Last month at the UN General Assembly, rock legend Bono lamented that for ten years he has begged the G8 for US$25 billion to relieve hunger and disease in Africa, with limited success. Suddenly, the United States has $700 billion to spend on Wall Street.
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz estimates that the US bailout package […]
Writes Nobel Peace Prize nominee, John Dear, SJ:
"On May 1, the Catholic Worker [movement] celebrates its 75th birthday, and to mark the occasion, Marquette University Press will publish Dorothy Day’s diaries, The Duty of Delight.
Meanwhile, a beautiful new DVD documentary, Don’t Call Me a Saint, has been released, offering rare interviews and footage of the […]
In 1998 the UN created the post of Independent Expert on Extreme Poverty and floated the idea of a Declaration on human rights and extreme poverty. In 2001 the Commission on Human Rights (now the Human Rights Council) decided to issue guiding principles on the implementation of existing human rights norms in the fight against […]
Controversial Oxford ethicist Julian Savulescu cites evidence that intellect is an attribute that ‘makes life go well.’ IQ is negatively correlated with things like unemployment, divorce, poverty, jail and the need for welfare benefits.
If you could somehow improve the IQ of the whole population by as little as three points (or 3%, on average), […]
It’s International Nestlé-free Week. Time to swear off Nescafé, Milo (*gasp*), Butter Menthol and Nestlé chocolate, yoghourt, frozen dinners and goddam Cheerios and find ethical alternatives. Sometimes a lack of joined-up thinking allows people who care about human rights (whole NGOs, in fact) to drink Nescafé. Or maybe they aren’t familiar with the world’s longest-running […]
"The scale of maternal mortality is catastrophic. Every minute a woman dies in childbirth or from complications of pregnancy. . . well over 500,000 women a year. 95% are in Africa and Asia. . . This is global health inequality on a shocking scale. For every woman who dies, as many as 30 others suffer […]
Recruiting child soldiers under the age of 18 is a crime under international law. Recruiting children under the age of 15 is a war crime. The International Criminal Court’s first trial will be that of DRC warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, charged with recruiting child soldiers as young as 10.
The term ‘child soldier’ refers to any […]
Leading economist Jeffrey Sachs says ending poverty will relieve security concerns of rich nations.
Dr Sachs, best-selling author of The End of Poverty currently serving as Special Adviser to the UN on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says conflict in places such as the Horn of Africa is fuelled by poverty:
"This isn’t a crisis about Islam, […]