Donald Trump has asked for the President to provide his birth certificate several times and has made a new statement that the President wasn’t “Qualified for the Ivy League.” I am not sure how the President performed at Harvard, and honestly I think it is a question that the American public should not really care about. …
Category: Awareness Building
Apr 25
Let’s Talk About Malaria
We’ve all heard the phrase: Every 45 seconds, a child dies from malaria. Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites transmitted by mosquitos. Statistics also show that the number of deaths resulting from this disease has been reduced over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, these statistics serve to remind us that people are still dying from …
Apr 22
Celebrating Earth Day and A Billion Acts of Green
Today, April 22nd, is celebrated as Earth Day. The idea is to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s natural environment and was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. The idea for Earth Day is credited to Gaylord Nelson, a former U.S. Senator, after he witnessed some of the side effects of the 1969 massive …
Apr 22
The Viral Education
“Hi I am Sal Khan. I am the founder and faculty of the Khan Academy and we are trying to educate the world.” These were the first words I heard Salmaan Khan speak when I watched my first video on the Khan Academy. I was instantly impressed. A single article would never be able to …
Apr 21
Ratifying CEDAW, Part II
On Tuesday I posted about the history of CEDAW ratification in the United States and some of the arguments made against it, and wrote about how there is a new campaign pushing for it in the US as soon as possible. There are, of course, arguments in both directions for its ratification or not, but …
Apr 20
Put Food First: The World Bank’s Open Forum
The World Bank has asked us to imagine living on $1.25 a day and spending 85 cents of that to feed our families. I have also read about estimates which state that nearly 1 billion people from around the world go to bed hungry every night. These are thought-provoking facts but the truth is that …
Apr 19
Ratifying CEDAW, Part I
The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is the United Nation’s international human rights treaty on gender equality. It has been ratified by all but seven of the United Nation’s members: Iran, Nauru, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, Tonga, and the United States. I would be very willing to argue that …
Apr 12
Goldstone in Perspective
Almost two weeks ago, Richard Goldstone, a prominent and well respected former South African judge, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post in which he retracted some of the key findings of the Goldstone Report from 2009. The Goldstone Report,officially known as the Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, …
Apr 11
Vulture Funds and Sovereign Debts
A couple of years ago, celebrities like Bono and highly respected individuals like Nelson Mandela brought our attention to the importance of debt relief and what such relief might mean to developing countries. Ironically, at the same time, many countries began to understand the importance of having a secondary market for debt especially when dealing …
Apr 08
Government & Security – Part III
In my previous post, I spoke about how corrupt governments and conflicts seriously dampen a countries quest to economic development and poverty eradication. While these posts were very general, today I would like to provide you with specific examples from across the world to show you what I mean. Lets begin with India. One third …