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		Ron Martin, Jr. Updated Feb. 5 and Feb. 15, 2007

Ron Martin, Jr, has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University. He has worked in and traveled extensively through war-torn and post-conflict settings throughout the world, including Azerbaijan, Chiapas, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Kashmir and Somalia.

Ron was the Water and Sanitation Program Manager for the humanitarian nongovernmental organization Action contre la Faim (the French section of Action Against Hunger) in Somalia from December 2004 through June 2005 and was based in Wajid (Somalia) and Nairobi (Kenya). He managed water source rehabilitations and hygiene promotion in the Wajid area and cholera prevention in Mogadishu, while coordinating with numerous agencies and partners in Nairobi.

Keweenaw Now guest author Ron Martin, Jr., second from right, pauses for a photo with Action contre la Faim Water Sanitation team members in Wajid, Somalia, where he managed water source rehabilitations and hygiene promotion. (Photo ©  2005 Ron Martin, Jr. Reprinted with permission.)

Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, Ron received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky. He has worked as an environmental engineering consultant, taught environmental engineering at the University of Tuzla in Bosnia-Hercegovina, performed election work in the Balkans and Caucasus and volunteered on an ecological project in Siberia.

Ron is currently an organic hydroponic farmer in the Columbia River Gorge (Hood River, Oregon) where he windsurfs and skis.  He is also an avid ice and rock climber.

News

Somalia: Another Front in the War on Terror?
Posted 02/05/2007  

HOOD RIVER, ORE. -- For 16 years, Somalia has been a failed state with no central government, awash with weapons, wracked by clan rivalries and ruled by warlords. Only when the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) took control of southern and central Somalia last summer, did the United States administration become concerned about the threat of Somalia being taken over by Islamic extremists and becoming a potential safe haven and training ground for al-Qaeda, says guest author Ron Martin, Jr., who has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University. Martin worked as Water and Sanitation Program Manager for a humanitarian nongovernmental organization in Somalia from December 2004 through June 2005. He offers an overview of recent events in Somalia, along with photos he took while working there. more

Viewpoints

More misery in store for a longsuffering people, Part 3: Rebuilding a Devastated Country

Posted 11/11/2001

HOUGHTON -- In the third, and final, article of a three-part series, guest author Ron Martin, Jr., of Houghton, discusses the need to establish a responsible government in Afghanistan if and when the Taliban should fall from power. Martin also provides useful links to maps and Internet information sources on Afghanistan and on relief and human rights organizations.  more

More misery in store for a longsuffering people, Part 2: The Humanitarian Crisis

Posted 11/10/2001

HOUGHTON -- In the second article of a three-part series, guest author Ron Martin, Jr., of Houghton, who has traveled in Afghanistan and Pakistan, discusses the impending humanitarian crisis of starvation, illness and human rights abuses threatening war-torn Afghanistan. Part 3: Rebuilding a Devastated Country will follow soon. more

More misery in store for a longsuffering people, Part 1: On the Military Front

Posted 11/9/2001

HOUGHTON -- Guest author Ron Martin, Jr., of Houghton, who has traveled in Afghanistan and Pakistan, offers his analysis of the present military situation in Afghanistan in the first article of a three-part series. Part 2: The Humanitarian Crisis and Part 3: Rebuilding a Devastated Country will follow soon. more