Development

This post is not really about global health.  However, there’s little in the news to go on (which sort of contributes to my later points) as the famine in Somalia and drought in East Africa are everywhere in the media recently, as are photos of starving children.  Apart from being a very real humanitarian crisis, […]

Well, it’s a new week and the same old, same old is happening in Washington. The House Appropriations Committee has released the 2012 State and Foreign Operations Bill and, unsurprisingly but disappointingly, in its current form the bill proposes an 18% cut below last year’s appropriation.  The proposed total on for appropriations is $39.6 billion, […]

I’ve written about the potential positive effects of mobile technology on global health and human rights before, but I came across a paper from AudienceScapes (PDF) on inequalities in mobile phone access and penetration rates in lower-income countries and thought I’d follow up.  The brief, by Gayatri Murthy, outlines the gender and wealth disparities that […]

This week, The Guardian reported that the CIA fabricated a vaccination program in Abbottabad, Pakistan, as part of its efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden.  The scheme was hatched in an attempt to collect DNA from the Bin Laden family to verify its presence in the area.  This tactic is concerning, to say the […]

Original photo here, taken by NYC-MetroCard / CC BY Public Health researchers at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health released a study last month that estimates the number of deaths in the US in 2000 due to social factors such as poverty, low education, and income inequality.  The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 47 studies […]

Over the past week, reports have emerged about pervasive lead poisoning in China and allegations of a cover-up and intimidation by the Chinese government.  The New York Times had a prominent article this week and Human Rights Watch has released a 75-page report.  Of course, we’re talking about a regime that already drastically represses the […]

I had the pleasure of gorging a bit (no pun intended, but please read on) on TED talks a few days ago, and in the process, spent a couple hours listening to several talks in their “Food Matters” theme.  One talk in particular by Carolyn Steel captured my interest: How Food Shapes our Cities.  Carolyn is […]

On the HIV/AIDS front, news has been coming fast and furiously this week and last, as the United Nations conducts its High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, South Africa hosts its HIV/AIDS conference in Durban and the media takes the opportunity to commorate the 30-year anniversary of the global fight against AIDS.  I thought I’d link to […]

Recent events in North Africa and the Middle East have brought to the forefront the fragility of government institutions and have questioned the legitimacy of authoritarian regimes in a number of developing nations.  The right form of governance for the right society has never been easy to identify.  A lot of times, societies have adopted […]

There’s a tricky gray area in the non-profit world around “mission creep” and funding when it comes to human rights.  Non-profit organizations (and charitable foundations) obviously want to maximize their funding.  And most NGOs, or people working for or supporting NGOs, care about more than one issue, even if they have a narrow focus: generally, […]

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the new Medicare initiative to reward hospitals with better performance metrics, and punish those with worse.  On Monday, the New York Times published an article which gave greater detail about the proposed payment methodology.  According to the article, the “plan has drawn fire from hospitals” due to a clause which requires […]

CDC Zombie Blog It’s 11pm, I’m tired, and I still haven’t written my post.  And so, because I’m feeling a bit punchy, I’m resorting to posting a simple image which served to make me laugh, as well as visit the CDC website, a site which isn’t usually the source if mirth.  According to the Wall […]