The NY Times editorial page has, for years and years, been pro-nuclear power. With all the usual blinders on. Whatever. But columnist Bob Herbert had a pretty hard-hitting take last week: “We’re Not Ready.” He likens the blithe indifference on safety at offshore oil rigs to that on nuclear power. There is no way to […]
When was the last time you heard someone thank the U.S. for our role in the world? This report in The New York Times highlights how American funding for AIDS treatment has changed lives – and saved lives – in Africa: The last decade has been what some doctors call a “golden window” for treatment. […]
What will Jerusalem be like in twenty years? Today, the city is divided into predominately Jewish west Jerusalem and predominately Palestinian east Jerusalem. East Jerusalem itself is striped with both Palestinian and Jewish neighborhoods. Quality of life in different neighborhoods varies dramatically, but it is safe to say that Jerusalem’s Jews enjoy a far greater […]
Speaking of roofs – as we were in the last post below – here’s an item from CleanTechnica on the passage of draft legislation in the Senate Energy Committee to help drive a push toward ten million solar roofs in the US by 2020. This is an analogue to the successful California program this now […]
It’s been a tough few days for the U.S. Intelligence community. Last week the Washington Post ran a series called “Top Secret America” and this week the media is filled with stories of 92,000 classified documents released by some web site. The documents cover events in Afghanistan from 2004 – 2009. I’ve blogged before about […]
In the UK a recently released study showed that 55% of children in the United Kingdom, who have been identified as persons victimized by human trafficking and subsequently rescued will eventually become missing persons. The main reason for the high percentage rate of missing child survivors is due in direct relation to a lack of […]
A theme that I’ve been following over the last few months (ever since reading about Nigel Crisp‘s ideas in “Turning the World Upside Down”) is how innovation can transfer from developing economies to developed, particularly in the field of public health. So I was interested to read Vijay Govindarajan’s recent conversation in the Harvard Business Review about how Aravind […]
Read Gordon Brown’s speech to African leaders given in Kampala, Uganda this week: “…that the job of aid is to kick start business-led growth and not to replace it. And so I believe we need to focus not just on poverty – but on growth. Not just on providing services for the poor, but on […]
The United States and South Korea have planned joint exercises in the waters off the Korean Peninsula. The move is in response to the sinking of a South Korean navy vessel named the Cheonan, which is believed to have been sunk by a North Korean attack. While the North Koreans are criticizing the move as […]
Relations between North and South Korea (ROK) continue to simmer in the aftermath of the sinking of the South Korean warship, Chenoan, in which 46 sailors lost their lives. This week during a visit to South Korea, Secretary of State Clinton announced new sanctions against North Korea targeted at sale and purchase of arms and […]
The central theme of the International AIDS Conference was supposed to be the war on drugs. As I highlighted in my last post, criminalization has been proven to fuel the epidemic, while engaging directly with people with a higher risk for HIV significantly decreases transmission and death. The conference was in Vienna expressly to “bridge” […]
Every Friday, I’m going to try to introduce a new aid innovation/organization. This week: the Peepoo bag, somewhat predictably from the minds of the Swedes. The Peepoo bag is a one-use personal toilet, a light green, biodegradable bag lined with a coating of urea. It’s meant to be placed in a bucket, or other convenient […]
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