btdadmin's blog

I run a non-profit that focuses on what we in the trade call “the presumption of development overseas.” My staff and I have spent most of our working lives investing U.S. public money in poor and often chaotic circumstances, as we seek to accelerate “progress.”

What we are trying to do is “modernize” — a far more accurate starting point than “develop.” We work at the communal, national and regional level to supply and sustain Western values and know-how amid folks who view all this as foreign.

Statement on the debate on Draft Law on Domestic Violence at the Kurdistan Parliament

Sulaymaniyah

22 June 2011

With the recent confrontations on the Syrian and Lebanese borders with Israel, the nature of the end game has come into focus.

Put simply: If Bashar falls, so does Nasrallah and with him the Hezbollah infrastructure.

In some ways, Syria is Iraq flipped. A majority Sunni population ruled by a minority Shia sect for some 40 years now.  Even as the political inclinations of the Sunni majority are as yet unclear, when it assumes its eminence in Syria, it certainly will be more influenced by Saudi Arabia and Egypt than by Shia Iran and its client Hezbollah.

It is a pleasure to bring Laila Atshan to your attention. I worked with her in the West Bank of Palestine where she was and is a leading voice for the PWD (Persons With Disabilities) movement. She is also a renowned facilitator within the PWD community and a 'provocateur' for engagement on some of the most challenging issues facing the community. Her work on what constitutes disability, who is a PWD, and the extent and limits of PWD rights resonate with anyone struggling with a physical disadvantage and how they chose to let the disability define them.

If it weren’t for the capital letters, you might initially dismiss a GONGO as something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Resist the urge (about the only thing GONGOs and Dr. Seuss stories have in common are hearts eight sizes too small). GONGO stands for government organized non-governmental organization. Sound counter-intuitive? Good. Because that’s what GONGOs are all about.

A day following the announcement reaching a final reconciliation agreement between the Palestinian parties, Egyptian Foreign Minister, Nabil Al-Araby announced the forthcoming opening of the Rafah Crossing.

The Rafah Crossing has been closed since June 2006 upon the captivity of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The closure of this crossing, which is the only gateway for Gazans to the rest of the world, prevented Gazans from leaving the Gaza Strip as well as limited their access to many necessary medications, food, and other items.

"Who's actually running things in free Libya?"

Such was the question posed by PhD candidate Ryan Calder in a recent article for Foreign Policy, "The Improvised State." Eastern Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC) has shouldered much of the burden, Calder writes, but it has mostly had its hands full with top-down management - particularly of its ad-hoc military and oil facilities.

Since 2010, BTD has been working with the leadership of the Iraqi Alliance of Disability Organizations (IADO) to strengthen the association’s management, outreach, and programming capacity. IADO is the first and only national umbrella organization to emerge from post-Saddam Iraq with the distinct goal of uniting the voices of Iraq’s vast population of persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Bridging the Divide supports activists and organizations across the Middle East that advocate for increased awareness and improved rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs).

As President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton struggle to come to grips with a coherent approach to the transformation which has coursed across the Arab landscape since its ignition on December 18th, 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, they still seem to be unsure about what lies at the heart of this revolution.