speel's blog

Enjoy the following short YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz_pVmf5NgE

Climate Fears Are Driving 'Ecomigration' Across Globe
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 23, 2009; A01

Adam Fier recently sold his home, got rid of his car and pulled his twin 6-year-old girls out of elementary school in Montgomery County. He and his wife packed the family's belongings and moved to New Zealand -- a place they had never visited or seen before, and where they have no family or professional connections. Among the top reasons: global warming.

Strategic Myopia
Posted by Ed Corcoran on 02/02/2009 :: Permalink :: Comments
STRATEGY: Planning the optimal application of resources to achieve major objectives

http://sitrep.globalsecurity.org/articles/090202168-strategic-myopia.htm

Global Health Council Members, Development Community Weigh In
On Foreign Assistance Reform
http://www.globalhealth.org/view_top.php3?id=638

Strengthening Disaster Prevention and Resilience: Developing Media and NGO Capacity to Increase Awareness among Communities in the Indian States of West Bengal and Orissa – India

Addresses Overflow Crowd at Woodrow Wilson Center

(Washington, D.C.) “Is there such a thing as ‘peak water’? There is a vast amount of water on the planet—but we are facing a crisis of running out of sustainably managed water,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. “Humans already appropriate over 50 percent of all renewable and accessible freshwater flows, and yet billions still lack the most basic water services.”

The HIV pandemic is continuing to destroy the social safety nets of sub-Saharan African countries.
Millions of children are being orphaned by AIDS.
Extended families, neighbors and NGOs are caring for many of these children, and in some cases young teens are caring for their younger siblings in "child-headed households".

A CIA report in 1999 considered HIV/AIDS as a threat to security, and General Colin Powell repeatedly stated that it was a greater threat than Iraq.

The article below gives an example of this interconnectedness.

Jan. 28, 2009
By Tong Wenxun

Immediately following the terror of the SARS breakout and its mysterious disappearance, another deadly disease appeared on the scene. In 2004 the avian influenza virus attacked poultry farms and wild birds across the Asian countryside.

These two diseases share the same source: China. Their initial disclosures were also similar in that a few brave people revealed the truth to the world despite pressure from Chinese authorities to deny their existence.

ANNALS OF PUBLIC POLICY
GETTING THERE FROM HERE
How should Obama reform health care?
by Atul Gawande
JANUARY 26, 2009

Our jerry-rigged health-care system contains many models that reformers can build on.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/02/forests-brazil/print

Brazil announces plan to slash rainforest destruction
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 December 2008 12.52 GMT

The Brazilian government yesterday announced a 10-year plan to slash rainforest destruction by 70% days after new figures showed Amazon deforestation was again on the rise.

Officials said the targets, which are part of Brazil's Climate Change Plan, were the first time the Brazilian government had set specific goals for deforestation reduction.

January 28, 2009
Sri Lanka: 250,000 Civilians Trapped in Intense Fighting
MSF Denied Access to Assist Victims in War Zone

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is very concerned for the safety of an estimated 250,000 people trapped in heavy fighting in the Vanni in northern Sri Lanka. Hundreds of civilians are reported to have been wounded and killed during the last days as the LTTE-controlled area has shrunk in the face of the government of Sri Lanka’s military offensive.

Oeindrila Dube, Harvard University and Juan Vargas, Universidad del Rosario
November 12, 2008

How do income shocks affect armed conflict? Theory suggests two opposite effects. If labor is used to appropriate resources violently, higher
wages may lower conflict by reducing labor supplied to appropriation.
This is the opportunity cost effect. Alternatively, a rise in contestable
income may increase violence by raising gains from appropriation. This
is the rapacity effect.
The paper exploits exogenous price shocks in inter-

This January 8th 2009 article by Ben Furnas of the Center for American Progress
provides a good back-drop for the debate on health care reform and concludes:

Where There Is No Vision, the People Will Refuse to Perish - But Do-Nothing Institutions Very Well Might

http://www.good.is/?p=14621

The WHO is an encouraging, and too rare, example of countries getting over their differences to solve a common problem. The WHO is underfunded and needs reform, but it stands between us and some lethal future pandemic. President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and Obama’s pick for healthcare czar—Senator Tom Daschle—should be sure to support it, talk it up and push to make it as effective an organization as it can be.

Nina L. Hachigian is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.