Story Archives - Page 618 of 661

World Bank: Knowledge Gaps (12/98)

NIGEL CROSS June 3, 2005 NIGEL CROSS

Salesmen used to make a living selling enormously expensive multi-volume encyclopedias which would tell you everything you needed to know about everything. Then came the vastly cheaper pocket-size CD ROM. And now there’s the Internet, for the price of a telephone call. Suddenly, knowledge seems cheap and accessible.

If we’re to believe the World Bank’s recent report, Knowledge and Development, after several millennia of human intellectual endeavor, we’ve come of age. In fact, the Bank has taken to calling itself the "knowledge bank," as if it were the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Yellow Pages rolled into one – a kind of modern version of that optimistic Victorian institution, the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It’s the proud possessor of "an unparalleled reservoir of knowledge … accumulated over the past 50 years in more than 100 countries." And thanks to the Internet, it can finally share this reservoir with the rest of us. read more

Cracks in the Covert Iceberg (5/98)

Greg Guma June 3, 2005 Greg Guma

For almost two decades, the US government claimed that it bankrolled the overthrow of Afghanistan’s revolutionary regime only in response to the invasion of Soviet troops in the final days of the 1970s. But early this year, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was President Carter’s national security advisor at the time, finally admitted that covert US intervention began long before the USSR sent in troops. "That secret operation was an excellent idea," he explained. "The effect was to draw the Russians into the Afghan trap." read more

Shortening the Work Week (3/00)

GREG GUMA June 2, 2005 GREG GUMA

A century after launching the campaign for an eight-hour workday, the US labor movement faces challenges that may well determine its long-term survival. While automation and globalization threatens massive displacement, and employer resistance to aggressive organizing meanwhile turns union-busting into a growth industry, business pushes new schemes to limit the basic right to organize.

One of the more insidious is so-called "paycheck protection," being aggressively hawked by GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush as a way to neutralize the movement for campaign finance reform. Without it, he claims, any reform would be like "unilateral disarmament" for Republicans. The idea is to require unions to get permission from each member before using any dues for political purposes. Unions would be effectively muzzled while corporations remained free to influence elections in many other ways. read more

Sharing the Work (Edit: 6/98)

GREG GUMA June 2, 2005 GREG GUMA

A century after launching the campaign for an eight-hour workday, the US labor movement faces challenges that could determine its long-term survival. While automation threatens massive displacement and employer resistance to aggressive organizing turns union-busting into a growth industry, business pushes new schemes to limit the basic right to organize. One of the most insidious is the so-called "paycheck protection" initiative. Being introduced into state legislatures, it would require unions to get permission from each member before using any dues for political purposes. If the strategy succeeds, unions could be effectively muzzled while corporations remain free to influence elections. read more

Women organizing to change the face of philanthropy (6/01)

ELAYNE CLIFT June 2, 2005 ELAYNE CLIFT

Worldwide, women are changing the face of philanthropic giving with a collective vision that is global, innovative, and strategic. Personal stories are beginning to transform public policy, and social change is becoming key as women move away from deficiency models of passive grant seeking to power-based, progressive action.The Sociedad Mexicana Pro Derechos de la Mujer (Mexican Society for the Rights of Women), or Semillas (Seeds) as it has come to called, is a perfect example. Founded in 1990 by Mexican feminists with support from the California-based Global Fund for Women, Semillas was one of four recipients of this year’s “Changing the Face of Philanthropy Award,” given by the US-based Women’s Funding Network at their 17th annual conference in Philadelphia. read more

Beijing +5 (3/00)

FELICITY HILL June 2, 2005 FELICITY HILL

Each of the major UN World Conferences of the 1980s and 90s has a review mechanism that calls for five-year meetings to discuss the past and set goals for the future. These "Plus 5s" have examined decisions made at the Copenhagen Social Development Summit, Cairo Conference on Population and Development, Vienna Process on Human Rights, and Rio Environment Conference. Next in line is a review of progress on the Status of Women, scheduled for June 5-9 in New York.

A host committee is organizing many celebratory events, and an international committee has been set up to facilitate the activities of women actually lobbying at the UN. Women’s organizations from around the world have produced "shadow" or alternative reports to fill in the perceived gaps in their government’s assessments. These will be compiled and presented as a global shadow report, the non-governmental sector’s contribution to the debate. Since this isn’t a major conference but rather a Plus 5, no large NGO forum is planned. A two-day working session for NGOs will be held on the weekend prior to the meeting, and a variety of panel and cultural events will take place within and around the UN. read more