In The News

African Aid Projects That Work: Partnerships on the Ground, Not Donations From a Distance

January 1, 2008
Donors who want to help Africa, by sending funds or supplies, must do research about the real needs and support systems in any community: Funds can go unspent or into the pockets of corrupt officials; sending electrical devices to communities that lack power or office supplies to organizations lacking desks or office space can often end up frustrating both donors and Africans alike. Gifts that...

World Bank Fund Will Pay to Leave Forests Standing

December 14, 2007
The World Bank will establish a fund to compensate developing nations to protect forests, with the hope that preserving forests will slow climate change. "The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility signals that the world cares about the global value of forests and is ready to pay for it,” said Robert Zoellick, World Bank president. Deforestation is responsible for about one fifth of total carbon...

Subsidies' Harvest of Misery

Jimmy Carter December 10, 2007
A US bill passed during the 1930s Great Depression – paying farmers for crops not grown – no longer makes sense. Instead, current US farm programs hurt the poorest people in the world and small farmers in the US, encouraging “excess production while channeling enormous government payments to the biggest producers,” argues former President Jimmy Carter in an opinion essay for the Washington Post...

No Thanks, And Keep Your Farm Aid

Joel Stein September 18, 2007
The international humanitarian organization, CARE, rejected $45 million in aid from the US government, suggesting that dumping huge amounts of wheat and other US-grown crops into developing markets only drives local farmers out of business and aggravates poverty. According to Joel Stein, Los Angeles Times columnist, the US insists on a distribution system that “only a huge bureaucracy or a really...

A Bumper Crop of Inertia

Robert J. Samuelson September 14, 2007
US farmers of wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton and rice are hooked on government subsidies that began in the 1930s during the Great Depression. Since then, the subsidies have continued, year after year, while political or agriculture industry leaders refuse to admit that changing needs demand new priorities. Rather than saving family farms, creating jobs, encouraging good nutrition habits or...

US Must Reassert Global Leadership

Samuel R. Berger September 13, 2007
Intent on the war in Iraq, the US has reduced its involvement elsewhere in Asia, South America and Africa. Meanwhile, China and Russia have stepped into the vacuum, warn former Clinton administration officials, Samuel Berger and Eric Schwartz, writing for the Boston Globe. China has provided billions for roads, ports and other projects in nations like Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines, they...

Doing God’s Work for the Taliban

Shim Jae Hoon September 4, 2007
Missionaries from South Korea travel to remote and dangerous lands, intent on spreading their Christian faith. Christianity contributed to modernization in South Korea, and missionaries often link their beliefs with the country’s miraculous economic growth. In July, the Taliban kidnapped 23 young Christian volunteers in Afghanistan, killing two before releasing the remaining hostages in late...