Sustainable Good

Point A to Point B Isn't So Simple

I arrived at the bus stop in NYC’s Chinatown just as our bus was pulling away.  Two hours of waiting in the hot summer sun later, I finally got on the bus to DC.  What I thought was going to be a simple bus ride from point A to point B turned out to be a sweaty, frustrating, complicated ordeal.

It was easy to be angry about the transportation situation that I faced today.  But now that I am on the air conditioned bus it is important for me to realize that most of the world has it much worse.  Transportation is one of the key factors in a country’s development; depending on its quality, it can be a huge hindrance or an immense boon for growth.

Obama's Going to Africa, Tell Him We Need Change!

Obama is planning a trip to Ghana for July 10-11. This trip shows how high a priority Africa is for the Obama administration because no other president has made a trip to Africa so early in his term. This is a  big step forward in realizing how important relations between the US and the nations of Africa really are. It also demonstrates a real desire to make real change in the region.

Join Obama in recognizing that US policy in Africa needs to change. Exploitation, militarization and ineffective aid have been the paradigm for too long.

Add your name to this petition, organized by a coalition of African advocacy groups. The letter suggests four policy changes that could make a world of difference for the millions living in African nations:

Does Aid Work?

At the beginning of this month, four highly articulate and accomplished academics -- Stephen Lewis, Paul Collier, Hernando De Soto and Dambisa Moyo -- gathered in Toronto to debate the resolution "Be it resolved, foreign aid does more harm than good." With two arguing for and two against, the speeches and accompanying materials posted on this site present the foreign aid debate in a compelling and accessible manner.

Recession as a Boost for Gender Equality?

We are currently in the grip of one of the worst recessions in modern history.   The U.S. economy has shed 6 million jobs since the beginning of the recession.  The unemployment rate hit 9.4% in May as 345,000 jobs disappeared, marking the 17th straight month of job loss.  But one interesting feature is how the job losses are spread across gender lines.  Male unemployment rose to 10.5% in May, compared to 8% for women.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 82% of the job losses have fallen on men, as male-dominated economic sectors like construction and manufacturing contract faster than female-dominated ones like health care and education.  This will only get worse, as Princeton economist Alan Blinder estimates that between 28 and 42 million more jobs in the U.S. are at risk of outsourcing, once again disproportionately held by men.  What this implies is that women are poised to surpass men for the first time on the nation’s payrolls, which is a remarkable milestone on the journey that started with WWII, when women came out of their homes and joined the labor force to take the places of men who left to fight.