Jakobo.net

Tuesday, my Congresswoman held a briefing, organized by her brilliant staff, on Internally Displaced Persons in Armenia and Azerbaijan. It might sound a bit dry and very specific, but it is actually extremely interesting and many of the issues are general for most conflicts around the world: National sovereignty vs. International obligation, recognition of minorities, demonization, etc. Add something as sexy as human tragedy, dying children and something close to war crimes and you get a fairly interesting briefing!

To see the invite with a brief introduction to the issue (written by ego) click here

For further info: here

Congressional Human Rights Caucus
Briefing for Members and Staff on:

Internally displaced persons in Southern Caucasus

Tuesday May 16th, 2006
4:00 p.m. - 5.30 p.m.
Room: 2200

Please join the Congressional Human Rights Caucus for a Members’ Briefing on the Internally Displaced Persons in Armenia and Azerbaijan. The briefing will be held on Tuesday, May 16th at 4:00 p.m. in room 2200 Rayburn HOB and will be chaired by Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano.

Background:
An estimated 20-25 million people live as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) around the world today. Around a million of these are suffering a dreadful fate being refugees within the borders of their own countries in the Southern Caucasus. The Southern Caucasus has the largest number of IDPs within the territory of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Despite these facts, the issue has received less than adequate attention on the political agendas of both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Internally displaced persons live in a limbo between international law and national sovereignty. Often, IDPs are neglected by their governments, and there are still no firm rules as to the mandate of the international community in helping these people. The same holds true for the horrific number of people living displaced in the Southern Caucasus.

In Armenia and Azerbaijan, the vast majority of the IDPs were forced to flee by the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict, currently in a state of ‘not war – not peace’ since a ceasefire in 1994, has deep historic roots. Going back to the end of WWI, the conflict really escalated after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Currently, no peace agreement is in sight.

This protracted situation not only affects the people directly involved in the conflict, but also the IDPs, living under tragic conditions, scattered around Nagorno-Karabakh and in the surrounding areas. A majority of the IDPs are women, while approximately 21% are children, and 30% are more than 60 years old. Around 75% of the IDPs live in temporary dwellings, and it is estimated that only 20% are employed. Furthermore, there are problems with providing education to children, basic material necessities, and social and political rights, i.e. the right to vote.

The scheduled briefing will explore solutions to this critical situation for thousands of people in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Which institutions, organizations, and countries should be involved? What role should the United States play?

To discuss these important issues, we welcome as expert witnesses:

I. Panel:
Matt Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, State Department

II. Panel:
Baroness Cox of Queensbury

III. Panel:
Maureen Lynch from Refugees International, X from Council of Europe (tentative), Kelley Currie from International Committee of the Red Cross, X From UNHCR (tentative), Roberta Cohen from the Brookings Institution, Jennifer Leonard from the International Crisis Group.

We look forward to seeing you at this important briefing. If you have any questions, please contact Jakob Lund in Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano’s’ office at x 5-5256 or via email at jakob.lund@mail.house.gov.

Sincerely,

______________________Tom LantosMember of CongressCHRC Co-Chair ______________________Frank R. WolfMember of CongressCHRC Co-Chair ______________________Grace F. NapolitanoMember of Congress

It’s bad… It’s really bad! But hilarious!! I especially love Pelosi’s look when W talks about rape and mutilation. Check it out: click here.

Yup, that’s right: I have but two weeks left of my fellowship here in DC. Sad if I didn’t take into account that I’m going to Puerto Rico with my kæreste in two weeks and then hitting it back to summer in Denmark to work for Amnesty.

I wish I had time to write more in details about the last weeks. (Though I bet most of you appreciate that I don’t).
We have met with people working hands on with social issues: a health care clinic providing care for the many people in DC who 1) don’t have sufficient English competencies, and 2) oftentimes don’t have legal papers to stay in the country. The latter is a huuuge issue here right now! Also, we met with an organization helping homeless people in DC. This really is different than Scandinavia in almost every way- both good and bad.

