Curiosity on Mars!
This piece written by William T. Dowell was first published by The Essential Edge on 5 August, 2012.
Geneva -- To get an idea of the true significance of Curiosity’s successful landing on Mars you...
Michel Lavollay: A Cri du Coeur From a Doctor-Diplomat Who Knows
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. PARIS — Breakfast with Michel Lavollay at Café Flore, pleasant under any...
Pakistan, water and the “third pole”
The worsening floods in Pakistan may only be the first event in a series of crises that are likely to become a global trend, a consequence of what scientists are beginning to refer to...
The PCDN Network – More than just information
For anyone - UN or NGO aid worker, policy analyst, researcher, journalist, donor, private sector - serious about being effective, the Peace and Collaborative Development Network (PCDN) is more than just an information tool,...
On the Golden Calf and Cow Flop
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Global Insights Magazine/Global Geneva Group are supporting Mort’s insightful and frank reporting from different parts...
Williams and O’Reilly: Not the only truth-fudging in the name of journalism
The recent incidents of two leading American TV personalities claiming to have covered specific events, when they had not, only come across as yet more nails in the journalistic coffins of those still seeking...
This Is the Big One: Israel must survive, but requires coexistence with Palestine.
DRAGUIGNAN, France -- Suppose cameras spot a terrorist cluster in Times Square Station at rush hour. Police can seal exits, lob in explosives and express regret for “unavoidable” collateral damage. To retain...
Frozen Afghan Funds: The need for urgent UN Security Council action
The following article is offered on an oped basis. United Against Inhumanity (UAI)launched a campaign on 8th March to challenge the decision by some governments to freeze Afghan national reserves that...
Charlie Wilson and Afghanistan’s Unwinnable Wars
This piece by journalist and author Edward Girardet was published by The Essential Edge 27 February, 2008.
The United States is sending an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan in a bid to improve a steadily...
Frontpage Planetary Concerns : International Geneva is losing its impact.
The following is an editorial written by Essential Edge French editor Daniel Wermus, a Swiss journalist and media specialist based in Geneva. A French version of the article below is also available on this site.
Geneva...
How bad language leads to poor humanitarian outcomes
Nicholas van Praag of Keystone's Groundtruth programme writes about the importance of language when dealing with the people one is trying to help.
When someone as eloquent as Robert Chambers chides you on your use of language,...
On Young Dogs and Old Tricks
TUCSON, Arizona — I used to say the only difference between 23 and dead is all in the mind. Now, a lot closer to the latter than the former, not so much....
Beijing Bubble: Travel Notes from China
This piece by journalist and author William T. Dowell was first published by The Essential Edge on 31 May, 2009.
BEIJING -- “I’m here for the hip hop,” says Jamel, an African American from Washington...
The Mort Report: Extra! French Poodle Bites Puffed-Up Yank in the Ass
The following column by contributing editor Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport.
WILD OLIVES, France: -– Just back from America, I lit up the TV to hear a presidential president, in complete English...
Pandemic: A Planetary Wake-up Call
This is part of William Dowell's Tom's Paine column. A reminder: we make our content free worldwide. If you like what we do, please support us. All of...
KOFI ANNAN – A Spokesperson’s Memoir
This piece written by William Dowell and Edward Girardet was published by The Essential Edge 18 April, 2013.
Geneva -- Kofi Annan was regarded by many of his colleagues and peers as one of the...
Time to focus on the people behind the numbers
This piece is contributed by Nick van Praag, a humanitarian specialist and director of Keystone's Ground Truth programme.
A slew of statistics released this week by UNHCR points to a rising tide of human misery as the...
Coronavirus Stories: My Verbier Covid-19 Experience
It all started with a get-together in the 1,500 metre-high Swiss alpine resort of Verbier. Perhaps it started even before then; I will never know. My closest friends and I from here, there,...
80 Is the New (…Um, I Forgot)
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Global Insights Magazine/Global Geneva Group are supporting Mort’s insightful and frank reporting from different parts of...
Russia and China: The Bros in the Owner’s Box
I call this Mort Report non-prophet; correspondents can only speculate on the future based on the present in light of the past. I am scared witless about far more than Ukraine —...
MortReport Extra: Hearts of Stone
Ground truth is buried under pent-up hatreds, hidebound bias, distorted history, prostituted faux-news and manipulation. Solid reporting competes with so much well-meant but misleading speed-of-light coverage that peace seems an impossible dream.
Plane crashes and trying to get in – and out – of Katmandu
Husband, Bollywood Star, Migrant Worker, Tourist: Everyone is Trying to Get in or out of Nepal. Journalist Donatella Lorch offers her own personal perspective as a journalist on human interest stories in her regular blog...
The Mort Report: A crime against humanity
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. TUCSON — Let’s be clear. Deadly plague and deadlier politics put...
Jimmy and Joe
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Global Insights Magazine/Global Geneva Group are supporting Mort’s insightful and frank reporting from different parts of...
