In a sign of President Obama’s continuing outreach to the Muslim world, the State Department has announced the appointment of a new special envoy. According to this BBC News report: The US State Department has appointed its first Special Representative to Muslim Communities. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Farah Pandith would play a leading […]
The Adirondack Park “…is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States…” It’s protected by the NY State constitution and the publicly owned lands within it are to be kept “forever wild.” One of the many gems of the park is Lake George which Thomas Jefferson described in 1791 as “…without comparison the […]
Despite the disputed election results and events of the last two weeks, diplomacy remains America’s best option with Iran. In some of his strongest words about Iran’s government, President Obama said on Friday that “there is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of […]
Thomas Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times, argues in his latest op-ed that Russia has wasted the financial crisis. “Oil prices rebounded from $30 to $70 a barrel too quickly, so the pressure for Russia to really reform and diversify its economy is off,” writes Mr. Friedman. “The struggle for Russia’s post-Communist economic […]
For too long, the rules of Wall Street have been written by the bankers themselves. This year, that has to change. Americans for Financial Reform is a coalition of nearly 200 national, state and local consumer, employee, investor, community and civil rights organizations that have come together to spearhead a campaign, in the public interest, for real reform in our banking and financial system.
Tanzania orphan program may set example for continent Supporters believe an innovative program in Tanzania to care for infants of mothers who die in childbirth might hold the key to cutting infant mortality rates and caring for Africa’s 50 million orphans. Infants are cared for during the first two to three years of life at […]
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev attempted to allay global fears that Moscow is trying to amass access to natural resources this week during a trip through Egypt, Nigeria, Namibia and Angola as he signed billion dollar energy deals providing Russia a greater foothold in Africa . In Angola, Medvedev emphasized that these resource contracts were important […]
In previous posts such as; The renewed debate over potential U.S. ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and The United States and The Rights of the Child, I have mentioned the heavy importance for the United States to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This past November we saw […]
Whether or not Russia is a rising power (and it’s been suffering on the economic front lately), it certainly does have a national drinking problem. The British medical journal The Lancet produced a study on worldwide use of alcohol and its relationship to cause of death. It discovered a sobering statistic: that 1 in every […]
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is on a 4-nation tour this week through Africa to push his expansive international energy policy. Today, his former company, Russian gas giant Gazprom, signed a $2.5 bln deal with its counterpart in Nigeria to build infrastructure including refineries, pipelines and gas power stations. The deal gives access to Nigeria’s resources […]
I’ve written admiringly of Bill McKibben, one of our leading environmental philosophers and journalists. He reviewed Lord Stern’s The Global Deal: Climate Change and the Creation of a New Era of Progress and Prosperity in a recent issue of the “NY Review of Books.” The review covered a lot of good ground but it strayed […]
Throughout the war with Iraq under the Bush administration, the question of torture seemed to provoke the basest of sensibilities. On the one hand were the Jack Bauer types who believe in the ticking bomb scenario, on the other, are the Geneva Conventions, the War Crimes Act, and let’s face it – what’s left of […]
Watching NBC’s premiere of The Philanthropist left me with more questions than answers. Luckily, I’m not the only one with conflicted views on the effect the show will have on philanthropy. Last night, we were saturated with quite a portrayal of white man’s guilt – where the most honest moment comes when our hero, Teddy […]
For its June 2009 issue, National Geographic magazine spotlighted the ongoing global food crisis with an in-depth Special Report by Joel K. Bourne, Jr entitled “The End of Plenty.” Bourne’s article provides a full and compelling analysis of the genisis of the food suppy probelm, the benefits and failures of the Green Revolution, the effect […]
