June started off with a plane crash of an Airbus flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. President Obama went to Cairo to make a speech about Muslims and the U.S — some people thought it was pretty good while others had more measured reactions. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, widely reported to be sickly with cancer, tapped his youngest son Jong Un as successor, and his sushi chef said he’s just like his dad. Palau decided to accept a few of the Uighur Guantanamo detainees, and a few of them were also taken in by Bermuda. The Bermudans, however, weren’t so happy about how that happened. A little later, Iran had a Presidential election. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won under most likely fraudulent circumstances because more people voted in some towns than existed there. People protested, and Twittered, and protested some more, with violent repercussions. New York Times reporter David Rohde escaped after 7 months of being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan. In a seemingly pro-feminist move (but actually to the chagrin of many feminists), Nicolas Sarkozy supported a ban of the burqa in France. In Honduras, President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup, and the U.S. military finally withdrew troops from Iraq to focus more instead on efforts to curb Taliban influence in Afghanistan.

In Urumqi, China, riots broke out between the majority Han Chinese and the minority Uighurs, and ethnic tension has remained heightened since, including recent claims that Uighurs are attacking Han Chinese with HIV infected needles. Two hotels were bombed in Jakarta, Indonesia. Hillary Clinton went to the Congo and brought attention to the use of rape and sexual violence as a tool of war (against men, too). Bill Clinton flew to North Korea and saved journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been captured in March and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. It was a good week to be a Clinton.

Former President of the Philippines Corazon Aquino died. RIP, Cory. In Taiwan, there was a really big typhoon. Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial was held over the question of whether or not she violated the terms of her house arrest when a crazy American guy swam through a lake to visit her on a supposedly divine mission. She was found guilty. The American was freed (but remained crazy). Everybody found out that private contractor organization Blackwater (now Xe) was hired by the CIA to assassinate targets. Scotland allowed the one convicted Lockerbie bomber to return to Libya because he is dying of cancer. Everybody was really, really mad, especially because it was probably because of oil. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe came down with the H1N1 virus. The Darfur conflict was reported as coming to an end. Afghanistan held Presidential elections which showed incumbent Hamid Karzai leading, but like Iran, this was probably also fraud. Unlike Iran, they’re actually recounting votes and throwing out bad ones.

Hopefully, that’s refreshed your mind with a whirlwind of memories from the past three months. But here are a couple of things that perhaps you might have missed:

China reversed its one child policy, but only in Shanghai.

Cambodia set out to host a “Miss Landmine” pageant to challenge traditional beauty standards by promoting a pageant for landmine victims. The pageant was quickly banned.

A Ukranian polka band came up with this cover of Katy Perry’s “Hot n Cold.”

Some of the lawsuits over harmful pesticide effects made by Nicaraguan farmers for Dole Food Co. turned out to be fraudulent (involving faked sterility tests, among other indicators), effectively casting doubt on all the other farmers who might have actually been harmed by the pesticides.

China tried to use electroshock therapy to cure teens of Internet addiction. The practice was quickly banned.

Canada granted refugee status to a white man from South Africa who claimed he was being persecuted in his native country on the basis of his race.

An IT company in South Africa ran a test to see what could send data faster: South African Internet service or a carrier pigeon. The pigeon won.

Anything missing? Of course. Drop a comment to add in any other summer global affairs news that slipped through the cracks!

We should be vigilant…

Bangladesh seeks help to repatriate Myanmar migrants

What it’s like to be a refugee in America – Christian Science Monitor

Full Article in Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSDHA452639._CH_.2400

Photo via CNN

Facing persecution as a minority ethnic group in Myanmar, the Rohingya refugees have been fleeing their homeland since the 1970s. Some have ventured to Bangladesh, languishing in refugee camps for over 17 years. Still others have taken the riskier route to refuge traveling by sea to Thailand and Malaysia. Reports this week have captured the Thai government in an act that in my opinion can be deemed as refoulement. Under international law there are many protections afforded to refugees, one of the most fundamental is the principle of non-refoulement. This principle of customary international law (outlined in Article 33 of the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention) “prohibits States from returning a refugee or asylum-seeker to territories where there is a risk that his or her life or freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” (Source: UNHCR). While the Thai government isn’t forcing the Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, they are rejected from their border and forcibly taken out to sea where options are limited to death at sea or returning to a nation that systematically persecutes them based on their religious beliefs and ethnic background.

Last year the U.S. resettled over 62,000 refugees from different parts of the world, primarily made up of refugees from Burma, Iraq, Bhutan, and Burundi in cities as diverse as Fargo, North Dakota, Houston, Texas, and Denver, Colorado. For the past eight months I have had the opportunity to see this program work from the inside being an employee at one of the ten organizations funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration to resettle refugees in the U.S. This under-publicized resettlement program provides resettling refugees with many basic services that assist in their transition to life in the U.S. While the U.S. refugee resettlement program is not without flaws, I thought it might be fitting to recognize some of the positive stories of refugees getting a chance at a new beginning here in the U.S.

* New To U.S., Iraqi Refugee Helps Others Resettle, National Public Radio

* Chattanooga to resettle Iraqi refugees, Chattanooga Times

* Bhutanese refugees learn American ways, San Francisco Chronicle

* Refugees from Bhutan find a home in the United States, Relief Web

* Finding freedom: Burmese immigrants say they want help to become better citizens, Sun Journal

Recently, I had the opportunity to conduct research in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. While many know about the plight of the impoverished in Bangladesh, the presence of the Rohingya refugees has received much less attention. The Rohingya are a minority Muslim ethnic group from the Rakhine state of Myanmar, which borders Bangladesh. Although their roots in Myanmar date back several centuries, the Government of Myanmar does not recognize them as citizens, denying them basic human rights and engaging in systemic persecution of the Rohingya. However, the plight of the Rohingya being “warehoused” in refugee camps in Bangladesh for over 17 years is a common outcome for refugees from protracted conflicts. Around the world there are approximately eight million refugees in similar situations of prolonged displacement. Termed “protracted refugee situations,” prolonged displacement has many negative effects on refugees, host countries, and on the stability of the region.

Two weeks ago, Gary Troeller, former senior executives with the Office for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, unveiled a new book addressing these challenges. Although much has been written about displacement, forced migration, and the practice of “warehousing,” this book is unique in its approach. Instead of looking at protracted refugee situations from an academic perspective, the chapters in the book focus on practical politics, addressing these challenges for an audience of policy-makers. By linking protracted refugee situations to human security, and recognizing the lack of political will, the authors come to the conclusion that to address these issues in an effective way there “needs to be political solutions to political problems.”

For the global population affected by the 33 protracted refugee situations around the world, policy-makers can see throughout the book that these situations are the result of failed states and political impasses from political problems. One of the preliminary steps to addressing this issue the process of sensitization, and Gary Troeller’s book aptly titled, Protracted Refugee Situations, and other documents like the High Commisioner’s Dialogue on Protracted Situations are fitting starting points.