Whaling: in Video Form

Essentially the last blog post, but via a "Ramblings" episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57F6KQlNtpI&list=PLSFK9Eic29gp-4dn9CihKPp0WRpAT-LxQ

I take off tomorrow immediately after church - I'll keep you updated on what the ICJ says!

Hague Trip: Whaling Case

I’m heading to The Hague on Sunday to attend to ICJ Announcement of their decision on the Australia v Japan (New Zealand Intervening) Case on Whaling in the Antarctic. You can read more at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?p1=3&p2=1&case=148.

I attended a briefing today with Dr. Harrison from the University of Edinburgh, who has been involved in the case as legal advisor for Japan. Another of my faculty, Professor Boyle, is serving as counsel and will be at the Peace Palace with us.

Quite interesting to see a case come through the docket!

Interesting in that I think Japan is probably correct legally in some ways, but I don’t actually want them to be killing whales.

One of the more major legal issues is that the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling currently banning whaling is actually set up as a fisheries/resources management rather than an actual ban on all whaling because we like whales. It was initially written to get whale stocks back up to a “fishable” level.

There is an exception on the current ban on commercial whaling for scientific whaling. Whaling – including lethal whaling – is legal. Questions for the Court are then whether they have jurisdiction, whether the whaling is properly “scientific”, whether the amount of whales they’re capturing is appropriate, and whether the lethal methods being used are necessary.

We shall see what the Court says on Monday. I and other Edinburgh students have a meeting with Judge Greenwood immediately after the case is announced, so we’ll hopefully have a chance to get some insight on how decisions were made.

London's Calling...! Eek !

Announcement!

With great pleasure but slight dread...London's calling.
King's College London is, in fact, the perfect school for me other than its location in London. ;)

I'll be getting a PhD in Human Geography focused on Middle Eastern Environmental Policy and Peacebuilding 2014-2017. My faculty are fantastic; geography is going to be a really fun field (ecofeminist theory, here I come!); etc.

And London will be lovely. Just...large.

Moving in September. :)

Stockholm!

The previously promised photos. Stockholm is, indeed, beautiful. We had fantastic weather. Our hostel was a boat. We had dinner Saturday night at a vegetarian buffet that was oh-so-amazingly-good. Sunday we narrated the Swedish-only "Life in Water" exhibit at the Natural History Museum for ourselves. We also saw the Vasa...totally amazing restored shipwreck. Go Google if you haven't seen it!!

Shower and Stockholm

I trained to London last night and had the joy of throwing a Baby Shower for Lizzie, one of the Marshall Scholarship staff, this afternoon. I thought about blogging last night from the train…but the Marshall office sometimes reads my blog, and I would have hated for Lizzie’s surprise to be ruined. ;)

I’ve now arrived in Stockholm, Sweden. Chris Heffner, a close mate from undergraduate, is touring Europe. I haven’t been in Stockholm yet…quite excited to see both Chris and the city! Photos to come soon.

Please consider supporting AMENDS

As is probably quite obvious from several of my other blog posts, the American Middle Eastern Network for Dialogue at Stanford that I attended last April has become an incredibly important part of my life. I was amazingly inspired by the work of 35 young people from across the Middle East, North Africa, and US: People like Nihal, who runs street volunteer patrols to protect women from sexual harassment in Cairo; Fadi, whose alternative sustainable energy start-up has just received a contract from the Palestinian government to supply 10% of the West Bank's energy needs through wind power; and Nargis, empowering women and youth in Afghanistan through cultural celebration and community development.

Since April 2013, I have been elected the Secretary of the AMENDS Fellows Network and helped plan a follow-up conference in Turkey, where I met a group of the 2012 AMENDS Fellows. Again, I was moved beyond words.

Moving forward with my research, my friends through AMENDS are going to be a critical part of my PhD fieldwork: I'll be able to couchsurf my way through the Middle East, interviewing environmental activists that the AMENDS Fellows have offered to introduce me to.

In three weeks, Stanford hopes to welcome another 35 delegates. However, funding is incredibly tight. As time moves away from the "Arab Spring" of 2011, funding for youth capacity-building in the Middle East is waning. But, of course, the need for and the power of young people's activism in the region is not. I am currently leading an initiative to build an endowment for AMENDS so that this kind of fundraising will not determine whether annual Summits are possible in the future. But, as you know, that kind of development takes time. In order to run the 2014 Summit, the AMENDS Fellows Network is trying to raise $10000 in the next three weeks. Thanks to an anonymous donor, this is going to be matched - every $50 I am able to raise becomes $100.

I am asking each of you to consider donating anything you can to this Platform. This work is unspeakably important to me, and it is a way to make a very positive and long-term impact on a fantastic group of people who, because of the amazing model of AMENDS, will become very close friends when I meet them next year in Turkey.

Please do consider donating. All funds go through Stanford University, so you can donate securely online and will receive a receipt for tax purposes. Remember that everything you contribute in the next three weeks doubles!

I greatly appreciate your support...in whatever form it takes. :)

Picnics in the Sun

Norwich gave me some obscenely gorgeous weather for my weekend. 

Cue wine picnics with the students who attended my lecture on Friday to continue discussion and a forest-lake frolic with Iorwerth on Sunday.

The 2013-14 batch of MSc Water Security & International Development students.

This is our "I shall lounge in warm, soft grass eating grapes fed to me by beautiful women" pose.

 

A swan friend! This sparked listening to "Colors of the Wind".

...I'm not prepared to say that Maestro slipped into the lake and rode the bus home naked.
But I'm not prepared to testify that he didn't, either.

Once home, though, we didn't take off our sari-esque wrap immediately. Instead, we swapped to a combination of Sumi wrestler and tribal dance moves in a sarong-esque thingamabob.

 

Overall, a grand time was had by all.