Alex Whiting
Alex Whiting joined the AlertNet team in July 2005. Before that she was assistant editor of Panos Features and correspondent of Gemini News Service, specialising in trade, aid and development. She began her journalism career making television documentaries for the BBC and Britain's Channel 4, and since then has also worked in radio. Now she is combining work with a part-time MA in Middle Eastern studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Watch the world disappear from our TV screens
Author: Alex Whiting
TV executives in Europe and the United States are following a bizarre kind of logic: the more inter-connected the world becomes, the less foreign coverage we have beamed into our sitting rooms.
Even though dramatic events like the global credit crunch show how inter-dependent we all are, recent research in Britain, America and Eastern Europe all point to media moguls' increasing reluctance to invest in overseas programming.
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Author: Alex Whiting
TV executives in Europe and the United States are following a bizarre kind of logic: the more inter-connected the world becomes, the less foreign coverage we have beamed into our sitting rooms.
Even though dramatic events like the global credit crunch show how inter-dependent we all are, recent research in Britain, America and Eastern Europe all point to media moguls' increasing reluctance to invest in overseas programming.
...
Floods worsen in Colombia
Author: Alex Whiting
Months of heavy rains in Colombia have caused widespread flooding, affecting nearly 1 million people and destroying thousands of hectares of crops, according to government figures.
The U.N. Children's Fund, which has launched a
$1.7 million appeal, says there is a constant threat of flash floods and landslides.
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Author: Alex Whiting
Months of heavy rains in Colombia have caused widespread flooding, affecting nearly 1 million people and destroying thousands of hectares of crops, according to government figures.
The U.N. Children's Fund, which has launched a
$1.7 million appeal, says there is a constant threat of flash floods and landslides.
...
Can a certificate make aid agencies better listeners?
Author: Ruth Gidley
Aid agencies say they want to save lives or even change the world. But many freely admit they often fail to listen enough to the people they want to help.
Now a new system allows agencies to certify themselves as accountable, but will it make any difference?
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Author: Ruth Gidley
Aid agencies say they want to save lives or even change the world. But many freely admit they often fail to listen enough to the people they want to help.
Now a new system allows agencies to certify themselves as accountable, but will it make any difference?
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Breaking Africa's longest-running land dispute
Author: Alex Whiting
There's a new glimmer of hope that Africa's longest-running territorial dispute - over the future of Western Sahara - is inching closer to a resolution. Groundbreaking talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front, an independence group representing the indigenous Sahrawi people, are taking place near New York City.
If the negotiations succeed, 160,000 Sahrawi refugees may finally get to go home after a 32-year exile in the Algerian desert, where temperatures sometimes rise above 50 degrees celsius (122 degrees fahrenheit). If the talks come to nothing, Polisario has threatened to restart its war for independence.
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Author: Alex Whiting
There's a new glimmer of hope that Africa's longest-running territorial dispute - over the future of Western Sahara - is inching closer to a resolution. Groundbreaking talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front, an independence group representing the indigenous Sahrawi people, are taking place near New York City.
If the negotiations succeed, 160,000 Sahrawi refugees may finally get to go home after a 32-year exile in the Algerian desert, where temperatures sometimes rise above 50 degrees celsius (122 degrees fahrenheit). If the talks come to nothing, Polisario has threatened to restart its war for independence.
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Getting UN troops to Darfur - why wait?
Author: Alex Whiting
Now the United Nations has the green light from Sudan to send 3,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, why will it take up to six months to get them there? After months of negotiations and shuttle diplomacy with Khartoum the idea can't come as a complete surprise to all concerned.
Well, not surprisingly, Darfur is one of the most challenging places to send peacekeepers. Here are some of the hurdles organisers still have to navigate:
First they need to get the money together - about $300 million - and negotiate with U.N. members for personnel and equipment. Although several countries agreed in principle to help out, they were reluctant to pledge anything until Khartoum had signed up to the idea. A U.N. official told me off the record that so far Nigeria, Egypt, Norway, Sweden, Jordan, Bangladesh and Pakistan look set to join the mission.
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Next entries
Author: Alex Whiting
Now the United Nations has the green light from Sudan to send 3,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, why will it take up to six months to get them there? After months of negotiations and shuttle diplomacy with Khartoum the idea can't come as a complete surprise to all concerned.
Well, not surprisingly, Darfur is one of the most challenging places to send peacekeepers. Here are some of the hurdles organisers still have to navigate:
First they need to get the money together - about $300 million - and negotiate with U.N. members for personnel and equipment. Although several countries agreed in principle to help out, they were reluctant to pledge anything until Khartoum had signed up to the idea. A U.N. official told me off the record that so far Nigeria, Egypt, Norway, Sweden, Jordan, Bangladesh and Pakistan look set to join the mission.
...
