In 1900 we lived to be only 32 years on average. Today the global average life expectancy is 69 years and in 2050 we will live to be 76 years. For every month you live, you add one week to your life expectancy. In a new TED talk, Dr. Bjorn Lomborg of the Copenhagen Consensus Center […]
Child marriages spike among Syrian refugees The young teenage daughters of Syrian refugees in Jordan are increasingly being married to older Syrian men — against the laws of both countries — as a form of financial and other security against a backdrop of conflict and instability. “We’re concerned about early marriages — using that as […]
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) has released a report on food, agriculture, and sustainability ahead of the Rio+20 Earth Summit. Although “Food and Agriculture: The Future of Sustainability” focuses primarily on environmental issues, it draws attention to the health implications related to the current global food system. More than one […]
For the past 8 months, Yemen has been thrown into the midst of a popular uprising of such intensity that it has left its governmental institutions in tatters and its economy in ruins. Enthralled in a fight against alleged Islamic militants in the south and a tribal war in the north, Yemen has had to […]
I’d written earlier about the stultifyingly small (perhaps still-born?) aid packages that have been flowing into Pakistan’s flooded regions. As a result of the widely acknowledged insufficient private donations, the U.N. has asked that its member states double their pledged humanitarian aid packages to Pakistan. To get your head around the latest news on private […]
Per usual, the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer has provided, far and away, the best reportage on the flood in Pakistan. Working with Saima Mohsin of the English-language channel Dawn News, the Newshour has aired some of the most arresting stories on Pakistan’s crisis. The piece you will find below is no different. Mohsin lays […]
I suggest, my readers, that you pass on this note to all your friends and loved ones: Please donate the small, though value of $50 to the flood relief effort in Pakistan. Consider that private pledged donations to Pakistan’s flood victims are 1/40th the dollar value pledged for the victims of the Haiti earthquake and […]