Depending how you feel about the subject, reading about eating insects can make one as squeamish as actually eating them. But in an effort to portray the many dimensions of food security, this post addresses two recent articles that discuss the possibility of insects as a food source. Dana Goodyear’s article in The New Yorker, […]
We seem to have entered into a new era of the U.S. role in the world in which we take it upon ourselves to determine which world leaders are fit to serve and invite those unworthy to step down from power. We did this recently with our formerly good friend Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and […]
In advance of the upcoming meetings of the IAEA Board of Governors and General Conference, the Agency has issued two documents for its review which are of note: one quite useful, the other likely to provoke more than a few skeptical chuckles. The first is a compilation of the Agency’s ongoing activities to fulfill its […]
New GAVI head eyes elimination of polio, measles Seth Berkley, the new head of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, talks about his life, career and the promotion of immunizations- “cost-effective and powerful tools for public health” worldwide. “The excitement about GAVI is the vision to ensure that all effective vaccines are available to […]
Last week I was one of around 300 people who attended the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s event on “Violence against women – an obstacle to development”. The audience was a mix of parliamentarians, interested members of the public, and activists and members of civil society organizations from the African Great Lakes region – […]
(Thanks to ProPublica for this graphic.) Thankfully, we are, slowly but certainly, entering a new ballgame on hydraulic fracturing. Yes, we need the gas trapped in shale – in the medium term. Long term: renewables. But, for now, as we transition to renewables, we’ve got to reduce the carbon footprint of the electric power, transportation […]
In Timor-Leste women have an average of 7 children, yet in a country with birthrates so high, care for maternal and newborn health and safety is lacking. In a country were babies are far from the rarity, health problems for mother and babies are also far from rare. Due to the lack of adequate prenatal […]
International media have been rampantly covering the riots that began brewing in England four weeks ago have many now fearing that it is only the beginning of what may soon scourge across Europe. Youth in London were the first to hit the city streets in anger and now the riots continue to burn as young […]
While the world’s focus was turned on America’s debt fiasco, over the past few weeks the sun has begun to shine from behind the clouds that have hovered over the Korean peninsula for the last year. On July 29, Special Representative for North Korean Policy, Stephen W. Bosworth, briefed the press on the conclusion of […]
On Wednesday, 10 August 2011, Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, announced the introduction of a budget outline which is aimed to create obs for some two million people. The “Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act,” as the plan has been titled, if passed will cost $227 […]
First it was the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, then Rwanda…Sudan and the Congo, which seemed to bring this unfathomable crime against humanity to light and then most recently it was Libya that brought the use of rape as weapon of war into the headlines. However while the headlines bringing such atrocities to light seem […]
We refer to the American dream. You know how it goes: house with a yard (with a blisteringly bright green lawn, swimming in fertilizers and pesticides), two cars in the garage, AC at a touch (freezing your brain, making you sick and drawing more and more power), that big plasma TV on which to watch the […]
President Obama traveled to Dover Air Force Base today to honor the 22 Navy SEALs, three Air Force personnel, and five-member Army air crew killed in the attack on the Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan this past weekend. As the LA Times reports: Obama led a delegation of administration and military officials to salute the remains […]
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, […]
