Foreign Policy: The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers – Foreign Policy has released its annual “portrait of 2012’s global marketplace of ideas and the thinkers who make them.” Aun San Suu Kyi and Thein Sein top the list, for demonstrating that “change can happen anywhere, even in one of the world’s most repressive states.” Moncef Marzouki, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sebastian Thrun, and Bill and Melinda Gates round out the top 5.
All Africa: Opinion: How Mobile Media Is Transforming Africa for Good – There are currently 650 million mobile phones in Africa, and the continent is now considered to be the largest market for mobile technology in the world. This mobile revolution in Africa is being used for fighting and tracking corruption, as an agricultural tool, and as a tool for crowdsourcing crisis information. (Amadou Mahtar Ba)
Houston Chronicle: Naked protesters storm Boehner’s office to protest cuts to HIV, AIDS funding – Seven naked protesters stormed Speaker John Boehner’s office on Tuesday in protest against the $1.2 billion in proposed cuts to HIV/AIDS funding under sequestration. The protesters, who were coordinated by Queerocacy, explained that the “naked truth is that if President Obama and Congressional leaders like Speaker Boehner allow these budget cuts to lifesaving programs, global health programs will lose $689 million, while domestic AIDS programs will lose $538 million.”
Devex: Richard Lugar on ending ‘disunity’ in US foreign policy – Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), the outgoing ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, provided some parting advice for stakeholders in U.S. foreign policy: “reach out more and cooperate.” Lugar notes that the U.S. Congress has been “unable to act decisively on foreign policy” because of partisanship. (Ivy Mungcal)
AFP: More than half of S. Africans ‘live in poverty’ – A new study released on Tuesday shows that approximately 52.3 percent of the people in South Africa — Africa’s wealthiest country – live below the poverty line. While South Africa ranks 29th in the world in terms of GDP, it is among the most unequal countries in the world. About a quarter of the population cannot afford decent meals.
