A Call to Action: In Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

I enjoy my work for Congress and knowing that the reports I work on influence public policy. However with all the suffering in the world, I long to do more.

The issue of human rights is something that I have always found interesting and engaging. My previous volunteer work with the ACLU and Amnesty International focused closely on civil and political rights. I really enjoyed this but came to focus more on social and economic issues in my own work. While both social and economic rights are found in the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they are often downplayed or ignored.

Recently, Amartya Sen, a nobel prize winning economist, (and one of the primary inspirations for my M.A. thesis) wrote an article on the legacy and future of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His article is a great read and highlights the positive effects human rights have had in many areas. Sen has grappled closely with the critiques of human rights in two of his books, Development as Freedom and, more recently, in The Idea of Justice. His work has helped me to think more broadly about rights and obligations and what role an individual can play in creating a more just world.

This brings me to the purpose for posting this on the day we recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. and his noble work for social justice. Amnesty International recently refocused their work to more concretely include social and economic rights. The current Secretary General of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, wrote The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights to highlight this broadening of focus. The book is well-written and very approachable. It highlights the human rights implications of poverty and that the poor are more likely to lack adequate protections of their rights (and thus face significant hardship).

Along with this book, Amnesty International has started a new campaign called Demand Dignity. The campaign (and associated website) are in the early stages and focus on a simple message:

No solution without human rights at its core will have any long-term, sustainable impact on the lives of those in poverty.

It highlights some of the statistics that got me involved in activism over a decade ago:

• 963 million go to bed hungry each night
• 1 billion people live in slums
• One woman dies every minute in childbirth
• 2.5 billion people have no access to adequate sanitation services
• 20,000 children die every day from poverty

Sadly, in the ten years since becoming aware of these facts, little has changed. Times are tough -- both here in the U.S. and around the world. Without a more consistent and a sustained push for a more socially just world we will likely face these same grim statistics ten, twenty, or fifty years from now. Such a fate is too terrible to conceive. I hope you will consider getting involved as well.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Global Democracy: Beginning of a New Era?

As a new decade dawns, many people are asking whether this is all there is. The notion that the world will always progress has been called into question by the latest world economic downturn. Stalled progress on a variety of health, security, and humanitarian measures highlights that our future is far from predetermined. The vacuum of democratic power at the international level has been recognized as a possible reason for this and other problems. National interests dominate at bodies like the United Nations, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. There is little sustained international collaboration, as each country seeks to protect its interests foremost, often at the expense of a global good. Conferences and international meetings can only do so much to highlight current problems. Most governments regard the reports generated by these meetings as merely information. They rarely are implemented into workable public policies.

There are currently efforts to create a more democratic and participatory United Nations. I applaud these efforts, though I fear they lack broad enough appeal to be implemented any time soon. It is certainly hard to imagine that countries would be willing to give up any substantive powers to these bodies. However, a more democratic international community would allow low- to middle-income countries to finally be able to apply the necessary pressure to get high-income countries to sufficiently open their markets to their goods. It would also allow the world to move toward an economic system where environmental, humanitarian, and social well-being can be included in the price of goods. Those goods made under regimes with lax environmental regulations, poor worker protections, and oppression would reflect these social negatives in their price. Only then would places like China be forced to interrupt the "race to the bottom" in terms of workers rights and environmental protections.

While I recognize that such substantive reforms are unlikely, at least in the short term, they are necessary for social justice. A socially just world is only possible when the people of the world can hold nations, international bodies, and corporations accountable for their actions.

You may say I'm a dreamer...

Keeping Up

Despite all of the social media sites and the availability of abundant and quick communication outlets, I am finding it challenging to keep up with friends. Emails back and forth languish in that "we have a shared history" area but can't quite make the transition over to "what is going on in your day-to-day" place. It is hard to know what people are interested in knowing about your daily existence. I know for me, my job keeps me busy; and facebook, blogs, and random texts can only go so far in remaining close to the friends I miss most. For now I am fine with our relationships being dependent on social networking sites, e-mails, and texts. But over time, I can't help but imagine it will ensure the decline of some relationships to mere acquaintance status.

However, I definitely think it is worth the effort to keep these relationships going. It will be nice to travel to see some of our friends in different parts of the U.S (and Canada). I hope this post doesn't sound overly negative, it is more of an attempt to put into words what I see going on with myself and other friends in similar situations.

