What We’re Reading 1/19/10

Jan 19th, 2010 12:51 PM UTC
By Robyn Mitchell

News from Haiti:

Newsweek.com: Why Haiti Matters (Editorial, Barack Obama)
President Barack Obama describes the aftermath of last week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, calling the timing of the crisis particularly upsetting because “after decades of conflict and instability – Haiti was showing hopeful signs of political and economic progress.” The president highlights the recovery plan already in place, calling it an international coordinated effort fueled by the “the resources of development agencies, the strength of our armed forced, and most important, the compassion of the American people.” Obama maintained that it is crises like these that allow us to “rediscover our common humanity,” concluding by saying that the U.S. will “lead the world in this humanitarian endeavor.” Said the president, “That has been our history, and that is how we will answer the challenge before us.”

The Washington Post: Ban Ki-Moon: What I saw in Haiti (Op-Ed, Ban Ki-Moon)
UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, describes his brief trip to Haiti to assess the role of the UN in the earthquake-stricken country’s long road to recovery. Ki-Moon emphasized the outpouring of aid and the subsequent need for the UN to lead international efforts to ensure that “essential supplies do not sit in warehouses.” The Secretary General concluded by asking the world to keep in mind the larger picture, saying “Those people on the streets of Port-au-Prince asked for jobs, dignity and a better future. That is the hope of all the world’s poor. Doing the right thing for Haiti in its hour of need will be a powerful message of hope for them as well.”

The New York Times: A Deluge of Donations via Text Messages
The New York Times reports that a push by celebrities, athletes and the first lady encouraging text-message donations for earthquake relief in Haiti has contributed to a fund-raising bonanza for the American Red Cross, which a little over a year ago turned to Congress for a bailout. As of late Sunday, the organization had collected pledges of $103 million, about $22 million of which came through the text-messaging program. Said one Red Cross spokesman, “I need a better word than ‘unprecedented’ or ‘amazing’ to describe what’s happened with the text-message program.” According to the Times, the contributions come despite well-publicized controversies over the Red Cross’s performance and financial accountability after other major disasters.

Other News:

The New York Times: U.N. Panel’s Glacier Warning Is Criticized as Exaggerated
According to the New York Times, a much-publicized estimate from a United Nations panel about the rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers from climate change is coming under fire as a gross exaggeration. The UN’s estimate that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035 has been much quoted and a cause for enormous consternation. However, it now appears that the estimate “was based on a decade-old interview of one climate scientist in a science magazine, The New Scientist, and that hard scientific evidence to support that figure is lacking.” The flawed estimate raises more questions about the panel’s vetting procedures than it does about the melting of Himalayan glaciers, which most scientists believe is a major problem.

BBC News: Mauritania fatwa bans female genital mutilation
The BBC reports that thirty four Islamic scholars in Mauritania have signed a fatwa, or religious opinion, banning the practice of female genital mutilation, stating that the procedure has been proven to be harmful. According to the BBC, many Mauritanian women have welcomed the move. Female genital mutilation has been recognized globally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women, but “that message has been slow to filter down in parts of north, east and West Africa where the practice is still widespread.” Officials argue that a publicity campaign will now be needed if the fatwa’s message is to be spread into outlying areas where genital mutilation is most common.

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