Five Steps to Make Our Aid More Effective and Save More Than $2 Billion : Center for Global Development : Publications

Five Steps to Make Our Aid More Effective and Save More Than $2 Billion : Center for Global Development : Publications: "This brief details how the new Congress could save more than $500 million annually by eliminating unnecessary regulations currently in place that are incredibly wasteful, anticompetitive, and make it harder to carry out effective development programs abroad."

Food insecurity means few would mourn the death of Doha | Global development | guardian.co.uk

Food insecurity means few would mourn the death of Doha | Global development | guardian.co.uk:

"Officials at the WTO and leaders of several governments have launched what is said to be a 'last-ditch effort' to save the Doha development round of trade negotiations from what is seen as imminent collapse. Will it collapse? And does it matter if it does? Or in other words, what is the likelihood of such a deal, and how much would it benefit developing countries? The brief answers are: low and very little.

So far, the finger-pointing for the failure has been directed either at the US (in which domestic politics suggests little appetite for external trade negotiations), or the newly significant large emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India (that are less willing to accept what are seen as unequal terms), or the overall impact of the 'Great Recession' (which has made more countries wary of trade openness that could undermine domestic production and employment)."

U.N. Forecasts 10.1 Billion People by Century’s End - NYTimes.com

U.N. Forecasts 10.1 Billion People by Century’s End - NYTimes.com: "The population of the world, long expected to stabilize just above 9 billion in the middle of the century, will instead keep growing and may hit 10.1 billion by the year 2100, the United Nations projected in a report released Tuesday."

Time to avoid the dictatorship v democracy debate in Africa | David Booth | Global development | guardian.co.uk

Time to avoid the dictatorship v democracy debate in Africa | David Booth | Global development | guardian.co.uk: "Thanks in part to Iraq and Afghanistan, we are, decades later, backing off from this self-confident universalism. Warnings against, for example, staging elections when an inclusive elite bargain has not yet been established are now getting a hearing. In and around the World Bank, there is recognition of the dangers of a one size fits all approach to reforming institutions. We are getting accustomed to the idea that countries need to discover their own routes to progress, and that well-wishing outsiders should start by understanding country systems better"

Osama bin Laden is dead. One Buddhist’s response. — Susan Piver

Osama bin Laden is dead. One Buddhist’s response. — Susan Piver: "“…when you do not produce another force of hatred, the opposing force collapses.”– Chogyam Trungpa"

“In the Shambhala warrior tradition, we say you should only have to kill an enemy once every thousand years.” –Chogyam Trungpa

So, Osama bin Laden is dead. We killed him. There really was no choice. We were clearly in an “us or them” situation and if we didn’t kill him, he was going to continue to do everything in his power to kill us.

As Buddhists, we are supposed to abhor all killing, but what do you do when someone is trying to kill you? Obviously great theologians have pondered this question for millennia and I’m not going to try to pile on with my point of view, which would be totally useless.

Instead, I’ll pose this question: How do you kill your enemy in a way that puts a stop to violence rather than escalates it?

Strangely, I keep coming back to the same rather ordinary conclusion: the answer is in our ability to face our emotions. When we know how to relate to our anger, hatred, despair, and frustration fully and properly, they self-liberate. When we don’t, when we can’t tolerate them and therefore act them out, we create enormous sorrow and confusion.

Look at your own reaction this morning.

Was there even a hint of vengefulness or gladness at Osama bin Laden’s death? If so, that is a real problem. Whatever suffering he may have experienced cannot reverse even one moment of the suffering he caused. If you believe his death is a form of compensation, you are deluded.

There has been an outpouring of misdirected jubilation, as if a contest had been won. Nothing has been won. Unlike winning a sporting event, this doesn’t mean that our team has triumphed. Far from it. There is only one team and it is us.

One of us is gone, one apparently horrific, terrible, vicious one of us…is gone. I don’t feel regret for him or about this. I’m regretful for the rest of us who are now left thinking that this is a cause for celebration. It is not. It is a cause for sorrow at our continued inability to realize that there is no such thing as us and them; that whatever we do to cause harm to one will harm us all.

When we hate, we cause hate. When we think we have won by vanquishing our enemy, we have lost. In killing Osama bin Laden, “they” lose because one of their leaders is gone. But we lose too, because we have deepened the causes and conditions that lead to more hatred and its consequences. This is not over.

Then, what to do? I don’t really know, but for me, rather than cheering on this day, I’m going to rededicate myself to the idea of brotherhood towards all, even those that want me dead—and not because I’m some kind of really good person. I’m not. Because I know it’s the only way to stay alive—in the only kind of world I want to inhabit.

Perhaps the way to kill your enemy as a way of putting a stop to violence rather than escalating is to shift our view of “enemy” altogether. Our enemy is not one person or country or belief system. It is our unwillingness to feel the sorrow of others—who are none other than us.

So take aim at this enemy completely and precisely. Feel your sadness for us and them so fully and completely that all boundaries are dissolved and we are left standing face to face, human to human, each feeling the other’s rage and despair as our own, one world to care for.

response

“I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

BBC News - Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden dead - Barack Obama

BBC News - Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden dead - Barack Obama: "Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been killed by US forces in Pakistan, President Barack Obama has said.

Bin Laden was killed in a ground operation outside Islamabad based on US intelligence, the first lead for which emerged last August."