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BYUPR Channel 
2008
The National Savior and Local Apathy: Why You Should Care Who Is Elected To Your School Board
This year we get to decide who will be President of the United States, perhaps the most powerful person in the world. By comparison, the influence of a school board officer is infinitesimal. So why should we spend just as much time focusing on the local election? I offer three reasons. First, as Latter-day Saints we believe that a person’s [...]
Mormon Politics: Is Change in the Air?
Utah is often described as the “reddest” state in the Union, an appellation that is apparently well-deserved. A 2005 study ranked Provo, where 88% of the population is Mormon, as the nation’s most conservative city. In Utah County, where Republicans outnumber Democrats by 10 to 1, nearly 86% of voters favored George W. Bush in 2004. Although President Bush’s approval [...]
Election Reform: A Lesson from France
The primary elections and caucuses will soon be over and each party will be selecting a candidate to represent it in the presidential election. This, therefore, seems as appropriate a time as any to discuss the issue of election reform. Last year’s French presidential election presents us with an important lesson. In that race the conservative candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy of [...]
Sex Scandals and the Metaproblem
Bill Clinton. Larry Craig. Mark Foley. Gary Hart. Now add Eliot Spitzer…men who have sullied their names and in some cases destroyed their careers through sex scandals. Last week the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer resigned after he was found not just to be involved in an elicit affair, but soliciting a call girl possibly as many as eight [...]
A Riddle, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma: Why Political Reform in Russia Will be Slow and Difficult.
Deciphering the relationship Russia maintains with the world, and particularly the West, can be a daunting task. Espionage, murder, Chechnya, Kosovo, oil, corruption – anyone who follows Russian politics is likely to – as W.C. Fields once said – “Smile first thing in the morning and get it over with.” But if America is frustrated by the lack of progress [...]
German Responsibility
In response to the 75th anniversary of Adolph Hitler’s ascent to power, the New York Times recently published an article about Germany’s continued efforts to remember the worst events from its past. Germany has built many museums and memorials to the Jewish Holocaust. Avi Primor, former Israeli ambassador to Germany, was quoted as saying, “where in the world has one [...]
Why Europe is Losing the Fight Against Trafficking
Trafficking in human beings is one of the most horrific blemishes the modern era has been forced to confront. It is a stain no less concealable or shameful than the legacy left us by the transatlantic slave trade. It is a more modern but no less gruesome form of slavery; something Western society has, for decades, felt proud to claim [...]
Adoption and Corruption in Guatemala
I arrived in Guatemala in the spring of 2005 for a four- month study on the traditional kinship and adoption practices of the Maya- K’iche’ Indians. Like much anthropology, my research was self-directed; I couldn’t understand why people separate themselves into families and ignore their obligations to others, and I wanted to understand how (through adoption) people are able to [...]
Technology and the Rise of Modern Slavery
Sometimes it appears that the world is getting better all the time. Cellphones and computers are slimmer and more functional, medical researchers are finding new ways to prolong our lives, the internet continues to make information more organized and accessible, and global capitalism marches on. It is hard not to believe that we are in the midst of an unprecedented [...]
Kosovo: Little Country, Big Repercussions
On Tuesday, February 19th, the Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence, prompting celebrations by Kosovan Albanians, protests from Serbians, and mixed opinions from the international public. The United States was first to recognize Kosovo as an independent nation with President Bush acknowledging the event from Dar Es Salaam, in Tanzania: “History will prove this to be a correct move, to [...]