We shared our election with the world and now the world is celebrating the outcome, this from the AP: In concert halls and ballrooms, in plazas and at beach parties, people across the globe hailed Barack Obama's election as a stroke for racial equality and voiced hopes his presidency would herald a balanced, less […]
There is an electric feeling in the air and a sense of optimism that feels so fresh – as though we’ve finally sloughed off the woolly, fear-laden misery of the last eight years. I would say it feels like spring, but there is snow on the ground. Last night's victory by Barak Obama was historic […]
As you know, Barack Obama yesterday won the Presidency, and the Senate Democrats netted at least five more seats in the Senate and at least 17 seats in the House. As you also know, and as Barbara Boxer so eloquently reminded Jim Inhofe after the 2006 Democratic changeover in the Senate, “elections have consequences.” I said […]
MIT professor and writer Noam Chomsky makes a compelling argument against the unbridled moral imperatives of the Western elite in an essay published in the Monthly Review. In particular, Chomsky challenges the ideological rhetoric of governments or agencies who support “the responsibility to protect” and the “right to intervention”. While referencing Jean Bricmont's book Humanitarian […]
AFGHANISTAN: Polio drives misses 120,000 children Tens of thousands of children – mostly in rural parts of the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan – have missed out on polio immunisation due to insecurity and threats to health workers, the Public Health Ministry (MoPH) has said. "We could not immunise about 120,000 children due […]
Here it is at last, Election Day. I anticipated the long lines and voted early so now I’m just sitting back, eagerly awaiting the ballot counts. There is something truly majestic about the process of democracy. Perhaps it's merely the mood of the day, but I do tend to get a stirring of patriotic […]
A Splash of Green for the Rust Belt is the title of this terrific article from the "NY Times." What this article does, better than any I've read, is make the reality of job creation in the renewables industry palpable. We've seen a lot of great numbers on this: Daniel Yergin's $7 trillion in renewables […]
Eric Gorski has written a fascinating article about religion in the 2008 elections. The main premise is that this year's politics has unfortunately used religion as a weapon to divide and mock. The country really became obsessed with the ideas of fringe religion and what the mainstream set of religious beliefs “should” be. On this election day, it is worth reflecting on how […]
As the U.S. presidential election enters the final hours we here at U.S. Role are taking a look at how the election is playing in the world. First, this nod from Voice of America to our own national estimation of how the world is paying attention to us as a role model for democracy: U.S. President George […]
Philanthropy has its share of very well-known women – trustees, CEOs, celebrities – all promoting various aspects of the sector. Alliance magazine's asks whether Jane Wales, Vice President, Aspen Institute may be the most powerful of them all. Whether you agree, the interview in this month's magazine is worth a read as it touches on […]
In April this year I brought you news of a former slave who put forth a suit against the state of Niger, which can be seen here. The brave plaintiff in the historic case was, Hadijatou Mani, a former slave who was sold into slavery at the age of 12 for a mere $500. Ms. […]
Charles Taylor's son Chucky was convicted of torture Friday, in the first prosecution under the United States’ Extraterritorial Torture Statute. Taylor is accused of leading a special unit in his father's Liberian army, known as the Demon Force, from 1999 to 2002; according to the Times of London, the force allegedly used tactics like “dripping […]
It is unsurprising that Senator Barack Obama is not getting any love from Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle. She is a Republican. Lingle also happens to be the first Jewish governor of a state that has produced the nation's first black major party nominee and possibly its first black president. But don't let the fact that […]
Forests – I don’t think I’ve adequately covered the subject of forest loss and its extraordinary impact on warming. 20% of warming induced by people comes from forest destruction. I mentioned the extraordinary losses in Borneo in the last post below. We’ve also touched on some incredible potential for carbon sequestration in the heart of […]
The fragmented country of Somalia is no stranger to conflict and the last two years of fighting are beginning to take a toll on the lives of the countries children. Somalia is quite literally a raging battle ground, as fighting in the country continues, as insurgents exchange fire with the Somali government, Ethiopian troops and […]