Should the U.S. government create a White House office for coordinating the fight against global hunger? According to William Lambers from the Blogcritic’s “Ending Global Hunger” blog, the answer is yes. Lambers recently wrote about the Roadmap to End Global Hunger, legislation which is intended to provide the U.S. government with the commitment and tools […]
In recent years previously posts on the plight of child marriage in Yemen, including The Growing Battle of Yemen’s Child Brides and Girls In Yemen Forced to Marry Too Young, have brought the attention of the grave nature violations and abuse across the country. The situation of child brides in Yemen since both posts has […]
After noting the U.S. response to the Haiti earthquake on this blog, I thought it would be good to follow-up and note that the U.S. response is continuing, even as Haiti no longer dominates the headlines. This report in The Washington Post describes the visit to Haiti yesterday by former Presidents Clinton and Bush: Former […]
The following are excerpts from an article that appears on the National Public Radio Web site: “British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla jokingly calls his recent films — about Sept. 11, Afghanistan and Iraq — his ‘war on terror’ trilogy. Abdalla played a hijacker in United 93, an Afghan immigrant in The Kite Runner, and now, a […]
Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call from my good friend Philippe who lives in California. “Gail just saw a great movie, Green Zone! It’s right up your alley. It’s about the Iraqi WMD thing. You have to go see it. It’s great! It’s particularly timely since Karl Rove just came out with a book […]
Okay, the Obama Administration is gathering up the laurel wreaths for its landmark victory on health care reform. Nancy Pelosi, my all-time personal favorite Speaker of the House, deserves a lioness’s share of the credit as well. Here’s a happy picture at the bill signing today. Nancy looks pretty darn jazzed! But this blog is […]
Game’s up. Google has shut down its web search on the mainland. Google blog post; NYT story. The company is attempting to route Chinese users to a simplified Chinese* Hong Kong site, where local legislation does not require them to censor their results. A clever attempt at an elegant face-saving solution, considering the fulmination about the necessity […]
I feel a little bad for the big pharmaceutical companies. Their big announcement today amounted to little more than a mention in the “more news” section of the NYTimes, sidelined by breathless articles about Obama signing the health reform bill. But more news is truly big news: both Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have signed up to give […]
Iran is playing for keeps on Internet censorship. More details have emerged on the activists arrested in conjunction with the hacking of US servers that took place last week. Via InsideIran: [T]he group arrested by Iranian authorities was the committee against censorship in Iran that goes by the name Iran Proxy. This group is composed […]
Committee hearings at the European Parliament generally do not attract the crowds. But today (or rather yesterday), Tony Blair was in town and invited to debate the current sad state of affairs in the Palestinian territories. I didn’t stick around for Mr. Blair however. Other dignitaries were also present, including Max Gaylard who is the […]
At the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit last week, part of the discussion turned to China’s food security and how food availability in China might affect global demand. Experts discussed how China’s growth has led to increasing urbanization, personal wealth and therefore, changing eating habits. A rise in meat consumption means that China will need […]
UN: Contaminated water is more deadly than war A report by the UN Environmental Program finds that deaths caused by contaminated water outnumber deaths caused by all forms of violence — including war. Fertilizer runoff, agricultural and industrial waste, and sewage are among the leading toxins that kill some 2.2 million people each year. Up […]
As a follow-up to the last post on U.S. Middle East peace efforts, I wanted to mention this week’s meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at which Secretary Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu will speak. I was especially curious to see how Secretary Clinton would describe U.S. efforts and the “crisis” in […]
It was announced on Monday that the European Union (EU) has given the government of Malawi $12 million to secure its food supply. The funds were given in support of Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Programme, with specific regards to the program’s seed components. In a statement, the EU said: “The EU’s assistance enables. The raising […]
Today I want to focus on Water and Health (my fellow FPA blogger, Bill Hewitt, has something to say on the environmental front as well). The UN has dubbed March 22nd World Water Day, and in my reading I stumbled upon a pretty amazing statistic. According to the World Health Organization, each $1 that we invest in clean water access gets returned to us 3-34 times in time savings, productivity, improved education and reduced healthcare costs. Compared to the majority of social investments – which often achieve only a 1:1 return, and very frequently, less – this is phenomenal. In terms of “social return”, improved access to clean water is clearly a sound investment.