Opinions
DR Congo – Is it a miracle?
When I heard that the losing candidate in the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean Pierre Bemba, had accepted defeat, I realised I would have to eat some words. "It would be a miracle," I reported several times for the BBC on visits to DR Congo during the first and second rounds of v...
The world needs its small farmers
October 25, 2006) World Food Day, commemorated on October 16, has become more of an exercise in expiation of sins than a renewal of a serious commitment to end hunger. Throughout the world, the press decries the latest Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics: 852 million people lack ad...
Still the rich world’s viceroy. If the IMF wants to reform itself, why not try democracy?
The glacier has begun to creak. In the world’s most powerful dictatorship, we detect the merest hint of a thaw. I am not talking about China, or Uzbekistan, Burma or North Korea. This state runs no torture chambers or labour camps. No one is executed, though plenty starve to death as a result of i...
The Debacle of Doha
(July 28, 2006) Several guilty parties were responsible for the recent collapse of the Doha round of trade negotiations, but none guiltier than the United States. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab refused to make a serious offer on cutting domestic subsidies for U.S. farmers. Worse, at a late s...
4 Ways To Spend $60 Billion Wisely
In the world of philanthropy, development and foreign aid, it's not as easy as it sounds. So here are some humble bits of advice for the new Bill and Melinda Gates/Warren Buffett Axis of Altruism:1 The business world and the developing world are worlds apart. Your success in business may make you un...
The Handouts That Feed Poverty
(April 30, 2006) Foreign aid today perpetrates a cruel hoax on those who wish the world's poor well. There is all the appearance of energetic action — a doubling of foreign aid to Africa promised at the G-8 summit last July, grand United Nations and World Bank plans to cut world poverty in half by...
Bono’s Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast
{Remarks — as prepared for delivery and courtesy of DATA — by Bono to the National Prayer Breakfast; Feb. 2, 2006). BONO: Thank you. Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah, Other heads of State, Members of Congress, distinguished guests … Please join me in praying that I don't say somethi...
Chad: Oil and Development.
FIVE YEARS AGO, the World Bank lent money and credibility to a risky experiment. Despite the depressing record of oil projects in poor countries -- they tend to fuel corruption rather than boost development -- the bank provided $190 million to kick-start the oil industry in one of the world's most i...
Wanted: A Famine Fund
HUMANITARIAN crises are seldom just humanitarian: Almost always, the malnutrition and the misery have political causes. The brutal wars in Sudan and Congo account for those countries' appalling civilian death tolls. Political repression explains the hunger in North Korea and Zimbabwe. Even the HIV p...
Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane Addresses Hunger No More: An Interfaith Convocation, Washington National Cathedral
(Washington, June 6, 2005) It is a great joy to be with you, on the eve of National Hunger Awareness Day. Thank you for your invitation. It is a privilege to be here among so many leaders from the different faith communities. In the Book of the Revelation to John, at the end of the Christian Scri...
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World Hunger Education
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