Day of the Vow when Afrikaners swore to God that they would forever commemorate… Read More
2015-07-24 13:51
I'm reading a book called Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired "Stagolee", "John Henry" and Other Traditional American Folk Songs. In the book, author Richard Polenberg describes… Read More
2015-07-07 21:10
Tonight we attended the "Living the Lessons of Srebrenica" event at the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide in London. It was one of hundreds of events taking place… Read More
2013-07-07 14:35
In the year 2000, the Millennium Summit of the United Nations took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. At the summit, eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were es… Read More
2013-04-22 21:36
Tonight Sy from Sy's Prints and I attended a fascinating talk on the role of religion in 21st century conflict. The talk was held at The Royal Commonwealth Society in conjunction with the Un… Read More
2013-03-10 12:43
If I had to choose to go forward with only one of my blogs and to delete the other two, I would choose A Passion to Understand which is a bit strange seeing as this is the blog I neglect t… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
In the summer of 1991, at the end of my first year in university, I went on a course on HIV / AIDS so that I could learn to educate young children about the disease. We talked about prevent… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
It always interests me when people share quotations attributed, often falsely, to the Dalai Lama. While it is clear that he is an international symbol of peace and unity, I wonder how many p… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
I believe that each generation thinks of the First and Second World Wars in a different way, depending on whether our peers, parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents fought in them… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
A camera pans across a dwelling, revealing a scene of unimaginable poverty. A single, bare mattress lies on a floor and the person in front of the camera examines how up to six children will… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Hunters. Warriors. Cricket players. Maasai culture is fiercely guarded, beautiful and distinctive from the outside yet like many cultures, rigid and opposed to change on the inside. In a wo… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
It was a story that resonated around the world. In October 2012, 15-year-old Pakistani blogger and activist Malala Yousafzai was targeted for assassination by the Taliban for her work in re… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
The mourners are bewildered, suspicious and angry It is a uniquely African situation: mourners gather at a funeral to commemorate yet another suspicious, unexpected and fathomless loss. Th… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
It’s a new year and now that the close down of our financial year end is in sight, it is time to start thinking about where I’m going with this blog and what work I intend to do… Read More
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