The Wall Street Journal recently published a fascinating article on polio vaccinations in Afghanistan. The WHO and the International Committee of the Red Cross have made allies of the Taliban in bringing polio vaccines to Afghan children. Vaccinators in Afghanistan now carry a letter from Mullah Omar, the supreme leader of the Taliban, supporting the vaccination campaign.
Joel Kotkin and Robert Cristiano use the opportunity of the renovation of the United Nations building in New York to argue that the UN should be relocated to Dubai. Both gentleman come at this question from an urban planning perspective, but they manage to peddle in silly stereotypes about it's employees ("sloth" and "pretentious.") And the institution itself: ("dominated by antisemitism and anti-Americanism.")
I just saw this interesting press release from UNAIDS, discussing a joint Millennium Villages Project/UNAIDS effort to fight mother-to-child transmission of HIV. I am intrigued. Mother to child transmission is a multifaceted problem that needs a lot of different interventions to address it, and the Millennium Villages Project specializes in exactly that kind of holistic effort.
From the New York Times' travel section, where Sri Lanka tops the list of "31 places to go in 2010."
For a quarter century, Sri Lanka seems to have been plagued by misfortune, including a brutal civil war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority. But the conflict finally ended last May, ushering in a more peaceful era for this teardrop-shaped island off India’s coast, rich in natural beauty and cultural splendors.
I don't want to seem humorless, and I do agree with Jason that there is a "tendency of nearly everyone to joke about wintertime cold spells" as counter-evidence to global warming.
Tom Hilde is a professor at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland. He attended the Copenhagen Summit as a delegate with the Heinrich Böll Foundation and covered the conference for the Center for American Progress and Climate Progress. UN Dispatch caught up with him in early January.
In this edition of UN Plaza, I speak with Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen. As I mentioned in the diavlog, the UN has been warning about a brewing humanitarian crisis in Yemen since last fall. When I first approached Gregory for the interview before Christmas this was to be the topic of the interview. Clearly, Yemen has been thrust into the international spotlight since since then for reasons other than its swelling numbers internally displaced people.
Folks may recall that prior to the new years I posted a PSA about an end of year campaign from our friends at Nothing But Nets. Via Adrianna Logalbo, good news!
Let’s begin 2010 with some exciting news: You helped to raise enough money to reach our goal of sending life-saving nets to more than one million refugees in Africa – congratulations! We are so proud to have supporters like you on the Nothing But Nets campaign.
The Heritage Foundation's Brett Schaefer is seemingly apoplectic that the Obama administration would agree to a 1.2 to 1.7 percent increase in its dues payments to UN Peacekeeping. According to Schaefer this adds and additional $100 million a year to American contributions to UN Peacekeeping and means President Obama is "letting down" the American taxpayer.