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By Rebecca Skloot
$15.21
Sam Harris
$11.53
$21
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Flickr/mckaysavage (CC-BY)
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By Suzanne Petroni —
These are daunting numbers, almost as unfathomable as that looming 7 billion figure. But there’s no need to turn away because the scope of the problem is simply too large to comprehend.
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Flickr / *RimAs.EyeS* (CC-BY-SA)
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The World Health Organization reported that babies born in the U.S. are more likely to die in their first month of life than are babies born in 40 other countries, including South Korea, Cuba, Malaysia, Lithuania, Poland and Israel. (more)
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AP / Eraldo Peres
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Plans to build a giant hydroelectric dam in the Amazon have been suspended by a Brazilian judge after the project sparked local and worldwide concern over its impact on the environment and the indigenous population.
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U.S. Agency for International Development
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Anyone remember the Millennium Development Goals that nations made at the beginning of this millennium? Well, it turns out some people do, and they are meeting Monday to evaluate the efficacy of efforts to reduce poverty, disease, intolerance and inequality.
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U.S. Agency for International Development
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Part of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is creating a “civilian surge” by pouring more money into development and aid projects to stabilize the country and win the hearts and minds of the people. But some aid workers say the “tsunami of cash” is a case of quantity over quality.
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Flickr / thaths
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With malnutrition already well past dangerous levels, some 10 million Africans will face extreme hunger over the next few months as the threat of famine floats across West Africa amid a drought that killed off last year’s crops and has left the region’s agricultural economy in ruins.
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AP / Gregory Bull
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Call it pity or call it sensible politics, the G-7 nations have together pledged to cancel $1.2 billion in debt that Haiti owes them, something Global South activists have been requesting for all developing countries—not just those hit by horrible earthquakes.
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Wikimedia Commons
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The United Nations has offered a sobering estimate of how long it will take to rebuild Haiti: With the country starting “below zero” and relief and redevelopment logistics still a “nightmare,” efforts to bring Haiti to its pre-earthquake days will take generations.
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flickr.com / Mauro Arias
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Severe flooding has killed at least 124 people in El Salvador after heavy rains soaked the country. The government declared a state of emergency as the search for more victims went on.
Updated
Posted on Nov 8, 2009
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flickr.com
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For only $5 a month, you too can undermine a developing country’s health infrastructure. Since 1990, foreign funding for “development assistance” has quadrupled, offering medical resources to the poor but also luring local health care workers away from government hospitals and toward more lucrative private companies.
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guim.co.uk
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In clashes between native groups armed with spears and development interests packing guns, Peru has seen at least 50 people die and hundreds go missing after President Alan Garcia initiated a campaign to open the rain forest to foreign investors.
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time.com
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Cholera, the scourge of centuries past, has infected 100,000 people in Zimbabwe, dwarfing the body count of the much better publicized swine flu and demonstrating once again the dramatic and tragic inequality of health care in many parts of the developing world.
Posted on May 27, 2009
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freechoicesaveslives.org
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In the next move of a partisan ping-pong game over women’s reproductive health, Obama is slated to reverse the despicable “global gag rule” that refuses U.S. aid to foreign health clinics that even mention the word that begins with an A. And sounds like “shma-shmortion.” It’s abortion.
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By Amy Goodman — A Utah student’s disruption of a federal auction has temporarily blocked a Bush-enabled land grab by the oil and gas industries.
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wikimedia commons / Samuel Blanc
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According to a new report, roughly a quarter of the world’s mammal species are at risk of extinction. Deforestation, loss of habitat and hunting are to blame for declining mammal populations around the world.
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wikimedia.org
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China’s unceasing economic growth has always worried environmentalists, and a new report by the Center for Global Development may put those concerns on a new level. After increasing power-plant emissions by a third this year, China’s coal-based power sector is poised to be the most polluting in the world ... even worse than that of the United States.
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boston.com
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The World Trade Organization talks in Geneva finally imploded Wednesday, as negotiations over farm subsidies and labor standards collapsed into an immovable standstill between wealthy and poorer countries. The talks, defended heavily by the “developed world,” are seen by critics as an instrument to serve corporate interests.
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flickr.com
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While supporters of the much troubled Doha Round of the World Trade Organization believe talks may have found their second wind, only the world’s largest economies seem to be breathing. The form of capitalism supported by these countries is resisted by poorer nations, which rightly fear WTO deregulations would disproportionately benefit the wealthy.
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namtheun2.com
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The World Bank is being criticized for a persistent lack of environmental focus in an internal review of its lending activities. The new report rails against the environmental degradation caused by many bank-funded projects in poor countries that harm local communities in the name of “development.”
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treehugger.com
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While environmentalists and opponents of foreign oil may have found common cause in the use of biofuels, a new, confidential World Bank report estimates that the recent increase in plant-based fuel production has actually contributed to a 75 percent rise in global food prices, sparking riots across the world and pushing millions beneath the poverty line.
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The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction has found a disturbing trend among Iraq rebuilding projects. Far too often, when work is incomplete, U.S. officials will revise or “descope” the terms of the contract to list the project as completed. One example: A $35-million children’s hospital in Basra that is marked completed despite the fact that it’s only 35 percent up and running.
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AP Photo / Alan Diaz
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By Richard Walden — The president of a Los Angeles-based international relief agency writes that America’s inhumane policy toward Cuban aid remains tragically out of date.
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warc.jalb.de
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A new report by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group criticizes the international lending organization for failing to alleviate global poverty with programs that focus too single-mindedly on growth. The bank estimates that 1.1 billion people subsisted on less than $1 per day in 2001. (h/t: Common Dreams)
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From the N.Y. Times.
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New York State officials complete a deal with World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein that will break the development logjam that has plagued the site for almost five years.
Why Gov. Pataki didn’t invoke eminent domain here a long time ago is a mystery to us.
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From moviereporter.net
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China is set to plumb Iranian oil fields in a $100-billion deal, complicating U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran and providing Iran more money to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
Can someone please call Stephen Gaghan to figure this one out for us? Or maybe this is a case for Truthdig’s Orville Schell, who knows a thing or two about China?
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A Brown University professor writes: “Every aspect of Iran’s current nuclear development was approved and encouraged by Washington in the 1970s.” | column
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No excuse given, Iranian team leader reportedly heads back to Tehran. | more
Posted on Jan 5, 2006
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Too Soon to Tell: The Case for Hope, Continued
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