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I find myself sitting here on the last day of 2010, another year…another decade…has again quickly passed and I am trying to get everything done as the day, and year, quickly close in on me.  It really has all come and gone in a flash and as the year, and decade, come to an end […]

Less than a week after a deadly suicide attack in northwestern Pakistan, the World Food Programme (WFP) plans to resume food aid for victims of deadly floods.  The attack killed 46 and wounded over 100.  The attacker was reported to be a woman wearing a burqa, the first time such an attacker was deployed in […]

Among other things, 2010 marked a number of national elections gone wrong. From Guinea to Haiti, Rwanda to the Philippines, Madagascar, Burundi and Belarus to name just a few, elections that were fair, free, non-violent and undisputed have been difficult to find this past year. Even elections in the US and UK took on more […]

– Overview – The Met Office in the UK reports that 2010 is on track to be the warmest or second-warmest year in the instrumental record.  Other science, based on massive data, supports that view.  (See graphic above and NOAA’s annual State of the Climate report.)  Meanwhile, the Post-Copenhagen international climate negotiations continued and culminated […]

If I had to pick a phrase to describe the Global Health arena in 2010, I would choose “2 steps forward, 1 step back”.  With tightened purse strings, public health programs had hands tied in many ways; but on the research front, some of the breakthroughs were mind-blowing.  All in all, it was a year […]

Here are a few items worth reviewing from 2010 and some things to keep an eye on in 2011. Notable Events in 2010: Release of the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR): This is the long-awaited (14 months) road map for reform of the State Department and USAID – what they do, how they do […]

Overview The best news of 2010 is the decrease of the world’s hungry from 1.023 billion to 925 million, though most of that change is due to a reversal in high food prices and global economic crises, according to the UN’s Committee on Food Security (CFS).  Taking this into consideration, 2010 saw a continuation of […]

Many of you are still winding down the Christmas holiday and already jumping into the New Year festivities, while others are continuing to celebrate the Holiday season with their loved ones.  Regardless, I do hope that you have not found yourself too engrossed in the holidays to take time to notice the little miracles that […]

Been spending the holidays with my 83 years young Mom so have been over eating and not blogging. I’m on my net notebook and still have not figured out how to do spell check! Sorry. Here are my thoughts on 2010. Overview 2010 saw Afghanistan become the top defense issue as the US and NATO […]

The adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” is exactly what the following images by UNICEF say as their top three images of the year leap from the page speaking to the world about plight of children across the globe. © UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2005/Asselin Democratic Republic of Congo: A young boy finds shade under a banana […]

What better way to close out the year than with a list of the best in global music for 2010?  Such lists abound, of course, from NPR to your favorite music blogs.  We, like other modern day followers of music that spans the globe, try to avoid the term “world music” due to the sort […]

Vladimir Sambaiew, President of the Stanley Foundation, recently had an op-ed in the Des Moines Register that very neatly sums up the argument on how multilateralism can work to address (if not always solve) global problems. Sambaiew’s focus is on the G-20 and “responsible stakeholdership.” Two phrases help explain today’s leadership context: the “G-20” and […]