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Half the Sky
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PAST COVERAGE
There are a few topics that have been particularly important to me in my column writing. One of them has been Darfur. Another has been the sexual enslavement and trafficking of young women. In 2004, I wrote a five-column series, most of it reported from Cambodia, about Srey Mom and Srey Neth, two 21st-century slaves, teenage prostitutes whose freedom from brothel owners came at a price of $353.
I'm also a big believer in the new age of multimedia journalism, so you're invited to peruse the full archive of my video coverage.
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Chad with Clooney and CurryCreated about 8 months ago
Middle EastCreated at 14:35 on 19 June 2008
Nicholas D. Kristof
Nicholas D. Kristof
A U.N. report says rape is still "rampant" in Darfur, yet Sudan has kicked out the aid groups that used to help rape victims. Victims can't protest, and aid workers can't say anything or they'll be evicted as well. Obama/Biden/Clinton were great on Darfur as senators, but now are looking the other way. http://bit.ly/38...lYcT . Those rape victims feel humiliated, but it's the international community that is shamed.Read more
Nicholas D. Kristof My Sunday column looks at how lax regulation has left a proliferation of chemicals, such as BPA and other variants of estrogen, in our food supply. BPA is in canned foods, baby formula -- and in 92 percent of us, messing with our bodies. Pollution used to be about our air and water, now it's inside our hormone system: http://bit.ly/3ytlEf. Read and comment.
Source: bit.ly
Bisphenol A, or BPA, is linked to things like cancer, obesity, attention deficit disorder and genital abnormalities, and it’s been found in our food.
Nicholas D. Kristof This Day 290 of the Obama Administration going without an administrator of USAID, the aid agency. If foreign aid is important to the administration, if it believes in building and exercising soft power, then how can it leave this post unfilled for so long? It looks as if the post will be vacant a full year, which is disgraceful.
Nicholas D. Kristof
I'm back to thundering about health care in my new column: http://bit.ly/ptNW6 . I hear our system described as the world's best -- even though we rank 31 in longevity, 37 in infant mortality, 34 in maternal mortality. An American woman is 11 times as likely to die in childbirth as an Irish woman, according to WHO data.... Grrrrrr! The moment of truth for reform has come. Let's pass it. Read the column and leave your thoughts.Read more
Source: bit.ly
The greatest distortion about the health care debate is that reform will destroy our health care system.
Nicholas D. Kristof A Half the Sky update: The publisher just ordered a 9th printing, Publishers Weekly listed it as one of the best books of 2009, calling it "vitally important," and we have a publisher for an Arabic edition. Sheryl and I are delighted, because we want it to reach countries with the biggest problems. French, German and Spanish editions are fine, but my priority is Urdu!
Nicholas D. Kristof Is disenchantment rising with President Obama? And if so, is it because he comes across as too cool, too self-sufficient, too intellectual? I like that restraint, but I wonder if some voters wouldn't like to see more emotion on his sleeve and less cerebrum. In Britain, I think Gordon Brown has suffered for similar reasons. Here's my full post on the issue: http://bit.ly/J0Zu Your thoughts?
Nicholas D. Kristof My Sunday column is on line and looks at an amazing U.S. ob/gyn, Lewis Wall, who has devoted his life to helping women with fistulas, a horrendous childbirth injury. Now he is finally achieving his dream, a hospital to help such women. He deserves everyone's support. http://bit.ly/4gANn8. Read it and spread the word.
Source: bit.ly
An American doctor offers hope to women or, often, girls of 13, 14, 15 in West Africa who are ostracized because of incontinence.
Nicholas D. Kristof Did the US and Sudan come close to war in 2006, after an armed confrontation around a US military plane? The Air Force Times describes the incident, in which Sudanese military officers threatened to execute the American men, and rape the women and sell them into slavery. Amazing story, apparently kept secret until now. http://bit.ly/J0Zu
Nicholas D. Kristof To give more Americans a chance to serve abroad, Obama should start a "Teach for the World" program. Univ graduates could teach for 1 yr, renewable, in the dev world, for room and board. Overseas students would benefit, and it would be life-changing for the Americans. Peace Corps is great, but it's a much greater commitment that scares off many people.
Nicholas D. Kristof
One of the failings of universities is that they don't get students out into the developing world -- so you have to do it yourself. In Half the Sky, we have a chapter about a young American named Harper McConnell who is working at a hospital in war-torn eastern Congo, transforming her own life as well as those she's he...lping. She has just started a blog: http://bit.ly/3nbNJM
Check it out -- and then join Harper in Africa or Asia or Latin America!Read more
Check it out -- and then join Harper in Africa or Asia or Latin America!Read more
Source: bit.ly
Salaam Kivu International Film Festival (SKIFF) took place this October in Goma marking the fourth annual occurrence of the only international film festival in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Complete ...
Nicholas D. Kristof
My Thursday column is up and argues that instead of sending 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, we should send 40,000 schools: http://bit.ly/3wTFCH . More military force won't help, but education might. And the cost of a single soldier would pay for 20 schools. Read the column and let me know if you agree.
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Source: bit.ly
A compelling argument against more troops in Afghanistan rests on this trade-off: For the cost of a additional soldier stationed in Afghanistan for a year, nearly 20 schools could be built.
Nicholas D. Kristof
I had drinks last night with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and somebody just called my attention to the celebrity websites. Wow. They're abuzz over it. E.g. http://bit.ly/3yQREp and http://bit.ly/40OILW and a dozen more. It must be terrible to be hounded by the paparazzi, but I'm glad they use those cameras to shine a... light on important causes. Celebrity involvement in humanitarianism strikes me as better than the alternative. You agree?Read more
Source: bit.ly
It's certainly not coincidence that Angelina left Cecconi's last night with the cover of the book Half the Sky displayed prominently in her arms -- she was almost cradling it, like a baby. After all, Jolie is an ambassador for the United Nations' High Commission for Refugees. She's devoted
Nicholas D. Kristof Nell Scovell has written a brave and excellent article on what it was like to be a woman writing for David Letterman -- and in comedy generally. I think she's exactly right, that when a powerful male boss has relationships with young women in the office, that creates a hostile environment for others. Read her essay and let me know what you think: http://bit.ly/evqv4
Nicholas D. Kristof The NY Review of Books has a thoughtful review of Half the Sky and also emphasizes someting important: there should be much more pressure on Congress to back the International Violence Against Women Act. This is bipartisan legislation that addresses the mass rape in so much of the world (in Liberia, 90 percent of females over the age of three were raped, by UN estimates). So let's push for IVAWA.
