MB Civic

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/magazine/27AFGHAN-t.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=print

Is Afghanistan a Narco-State?

“The Taliban are not the only ones benefitting from the opium trade. Drug-related corruption pervades the Afghan government. A former Bush administration counternarcotics official explains the war within the war.”

—

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/world/asia/27cambodia.html?sq=cambodia&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=print

In Cambodia, Land Seizures Push Thousands of the Poor Into Homelessness

“Like tens of thousands of people around the country, those living here are victims of what experts say has become the most serious human rights abuse in the country: land seizures that lead to evictions and homelessness…“The courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm.” With the economy on the rise, land is being seized for logging, agriculture, mining, tourism and fisheries, and in Phnom Penh, soaring land prices have touched off what one official called a frenzy of land grabs by the rich and powerful. The seizures can be violent, including late-night raids by the police and military. Sometimes, shanty neighborhoods burn down, apparently victims of arson.”