Archive for April, 2008
Caterpillar Divestment
Friday, April 18th, 2008Word came yesterday that Caterpillar has asked for continuing conversation with the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church about Caterpillar equipment being used in Palestine by the Israeli military to knock down houses of Palestinians. It’s a highly charged issue and it’s been debated across the mainline religious community.
The willingness [...]
Toxic Niceness
Monday, April 14th, 2008Recently I watched a guy make an accusation, float a lie and shut down a meeting. Then he withdrew and read his email on a Treo. (I knew what he was saying was inaccurate as did a few others in the room. A couple of days later some notes surfaced on the Internet that confirmed [...]
Youth Voices: Adobe
Monday, April 14th, 2008Growing up in the digital age is completely different from growing up in an analog world. But for all the talk of interactivity and participation, kids who grow up in families without adequate resources, no understanding of the value of education and no access to the tools are left out. They probably believe no would [...]
Do Donors Support Corruption?
Sunday, April 13th, 2008Donors who focus on how much money they spend and not on how many people they serve, nor the benefits of their service, are contributing to corruption in Malawi, according to a report by Susan Marmion under the aegis of Global Integrity. Christine Gorman comments on the report at the Global Health Report Blog.
Marmion [...]
Damage Control: Know When to Fold Them
Thursday, April 10th, 2008In crisis management damage control is a matter of knowing when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, when to walk away and when to run. Don Schlitz’s lyrics in the song popularized by Kenny Rogers clarify the process perfectly. This post is a follow-up to one I wrote recently on Frank Rich’s description of [...]
Whack TB
Saturday, April 5th, 2008Among the diseases of poverty it seems to me TB gets the least attention. I don’t know if I’m accurate in this assessment, but it seems to me it’s not as widely covered as HIV/AIDS or malaria.
But one person is infected every second and drug resistance is growing. A more resistant strain of TB has [...]
Analog Arrogance in a Digital Age
Saturday, April 5th, 2008Frank Rich has come up with a gem of a descriptive phrase. He wrote on Sunday that Hillary Clinton’s account of her Bosnia landing reveals the “political perils of 20th century analog arrogance in the digital age.”
What a phrase. I’ve been thinking about it all week. It describes reality in our time. Rich’s point–among other [...]