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Blog Posts by Jake Kurtzer

Iraq: Keeping Our Focus
July 20, 2009 Jake Kurtzer Congress, Iraq, U.S. Administration
While America’s attention has shifted to the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, recent news reports about the targeting of Christian Iraqis have turned a few eyes back towards the violence within Iraq. The targeting of Iraqi Christians portends a return to the attacks on minorities and ethnic strife that led to the massive displacement of civilians from Iraq.
Burma: One Year After Cyclone Nargis
May 01, 2009 Jake Kurtzer Burma, Climate Displacement, Congress, U.S. Administration, Humanitarian Response
Anniversaries provide us with many opportunities – to commemorate, to remember, to admonish, to celebrate, to reassess. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, which destroyed 700,000 homes in the Irrawaddy Delta of Burma and killed an estimated 138,000 people. In the press releases that I’ve read in the past few days, a number of organizations are using this anniversary to chastise the Burmese regime for their callousness towards their own population. This is undeniable, but I want to argue that this anniversary should be used for a different purpose – to see what we can do to continue to help the people who suffered from the storm.
Burma: Little Support for People with HIV/AIDS
April 01, 2009 Jake Kurtzer Burma

Today’s New York Times featured an excellent story about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Burma. It’s about time more attention was paid to this problem – considered to be the largest HIV/AIDS epidemic in Southeast Asia. What’s worse than the scale of the crisis is that, in this day and age where the US and other developed countries are focused on ameliorating the worst effects of HIV/AIDS throughout Africa and countries around the world, tens of thousands of Burmese are dying every year exactly because they are not receiving the aid they need to survive.  The Times story details the statistics, so I’ll leave that to them.  In the meantime, I wanted to share a few stories from our work in Burma that highlight just how severe the problem is.
Burma: Cautious Optimism
March 20, 2009 Jake Kurtzer Burma

On Refugees International’s recent visit to southeast Asia, we decided to visit Jakarta in advance of the upcoming ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit. A focus of ours is the struggles of the Rohinyga, and ASEAN was going to place the treatment of the Rohingya boat people on the agenda, so we decided to visit ASEAN headquarters.
Colombia: Displaced Need Equal Attention
July 31, 2008 Jake Kurtzer Colombia, Humanitarian Response
The recent visit of presidential candidate Senator John McCain to Colombia, the dramatic rescue of 15 hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and a subsequent visit to the United States by Colombian Defense Minister Santos, have all placed the Colombian Government and its approach to dealing with the violence in that country in the media spotlight.