Today, we met with Seeds of Peace. A really cool organisation that does the work I would like to work on in Denmark- only at a scale I could never dream of. It really takes a change in the minds of the youth to solve any long lasting conflict, I believe.

Tomorrow is a big day for me: I have organized a briefing on Internally Displaced People in Armenia and Azerbaijan. There will be speakers from State Dept., House of Lords, ICG, and other cooool orgs. Am looking forward and will probably give a report one of the coming days.

New pics. Now from the scenery outside DC, fiesta, Baseball, and much more. Click here or find the link to the right: pics from DC IIII.

Pictures from May 2006

Smithsonian and the giant p*nis

Playing foot-tennis with Sid at Cosi

BBQ at Jen’s. Congrats on the graduation day!

WWII memorial… Some say it reminds them of architecture from Germany in the 1940’s…

Yeeeeha! Ana’s Bday and fiesta at Saki

Aaaww! Morty visiting and posing with two beautiful girls

After Miriams lækre brunch and before the Darfur rally

Darfur Rally. Obama is speaking. Check out www.savedarfur.org

This is where I shot my first hoops in DC… They yelled Eminem at me…

A group of youngsters were reading the whole Bible for a week. Check out the crowd!

Sid shaking hands with 500 pounds of Republican leadership

Julia and Sid swingin’

Trying to immitate my photo-friend Emil…

At my first baseball game. Nationals won!!

…But obviously, there are more interesting things to care about at the stadium.

The usual suspects at the usual crime scene, but missing some fellows…

At the Virginia side of Potomac

Anna and Francesco… Our surrogate parents for the time being.

Don’t worry- I survived…

Henriette, Julia, Anna, Michelle, Dijana, Anastasia

Sid acting up.

Ego in front of Union Station

Roses in front of Union Station

Hope you enjoyed! If you’d like to see more pics, there is a whole menu at the right of this page with photos from different places in the world.

While in DC, I haven’t gone to one concert, I’ve been to the movies twice, and just bought my first new album today… Shame on me!
However, that one new album is by ‘the Streets (really cool homepage!). I’m a huge fan of the two first ones, and after two or three times of listening to the whole album, I don’t find it to be on quite the same level. That being said, it’s definately recommendable!

I also have had time to do some reading (somehow):

I don’t think I wrote anything on Malcolm X autobiography by Alex Haley (i did a review of it in Amnesty International youth magazine for those who read Danish). The themes are too many and the variety of issues to broad to even touch on here. I will just say that many things were added to my limited understanding of the issue of race in US (and other places), of Islam, and of Malcolm X as a historic character. Recommended to everyone!

Most recently, I’ve read another book by a new favorite: Haruki Murakami (another cool website). I really like his writing, the atmosphere and melancholy. I read ‘Norwegian Wood’. Not quite as astonishing as ‘Kafka on the shore’, but still a piece that grabbed me and left me very touched (wow, what a sensitive guy I am). I have only read two of his books, but those I can highly recommend, and from I’ve been told, that goes for all of his works.
Also, I just bough a copy of one of my favorites: ‘the Impressionist’ by Hari Kunzru. No other comments here than ‘highly recommended’!

I’ve spoken about our Monday programs before: The last two Mondays we’ve met with

1)NRA. I tried to be open. Favorite quote from the meeting: “Give me an old toaster and I’ll shoot it. I’ll shoot everything” (female representative from NRA). Leason learned: More guns lead to less crime = less guns leads to more crime.

2)IPS. Very cool institute for Policy studies. The most holistic approach to drug policy I’ve met in the US. Most important leasson learned: the drug problem in US (and rest of the world) is not that of supply, but about demand! The Bush administration has the same oblivious policy towards drugs as towards teen pregnancies…

3) Pro-Life and Pro-Choice organisations. The representative from the biggest pro-life organisation, National Right to life actually convinced me that the only thing we really disagreed on is when an egg an a sperm cell is to be defined as a human being. But the people that are affiliated with the pro-life movement is (no matter how much they try to deny it) in general the people who have the least repect for human life and support death penalty. This truly is a country of great contradictions! NARAL, the pro-choice counterpart, was represented by a charming lady who presented the reasonable arguments very well.