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Debate - American Sign Language - Age of Consent for Cochlear Implants - Vermont March 2014 from Alfred Snider on Vimeo . This event brings understanding and idea exchange between previously separated groups. As a part of the celebration of Deaf Culture Month, the Lawrence Debate Union held a debate that was simultaneously in spoken English as well as American Sign Language. The debate was on standards for cochlear implants for the deaf. March 19 at 6 PM in the lovely John Dewey Lounge in the Old Mill building. This video is produced by DEBATE CENTRAL (http://debate.uvm.edu ) a debating website founded in 1994. DEBATE CENTRAL is a non-profit service of the World Debate Institute http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/wdi/Welcome.html , the Lawrence Debate Union http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/LDU/Team.html and the University of Vermont, and is designed to promote debating at all levels, in all languages, and all around the world. Our server is provided by the University of Vermont. Th

Reading the latest Briefing by the UN's special envoy to Somalia, Nicholas Kay, I couldn't help wondering who really calls the shots in that country.... United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) Briefing to the Security Council by Ambassador Nicholas Kay, Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia 11 March 2014 [AS DELIVERED] Madam President, Members of the Council         Thank you for giving me the opportunity to brief the Council from Mogadishu today, and for your continued support to Somalia’s peace-building and state-building. I am on the ground in Mogadishu and not with you in New York due to the intensity of events at this moment. I hope you understand. Madam President The best hope for peace and stability in Somalia, the Horn of Africa and beyond remains a united, secure and federal Somalia. This is achievable. Somalia can reach its goal of an agreed constitution, a nation-wide electoral process and increased security by 2016. But t

In January this year I visited the Habeb mental hospital in Mogadishu. I reported on it for the BBC. Here is the script for my piece which was broadcast on From Our Own Correspondent - you can listen to it by clicking on this link:  The Habeb mental hospital radio piece You should also be able to listen  here (Radio 4 version)  or  here (World Service version) . I took the photos during my visit to the hospital. And here is a link to an interview I recorded with Dr Habeb:  Click here to hear Dr Habeb Somalia has one of the highest rates of mental illness in the world, with one in three people suffering from some form of mental health problem, according to the World Health Organisation. This is perhaps not surprising given that the country has been in conflict for two and a half decades, and has come top of the list of the world's most failed states for six years in a row. Mental illness is a taboo is Somalia. Many mentally sick people are chained, some are even put into cages with