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August 15, 2024
 

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Cesar Chelala

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Cesar Chelala
Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant for several UN agencies, and a writer on human rights, medical and foreign policy issues. He is a winner of an Overseas Press Club of America Award. His articles have been published in more than 70 countries worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2006
While Hamas is snubbed, kids starve
NEW YORK -- The decision by the United States, the European Union and Canada to cut financial assistance to Hamas, the winner of the recent Palestinian elections, not only disrespects the results of a clean and democratic electoral process; more ominously, it will further harm Palestinian children, already...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2006
Africa's clock ticking on bird flu virus
NEW YORK -- The spread of avian flu to Africa and Europe, although expected, is unwelcome news. In the last few weeks the disease has reached several states in northern Nigeria and Niger. Together with other countries in West Africa, they are on the bird migratory route from Central Asia and the Middle...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2006
Guantanamo a festering sore for Bush administration
NEW YORK -- The United Nations recommendation that the United States should release all detainees being held at Guantanamo or bring them to trial and shut the facility down is one of the strongest criticisms yet of the U.S. torture policy. While the Bush administration rejected the U.N. recommendation,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2006
It's not right for the West and Israel to isolate Hamas, the Palestinians' best hope
NEW YORK -- As the son of a Lebanese pacifist, I am dismayed by the widening gap between Palestinians and Israelis that make a possible solution to the con- flict between them seem even more distant.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2006
Ignored epidemic: violence against women in Russia
NEW YORK -- It is under-recognized and under-reported. It is also one of the most significant epidemics in the Russian Federation today. It is gender violence, manifested essentially as violence against women. A recent report by Amnesty International, "Russian Federation: Nowhere to Turn to: Violence...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2006
The louse that halted an army in Russia
NEW YORK -- The disastrous effects of the Russian invasion on Napoleon Bonaparte's army is well known. Less widel known are the reasons for the defeat of the Grand Army. Although Russian resistance, brutal weather and the lack of food and water decimated the French army, new genetic evidence proves that...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2006
Bolivia prepares to break with the past
...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2006
Moot 'right' raises risk of dying at home
NEW YORK -- Under the slogan "If you have a weapon you have a problem," the Ministry of Justice in Argentina has initiated a campaign against gun ownership in the country. It began as a response to a request from several nongovernmental organizations concerned about the high levels of violent deaths...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2005
Poverty collides with U.S. children's rights
NEW YORK -- The haunting images of African Americans stranded in New Orleans are powerful evidence of the fate of the dispossessed in the United States. The extent of the divide between rich and poor was clearly shown during a recent visit to the U.S. by Arjun Sengupta, an independent expert on human...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2005
China's environmental health challenges
NEW YORK -- The recent environmental crises in China underscore the need to improve the mechanisms for preventing environmental disasters and responding more effectively to environmental emergencies. For the past few decades, China has maintained significant economic expansion while greatly improving...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2005
Liberia's new president brings fresh hope
NEW YORK -- The election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president of Liberia could mean that a tremendously positive transformation could happen in Africa, one that may extend beyond Liberia's borders. In a country where women make up more than half the electorate, the election of Johnson-Sirleaf could...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2005
Sex inequality slows growth
NEW YORK -- A growing number of countries have adopted population and development policies to meet the health-care and education needs of women, including their reproductive health needs. In spite of that, gender inequality persists in most countries around the world. According to the United Nations...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2005
Beware the hype on antipsychotic drugs
NEW YORK -- A new study financed by the U.S. government sheds new light on the system that promotes and approves new drugs, and shows the need for strict- er guidelines to better protect consumers and reduce unnecessary government spending.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2005
Human rights key to China's development
NEW YORK -- During a recent visit to Beijing, U.N. rights envoy Louise Arbour called attention to the serious human-rights situation in China and the need for improvements according to international human-rights standards. An important step in that regard would be for China to ratify the International...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2005
Rich-poor divide poses unrelenting threat
NEW YORK -- According to the just released U.N. report "The Inequality Predicament," increasing poverty and the growing gap between the rich and poor will be major threats to developing coun- tries' peace and stability. The report, prepared by the United Nations' Economic and Social Affairs Department,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2005
Pat Robertson gives religion a black eye
NEW YORK -- Statements broadcast last week by television evangelist and former U.S. presidential candidate Pat Robertson throw a disturbing light on the influence of religion in American politics. Robertson told his audience that American agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2005
Revisiting capital punishment
NEW YORK -- Recent statements on capital punishment by John Paul Stevens, a U.S. Supreme Court justice, to the American Bar Association could reignite the debate on this important issue. His statements followed several exonerations of death-row inmates through scientific evidence. He said these exonerations...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2005
Nepalese children caught in the crossfire
NEW YORK -- The armed conflict in Nepal between the government and Maoist guerrillas is making victims of an increasing number of children, who have been subjected to a wide array of human-rights violations. Over the past several years, the U.N. Security Council has worked to develop a body of law intended...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2005
Africa: moving beyond chronic emergency
NEW YORK -- The current crisis in Niger, where 3.6 million people are at risk of starvation, shows how badly prepared the country is to respond to the emergency. The food shortage is affecting 800,000 children under age five in some 3,815 villages. Acute malnutrition rates have risen to 13.4 percent...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2005
Africa's health challenges
NEW YORK -- Persistent poverty in most African countries is seriously effecting the health and quality of life for children and adults. Diarrheal and respiratory infections, measles, malaria and perinatal pose the most serious threats to children's lives, while HIV/AIDS and malnutrition cast an ominous...
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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