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June 29, 2007
Finance & Economics, History & Society, In Other Words, Politics & World Affairs, Travel & Life
THE FORD FOUNDATION
320 East 43rd Street
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10017
POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT
Program Officer - Economic Development
Asset Building And Community Development
Economic Development
Development Finance And Economic Security
Date Posted: 06/22/2007
Application Deadline: 10/15/2007
Summary Description: The program officer will develop and manage program activities in the field of development finance and economic security with a focus on supporting research, practice, and policy analysis that facilitate the ability of low-income people to build financial assets. The program officer will be a key member of the Economic Development Unit whose mission is to support activities that make durable economic improvements in the lives of the disadvantaged by increasing their ability to earn incomes and develop assets. The program officer will be responsible for formulating strategies that increase the access of low-income people to a wide range of financial products and services that assist them in creating financial assets. This work could include supporting: research on the impact of public sector policies and programs and private sector financial institution practices on the development of financial assets by low-income people; efforts by for-profit and nonprofit financial institutions to develop innovative financial products and services for low-income people; analysis of public sector policies that regulate the behavior of the financial system and capital markets; advocacy for more effective regulation of financial institutions to protect consumer interests and to promote affirmative financial products; research on the ability of low-income people to build and maintain financial assets; and promoting learning among practitioners.
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Filed by The Editor on June 29th, 2007
August 2, 2006
In Other Words, Politics & World Affairs, The Middle East, Travel & Life
(An article on Slate.com from another American journalist with no desire to leave the greatest city in the Middle East. I’m with Faerlie…maybe it’s time to start buying up Lebanese real estate)
Staying On: Why I’m not evacuating Beirut.
By Faerlie Wilson
BEIRUT, Lebanon—From my balcony this afternoon, I watched as French, British, and American evacuees boarded chartered cruise ships in Beirut’s port about a half-mile west of my apartment.
And over the last few days, while bombs and artillery pummeled the southern part of the city, I made the decision not to leave Lebanon. Explosions rock my building even as I write this, but I’m staying put.
I’m not crazy, and I harbor no death wish. This is simply the rational decision of someone who has built a life in Lebanon, who believes in this place and its ability to bounce back. I choose to bet on Beirut.
After five visits to Lebanon over as many years, I moved to Beirut from California this February. I’m a 24-year-old American with friends but no family here. But Lebanese hospitality makes it easy to feel at home; it’s a warm society that exudes and embodies a sense of interpersonal responsibility. Live here for two weeks and then go out of town, and you’ll get a dozen offers to pick you up at the airport upon your return.
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Filed by The Editor on August 2nd, 2006
July 12, 2006
Politics & World Affairs, The Middle East, Travel & Life
(Thoughts from the frontlines of the war in Lebanon. What I know I’ve included, and what I don’t I’ll leave up to you. Internet has been tough to find but I’ll try to keep things updated as often as I can. For more background on the conflict, check out our ongoing coverage of the Middle East)
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 | 12:01PM
Twelve plus hours after we landed in Beirut, the only civilian airport in the country was bombed by the Israeli Air Force. Apparently Hezbollah commandos crossed the Green Line last night and kidnapped two young Israeli soldiers, just weeks after a soldier was held for ransom by Hamas guerillas in Gaza City. Israel retaliated swiftly by taking half of the Palestinian Authority hostage and pounding the capital with missiles. Here in Lebanon, people expect the IDF to follow a similar protocol: first blasting from above, then invading with armoured vehicles for the first time in over six years. Whispers have begun to circulate about a march all the way to Beirut.
The whole episode raises obvious questions about connections to broader Islamic militancy, in a region already terrorized by conspiracy and unbounded nationalism. Despite its many conflicts with Shi’ism over the centuries, Syria’s Sunni leadership stands accused by the international community of funding Hezbollah’s occupation in the south, along with wealthy Shi’a extremists in nearby Iran. Even today, decades after their initial political and military intervention, the Syrians hold considerable sway in Lebanese domestic and international affairs, locked in a perpetual arm-wrestle with Israel over control of the Fertile Crescent. The country was also fingered in the assassination last summer of former Lebanese president/billionaire reconstructionist, Rafik Hariri, and is still perceived by students of the region’s tumultuous history as anything but neutral.
