Officials and judges from the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal for former members of the Khmer Rouge traveled to one of the disposed regime's villages to hold a town hall meeting for local residents. Five senior members of the Khmer Rouge were arrested in 2007 and charged with a variety of atrocities, including war crimes and […]
I’ve been meaning to post about remittances – the money that migrant workers send home – because they are specifically mentioned in the Great Decisions Show You don't hear that much about them, because they aren't usually used to fund giant initiatives, but they already account for more than Official Development Assistance. But when I […]
Li Yuan writes an interesting column in the Wall Street Journal about the Chinese perspective on American business. Yesterday's column tried to answer the question, “What is US-style philanthropy, anyway?” She comes up with a mixed bag, and some of the reasons she finds for why Americans give their time and money for others are […]
President Bush recently nominated a new Undersecretary of State for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy, to replace the outgoing Karen Hughes. His pick, James Glassman, is currently chairman of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, the government agency that oversees U.S. international broadcasters, and a a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank. […]
The Financial Times has published a list (registration required) of the top private charitable donations of 2007. William Barron Hilton takes the top spot by giving $1.2 billion to his father's foundation. The top ten were: 1. William Barron Hilton – $1200m 2. Jon M. Sr. and Karen H. Huntsman – $750m 3. T. Denny […]
The use of the internet to sell things comes as no shock in our high tech digital age; however, what about the distribution of child pornography and the selling of children? The sad reality is that the use of such sites as MySpace and Craigslist have been at the forefront of these illicit and horrendous […]
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said Monday he wanted to see the detention facility at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, closed because it damaged American's international reputation. “I’d like to see it shut down,” Mullen said. “I believe that from the standpoint of how it reflects […]
President Bush continued his Middle East trip in Saudi Arabia where he spoke of "unity" in order to reify his containment strategy against Iran: "Mr. Bush focused not only on what the United States believes are Iran's nuclear ambitions but also its suspected support for Islamic militants in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian […]
Tzipi Livni, negotiating on behalf the Israeli government, and Ahmed Qurie, negotiating on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, began talks on core issues today. It's fair to acknowledge the both sides are nowhere near agreement on any of the major issues. However, keep in mind the slow, yet significant progress made on lesser issues in […]
This weekend the FT wrote a nice article (registration required, but free) about Kiva.org. Kiva is an exciting tool that allows regular people to make micro-loans (generally under $500) to entrpreneurs in developing countries. In minutes you can go online, find the entrepreneur you want to work with, and make your loan. Then you can […]
The number of internally displaced people in Iraq had increased some 50% from 2006 to 2007, however some claim the numbers may now be falling, but only slowly. There are still millions of Iraqi's living away from home due to the threat of violence there, leaving some to flea their homes and head to other […]
Kenya: A total of 3,704 people have fled the ongoing violence in Kenya, crossing the border into neighboring Uganda according to the Uganda Red Cross. Most of the refugees have sought shelter in schools which are closed for the holidays, their fate and futures remain unknown as the violence in Kenya continutes. Iraq: According to […]
Voluntary Offsets , So we've gone off for a visit to a resort area in Arizona, staying with a friend. What's the expenditure of GHG as a consequence of our trip? The short answer is: I have no idea. However, if I choose to "offset" the carbon "cost" of the round-trip flight from Newark to […]
The LA Times seems to have appointed itself the official Gates Foundation watchdog. Last week they printed a scathing report on the negative effects of the investments the Foundation makes with its endowment funds. To give you the flavor of what it says: “The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization […]
It was pointed out to me offline that I neglected to mention the controversy that surrounds (RED). The campaign has been accused of spending too much money on marketing, and not enough on donations to the Global Fund. (RED) disputes the estimates, believing that their critics count the marketing budgets spent by their corporate partners. […]