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Nayeli Urquiza

Stories from Nayeli Urquiza

All That Jazz: February, 2010
The topography of post-war blues
Nayeli Urquiza
Christopher Anderson
01/02/2010

It has been snowing in Vienna and the temperature is probably ten below zero. There is a place on Prinz-Eugen-Straße – a guitar pick’s throw south of Schwarzenbergplatz – where the bass, electric guitar, harmonica, and the scratchy, deep voice of a blues singer can warm up the air inside and out:

This is the Louisiana Blues Pub.

07 Katja
Making ‘Fatal Promises’
A powerful documentary on victims of human trafficking argues that much of public spending is “preaching to the choir”
Nayeli Urquiza
01/12/2009

Working in New York four years ago, filmmaker Katharina Rohrer read an article on human trafficking in The New York Times. The extent of it as well as the cynicism of it shocked her, and launched her on a journey to research and create awareness about a crime done against an estimated 800,000 people every year around the world.

02 Wall opening on Bernauer Strasse
Eyes On The Wall, Exhibit
As East and West Germany were reunited, the future of the two halves became the focus of debates around Europe and the world
Nayeli Urquiza
01/11/2009

A wall is never just a wall. It is a spatial division between one room, one house, one country, and a people. The photojournalists covering the days leading to Nov. 9, 1989, knew very well that one single picture of East and West Germans rebelling against the Berlin Wall, would not only make it to the covers of hundreds of newspapers around the world, but they would be a part of history.

09 Ordinary People
Healing by Film
“Film is that beam of light, the nearest thing we have to dreaming.” Cat Villiers of the Sarajevo Film Festival
Nayeli Urquiza
01/09/2009

The Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) does more than screen premieres and import Hollywood’s glamour to one of the poorest cities in the Balkans. It is a time when the city itself tries to heal the scars left from the war through the power of cinema.

“This festival in particular – the reason why many directors, actors, and producers come every year – celebrates that freedom that its birth gave it,” says Cat Villiers, British Co-producer of No Man’s Land.

Barack Turkey
Turkey’s Own Ways
U.S. President Barack Obama’s support of Turkish accession into the EU brings waves of uncertainty for many Europeans
Nayeli Urquiza
14/05/2009

After a successful trip to Europe, the glitter surrounding Obama’s first official trip to the continent dwindled down in the East, when the president of the U.S. openly supported Turkey’s accession to the EU, sending rifts of criticism from France to Germany.

In Austria, Erhard Busek, Co-ordinator of the Southeast European Co-operative Initiative (SECI), explained that while Obama might believe that Europe and Turkey share more than a common border and that it belongs to it, his public support will not change Europe’s mind.

International Criminal Court’s Sudanese Jam
Two recent lectures highlight the tension between seeking justice and peace in halting genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region
Nayeli Urquiza
05/05/2009

When the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in 2002, critics said it would not achieve much. But ever since it issued its first warrant
against a standing Head of State, Sudan’s president
Omar al-Bashir, the so-called “court without teeth” has been accused of spoiling not only the peace process for Darfur, but also the North-South peace agreement signed in 2005.
“I think it was a big mistake,” said Werner Fasslabend, President of the Austrian Institute for European and Austrian Security at a panel discussion
on Apr. 24, organized by the Austrian Institute
for International Foreign Affairs (ÖIIP) and the Austrian Diplomatic Academy (DA).

Jibril Yipène Bassolé
International Criminal Court's Sudanese Jam
Two recent lectures highlight the tension between seeking justice and peace in halting genocide in Sudan's Dafur region
Nayeli Urquiza
01/05/2009

When the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in 2002, critics said it would not achieve much. But ever since it issued its first warrant against a standing Head of State, Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir, the so-called “court without teeth” has been accused of spoiling not only the peace process for Darfur, but also the North-South peace agreement signed in 2005.

Of Face Lifts And Phobias
Prominent politicians discuss the future of Europe's borders
Nayeli Urquiza
09/04/2009

Europe is like an old lady who has had too much surgery. Her wrinkles and wounds have been lifted so many times that people hardly recognize her anymore. Still there are surely a few distinguishable traits that persist.

But which ones?  Is it her height or her voice? Is it her temper, or the scar near her ear? Is it the birthmark on her shoulder or the lines framing her cheeks?

Four experienced European observers could not agree on whether this venerable lady should have either a major face-lift or just new make-up at the panel discussion “Europe’s Borders” on Mar.17 organized by the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) and the Austrian daily Der Standard.

No Exit From Gaza
Hostilities have ceased, but it is not clear what has been gained
Nayeli Urquiza
02/02/2009

For 22 days, rockets and mortars pounded Gaza in the military siege that began Dec. 27. It has been a brutal, one-sided assault, ending the lives of about 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, and bringing the peace process to a screeching halt.

On Jan. 18, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared a unilateral ceasefire. A few hours later, the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip too declared a ceasefire, while demanding the Israeli Defense Forces withdraw from Gaza within a week and reopen all border crossings. Hostilities have ceased, but little has been won.

Winds of Change?
By year end, 24 nations will have new leaders
Nayeli Urquiza
02/11/2008

Obama, McCain, Obama, McCain. Headlines all around the world talk about the United States presidential and legislative elections this year.

But by the end of 2008, 24 countries will have elected new presidents, while 40 should have elected a new parliament and six more a new legislature, according to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Georgia inaugurated the electoral year. President Mikheil Saakashvili, practically unknown before the war that broke out in late August and fought Russia through an intensive media campaign, was reelected with 56 per cent of the votes, a considerable decrease in comparison to the 2004 results, when he received 96 per cent of the vote.

A Crime of Shame
In Addressing the Crisis in Human Trafficking World Wide, A Huge Abyss Still Lies Between Words and Actions
Nayeli Urquiza
02/03/2008

Despite all the good intentions, the Forum against Human Trafficking held in Vienna Feb. 13-15 was a frustrating event. After three days of papers, panels and discussion, the only thing that was clear was how little we know.

With the legislative framework still in its infancy and an affected population that, by definition, goes unrecorded in any census, the problem is nearly impossible to measure with any accuracy. We know it's there, but it is like a predator looming close to us but with only a few of matches in our hands that flare up quickly and burn out, we can only see the dimmest outline of what's haunting us. The only thing most have agreed on is that there is much more of it than most of us dare imagine.

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