The global prices of staple foods have risen 75% since 2005 – driven largely by rising oil prices. Unsurprisingly, this is a problem for poor. Among the other obvious problems, food aid agencies are also having trouble providing the necessary quantities of food. This will be a problem to watch over the next few years.
The House of Representatives has passed another version of the energy tax package that failed to make it into the energy law passed in December or into the economic stimulus package that became law earlier this month. (See this and this from June on the Senate's failure on the tax portion and also see "Economic […]
Apparently, the senior brass of the US military are unsure of Obama's "leadership" qualities to be commander in chief. However, what is their definition of leadership? What qualities make a good commander in chief? Does previous military experience matter for this position? Personal military experience doesn't help unless the person was of flag rank and […]
Last week, more than 100 government leaders met in Wellington, New Zealand to discuss an international treaty banning cluster munitions (aka cluster bombs). This was the fourth meeting of states committed to eradicating these weapons (the first took place one year ago in Oslo, Norway, the second in Lima, Peru in May 2007, and the […]
Officials overseeing the tribunal examining the atrocities committed by Cambodia's notorious Khmer Rouge regime led its seminal prison leader, Kaing Guek Eav, known simply as “Duch,” through the prison system he once ran. Tribunal officials lead Duch through a “re-enactment” of the systematic torture conducted at the converted high-school called the S-21 prison. Duch, a […]
There was a good Op/Ed about social enterprises in the Guardian today. It was written by Rob Greenland, an experienced social entrepreneur with a good blog of his own, The Social Business. Rob talks about the hard realities of social business: competing in the market, charging for previously free services, surviving on grants and contracts. […]
The WSJ blogs posted yesterday about Patty Stonesifer stepping down as Gates Foundation CEO. They note that giving away $3 billion a year is a lot tougher than it sounds. That is certainly true. The post didn't give contact information for those hoping to apply. But I highly recommend giving the comments a look.
Sorry, dear readers, about not being on the blogwaves in the past few days. I plead the press of work and beg your kind indulgence. Here are a couple of quick hitters for now. I do hope to have some heftier posts for you soon. Biofuels and Food – Here’s a leader (Britspeak for editorial) […]
Yesterday Senator Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama's faced offover such foreign policy issues as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Iraq war at the MSNBC debate in Ohio last night. The NAFTA discussion must have tickled Senator Clinton's inner Latino, because on Monday her campaign released a “Hispanic campaign song.” I know you can't wait to hear it, […]
Sri Lanka has been engaged in a civil war for 25 years, causing displacement, death, and poverty, and while many have longed for peace it appears it now one step farther away, as on January 16, 2008 the Sri Lankan government ended a 2002 ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Since calling […]
The number of vulnerable children in Nigeria is growing and is expected to rise to 10 million by 2010. However the news has not settled well with everyone, and has left others in fear. The Nigerian government issued a census survey census of “vulnerable children”, earlier this month which aims to take a closer look […]
When does the growing popularity of Barack Obama , at home and overseas , begin to impact the terrible polling numbers that the United States has been getting in foreign opinion surveys? Lately we've been seeing more reports of negative foreign views of the U.S., such as yesterday's NPR report from Berlin. But these reports […]
From April 11th to April 17th, 1971 a group of Americans were invited to play ping pong in China. Dubbed ping pong diplomacy, it helped improve U.S.-China relations. In fact, on April 14th of that year the United States announced it would end it's trade embargo with China. One year later Nixon made his infamous […]
Reuters Tuesday, February 26, 2008 GUATEMALA CITY: Guatemala's new President Alvaro Colom said on Monday he will open army files for the first time to make public details of massacres and torture by soldiers during the country's 36-year civil war. “We are going to make all of the army's archives public so we can know […]
The debate over the use of cluster bombs has hit the boil in recent months, however it looks that the issue will not be cooling down anytime soon. More than 120 nations tried to resolve the issues related to the use of cluster bombs, this past week. As the talks ended on Friday no agreement […]