FROM a Great Canadian and World Statesman

"A great gulf... has... opened between man's material advance and his social and moral progress, a gulf in which he may one day be lost if it is not closed or narrowed..." Lester B Pearson http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1957/pearson-lecture.html

Sunday 3 December 2006

News, Announcements & Reviews

PREAMBLE: PacificSci is transitioning its current affairs material to this blog format. The material below has been selected and extracted from our News & Reports site:

 NEWS..............................................................
2006 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE to Muhammad Yunus & Grameen Bank, Bangladesh: for "efforts to create economic and social development from below". For more information visit: http://www.nobelprize.org/

DARFUR ON THE BRINK OF GENOCIDE: For this report and background history, visit the BBC website: http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3496731.stm

SENLIS COUNCIL September 5 NEWS RELEASE ON CONDITIONS IN AFGHANISTAN: For this independent analysis of serious deficits in genuine development aid in the face of a humanitarian crisis, visit: http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules

The GAZA HEALTH CRISIS: The UN warns of an increasingly desperate humanitarian crisis because of western economic boycotts, and an Israeli military offensive. Source: http://www.globalhealth.org/news/article/7853/newsletter

WORLD URBAN FORUM: From June 19-23, 2006, participants from 150 nations met in Vancouver for the UN-HABITAT's 3rd World Urban Forum (WUF), to examine sustainable solutions to critical problems facing cities. PacificSci is a WUF Communications Partner. For more information: http://www.unhabitat.org/wuf AND http://www.wuf3-fum3.ca

 ANNOUNCEMENTS............................................................

HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT GUIDE: Released in April 2006, this Irish Institute of Public Health guide outlines how to adapt HIA to local settings. Online at: http://www.publichealth.ie/index.asp?locID=489&docID=581

LAUNCH OF ExpandNet WEBSITE: This new network provides a bibliography of scaling-up literature, many with web links, drawing from health service innovations tested in pilot and demonstration projects. Online at: http://www.expandnet.net

 DOCUMENT REVIEWS.........................................................

The WORLD HEALTH REPORT 2006 (WHR) - working together for health: Released 7 April, the report assesses the global health human resource crisis and proposals to tackle it. Source: http://www.who.int/whr/2006/en/

FIRST PUBLICATION OF PAKISTAN'S HEALTH POLICY FORUM (PHPF): The "Gateway Paper" on Pakistan's Health Systems: a Way Forward was released on January 9, 2006. For PHPF evidence-based documents, visit: http://www.heartfile.org

 FILM REVIEW..............................................................

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH presents the view of former US Presidential candidate Al Gore that global warming is an urgent moral issue. This may be the most important documentary of 2006. For more information: http://www.climatecrisis.net

 BOOK REVIEWS..............................................................
50 FACTS THAT SHOULD CHANGE THE WORLD: These facts reveal the world’s absurd inequalities … 5 examples:
* Every EU cow is subsidized by $2.50 a day, more than 75% of what Africans have to live on.
* China has 44 million missing women.
* Landmines kill or maim at least one person every hour.
* Over 70 % of the world’s population has never heard a dial tone.
* The average urban Briton is caught on camera up to 300 times a day.
Reference: Jessica Williams. 50 facts that should change the world. Icon Books. 2004. For more information: http://www.iconbooks.co.uk/book.cfm?isbn=1-84046-547-6

THE WEATHER MAKERS: A scientific treatise on global warming for those who care about the planet; a call for leadership beyond the vision of election cycles. If nothing is done, the 21st century will see conditions not experienced in 40 million years. Reference: Flannery T. The Weather Makers. Harper-Collins. 2005. For more information: http://www.theweathermakers.com

SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: this acclaimed work documents the failure of the world's most powerful to prevent genocide in Rwanda: "The international community of which the UN is only a symbol, failed to move beyond self-interest... While most nations agreed that something should be done, they all had an excuse why they should not be the ones to do it." Reference: Shake Hands with the Devil, by Romeo Dallaire. Vintage Canada Edition 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/storyville/shake-hands-devil.shtml

THANKS FOR VISITING PacificSci GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES!

INSPIRATIONAL WELCOME ............................... from T.S.Eliot's "Little Gidding"

If you came this way From the place you would come from... It would be the same at the end of the journey... If you came, not knowing what you came for, It would be the same... And what you thought you came for Is only a shell, a husk of meaning... From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled If at all.