Glen Pearson

Bounty Gate. Scandal. Illegal. Name it what you will, the charges against the New Orleans Saints of the National Footbal League represent a new low for professional sports, and are perhaps more an indication of how western societies have grown careless of standards that once characterized our public...

The challenges were immense, but I took it on as a task of goodwill. We had been asked to assist in the peace negotiations between North and South Sudan, held in Kenya, and mediated by a very able and respected Kenyan ex-general.

It had been Africa's longest-running civil war...

George R. Martin's book series Game of Thrones has developed a huge following and been turned into a popular television series. I watched a few episodes and some things became readily apparent. The land in which various groups live is teeming with rebellion as the dominant family, the Lanisters, having...

The last decade in Canadian parliament has witnessed one of the most dramatic reversals in Western democracy. Regional differences, language issues, resource-sharing and citizenship disenchantment with all things political have resulted in a Canada at troubling odds with its more professional and stabilized reputation of only a few years ago....

George Clooney is one of the few celebrities whom I take seriously -- not just because he's focused his advocacy efforts on Sudan but for reasons of consistency and his ability to stay on message. In January 2011, my wife and I were made international observers for the Sudanese referendum...

The use of child soldiers in warfare has taken on new importance as a result of the KONY 2012 video. Yet it remains far too easy to focus on the clear violations of humanity perpetrated by Joseph Kony rather than the complex environment that lingers over the lives of underage...

Ask General Romeo Dallaire anything about child soldiers, and he assembles all his forces in a well-strategized campaign to convince you that something must be done. And the resources at his disposal are compelling. Following his failed attempt to gain UN permission to intervene during the Rwandan genocide, Dallaire, now...

My last piece in the Huffington Post has resulted in a flurry of calls from concerned people from numerous continents wondering how they can help child soldiers in real and concrete terms. That's often the good and bad that accrues from such things as the Kony 2012 video.

Many...

William, our project manager in South Sudan, sounded somewhat shaken. Driving a truck of supplies close to the Sudan/Uganda border, he found himself in a hail of bullets coming from Kony rebels in the tall grass. He felt lucky to escape without injury.

This is the way it was for...

Last week I wrote an article for the Huffington Post about Abraham Lincoln's birthday and the need for our politicians to take some pointers from the 16th president on how to conduct themselves with a sense of respect and compassion.

Lincoln actually shared his birthday with another...

In 1992, I wrote a published book about Abraham Lincoln, America's 16th president, and how his ability to work with competing interests and personalities would be the new prototype for democratic politics. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Since that time politics north and south of the Canada/U.S. border have...

My city of London, Ontario was hit with another economic broadside this past week. Its vulnerability to decline in the manufacturing sector has led to a stubbornly high unemployment rate. When suddenly last week Caterpillar Inc. announced it would be shutting down the ElectroMotive plant entirely and leaving...

As I write this, my wife is in the Republic of South Sudan, managing a team of 10 Canadians overseeing our various development projects there. It was only one year ago that we were international observers to the great independence referendum in which southern Sudanese voted in such...

My town of London, Ontario has an odd feeling of being under siege. The deterioration of the manufacturing sector that made up a significant part of our productive capacity has left us with one of the country's highest levels of unemployment. In a phrase, we're feeling vulnerable.

Add to this...

In choosing what could be the biggest story of 2011, it would be simplest to just opt for the familiar -- the global economic downturn, Canada's decline among the nations, the capture of Osama Bin Laden, the Japanese tsunami. For some reason the negative fits in big when we think...

In his The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge (1990), author Paul Davis recounts a story from 1870 initially told by Theodore Watts-Dunton. Charles Dickens had just died and a sombre mood hung over the streets. As he was walked down Drury Lane, Dunton overheard a woman's reaction to the...

"You love your country, as I do mine." In Ottawa, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf placed her hand on mine as she uttered the words and the irony of it all wasn't lost on me. She was the first woman in modern African history to become a head of state,...

OMG! Of all the callousness. Check out this video to catch an idea of just how removed some of the wealthy one per cent are from the struggles of average families.

At...

Remember the 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) that the world's richest nations committed to international development? Whatever became of it? It was first pledged almost 40 years ago when it became a resolution of the UN General Assembly. It was reaffirmed again in numerous...

We have reached an unprecedented milestone. According to the United Nations, the world's population has reached seven billion people. It's been clear for the last few years that the seven billion mark was imminent. And because we've been inching toward it for some time, many will ignore its...