Author / Taka Yamaguchi

Taka is a senior majoring in International and Area Studies and is the co-Director of New Media of WUPR. He is interested in the Middle East, Public Health, Education, and International Relations.
  • Food is a Weapon

    BY TAKA YAMAGUCHI In 1976, then-U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz coined the now infamous phrase, “food is a weapon.” At height of the so-called Green Revolution and firmly in the Cold War mindset, he was referring to the American policy of fighting famine worldwide to defend against political unrest and the spread of communism.…

  • Lest We Forget

      Blindsided by an unexpected attack on its soil, Americans are sad, fearful and angry. Thousands of fellow countrymen’s lives have been cut tragically short. The nation is gripped by a spasm of national hatred and rage; the media gladly fuels the flames of xenophobia. War is declared. The president calls for Americans to rally…

  • Nate Silver Visiting Wash U Today!

    The big day is here! WUPR is proud to bring the wonderful Nate Silver to Graham Chapel at 6 PM, today, Monday February 11th. He is a writer, blogger, public figure, and statistician extraordinaire. Silver crunched the numbers to correctly predict the winner of every state in the 2012 Presidential Election and virtually every U.S. Senate…

  • Number 194*

    Yesterday, thousands took to the streets of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Facebookistan to celebrate Palestine’s acceptance in the UN as a non-member state. Some of my friends on Facebook congratulated the people of Palestine on becoming the newest state. Perhaps the UN vote is the beginning of a new chapter, giving Palestine more leverage on the international…

  • Obama Part Deux

    Barack Obama will be The Most Interesting Powerful Man in the World for another 4 years. OK America, you can forget about politics until 2016. You wanted commentary? Well, sorry. We’re done here. Go read something else.

  • Broaching the Palestine Question: My Response to Gideon Palte

    In the first WUPR issue of this semester, 17.1, I wrote an anecdotal piece titled The Palestinian Right of Return: What Once Was. I did not intend to primarily base my writing on historical issues; there are countless scholarly articles and UN resolutions which detail the legal and judicial basis of the right of return.…

  • Jesus is not “your homeboy.”

    “I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen. -Richard Mourdock, Indiana Senate Candidate (R) (Let me just make a side note…