Information Culs-De-Sac

Many news agencies today are known more for their political leanings than their journalistic integrity. Journalism, for many people, has become simply another form of entertainment. This has led to increasingly polarized discussions of key issues, as not even the basic facts of a discussion can be agreed upon. When news outlets only serve to reinforce the biases of their consumers, they are failing in their fundamental duties. I certainly understand the need for specialized sources, and that many are serving a niche audience. However, in an age of intellectual laziness, where many people can't understand the difference between opinion and research, it is hard to justify such low standards are being continued.

However, it is hard to imagine a rapid improvement in the state of the mass media outlets. Particularly when Faux News had its best year ever, in terms of ratings. This is especially disheartening as repeated polls have shown that Fox News viewers are among the most poorly informed. Until these supposed 'news' agencies begin challenging the respective biases of their viewers, it is difficult to imagine coherent debates on important issues.

UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

A recent article highlights the stunning and tragic statistics on violence against women in the world. It is something that often goes unreported and is unknown. I am continually amazed at how unaware people are regarding these issues.

Issues of violence are often closely linked with issues of power. This is particularly true for violence against women. Women all over the world face systematic discrimination. This is most exemplified in many middle- and low-income countries where women produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food but only own around 1 percent of the land. This huge power differential creates a situation where women are not represented in society. Their marginal position opens them to violence of all types, much of which comes from a woman's family or acquaintances.

I hear solutions such as education pushed as panaceas to this problem. Even in countries with high education there are still fundamental inequities in pay and power which are experienced by women at all levels of society (e.g., pay disparity gaps, likelihood of experiencing poverty and hunger, etc.). Until women have the opportunity for substantive political representation, their situation will not change. Those countries where women have the largest political power (meaningful inclusion in ruling parties, civil society, and bureaucracies) are those with the lowest levels of violence against women. Some will ask what comes first, respect for women or women in positions of political power? I would say that they reinforce and sustain each other, but must be backed by all who would favor a more just world.

People rejoiced the overthrow of the Taliban, believing that the role of women in society would change in a post-Taliban Afghanistan. Many people falsely believe that women are in a substantively better position than they were under the Taliban. A recent article highlights that this has not been the case. Violence against women continues and under the lawlessness created by this war, it is hard to track. Women leaders in Afghanistan face serious risks of violence against them and their families. The central government is powerless to stop it, even within Kabul. And even if it had the power, it is unclear whether it would expend any of its resources to tackle this problem.

The adoption of Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979 was a bold gesture which has not been sufficiently supported. The future is murky on women's rights. While progress has been made in these 30 years, the structures that created such discrimination then have not fundamentally changed. Until we take a serious look at what underlies women's marginalization, we stand to simply repeat the injustices of the past.

Google Waves of Grief

I recently received my invite to Google Wave and am finding it quite interesting. I have always considered myself an early adopter of new technologies and this is quite an interesting one. However, I continue to be troubled by the lengths to which companies such as Google will go to secure market share in China. Their willingness to censor links is deplorable and it is really difficult to understand how they could find such moves ethical.

The possibilities for international collaboration made possible through Google Wave simply highlights how contradictory censoring the internet for Chinese consumption is. What steps has and will Google take to censor users from China using Google Wave? At what point will Google and other companies like it realize that there is no market share worth fundamentally undermining the human rights of others? It is hard to imagine how these decisions were made, or how those who made them can continue to pretend they are doing no harm.

If silence is consent, then censoring under the direction of a totalitarian state is collusion. History never judges such treason lightly.

A Year On

This week marked my one year anniversary of working at GAO. It has gone by very quickly but I really feel like I have come a long ways and also settled in nicely. I was extremely pleased with my one year review and also with the shape of the first report I worked on. It is coming to a close and will likely be published in early 2010.

I definitely feel like I have a more clear perspective on GAO and my role within it. I feel like there are a lot of great opportunities that I will be able to take advantage of while I am there. Having just attended my first meeting with Congressional staff, and seeing how interested they were in our findings, I can definitely understand why many people stay at GAO their whole career. There were recently retirement parties for two people who had both been there around 40 years. At this point in my life, it is hard to imagine going to the same place for a year, let alone half of your life.

I am finding my new project even more engaging than my first one. It is on a topic I have quite a bit of familiarity with and it has some important policy implications depending on what we find. Also, given pending health care reform, our findings could indicate the likely success (or failure) of some of the provisions that are currently included. While the report won't be out before health reform is passed, it will certainly be something that could spur further reforms, particularly when the program we are looking at comes back up for reauthorization in a few years.