Research & Rescue

Action Alert: Combat Sex Trafficking in the U.S.

Received this action alert via e-mail:

The FBI estimates that more than 100,000 underage girls are exploited for sex in the Unites States each year. Sex trafficking is a modern form of slavery, yet all too often victims are difficult to identify and trafficked persons are often prosecuted as prostitutes or deported as undocumented immigrants.

The Senate has already passed a bill by unanimous consent that would call victims of sex trafficking what they are -- victims -- and establish pilot programs which would provide counseling, education, and basic support for these young women. This bill, the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act (S. 2925/H.R. 5575), would also mandate participation at all levels of law enforcement and educate officers and prosecutors in how to identify, investigate, and prosecute traffickers.

With just days remaining in the lame duck session, we cannot allow the House to fail to take action to support young women exploited by sex traffickers in our very own country. To act now is to make a real difference in the lives of thousands of women and girls.

Combat Sex Trafficking in the U.S.

Kiva Co-Founder on TED.com

Jessica Jackley, co-founder of kiva.org, talks about the roots of her organization. I think she really speaks to a fear many people have of trying to help the poor and falling into a quagmire of hopelessness. I have given to kiva in the past and it's wonderful to see her passion and determination. I hope it inspires others to get involved, as well.

The Skinny on the Global Poverty Gap (Clue: It's Not Skinny)

In all the ruckus about the protesters at the G-20, the mainstream media has lost the real message. Watch this video recorded speech by Maude Barlow from Democracy Now. It's sad that the mainstream media concentrates so much on conflict and rhetoric instead of covering the real tragedy at hand. Glitz sells, I guess.

Maude Barlow: "The World Has Divided into Rich and Poor as at No Time in History"

World's cleverest man Grigory Perelman turns down $1million prize for solving one of world's hardest puzzles 'because it's unfair' | Mail Online

Some of my faith in humanity has been restored. There are some reasons I can't share yet; there are some reasons that deserve a well-written blog post and I don't have time at the moment. This, however, I can share now. Wow:

A Russian mathematician is rejecting a $1million (£666,000) prize for solving one of the most challenging problems because he considers it unfair.

Said to be the world's cleverest man, Dr Grigory Perelman, 44, lives as a recluse in a bare cockroach-infested flat in St Petersburg.

He was awarded the $1million in March by the U.S. Clay Mathematics Institute for solving the Poincare Conjecture, which baffled mathematicians for a century. Dr Perelman posted his solution on the internet.

But he told the institute, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that he was turning down the prize.

Perelman was quoted by Interfax as saying he believes his contribution in proving the Poincare conjecture was no greater than that of U.S. mathematician Richard Hamilton, who first suggested a program for the solution.

The Poincare conjecture deals with shapes that exist in four or more dimensions.

After the prize was announced in March, he said: 'I have all I want.'

via www.dailymail.co.uk

Esther Duflo on measuring the efficacy of poverty aid

World Water Day and Bottled Water

 Today, March 22nd, 2010, is annual World Water Day, originally declared by the United Nations in 1993.

Some water facts (Source: unwater.org):

• 2 million tons af raw sewage and other waste (ag or industrial) are dumped into the world's water every day.
• 2.5 billion people worldwide lack adequate sanitation and, worse yet, 18% of the world's population defecate in the open.
• Poor countries with access to clean water and sanitation services experienced faster economic growth than those without.
• More people die from unsafe water each year than from all forms of violence, including war.

Some bottled water facts. Hint: bottled water is not the answer. (Sources: bottledwaterblues.com, healthy-water-best-filters.com, foodandwaterwatch.org):

• City tap water can have no confirmed E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria. FDA bottled water rules include no such prohibition (a certain amount of any type of coliform bacteria is allowed in bottled water).
• Between 2/3 to 3/4 of the bottled water sold is in the state it's bottled in. Most likely you are consuming water with no affiliated federal regulations to assure its safety.
• About a million plastic bottles are disposed of daily, it is one of the major culprits when it comes to pollution.
• In 2006, bottled water manufacturing had one of the highest rates of workplace injury and illness. With one incident for every 11 workers, bottled water workers are injured and fall sick more than twice as often as the typical private sector worker. The injury rate of bottled water workers is also 50 percent higher than both the broader manufacturing industry and the construction industry.
  

There is a wealth of other info at the sources mentioned above. Take the time to educate yourself on the issues.

DRC: Soldiers Remove Wounded Patients from MSF Hospital in South Kivu

Bukavu, DRC/New York, March 17, 2010 --The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today deplored a serious incident that occurred in the isolated village of Katanga in the Hauts Plateaux region of South Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

On Thursday, March 11, armed soldiers from the Congolese Army (FARDC - Forces Armées de la République Démocratiqe du Congo) entered the hospital in Katanga, where an MSF surgical team had been providing emergency medical care to wounded people. Despite MSF’s protests and negotiations, the Congolese soldiers harassed the wounded patients and left one day later with four of them.

“This incident is a violation of basic humanitarian principles -- all sick and wounded have the right to medical care,” said Philippe Havet, MSF head of mission in South Kivu. “We demand that all armed actors respect medical structures and the safety of wounded people and medical staff. Unarmed, wounded belligerents enjoy this protection as any other patient.”

Read the rest of the press release here: www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Thousands of displaced civilians trapped by conflict in the Congo

Bukavu, DRC / New York, March 11, 2010 - Medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is deeply concerned by the rapidly worsening situation in the isolated area of Hauts Plateaux in the region of Uvira, South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thousands of civilians are trapped by conflict that has been raging in the area since the beginning of February 2010 between the Congolese army (FARDC), FDLR rebels and various armed groups. Violence against civilians is frequent, but the constant threat to civilians prevents wounded people from reaching the local hospital where an MSF surgical team is working. Currently MSF is the only medical organization providing direct medical care in the region.

via www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Disasters: Effective Government Matters

Matthew Iglesias expounds further on why Chile fared better than did Haiti in the recent earthquakes...

While the death toll rose steadily to more than 700, according to a midday estimate, it remained a small fraction of the tally from a far less powerful earthquake last month in Haiti that claimed at least 220,000 lives. That temblor was more shallow and much closer to a large population center, the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. But the deaths there were mostly because of widespread building collapses, which Chilean cities did not experience.

Read more at: yglesias.thinkprogress.org

Salon: Chile was ready for quake, Haiti wasn't

The difference between today's earthquake in Chile demonstrates the increased adaptability and resistance to disaster that comes with wealth. If we want to help developing nations, we have to give them the infrastructure and self-reliance to weather this kind of devastation.

Chile is wealthier and infinitely better prepared, with strict building codes, robust emergency response and a long history of handling seismic catastrophes. No living Haitian had experienced a quake at home when the Jan. 12 disaster crumbled their poorly constructed buildings...

...Survivors of Haiti's quake described abject panic -- much of it well-founded as buildings imploded around them. Many Haitians grabbed cement pillars only to watch them crumble in their hands. Haitians were not schooled in how to react -- by sheltering under tables and door frames, and away from glass windows.

Chileans, on the other hand, have homes and offices built to ride out quakes, their steel skeletons designed to sway with seismic waves rather than resist them...

Read the rest of the article at www.salon.com