The Debate Over Asking “Are You a Citizen?” On The 2020 Census
The New Question For the last couple of weeks, the executive office has been pushing for a new question to be added to the census that will be conducted in 2020. The administration wants to ask, “Are you a citizen?”, a question that many say has a political agenda behind it. The GOP has pressed […]
The Supreme Court Battle Against Kavanaugh
In early July, President Trump announced his nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Kavanaugh has served in the Bush White House and on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. As a registered Republican and social conservative, Kavanaugh would narrowly interpret the Constitution and thus negatively impact the highest […]
Is It Right To Compare Refugee Internment At The U.S. Border To The Holocaust?
“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” So goes the famous Godwin’s Law, an oft-cited adage written by American author Mike Godwin. It is easy to see where Godwin was coming from. From both sides of the political spectrum, “Nazi” is thrown around like confetti […]
On Victim Blaming: How Bill Cosby is Just Another Cog in the Machine
Introduction In 2014, a Pennsylvania woman was convicted for her own rape. The victim, who was a typist at a prison, was raped by an inmate who had escaped from his block. In court, the typist was punished for not taking extra steps to separate herself from the known sexual assaulter, despite the fact she had told […]
Why Hillary Clinton Isn’t Playing the “Woman Card”
Donald Trump has once again confirmed one thing we cannot deny: he will do anything to win the 2016 Presidential Election. Even if he has to slander every other candidate and their respective spouse in the process. On December 29th, 2015, Trump, during an interview with Face the Nation, said that Clinton is “constantly playing the woman card,” […]
The Rise of the “Manel” and the Solution
Here’s a riddle: What do the 2016 Finnish Medical Convention, the 2016 Scientific Software Days Conference, and the 2015 meeting of foreign ministers to speak about the Syrian Refugee Crisis all have in common? Every panel at these events only included cis-men speakers. The lack of gender diversity at these conferences is no anomaly: in fact, it has become quite […]
#RIPBisma
The hashtag, #RIPBisma had erupted on all social media platforms about two weeks ago. Angry Pakistanis blamed PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto, for the death of a 10-month old baby girl named Bisma. The story is simple: Bhutto had came to Karachi Civil Hospital to be inaugurated and to personally welcome the new trauma center being […]
India-Pakistan: Contextualising the Cancelled Talks Debacle
The now cancelled talks between the National Security Advisors (NSA) of India and Pakistan, originally scheduled for 23-24 August 2015, would have been the first meeting between the two wherein the public was duly apprised in advance. Back-channel meetings between the NSAs had been established by the end of October 2004 as part of […]
Homeless: Please Help
home·less adjective (of a person) without a home, and therefore typically living on the streets. I have a house. Not a home; a house. You see, one resides in a house. One lives in a home. One feels “at home” in a home. My house is in New York. But I’ve yet to find […]
Has Peshawar Changed Pakistan’s Approach to Tackle Terrorism?
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) terrorist attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar, on December 16, 2014, killing 132 children and several teachers, many from Army background, was traumatic; its intensity and cruelty shocking civil society in Pakistan, much in the same way as the public flogging of a woman by the Taliban in Swat did […]