The Realist Idealist

(I first posted this on It’s Getting Hot in Here and Power Vote while at Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
At today’s Clinton Global Initiative, Al Gore said for the first time in public that we are at a point in our world’s history, and in need of such immediate action, that if you are [...]

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Yes, the pensions of the 1990’s are slowly disappearing. It makes sense - companies have been negotiating with unions and the like with promises that, as demographics have shifted (people began living longer and retiring earlier), they cannot afford over the long term.
But, it’s worse than that.
Cash invested in Pensions is tax deductible. [...]

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Just above Ben Stein’s column in yesterday’s Sunday Times (telling us that things really aren’t that bad in our nation’s economy …Bueller? Bueller? …anyone?) was a piece by Alan Blinder with the title “A Modest Proposal: Eco Friendly Stimulus”

The gist of Blinder’s proposal can be boiled down to providing “cash” to low-income Americans for their [...]

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“The current race is to see who will control renewable energy technologies, and we are in the race,” Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil told reporters. “We have the human and financial resources, and we have the will.”
Minister Khelil’s statement was made in the recent announcement that Algeria is undertaking a massive initiative to generate enough [...]

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This six part series by Richard Behar of Fast Company entitled “China in Africa” is the single best piece of investigative journalism I’ve read in months. Maybe years. Maybe ever.

Behar breaks down and brilliantly weaves the geo-political, business, governmental, community, historical, and personality issues that plague a handful of resource-rich countries across the sub-Saharan [...]

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…as very well she should be.
Back in May, Tom Brokaw was quoted as saying Jon Stewart’s “role is important” in the media, and if for no other reason than more young people get their “news” through the Daily Show than any other source, he’d be right. The funny thing (no pun intended) is just [...]

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My $600 Bush-proffered economic stimulus hit my bank account a couple weeks ago and ever since I’ve been trying to figure out how to spend it.  Actually, “give” it, is probably a better way to think about it.
A quick run through of my living room will reveal a glaring emptiness (actually there are two large [...]

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Making good things (actually) happen is hard.
On any large scale, trying to make the world a bit better place is messy and complicated and almost always full of the same back-room shenanigans chronicled throughout the political, business, and tech sectors, but with one not-so-small difference: everyone involved acts like it’s not, and almost no one [...]

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On December 5th, I was at a White House gathering for International Volunteer Day where Global Giving and Volunteers for Prosperity announced a public-private partnership that creates an incentive (by providing matching grants) to those Americans who want to volunteer abroad. It was exciting then to be sure, but like most things, we knew [...]

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One of my favorite organizations of the last six months is Avaaz.org - who I learned of through one of their staff, Ben Wikler, based here in DC.  They are essentially the MoveOn.org for international issues.
So far this week Avaaz has amassed over 450,000 signatures in a petition to Chinese president Hu Jintao that [...]

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