Skip to content
In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

Critical appraisals of foreign affairs and politics from a global-citizen perspective

Search
  • BLOGMel’s long-form thoughts
  • APBComments on today’s news
  • ARTICLESCommentary by others
  • DOCS, REPORTS, NOTICESfrom NGOs, governments, etc.
    • MEDIAVideos, Cartoons and More
  • ABOUT MEL GURTOV and THIS SITE

Category: What Work

American Politics and the World…

Post #149: Fighting Back

7 Feb 201727 Feb 2017
Since Inauguration Day, the streets of US cities have been filled with protesters. Major demonstrations are being planned to follow up on the hugely successful Women’s March. Environmental, science, human…
BLOG…

Post #138: Food Politics: The GMO Conspiracy

3 Dec 201627 Feb 2017
One of the longest-standing tricks of the corporate trade is to produce an item that is dangerous, breakable, or soon to be obsolete and then produce another item that will…
BLOG…

Post #104 –Engaging and Apologizing: Two Exercises, Different Results

18 Jan 201627 Feb 2017
The art and wisdom of engaging and apologizing to adversaries was on display in recent days in two very different settings, one in East Asia and the other in the…
BLOG…

Post #92: Two Cheers for Humanity

17 Sep 201527 Feb 2017
In the last few days the notion of a common humanity, a cornerstone of human-interest thinking, has received strong support from two very different but highly visible sources: Pope Francis’…
BLOG…

Post #85: We Apologize

23 Jul 201527 Feb 2017
The following article originally appeared in Global Asia, vol. 10, No. 2 (Summer 2015), pp. 112-117, under the title “'We Apologize': Two Words to Embrace to Right Injustices." Apologies are never easy—not between…
BLOG…

Post #71 –Should We “Balance” Threats to the Environment?

23 Mar 201527 Feb 2017
How does a US administration promote greater energy independence, protect its fragile environment, and make both oil executives and environmentalists happy?  President Obama’s answer is to give something to everyone,…
BLOG…

Post #59 – What Works: Engaging Cuba

17 Dec 201427 Feb 2017
President Obama has finally reversed what he called the “failed policy” of isolating Cuba, announcing today (December 17) the start of normal relations.  “These 50 years [without official relations] have…
BLOG…

Post #46 – Scotland’s Vote, Our (Possible) Future

22 Sep 201427 Feb 2017
             Scotland’s vote for independence fell well short of victory.  But pro-independence Scots will surely try again, just like les Québecois.  From a practical point…
BLOG…

Post #39 – What Works? Microfinance: Financing Dignity

11 Aug 201427 Feb 2017
Back in the 1970s, Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh had a brilliant idea.  He would found a bank to provide seed money to poor people who otherwise would have no way…
BLOG…

Post #36 – What Works? Person- and Planet-centered Development

22 Jul 201427 Feb 2017
The usual script for international development is the provision of aid—mostly in loans, occasionally in outright grants—by a “developed” country or international institution to an “underdeveloped” one. The money goes…
BLOG…

Post #31 – What Works? The Courage to Blow the Whistle

26 Jun 201427 Feb 2017
American heroes come in many forms, and historically, one of them is acting selflessly in the public interest and in defiance of established authority. Daniel Ellsberg did just that in…
BLOG…

Post #28 – What Works?  Saving Young Lives

17 Jun 201427 Feb 2017
While living in Tokyo back in 2001, my attention was captivated by a US public television program on a cardiovascular surgeon in Phoenix who was making annual trips to Sri…
BLOG…

Post #26-What Works? Good Neighbors Find Common Ground

9 Jun 201427 Feb 2017
It’s a powerful story of grassroots organizing. “Jane Kleeb vs. Keystone” details the tenacious efforts of one person in Nebraska to reach across the usual environmentalist-conservative divide in order to…

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Recommended

  • Ending nuclear lawlessness
  • Andrei Lankov on the durability of the Kim Jong-un regime
  • Dali Yang reviews Minxin Pei’s book on endemic corruption in China
  • Best way to combat climate change? Don’t fly.
  • Moral corruption in the Trump camp
  • Bill Maher Skewers Trump Circle on Russia
  • Why Trump always takes the low road
  • “1984” in Xinjiang, China
  • Career US Foreign Service officer and China expert offers advice on US-China relations
  • Who profits from nuclear weapons?
  • John Holdren, former senior Obama S&T director, gives PowerPt rebuttal of all climate change deniers
  • World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Second Notice
  • UN Special Rapporteur’s report on extreme poverty in America
  • Putin is not as invulnerable as we may think
  • Coming Extinction of the Great Barrier Reef
  • Bill McKibben on extreme weather
  • A philanthropist makes a grand pledge for conservation
  • Impeachment
  • Bernie Sanders’ foreign policy
  • A former nuclear regulator now wants to ban N-power
  • 900 Former Prosecutors Say Trump Guilty of Obstruction of Justice
  • Open Letter: China is not the enemy
  • The Dangerous Anti-China Consensus in the US
  • A patriotic ambassador tells the truth about Ukraine
  • US House Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Report
  • A Song for the Times
  • Making China a US Enemy is Counterproductive
  • Putting America back together
  • Gen. Mattis Denounces Trump
  • Goodbye, Donald Trump

Recent Comments

Paul Marantz on Post #288: A Progressive Agend…
Mel Gurtov on Post #288: A Progressive Agend…
Bob Wise on Post #288: A Progressive Agend…
David Babcock on Post #288: A Progressive Agend…
Tom Morehouse on APB: Our National Embarrassmen…

Search Posts

Archives

Follow me on Facebook

Follow me on Facebook

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 644 other followers

Follow by RSS

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

Journals with my recent articles

  • Asian Perspective Comments on the “Open Letter to the President and Congress on China Policy”
  • China-US Focus Chinese domestic and foreign policy; US-China relations
  • Counterpunch critical commentary from my blog on current affairs
  • Foreign Policy in Focus COVID-19 has contributed to US-China tensions instead of to cooperation.
  • Global Asia China’s flouting of human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang warrants US criticism, but not abandonment of engagement possibilities.
  • The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Articles on US-China relations and the End-of-Poverty Illusion in East Asia

Virtual Talk, Sept. 22, 2020: Book talk, "America in Retreat: Foreign Policy Under Donald Trump," Noon, at World Affairs Council of Oregon, register at https://www.worldoregon.org.

No upcoming events

Website Powered by WordPress.com.