Criticism of foreign aid centers around the fact that it is largely ineffective at generating sustainable economic development or truly helping the world’s poor. But as this helpful map from the cost information website HowMuch.net reveals, one reason for that is that promoting development and
Two years after the controversial appointment of Saudi Arabia to the UN Human Rights Council, leaked diplomatic cables have revealed the UK was a key player in the election of the Gulf State ─ despite the Saudis’ appalling human rights record. The United Nations Human Rights
The Mongolian government has vastly overhauled the energy structure of the herders and nomadic people of the northern highlands. This project has been so effective that 70% of Mongolian nomads now have solar power. By installing portable solar home systems in the gers (tents made
Capitalism has worked well for big business and for the people with stocks and estates. But for the past 35 years our economic system, stripped of sensible regulations, has poisoned the nation with deadly inequality and driven much of middle America to an ever-widening lower class.
Since the idea first emerged in Switzerland to label a basic income as a human right, widespread international discussion of an “unconditional basic income” is threatening to render many social institutions obsolete. Indeed, many crimes, much suffering, and even the environment could be aided by
If you visit the Loess Plateau right now you will find a suitably luscious landscape in the province thought to be the cradle of Chinese civilisation. Agricultural land is rich in produce and animals, tourism levels have significantly increased, and farmers are reaping the rewards of
When government is completely dysfunctional and seems not to serve the people’s interests, we have to wonder where our tax dollars are going. Thanks to a Reuters investigation by Scot Paltrow, we have an answer—or, rather, a non-answer. Apparently, the Pentagon has made use
In a matter of weeks, the World Bank could decide whether the tiny Central American nation of El Salvador will have to dish out millions of dollars to mining giant OceanaGold for rejecting its proposed gold mine. The $301 million lawsuit has been underway
The American Institution of Architects (AIA) is set to discuss the current understanding, and findings, regarding the 9/11 world trade center collapses (specifically WTC 7). A vote about the validity of the NIST report will be held during their 2015 AIA Conference, this May,
Federal officials say they are investigating reports that food company Nestle has been piping water through a national forest in California and then bottling it for retail purposes using a permit that expired nearly 30 years ago. The United States Forest Service confirmed on
