Women in developing countries will be the most
vulnerable to climate change, a report from the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned.
The agency said there was a disproportionate burden on those women and called for greater equality.
They
do most of the agricultural work, and are therefore affected by
weather-related natural disasters impacting on food, energy and water,
it said.
Slower population growth would help cut greenhouse gas emissions, it added.
"In the next 60 seconds, 10 children will
die of hunger," says a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) online
video. It continues, "For the first time in humanity, over 1 billion
people are chronically hungry."
The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to get enough to eat.
Armistice Day reminds us that when wars end, the winners and losers are
supposed to make peace. For the first time, in 2009, leaders of World
War II enemies, Germany and France, commemorated the date together as a
sign of new mutual respect. But this week also marked the ten-year
anniversary of a different kind of war -- a war on Americans' assets
and the poor. Ten years later, while the winners and losers are
obvious, there's no armistice in sight.
Thanksgiving is around the corner, and
families will be gathering to share a meal and, perhaps, enjoy another
annual telecast of "The Wizard of Oz." The 70-year-old film classic
bears close watching this year, perhaps more than in any other, for the
message woven into the lyrics, written during the Great Depression by
Oscar-winning lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg. There's more to the
Scarecrow and the Tin Man than meets the eye, and Harburg's message has
renewed resonance today in the midst of the greatest financial collapse
since the Depression.
How do you spell "hypocrisy"?
Thirty-four years ago this month the young James Fallows published (in the Washington Monthly) what still remains a definitive article about the class divide in times of war—“What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy?” I still have a yellowed original copy somewhere. Fallows was writing about the sickening reality that as a Harvard student he, like so many other Ivy Leaguers, could quite easily avoid fighting in Vietnam. They had the ways and means to avoid military service: exemptions, deferments, lawyers, connections.
Just before the Senate Finance Committee wrapped up debate
over its Sen. Max Baucus-designed health care bill, its members
debated one of Sen. Jon Kyl's amendments, which would have cut
language defining which benefits employers are required to
cover.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., argued that insurers must be
required to cover basic maternity care. (In several states there
are no such requirements.)
The "battle of the sexes is over" claims the
much-heralded Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything on
American work and family life. Go ahead, take a victory lap.
Unless, of course, you're among the millions of women who
still earn 23 percent less on average in wages, pay 38 percent more for
gender-rated health insurance or fear losing their jobs while trying to juggle
disproportionate family responsibilities without flexible work schedules and
reasonable family-leave policies.
The U.S. economy is has diverged: Wall Street is living high on the hog, while everyone else is struggling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eclipsed 10,000 for the first time since last October this week, even as unemployment continues to spiral out of control. And while President Barack Obama has taken some very real steps to help ordinary people, his administration’s efforts to save Wall Street have far outstripped their support of workers.
