Goro Rivera's Place

At Left: Karen AbuZayd, Commisioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency speaks to the Security Council during a closed door session. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, was established by United Nations General Assembly resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees. The Agency began operations on 1 May 1950. In the absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee problem, the General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA's mandate, most recently extending it until 30 June 2011. Since its establishment, the Agency has delivered its services in times of relative calm in the Middle East, and in times of hostilities. It has fed, housed and clothed tens of thousands of fleeing refugees and at the same time educated and gi

Boo..Hoo..Hoo.. Blue Bloods can't make it on 500K. I guess that trip to Aspen will have to be put on hold.

I came across an interesting article in a January issue of The Economist . Western Theory states the following: on the grounds on going to war, ( jus ad bellum ) , the cause must be important enough to justify force: in other words the good that follows must outweigh the death, injuries, and destruction of said war. In the conduct of war, ( jus in bello ), any action must weigh the military gains against the harm to civilians. How can we measure this? In the Israeli-Palestinian context does this conflict begin in 1948 with the displacement of the Arab people of the Palestinian region and the subsequent occupation by Israel? I don't think Israel or the west will ever look at this issue in this way. If the crude rocket firing is the starting point then surely Israel has the right to defend its borders. But does the firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas warrant the barrage that followed? If so was it in line with jus in bello ? Will there ever be a sit down with the leaders o

After a telephone conversation with our new pediatrician, my wife has decided to start feeding Carolina "solid foods". What exactly is this? Well, Gerber makes an organic brown rice cereal which Anna then adds to her breast milk. Why is this important? Well Carolina is 5 months and 8 days old. The generally accepted feeding guidelines recommend starting your baby on solid foods anywhere from when the baby is 4 to 6 months old. After researching on the web for nearly an hour, Anna has started to have second thoughts. Why....the reasons are plenty..click on the title above to find out why...

A photographer risks his life to capture what most of the world refuses to see. The idea that every minute could be your last is a concept that most of us rarely think about. While we may sometimes reflect on our own mortality, it is usually done in the comfort of a safe environment . The people of the Congo experience a living hell on earth, if lucky , not only dodging bullets from their own brothers, but also some of the most heinous of crimes . For them, in the here and now, they have already been condemned to a life in Hell. How they have the strength to believe in something better is beyond me. Their faith must come from something much deeper. The realization that they have already experienced the worst that mortal life could offer, with something measurably better when in God's hands.

Tummy Time , an exercise during which my three month old daughter Carolina, while lying on her stomach face down, tries to lift her head off the ground, is really a microcosm of the difficult road she will face during her lifetime. As she wails, I am reminded that life is a constant struggle, and the only way to make it better is to work hard and only then will you create your own good fortune. After only a couple of days, I can already see progress. She can now lift her head and look around for a few seconds at a time.