Coming from me, a defense of Barack Obama may surprise my readers. That’s because they may not have read the fine print! Some of his policies I haven’t exactly agreed with (principally, the expensive health care reform, which at a time of rapidly rising sovereign debt, was imprudent). I reluctantly supported Obama for president in 2008 […]
Hezbollah’s leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has openly stated that he expects some members of his political party will be indicted, but he vows not to hand them over to be prosecuted. Pro-Syrian Christian politician Suleiman Franjieh recently stated in a television interview on September 23 that if Hezbollah members are indicted “there will be war in Lebanon.”
There are more than a few problems in the People’s Republic of China, to be sure, but the one to which I’m referring here is pollution. I went to an event last week sponsored by the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation (ICET) and hosted by the India China Institute as part of Climate Week […]
Last week I participated in a Department of Defense sponsored Bloggers roundtable. The occasion was the announcement of the first graduating class of the female Officer Candidate Course (OCS) for the Afghan Army. There were 29 graduates of the 20 week course and they will join the nearly 300 women already serving in the Afghan […]
Dr. Kostas Stamoulis is the Director of the Agricultural Development Economics Division of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Dr. Stamoulis’s department produces the annual FAO publication, “The State of Food Insecurity in the World,” whose most recent edition, to be published in October, will indicate that the number of hungry people around the […]
In the wake of journalists recently murdered in Mexico, the country’s president, Felipe Calderon met with two international press organizations last week for recommendations on how to stop the violence. The meeting with the Inter-American Press Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reportedly had a positive tone and Calderon promised to do what […]
On a few occasions, I have taken up the subject of how institutional relations among states are affected by events and common missions. Writing on the Atlantic Council’s New Atlanticist blog recently, Magnus Nordenman offered his views on how the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns may affect transatlantic cooperation in the future. His basic conclusion: The […]
This Spring I brought you the piece, Bulling is Abuse, regarding the case of 15 year-old Phoebe Prince who committed suicide in Boston following her bulling. Now with technology in every child’s hands bullying is even easier, quicker and can be more widespread with only a click of a button or mouse. Children text images and rumors, […]
Taste, cost, health benefits, nutritional value, accessibility and the speed of production. These factors, in no particular order, are fueling the debate between industrially produced food and organic food. Looking at both sides of the debate, Time Magazine asks readers to consider what the production of food means to the well-being of those who eat […]
Check out HuffingtonPost’s slide show of Tech interventions that could save the world. I think the first item they mention, the air-pressure driven injection system, is most exciting. I have a soft spot for vaccines to aid development and I think this could be a huge success. Interestingly, there has also been talk of genetically […]
Dr. Mitch Besser’s inspiring TED talk from Oxford has recently been posted on the TED website. “In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV infections are more prevalent and doctors scarcer than anywhere else in the world. With a lack of medical professionals, Mitchell Besser enlisted the help of his patients to create mothers2mothers — an extraordinary network of HIV-positive […]
While many advanced economies, ours included, struggles to revive its flagging economy, one country is proving the exception to the global recession, and no, it’s not China: it’s Brazil. TThhe South American country appears unstoppable in boosting domestic, as well as foreign investments in fueling the nation’s stellar economic growth and emergence as a major global player.
Abortion crackdown in Mexican states is a backlash against Mexico City In part a backlash against the decision of Mexico City authorities to legalize early-term abortions, other states in Mexico have begun cracking down on the medical procedure — enforcing, for example, anti-abortion laws that require hospitals to first call in prosecutors when women who […]
Catholic Culture says we need more emphasis on men. A quick perusal of the interwebs reveals that Ukraine, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Finland and the U.S. say the MDGs are attainable. Australia and Afghanistan say they are not. Others (like Canada) are careful to avoid taking a position either way, instead opting for “progress” (how diplomatic). Most New Yorkers have no […]
A visual depiction of the Millennium Development Goals Reuters AlertNet examines reactions by development experts and advocates to the U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which wrapped up Wednesday, after world leaders adopted a declaration that “promised intensified efforts by the 192 U.N. member states to achieve the eight goals by 2015.” The […]