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.
Today is World Water Day. There are events going on all over the world to mark this year’s theme: Clean Water for a Healthy World. You can find some excellent reading here, and you might want to view this video, Water: The Drop of Life. UNDP notes here that, worldwide, 2.6 billion people lack proper […]
In the wake of the recent UN Security Council Report on corruption in humanitarian aid to Somalia, CFR’s Isobel Coleman wrote an op-ed describing how local solutions could prevent such scandals while ensuring the delivery of much-needed food aid. Coleman describes how local Somali women had been successfully deployed in the 1990s at small communal […]
The US State Department recently released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. This is done every year as a requirement of the Foreign Assistance Act and normally does not gain much attention. However this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made waves with the announcement that the US will be subjecting itself […]
The Democrats’ drive to pass health care reform has resurrected ancient legal demons. As The New York Times reported last week, nullification, typically considered a pretty-much dead 19th century notion of the relationship between states and the federal government, is experiencing a resurgence. The early American debates about the relationship between state and federal power […]
As the inaugural post to ‘Global Health’, I thought I’d start with a bit of philosophy. A colleague of mine, with a career in the public sector, who at the time was pursuing his MBA, once remarked to me: “I’ve been pursuing equality my entire career; I decided now it was time to take a closer look at efficiency.” As someone with a business […]
I stumbled across this piece on IRIN, Is humanitarianism genetic?, looking at various creatures like ants or bees, who will give their individual lives in sacrifice of that of the rest of the ‘colony’, challenge Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest. The article was written in response to a recent paper, Altruism, Spite, […]
Human Rights Watch reported this week that Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was arrested at his home on Monday, March 1st, together with his wife, daughter and 15 dinner guests who are fellow filmmakers and actors. Fellow FPA blogger Neshani Jani writes about it in her Middle East Media blog. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/HUO5sl_cqPw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] […]
As the move toward energy conservation takes hold, lithium for use in ion batteries is destined to play a significant role in the energy equation of the next generation. From 2003-2007, global demand for lithium carbonate doubled, and realizing current hybrid car technologies will require access to massive stocks of lithium, which is largely harvested […]
Joel Davis of FPA’s U.S. Role in the World blog accuses the U.S. of not being an honest and impartial broker in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. He notes that the U.S. threw a “temper tantrum” after Israel’s housing development announcement last week and asks why the U.S. did not throw a similar tantrum after a […]
Things worthy of note that I haven’t written posts on: A fun blow-by-blow of a security researcher warning a bunch of execs about their hackability – and then pwning them. WikiBooks is writing the textbook on cryptography. Learn or contribue! h/t Schneier The Internet is radicalizing terrorists in the United States, too Uncivil society flourishes on the Intertubes. […]
First of all, I have to apologize for not being so much in evidence here over the past couple of weeks. It’s been busy: Last weekend had three – count ’em – three birthday parties, including a big (successful) surprise for my wife with many old friends, followed the next day by a museum extravaganza […]
Detained Filmmaker Jafar Panahi Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch reported that Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi was arrested at his home on Monday, March 1st, together with his wife, daughter and 15 dinner guests who are fellow filmmakers and actors. According to several news reports, Panahi and his guests were discussing an upcoming film when […]