Perhaps it is this same Damascus connection (with their sponsors in Tehran) that has generated nothing but silence from international power brokers. Perhaps it is the threat of bilateral nuclear war. With the region set to convulse, armed conflict now seems inevitable. Extremists in Gaza and elsewhere are slowly wiping out centuries of misguided Western diplomacy and replacing it with Iraqi-style chaos and a new axis of Arab power, free of Judeo-Christian influence and foreign resource control. To be fair, a sustained regional peace has eluded local tribes since the rise of ancient Jericho over 11,000 years ago, but without any enlightened negotiation or creative political compromise — and a really long history lesson for leaders on both sides — hostilities aren’t likely to vanish any time soon, and the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel will likely escalate into a broader regional war.
Such a wonderful backdrop for my cousin’s wedding. Glad I brought my nicest suit.
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Filed by The Editor on July 12th, 2006
March 9, 2006
In Other Words, Science & Technology, Travel & Life
(How can you compare the human body to an athletic shoe? Or worse still, the internal combustion engine? Those libertarians over at the Cato Institute have been sniffing some serious salt. With cardiac surgery approaching $100,000 a pop in the hands of the private sector, I’d be willing to bet that a 25-week wait in publicly-funded Sweden sounds pretty damn good to a Mexican waiter in Queens, or a Persian schoolteacher in East L.A. Which raises the obvious question: who’s health in really under the public’s beneficent care? Is it the endlessly wealthy or the helplessly weak? The answer, it turns out, is neither — unless you’re a surgeon or a pharma rep…)
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Filed by The Editor on March 9th, 2006
February 8, 2006
Politics & World Affairs, Travel & Life
BAN KIUKACHAM—It isn’t everywhere you can get a pound of soft narcotics for less than $5. Nor is it everywhere that a mere 2/5ths of the population can read and write in their native tongue. In this forgotten place, nestled deep within the rugged mountains and lush valleys of the Mekong River, the people of Laos have finally found their salvation. This time around, it comes in the form of an untrained, unarmed, unstoppable Canadian philanthropist and, of all things, her schoolhouse full of kids.
It’s early November 2005, on a bitter-cold evening at the Academy of Spherical Arts, Toronto’s reigning upscale hangout for a mix of billiards and business. The room is filled with friends and supporters, family and strangers, and plenty of fresh sushi and roast beef. One-of-a-kind paintings hang from the exposed brick walls, and the silent charity auction keeps them under careful watch for most of the night. By 10:00, that same art has raised enough financial support to send over 2,000 books to the children of rural Laos.
On stage, a string of impressive international artists, comedians and musicians keep the audience at bay, as the real star of the evening, the graceful 30 year old painter and social activist, Sylvia Charczuk, prepares to give the crowd their first real taste of child poverty in 21st century Asia.
In the so-called Kingdom of the Million Elephants, the Laoation people have discovered the ultimate paradox. Yet another tragedy of misguided French imperialism, the country found itself both unwilling and unable to deal with the colonial vacuum of power that formed in the wake of World War II. With France no longer around to guide them through the subtle nuances of Bretton Woods and the Marshall Plan, and a string of domestic politicians too weak and corrupt to govern for themselves, Laos was forced to look beyond its borders once again for guidance and support. Not surprisingly, there were two very eager volunteers waiting quietly in the wings.
On the left of Laos’ impressionable post-War parliament, Kong Le’s neutralists slipped all too easily under the spell of Russian support, while the rightist Nosavan regime found its political salvation in the welcoming arms of the United States Army. So began the Vietnam War, in the heart of the Siamese peninsula, and with the world’s only remaining superpowers flexing smugly on both sides, the fault lines were painfully obvious.
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Filed by The Editor on February 8th, 2006
January 10, 2006
Fiction & Art, Travel & Life
2005 was a turning point of sorts; more sideways than forward, but welcome in every sense of the word. Writing became a very important priority, and it looks to remain so for quite some time. As I continue to explore the real reason I’m here, in this place, at this time, with ideas that are still begging for a place among the gentle white pages of history, I’ve come to realize something tremendously important: thought itself is fleeting without action. In fact, when left alone to brood and fester, thought is the very essence of inertia, like a cold and unmoveable stone, tied to the ankle of every brilliant idea you’ve ever had.
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Filed by The Editor on January 10th, 2006