Tag: International Criminal Court

Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, everybody! I really can’t believe it is almost December already, and it’s less than four weeks to go until Christmas. Another year has gone by so quickly. Due to Thanksgiving, we weren’t overwhelmed with earthshaking news this week, except for the death of a certain dictator, perhaps. Meanwhile I suffered a moderate cold and a major exhaustion this week, so after finishing off a project on Wednesday, I took two days off to do nothing, but things I enjoy (which more or less I did). For one thing, I am done watching ¾ of the Gilmore Girls revival,…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! I hope you all had a great week trying to figure out your stance on all issues affecting your lives these days. I was determined not to post about the President-Elect anymore until some new story comes up, but I didn’t have much choice, most of the blogs I follow were full of predictions (but mostly yet unanswered questions) of what’s to come in world affairs. On a more delightful note, it is Gilmore Girls week! Which coincides with Thanksgiving weekend in the US, and Black Friday all over the world. So I hope you’ll have a happy…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday and happy Halloween, everybody!  We are having a long weekend in Hungary, unfortunately filled with work for me. I can’t believe how quickly we are approaching the end of 2016. There are a lot of exciting things this coming November holds for us though, like the Marrakesh Climate Change Conference (to be preceded by the entry into force of the Paris Agreement), an historic presidential election in the US, the return of Gilmore Girls on Netflix, to list just a few. Here’s your reading for today. This will not be the end of “The Jungle” One of the…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, all! This year is the 60th annivesary of a hopeful revolution that started on the streets of Budapest in the fall of 1956 but resulted in brutal repulse and more than 40 more years under Russian oppression. Around this time every year we remember the bravery of those Hungarian people who risked their lives for freedom. There were commemorations held around the world this week for the occasion. And a lot of other news, of course. Let’s see some of them. Truly Winning the Battle of Mosul The battle of Mosul was kind of the news of the week….

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! Although school has already started on the 1st, it was still very much summer at work this past week. Only at work, though, I am not exactly back to school this time, but started a new online course on edX, plus four other short trainings and challenges, all happening these first two weeks of September. There might be a post about all of them soon. Now, about this week’s reading. How the UN is Shoring Up the Historic Peace Deal in Colombia Colombia gets a lot of support to make this peace a reality. Let’s hope it will…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, everybody! This is the last Sunday Smack of this August and this summer, actually. In terms of the calendar, at least, I hope the weather stays warm for a while. I have spent this last weekend (made it a long weekend, actually) at home in Nagykálló with some well needed rest. September is going to be all work, no stops for me. As always, at this time of the year, I am half sad – for my favorite season to end, half excited – for things to get twirling again. And twirling, they are, this year. I have…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday and happy summer everybody! After half a week of vacation at lake Balaton, a wonderful Plácido Domingo concert in Budapest, half a week of staycation in Nagykálló including some old school meteor shower watching, I will be back to work tomorrow. Let’s see what else happened this week. Russia’s Lawful Land Grab This comes on the week when Ukraine claims Russia is arranging military moves on their borders again. Can a New Peacekeeping Force Stabilize South Sudan? UN peacekeeping has a bad reputation these days. In theory I do think it can do wonders, but in practice it…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday everybody! Seems like the weather finally got the memo that it’s almost summer already (at least in Hungary). I hope you are having a great weekend too. Here’s some reading to add to it… The World Humanitarian Summit: A Preview It was about time for a summit like this. As I often like to emphasize, I am a firm believer that the majority of the world’s problems could be solved with the financial resources we do have. All it would take is proper coordination and transparency of the utilization of these resources. I hope that the summit can…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday and happy reading! The USA Sets Sights on Stopping UN Peacekeeper Sexual Abuse It’s about time to make this a priority. Hopefully the next Secretary General in alliance with the most powerful veto-holding member state can show some results. The Surprising Success of Syria’s Quasi-Ceasefire This is just one of the positive signs we see today, but the end is still nowhere in sight.  Refugees in ISIS’ Shadow This great New York Times op-ed (complete with a video) was written by Bono, who by the way, also testified to the US Congress this week about his experiences visiting…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Easter, everybody! A photo posted by Katalin Tarjan (@katalintarjan) on Mar 27, 2016 at 6:33am PDT After a week like this, I wish everybody to be safe wherever you are! Today’s reads are not at all pleasant, let’s get to them… What the Brussels Attacks Tell Us About the State of ISIS and Europe Today There are tons of analysis to read on the topic these days. It certainly cannot be said that the Belgian intelligence  were not preparing for an attack like this. Yet they were not prepared. I hate to say this, but since this seems to…

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