The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea) is probably one of the most mysterious and least visited places in the world for North Americans. Even for many U.S. policymakers, DPRK is often seen through a political cloud of fear and presented as an unknowable and unpredictable enemy. For the U.S. government, the label of…
Charissa Zehr is the Legislative Associate for International Affairs in the MCC Washington Office. She recently spent several weeks in Colombia meeting with MCC’s partners there. “It looks like all you did was eat,” joked my mom as we reflected on the pictures I had been posting on Facebook of my recent trip to Colombia. And…
Read more Welcome to the Table: reflections on time in Colombia
By Charles Kwuelum The Great Lakes region of central Africa—the countries grouped around Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika—showcases both the very best and the very worst of humanity. The region has seen its fair share of war and conflict: the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a twenty-year ongoing conflict and war in eastern Congo, and a prolonged…
Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach updates on the Syrian crisis in the latest Mennonite World Review. “On a recent visit to Lebanon, many Syrians expressed their strong desire for peace and a longing to return home. Citing a history of living together as various ethnic and religious groups, they said Syrians could work things out with one…
MCC staff Adrienne Wiebe and Bonnie Klassen write for the latest issue of The Ploughshares Monitor reflecting on community based peacebuilding efforts in Colombia as the best hope for a peaceful end to the internal armed conflict. They write: “International attention is on the key players, such as the government, guerrillas, and the paramilitary, but…
MCC Washington Memo 