Global Connections

It’s high season for politics. Yes, we are back to balancing campaign trail accusations with attack ads, as well as parsing the meanings of sound bites and polls. It would seem as though not much is actually happening in Washington, but that’s not completely true. Despite the rhetoric, there is some action on Capitol Hill – and it’s not a battle over taxes, it’s about treaties. For the historians, between 1946 and 1999, the United States completed nearly 16,000 international agreements.
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The story of indoor air pollution, the silent killer in the homes of almost half the world’s population, is complex: from the environmental degradation, wasted time, and safety risks associated with fuel collection; to the significant health impacts caused by cooking over open fire; to the gases from burned coal and biomass that contribute to climate change – the effects of cooking on traditional cookstoves and open fires present a multilayered issue.
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Over the span of three decades, humanity has witnessed the rise of one of the world’s deadliest diseases, and also launched one of history’s greatest global attacks. Just 30 years ago, AIDS was barely uttered in newspapers anywhere around the globe, let alone becoming a household term. Twenty years ago, AIDS became the number one cause of death for U.S. men ages 25 to 44.
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July 9, 2012, marks the first anniversary of South Sudan’s independence. And, as expected, political analysts and experts are pointing out the challenges still plaguing the new nation. According to the International Monetary Fund, 47 percent of South Sudanese are undernourished.
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As we get closer to the London Summit on Family Planning, people often ask me, “Why is family planning so important to you?” The simple answer is that it can mean everything to so many of the women and families I meet. It means the difference between being empowered and feeling powerless.
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Last year, the world watched with hope as the Republic of South Sudan emerged as a new nation. At the time, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice noted, “Today is a day of celebration for all South Sudanese, and a day of triumph for all who cherish the rights of all people to govern themselves in liberty and law.”
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