International | Corruption

IMF’s Christine Lagarde: “When The World Goes Downhill, We Thrive”

When we wrote earlier that based on a leaked Wikileaks transcript, which the Greek government interpreted “as revealing an IMF effort to blackmail Athens with a possible credit event to force it to give in on pension cuts which it has rejected”, the article promptly went viral. While it remains to be determined if the IMF indeed made such an implied threat, we attribute this spike in interest to the general public’s surprise that the IMF could stoop to such a low, even by its own standards, level as to use a nation of 11 million people as a lab rat on which to conduct policy experiments.

International | Ethics

Why More Women in Law Enforcement Means a More Just and Peaceful World

Source: Huffington Post

When I was 11, my family visited Washington, D.C., and the absolute highlight of the trip was a tour of FBI Headquarters. Without giving away the "state secret" of my age, suffice it to say that J. Edgar Hoover was very much alive and also the Director of the FBI at the time. I asked the guide a question that day that turned out to be quite prescient: "Can girls be FBI agents?" His response: "No, because girls would spend all their time painting their nails." At that tender age, encouraged by parents who told me I had no limits in life, I recognized how incredible his response was. Fifteen

International | Culture

7 Things You Don’t Know About Mother’s Day’s Dark History

Source: National Geographic

The holiday started as an antiwar statement. But battles over who owned Mother's Day kept coming. Mother's Day seems harmless enough. Treat mom to brunch. Buy flowers. Good times. But the story of the modern holiday—which is celebrated this Sunday in the United States and many other nations—is rife with controversy, conflict, and consumerism run amok. Some strange-but-true facts you probably don't know: 1. Mother’s Day started as an anti-war movement. Anna Jarvis is most often credited with founding Mother's Day in the United States. Designated as the

International | Activism

Source: 50.50

Massive world military spending is driven by the profit motive of the arms industry and politicians’ weaponized notion of ‘security’. But women peace activists also hold militarized masculinity to account. Unsurprisingly, world disarmament has featured prominently in the WILPF events in The Hague this week. It is, after all, the key goal in WILPF’s long struggle with national governments and the international system since the Armistice of 11 November 1918. On WILPF’s birthday, 28 April, we mounted a symbolic action outside the World Forum. Thousands of red plastic discs, sym

International | Environment

Sylvia Earle: There’s Still Time to Save the Oceans

Source: Take Part

The legendary oceanographer talks about why she crisscrosses the globe to protect marine life Pioneering oceanographer Sylvia Earle’s lifelong affinity for the ocean began early. “When I was three years old I got knocked over by a wave, and the ocean got my attention,” she told me at DOER Marine, the ocean technology company in Alameda, California, that she founded. It’s held her attention ever since. A former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and current National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence, Earle has led dozens of deep-sea missions

International | Culture

A Better World, Run by Women

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Male biology has brought the world war, corruption and scandal. Women are poised to lead us to a better place. Research has found that women are superior to men in most ways that will count in the future, and it isn’t just a matter of culture or upbringing—although both play their roles. It is also biology and the aspects of thought and feeling shaped by biology. It is because of chromosomes, genes, hormones and brain circuits. There is every reason to think that a future national hierarchy staffed and led by women who no longer have to imitate men, dealing with other nations similarly

International | Ethics

‘Big pharma profiteering must be stopped’ – Doctors Without Borders chief Dr Joanne Liu

Source: RT

Oksana Boyko is joined by Dr Joanne Liu, the International President of Doctors Without Borders discussing the need for new drugs and vaccines is clear, the research is often driven by profit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnkk9xMAamU