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I just finished reading Three Cups of Tea, about Greg Mortenson's work building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His organization, Central Asia Institute (CIA) supports 64 schools and 25,000 children. CIA is giving boys an alternative to extremist madrassa schools that are common in this part of the world. And giving girls who wouldn't otherwise have a shot at literacy, access to good quality education and a chance to take charge of their lives.

I heard Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, speak at MIT on Sept 18. He described the role that technology plays in helping Rwanda and other African nations develop. He was very detailed and gave us specific examples about how people are using mobile phones as their major method of communication, and for health tracking and other things like giving farmers pricing information to help them sell their crops. He mentioned that he wants Rwanda to become a technology hub in the region.

I never agreed with McCain's politics, but I used to think that he had decent intentions and was a smart guy. Not anymore. How could he have been pushed into agreeing to let Palin run with him?

Here's one of the better op-ed pieces about how poorly prepared she is. NYT, "She’s Not Ready"
By BOB HERBERT, Sept 13, 2008.

It's Sept 11, Bush gave orders to allow raids in Pakistan, the Interior dept is embroiled in corruption, yet the NYT choose to feature an article about fashion and fur coats on their home page today. What the hell?!

LA Times, Sept 4, 2008

Great video on YouTube of Joe Biden ripping into McCain and Palin

We launched the Global Health Delivery website, GHDonline.org, at the end of June. We started the project last summer with a long list of great ideas and a bit of funding. I interviewed dozens of doctors, midwives, social workers and other people working in health in Rwanda, Zambia, and other African countries to find out what these people really need. They want to be able to:

1. find good quality information fast (vsat connections and spotty power means you have to work fast!)

A workshop on Clinical Trials for Drug Resistant Tuberculosis was convened from June 10 - 12 in Cambridge, MA. A large group of scientists, practitioners, activists, donors, and regulatory experts from around the world came together to map out a strategic plan for conducting clinical trials to improve the management of DR-TB. As a member of the GHDonline team, I joined the workshop to introduce the idea of using an online community to support the group’s work. The differences in professional areas and geographic areas made for a dynamic and comprehensive discussion.

One of our GHD collaborators will be Duncan Smith-Rohrberg Maru with Nyaya Health who is building a health center in rural Nepal. The health center will be in the town of Saphe Bagar, Achham in the remote region of Far Western Nepal. This region has been ravaged by years of civil war and their health system is decimated. There is one doctor for almost a half a million people. Maternal and child mortality is extremely high.