Tag / Taka Yamaguchi

  • 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.…

  • Obama returns to childhood home of Indonesia

    After departing India, President Obama arrived today in Indonesia, continuing his tour of Asia. The world’s most populous majority-Muslim nation and also where he spent 4 years of his childhood, he discussed the progress and work still needed to be done in improving shaky relations between the United States and the global Muslim community. Following…

  • 544 Haitians Dead in Cholera Epidemic

    Although there were reports that the recent cholera epidemic was reaching the end of its two week, killer sweep across the poverty-stricken island nation, deaths continue to mount in Haiti. 8,000 cholera patients are in hospitals, with that number expected to grow. The majority of the cases have been in rural areas where there is…

  • Talking Heads: Welcome Back!

    Over the course of the summer, Talking Heads correspondents were busy traveling, saving the world and engaging in general badassery. Along the way, we got some fantastic chances to enjoy a cup of coffee, tea, or share a cigar or hookah with some colorful international characters. All of them had something to say, so for…

  • Israeli Settlement Construction Resumes

    Mere hours after the expiration of a 10-month moratorium on Israeli settlement building on September 26, the cement mixers and jackhammers were already preparing the contested land for more apartments. In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel captured significant parts of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Golan Heights. Shortly thereafter, Israeli citizens started construction of…

  • For Now, Iranian Stoning on Hold

    For four long years Ms. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been awaiting her fate, at the mercy of the Iranian Islamic Republic. Sentenced to death by stoning in 2006 to the questionable charges of adultery and being an accomplice in the murder of her husband, she has been held in prison, knowing very little about what…

  • Talking Heads: Winston Churchill

    For this week’s edition of Talking Heads, WUPR was able to procure a time machine though our extensive and possibly sinister connections. WUPR was purchasing our Student Union allotted twenty Kalashnikovs in an Islamabad gun market when a Pakistani merchant fooled WUPR representatives into buying a faulty product. The seller had failed to tell us…