The United States policy towards Cuba, adopted during the heights of the Cold War, has for decades remained immutable. Even recently, the Bush Administration has ceded little ground in opening relations with the despotic regime of the brothers Castro. Meanwhile, Cuba finds itself in a period of transition. This morning, Fidel announced he will resign […]
"There are few more challenging places to have a healthy childhood than Haiti!" -Adriano Gonzalez-Regueral, UNICEF's Country Representative (UNICEF Press Release: Survival is Greatest Challenge for Haiti's Children ). The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti truly is a country in crisis, plagued by poverty, disease, infant mortality, high illiteracy rates, human trafficking, violence […]
Thanks to Tactical Philanthropy for pointing out this Ellison Research study that suggests a majority of Americans do not trust non-profits to spend their money efficiently. Most of us apparently believe non-profits spend too much money on fund-raising and administration. The average American believes that 22.4 cents out of every dollar would be reasonable, but […]
We know a few things already about how foreign audiences regard the U.S. election race. In Ireland and Kenya, we know that there's newfound pride in the fact that Obama has roots that can be traced to these two countries. McCain and Hillary Clinton and even Mike Huckabee have their foreign admirers, but not generally […]
(Associated Press photo) Secretary Rice gave her last testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week. The hearing began with a moment of silence in memory of the recently-deceased California Democrat and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Tom Lantos. Howard L. Berman, another California Democrat, was appointed as the Committee's Acting Chairman. He began […]
Last week, on February 12th, UNICEF issued a press release urging donors to give some $856 million to aid women and children and women who have been victimized by such emergencies as the conflicts in Chad and Kenya, to natural disasters such as the floods in Mozambique. Launching its Humanitarian Action Report 2008, UNICEF stated […]
A recent report published on February 5th, by the World Bank has found that those countries in the Middle East and North Africa need drastic improvements and repairs to their education systems in order to meet the demands the global world. "The Road Not Traveled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa”, takes […]
Last week Anthony Barnett, the British social entrepreneur and political comentarist, recently authored an article on the webzine he founded, Open Democracy.net, exploring Senator Barak Obama's campaign. If you are not familiar with OpenDemocracy, I highly reccomend browsing through its pages. It is a London-based webzine/opinion forum that offers “stimulating, critical analysis, promoting dialogue and […]
The fiesty WHO malaria chief, Dr. Arata Kochi, thinks that the Gates Foundation's $1.2 billion supporting for malaria research gives them too much influence over the field. He believes that it is now becoming difficult to find non-biased scientists to peer review research, and that the Foundation using its weight to to ensure that research […]
A new IMF Working Paper has found an association between remittances a country receives, and the deterioration of institutional quality in that country. It seems counter intuitive but basically they are saying that if citizens have more non-taxable income, there is less incentive for the government to spend its own resources on those citizens. The […]
Human rights organization Amnesty International has called for an end to forced evictions in Cambodia. Thousands of families have already been moved from their homes in the center of the capital Phnom Penh, and more evictions are set to follow. The authorities say this is a necessary part of Cambodia's development. But in its report […]
Two recent important studies, published in “Science,” are saying that biofuels are causing quite a bit more harm than good. The A.P.’s H. Josef Hebert wrote this article (appearing in “USA Today”) on one of the studies. “The researchers said that farmers under economic pressure to produce biofuels will increasingly “plow up more forest or […]
I wrote a few days ago that the word from The Hill was that the Democrats were going to revive the rescission of tax breaks for the oil industry and try again to extend tax credits for renewables. Reuters reports that this is definitely on for after the Presidents' week break. See this in which […]
The fourth round of talks between Iran and the United States concerning security issues in Iraq have been postponed, at the behest of Iran. “It had originally been slated for December 18 with Iraqi authorities touting it as a 'technical meeting’ at experts level rather than a meeting of ambassadors. However it was postponed, again […]
Like a lot of non-democratic governments (and some democratic ones as well), the junta that rules Burma likes to keep track of the international NGOs operating in its country. You never know when they’re going to be stirring up an insurrection. This article gives a brief description of the policies they have put in place […]