Category Archives: Politics

After the Storm, Haiti’s Food Situation Looks Bleak

ANN ARBOR — The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which ripped through southern Haiti in October, will extend beyond destruction and injury. The current and future food security looks bleak barring significant intervention during the next year, according to a University of Michigan report.

Rain-triggered mudslides throughout the country from the hurricane has not only washed out homes, but also roadways and bridges—bringing transportation to a near standstill, says Athena Kolbe, the report’s lead author and a U-M doctoral candidate in social work and political science. The natural disaster compounded Haiti’s long struggles to transport enough produce from the countryside to village markets and major urban centers. (more…)

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‘Fiscal cliff’ challenge explored in ‘Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving’

John Wilkerson, University of Washington professor of political science, is the co-author with E. Scott Adler of the University of Colorado of a new book titled “Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving,” published in December by Cambridge University Press. Wilkerson answered a few questions about the book for UW Today. (more…)

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Journalist Blasts Mainstream Media for Failing to Anticipate 2008 Financial Crisis

Dean Starkman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning financial journalist for the Columbia Journalism Review, shared his theories about the 2008 financial crisis with students at a Calhoun College master’s tea on Nov. 29. His talk was sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale.

Starkman, who is currently writing a book on what he regards as the failure of the media to anticipate the financial crisis, explained that he believes the evidence was there, yet no major news sources reported it. “I don’t like the financial press and institutionalized media because they screwed up the pre-crisis coverage, and I don’t like the new media people either — so what do I like?” Starkman joked. (more…)

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New UMD Poll Shows Israelis Doubt Benefit from Gaza Conflict

Three in Five Israelis Now View Obama Favorably

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A new University of Maryland poll shows that in the aftermath of November’s round of fighting with Hamas and other groups in the Gaza Strip, only 36% of Israelis think that Israel is better off than it was before the escalation, while a majority feel Israel is either about the same (38%) or worse off (21%). (more…)

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Attitudes Towards Security Threats Uncovered

New research has revealed a significant gap between what the government claims are the biggest security threats facing the UK and the fears of the population.

Terrorism is not perceived as the most important threat to everyday life despite claims by policy makers.

Politics researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Warwick led detailed focus groups across the UK and conducted a nationwide survey as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project which looked at public attitudes towards security threats. (more…)

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Commentary: Ian Straughn: Is Egypt’s Revolution in Doubt?

Egypt’s new democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi recently made world headlines on two accounts. The first was for his central role in brokering a cease-fire in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas. The second, which followed almost immediately after the deal was confirmed, was a highly controversial presidential decree that would temporarily insulate his legislative and executive decisions from any judicial oversight. Ian Straughn, visiting assistant professor of anthropology and Joukowsky Family Librarian for Middle East Studies, analyzes the return of protesters to Cairo’s Tahrir Square and the future of the Arab Spring in Egypt. (more…)

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