Received this blog about Dadaab from the refugee perspective: A Voice from the Voiceless – Dadaab Refugee Camps Kenya

The ACP Observatory on Migration has posted its first newsletter!  The document can be accessed in English or French from their website here.

Find it all:

www.artlab-arts.blogspot.com

Read more: www.artlab-arts.blogspot.com

Since the end of the First World War and as the reconstruction of the Middle East formally began in 1920s under the British and the French mandate the Kurds were largely marginalised. The new nation-states of Turkey, Iraq and Syria emerged and hence the Kurds feel they were cut off from the mainstream regional and international processes and the post War power houses.  As McDowall (2010) describes the Kurds have been systematically excluded and oppressed both culturally and economically for nearly a century now. The subsequent force migration and displacement of the Kurds in their millions is the topic of my research. I would like to invite contributions and comments about this subject. I have two overlapping questions about refugee protection and refugee prevention;  and I start by putting my first question to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). I, like millions other refugees have benefited from the excellent protection work of the UNHCR since it’s establishment 60 (in July 2011) years ago. Is it not the time to talk about refugee prevention now? For example, there are an estimated 100,000 Kurds who are stateless in Syria. Can UNHCR do something in order to prevent thes people becoming refugees elsewere. This is a legacy of the First World War and a moral responsiblity of the West to do some thing. What do you think?

James M. Donovan
University of Kentucky College of Law Library

Carol A. Watson
University of Georgia Law School

March 4, 2011

Abstract:
To date, there have been no studies focusing exclusively on the impact of open access on legal scholarship. We examine open access articles from three journals at the University of Georgia School of Law and confirm that legal scholarship freely available via open access improves an article’s research impact. Open access legal scholarship – which today appears to account for almost half of the output of law faculties – can expect to receive 50% more citations than non-open access writings of similar age from the same venue.

To access the research paper, go here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1777090

Interesting posting on Boing Boing about Mac software tools for researchers: http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/21/my-essential-mac-res.html

Not strictly research, but telling (and funny, sad and kind of outrageous): http://stuffexpataidworkerslike.com/

I wish all people with writing jobs had their community… Just imagine that: writers society.. Translators, poets, writers…

People with common interests and occupation. And no more misundestanding and conflicts. Sounds great for me.

Too bad its just an utopia