Quote of the day: Arabia

We have been rather lazy to put up new content on this site (sorry for that, but we are preparing for a quite large project in the moment) so now just another short one (much more to come the next weeks):From the prologue of one of the books we are currently reading (Imperial Life in [...]

Iraq: New survey paints a devastating portrait of life

A new survey by ABC News, the BBC and the leading German TV news show has been published today. The survey that after 2004 and 2005 has now been conducted a third time demonstrates a strong deterioration of people’s hope and lives in Iraq. Millions more just want to leave and most - in difference to the previous surveys - now believe it is right to fight the Americans. More than 2000 participants across Iraq have been interviewed for this…

Continue reading…

AIDS: Costly Red Campaign (2)

Find below a link to the CNN video report on the issues with the so called RED campaign “reported yesterday” by the leading advertising industry magazine “Advertising Age”. We are looking forward and expecting that soon someone will also shed light on what actually happens with the USD 18 Mln. that made it to the “Global Fund” - expect some hot stories here. To get a first glimpse on that read a report at the “Boston Globe” (there are a few others there one also pointing to the fraud investigations within that organization). This nevertheless is just the tip of the iceberg as we hear from insiders…

Continue reading…

AIDS: Costly Red Campaign Reaps Meager $18 Million

There is an interesting article in “Advertising Age” - one of the leading publications of the industry - about the RED campaign by Bono and a group of companies. We suggest to also read the comments on the article. There are a few interesting ones beside the normal “wood” and “heroic praises”. “…The disproportionate ratio between the marketing outlay and the money raised is drawing concern among nonprofit watchdogs, cause-marketing experts and even executives in the ad business. It threatens to spur a backlash, not just against the Red campaign — which ambitiously set out to change the cause-marketing model by allowing partners to profit from charity — but also for the brands involved…”

Continue reading…

Health: The Challenges of Global Health

US magazine “Foreign Affairs” - one of the most influential publication on international affairs and foreign policy in America - has an excellent opinion piece on Global Health. The 12 page essay was written by Pulitzer Price winner and bestseller writer “Laurie Garrett” who is also well known for her book “Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public health”. We strongly recommend reading the document to anybody working in Global Health and to anybody who is interested in what is happening in fighting AIDS, Malaria and TB. We put some quotes together below…

Continue reading…

Quote of the day: UN and Nations

This quote is attributed to Carlos Romulo former president of the UN General Assembly:

“…If there is a problem between a weak nation and another weak nation and the UN takes action, the problem disappears.
If there is a problem between a strong nation and a weak nation and the UN takes action, the weak nation [...]

FAO urges food aid reform

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today proposed a series of major changes how international food aid should be managed and delivered. In its today released annual report, “The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA)”, FAO says that about a third of the global food aid budget (ca. USD 600 million) is being spent in donor countries and never reaching beneficiaries. The world’s leading food donors spend as much as half of their food aid budgets on domestic processing and shipping by national carriers, according to research quoted by the report. While the report acknowledges that there is no substitute for food aid in coping with humanitarian crises…

Continue reading…

ARTE.TV: Best General Overview on AIDS

We always liked Jean-Christophe Victor geo-political series “Le Dessous des Cartes” for European TV station Arte.tv. Every week since years he describes political topics with maps and info graphics. And for each episode there is a slide show with all the graphics put online. This year they have also created a 3-part special on AIDS…

Continue reading…

World AIDS Day: Speeches, Speeches, Speeches

Like at every “World AIDS Day” before it is also the day of speeches and memorandums. And clapping each other’s back to tell how great work we all do. The same has happened for more than 30 years within the “fight” against Malaria and Tuberculosis and – let’s face it - there is lots of room for improvement and more efficiency. Maybe people should just start getting the job done and…

Continue reading…

Corruption in Humanitarian AID and Health Care

Below you find links and summaries of some resources on the web that might be helpful as a starting point to understand the topic and issues of corruption with AIDS and health work in general…

Continue reading…