The Gold of Sudan and Good Old-Fashioned Russian Colonialism in Africa
Sudan’s current military regime seized power in a coup d’état on October 25, last year. The coup effectively ended a shaky partnership between a civilian government and the military which had briefly...
What ever happened to real foreign reporting?
The brutal murder in the name of Islam of American reporter James Foley by a British Jihadist outlines – once again - the extreme dangers journalists, many of them freelance, now face when trying...
80 Is the New (…Um, I Forgot)
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Global Insights Magazine/Global Geneva Group are supporting Mort’s insightful and frank reporting from different parts of...
The Artistic World of Betsabeé Romero in Mexico
Betsabeé Romero is now listening to the suddenly silent streets of Mexico City, North America’s largest city. From her little street house in the Villa de Cortés district, the artist is on...
On Zapata, Bogey and Circling Vultures
The following article from the Mort Report out of Tucson, Arizona, is by veteran foreign correspondent Mort Rosenblum. You can subscribe directly to the Mort Report by going to his website.
Two movie scenes, both...
A Mort Retort: Facete Rectos Pagare
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Global Insights Magazine/Global Geneva Group are supporting Mort’s insightful and frank reporting from different parts...
Hors la Loi (Outlaw): France’s experience a half-century ago and today’s terror
This piece written by journalist and author William T. Dowell was published by The Essential Edge 10 October, 2010.
Hors la loi (Outlaw), the film by French-born director Rachid Bouchareb that created a scandal at...
The Implications of Pakistan’s Flood
Pakistan’s flood underscores a basic paradox in humanitarian operations, writes William Dowell. The single organization that has the most helicopters and logistics capacity to provide immediate relief is the US military, yet because the...
Ouagadougou Choo-Choo? Don’t Laugh
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Global Insights Magazine/Global Geneva Group are supporting Mort’s insightful and frank reporting from different parts...
Now What? Good schools and critical thinking.
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Illustrations are by Global Geneva contributing editor Jeff Danziger, a poltical cartoonist and author.
Poking Our Eyes Out
I always felt a wave of relief as wheels touched down at JFK after working in dicey places. Foreign correspondents accept...
Focus on Afghanistan: “We tried to tell you”
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. FLAYOSC, France — Here we go again. Americans clamor for the...
Sh’ma Yisrael – A Mort Report Extra
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Photo courtesy of Letizia Agosta, Unsplash. Jews have...
Mort Report Booster Shot
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Global Insights Magazine/Global Geneva Group are supporting Mort's insightful and frank reporting from different parts...
The ARTacama Project- Art Meets Science Mapping the Cosmic Microwave Background
Mark Devlin is an experimental cosmologist exploring the underlying structure of the universe. Jackie Tileston is an artist, and Christine Pfister not only heads one of Philadelphia’s most innovative galleries for contemporary art, but...
Remembering Mr. Swatch
William Dowell explores the life of Nicolas Hayek, founder of Swatch and saviour of the Swiss watch industry.
Geneva -- Nicolas Hayek, who died of heart failure at the age of 82 on June 28,...
MortReport: Paris – An Immoveable Beast
Walking and bike path along former railway line in Paris. (Photo: Ville de Paris) The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his...
Oman: The Call of Desert Sand
Italian-American Journalist Donatella Lorch, a former New York Times correspondent based in Peshawar, Nairobi and New York, writes a regular column, Tangled Journeys, from her current home in Katmandu. She recounts here her family's...
Putting UNRWA back on the Map
With the civil war in Syria stalemated in its fourth year and more than 164,000 Syrians dead, the public has begun to be anesthetized to what is really at stake. That changed briefly Thursday...
Mort Report Extra: The Scream
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Illustrations are by Global Geneva contributing editor Jeff Danziger, a poltical cartoonist and author.
Switzerland’s Immigration Vote: Nationalism, racism or fear.
A version of this was first published by Le News, the free English-language weekly for the Lake Geneva region. This includes the cartoon by award-winning American artist Jeff Danziger - excellent cartoons on his website...
Which Way for the U.S. in the Middle East?
Recent events underscore what is really at stake in the upcoming US presidential elections, and, more to the point, they raise serious doubts as to whether Republican candidate Mitt Romney is really up for...
The #MeToo Movement: turning up the heat
Global Eye is an independent column on human rights issues.
Kathryn Mayorga has now decided to break her silence. In a backroom deal, in which she received US$375,000, the schoolteacher and former model was gagged...
In France, a Mission to Uncivilize
The following column by contributing editor, journalist and author Mort Rosenblum is from his regular comment The MortReport. Also see his latest book: Saving the world from Trump. Conflict, climate and...
Beyond the blah-blah: What now with the Sustainable Development Goals?
The creation of a new and more realistic post-2015 agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is already happening with Geneva in the forefront. But how will the new SDGs be implemented and...
The Silver Fox Remembered
With the death of former Soviet Foreign Minister and Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze earlier this month, journalist and writer Thomas Goltz remembers.
Livingston, Montana -- Eduard Shevardnadze and I bonded during the siege and fall...
