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Category: Commentary

Humanitarian Aid for Rape Victims

An editorial in the New York Times last week:

On his third day in office, President Obama issued an executive order lifting the odious “global gag rule” that denied federal money for family planning work abroad to any group that performed abortions or counseled about the procedure, even with its own money. But he left standing another policy that imposes similar speech restrictions and bans using foreign aid money for abortions — even to save a woman’s life or in cases of rape in war zones like Congo, Sudan and Burma.

“Hope and Hype Outpace Proven Treatments”: Sounds Familiar?

You would think this New York Times article is about aid and development, especially when glancing at the subtitles (“A Theory Becomes a Fad,” “Conflicting Studies,” “The Next Big Thing”), but I guarantee it’s not:

“But now researchers are questioning many of the procedures, including new ones that often have no rigorous studies to back them up.

Brooks Goes Kristof

A column by David Brooks in Monday’s New York Times, which seems to have gone unnoticed by the development chatterati:

“As you talk to people involved in the foreign aid business — on the giving and the receiving ends — you are struck by how much disillusionment there is.