In America, we demonize the “welfare mother.” We imagine her wasting our hard-earned tax dollars as she sits on the couch watching soap operas while her children eat potato chips for dinner. The media often depicts welfare receivers as the lazy, unmotivated, undeserving poor.

The history of poverty in the United States and the attempts to eradicate its effects is a reoccurring crusade that has reached the national level over the last century. The root of the war against poverty stems from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s idea of the “Great Society”, a plan to increase the federal government’s role in financing and managing social welfare programs in the United States.

In the midst of the Cold War, the third installment of the Rambo film series was released in movie theatres across the United States. The film chronicled Rambo’s crusade to rescue a military comrade abducted by Soviet armed forces in Afghanistan. On the first leg of his journey, Rambo is greeted by Mousa—an Afghan arms dealer tasked with guiding him across Afghanistan’s challenging terrain. In the opening dialogue between the two men, Mousa tells Rambo the following about his homeland: “This is Afghanistan… Alexander the Great try to conquer this country… then Genghis Khan, then the British. Now Russia. But Afghan people fight hard, they never be defeated.” Notwithstanding their fictional context, Mousa’s words accurately reflect the centuries—long tradition of Afghan resistance to foreign occupation. A few years following the release of Rambo III, Afghanistan would stop fighting against foreign Soviet invaders and instead become immersed in an internal conflict characterized by unprecedented levels of internecine violence.

Only having daughters is a big misfortune for a family in Afghanistan. It gives other family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues—anyone, really, who comes into contact with the family and realizes that they don’t have a son-a reason to pity them and express their condolences, regardless of the family’s overall social standing.

Afghanistan is a country with much potential. Natural resources are in abundance and the people are down to earth. But civil unrest and natural disasters are obstacles to its progress. But how has this impacted the health sector and general wellbeing of the people? Interview with Dr. Qudsia Huda

Is the U.S. fair to immigrants of color?

This past Tuesday’s elections reminded me of two years ago, when my high school class in China was just as excited, if not more, about the U.S. presidential elections as were American voters. Months before the election, when the competition between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton within the Democratic Party was still going on, some of my classmates had already started a “presidential gamble,” in which I eventually lost twenty candy bars on Nov. 2.

Elections in Burma (officially recognized as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) are unheard of since Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), seized power in 1988. The last election held in Burma, in 1990, was a victory for the current opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD is led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. However, the ruling generals never allowed the NLD to take power and detained Suu Kyi. So why is a sudden change called for?

Oct. 31 was a big day for the South American country of Brazil. After much campaigning with the current President Lula Da Silva, Dilma Rousseff became Brazil’s first female president and will take office on Jan. 1 2011.

On Oct. 28, two million people took part in 270 protests across France. This is the seventh national strike in major industries after the protest on Oct. 28 when the French parliament passed the government’s pension bill. Although many feel that the law weakened the overall movement, major labor unions still show great optimism for their cause. Reuters, BBC News, the Wall Street Journal and all the other big news media are still highly engaged in tracking the strikes. Yet the strike news is moving away from the cover and the colorful front pages.