2013-03-27

Saving The Lives Of 4 Million Children In 1,000 Days | LinkedIn

Saving The Lives Of 4 Million Children In 1,000 Days | LinkedIn


What will you do with the next 1,000 days of your life? Buy a car? Change jobs? Lose those 10 extra pounds? Save the lives of 4.4 million children?
On December 31, 2015, 1,000 days from April 6, we’ll reach the deadline for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. These goals represent the most important effort to improve lives in history, endorsed by leaders from 193 countries and 23 international agencies, and they include three that are dedicated to global health, focused largely on children under 5 and pregnant mothers:
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality — specifically, reducing by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health — including reducing by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Other Diseases— including eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV and reducing deaths from malaria to near zero
To reach the goal of decreasing deaths of children who have not yet reached their fifth birthday to 4 million in 2015, we estimate that 4.4 million children’s deaths must be averted in the next 1,000 days. Can the global community from the South, North, East and West, government leaders, business people, community health workers, moms and dads and students across the world work together to reach this goal?
With the progress we have seen in the last decade my answer is a simple Yes.
Despite population growth, the number of deaths in children under the age of five worldwide has declined from 12 million in 1990 to 6.9 million in 2011, which translates into about 14,000 fewer children dying each day. Maternal mortality has been nearly halved, going from 540,000 deaths during pregnancy and childbirth to fewer than 287,000 today (though access to reproductive health still remains inadequate). To meet our goal of reducing maternal deaths to an annual number of 140,000 by December 31, 2015, we estimate that we will have to avert 230,000 casualties of pregnant women between now and then.
The malaria story is perhaps the most amazing of all. In 2005, as I was broadening the scope of my philanthropic work and learning more about global poverty and development, I was shown a photo of six tiny children, two or three years old, dressed in the brightly-patterned fabrics characteristic of southeastern Africa, sleeping together on a blanket. I learned however that these beautiful children were not sleeping —they were in malaria-induced comas, and most would never get up. I was deeply saddened, but more importantly I was motivated to find a way to do something. What could be done?
It turns out that the answer was — a lot.
Malaria has been sickening and killing men, women, and particularly children around the world for as far back as history can say. The latest DNA analysis of the mummified remains of King Tutankhamun suggests he died of severe malaria. Today, thirty-three centuries later, millions of people are suffering in the same way, with many dying, most of them small children like the ones I saw in the photo.
A blood disease caused by the Plasmodium parasite, malaria is spread from person to person by a startlingly specific cause—the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito. Once it enters the bloodstream, the parasite finds its way to the liver, where it multiplies, causing symptoms that include fever, headaches, and vomiting. If cerebral malaria develops, it can lead to comas, life-long learning disabilities, and death.
In parts of the world, thanks to the draining of mosquito-breeding swamps, indoor residual spraying and effective medicines, malaria is now virtually unknown, suffered only by a relative handful of travelers who come into contact with the parasite during overseas visits to countries with malaria. (Golf star Natalie Gulbis recently contracted the disease during a tour of Asia.) But for almost half the world’s population, the disease is still rampant. Just over a decade ago, more than a million children under the age of five were dying horrible deaths from the disease every year. It was just one of a number of timeless scourges, many of them long eradicated in the West, that seemed to be a permanent fixture in the Global South.
Yet today, remarkably, there’s reason for hope. Reason to believe that with controlling malaria and the other conditions that lead to child deaths, we can save more than 4 million lives in the next 1,000 days.
Over the past seven years, deaths from malaria have fallen from more than 1 million to about 600,000 in Africa —still far too many, yet a dramatic reduction by any measure. Keys to the improvement: Leadership from the countries where malaria occurs, to end these preventable deaths; recently-developed diagnostic tools; targeted mosquito-spraying programs; new medicines that can save an infected child for just a dollar; and, crucially, the distribution and use of millions of mosquito nets treated with insecticide. It turns out that in Africa theAnopheles does her biting mostly after 10 p.m. So if an African mother puts her children to bed under a net, the likelihood they’ll contract malaria reduces dramatically. Moreover, when the mosquito lands on the net, it dies because of the insecticide – thereby breaking the cycle of transmission.
Why is this happening today after decades of struggle against the disease? Because we’ve finally pieced together the requisite combination of effective prevention and treatment, public awareness, political will, business tools, collaboration and funding from the global community—the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the World Bank, the private sector, contributions from countries around the globe like the United States and United Kingdom, and ALMA, an alliance of heads of state and government of 49 African nations. In the five years since UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked me to become his Special Envoy For Malaria, our partners have raised over $4 billion, distributed over 400 million mosquito nets, provided millions of courses of medical treatment, and saved almost a million lives.
On one of my earliest trips to Africa, I saw hundreds of stricken boys and girls like those in that original photo, crowding clinics and hospitals two to a bed, many having arrived too late to be saved. But more recently, I’ve visited hospitals where the pediatric wards are practically empty—where the sound of parents sobbing no longer fills the air. That dramatic change should inspire all of us-- those who are far away from the problem, and crucially, those volunteers, doctors, nurses, health aides, and other frontline health workers who have devoted their lives to supporting healthier communities.
The momentum has been on our side. Yet we’re now at an historic crossroads—a moment when the progress we’ve made is threatened and when the future of this promising movement may soon be decided. What can we do in 1,000 days…?
The past year has seen a slowdown in contributions by national governments to the Global Fund. The result is a current shortfall of approximately $3.6 billion in the funding required for anti-malaria programs between now and 2015. Of that total, to prevent immediate backsliding and a loss of much of the progress already made, some $2.4 billion is urgently required, including $1 billion in Nigeria alone, the country with the highest malaria burden.
The fact that progress has been so impressive and hopes are so high, makes today’s funding crisis all the more heartbreaking—and all the more urgent. Fortunately, there are signs of a turnaround. Just a few weeks ago, the Global Fund released its largest funding round in almost three years.
This column is the first in a series of reports I plan to provide on the continuing efforts to achieve the health Millennium Development Goals by our December 31, 2015 deadline. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has been a tireless leader in this quest and has appropriately coined the goals as “Every Woman, Every Child.” In the weeks to come, I'll share with you some fascinating glimpses of intriguing, inspiring people and the work they’re doing to make this ambitious goal come true—community health workers traveling the dusty roads on foot, armed with precious medicines and life-saving mosquito-killing mosquito nets; local religious leaders, Christian and Muslim, who have banded together to create educational programs to spread life-saving knowledge to thousands of local villages; unwavering Africa leaders who have committed their administrations to this cause; and some of the world’s most brilliant researchers, racing against time to develop vaccines that may make malaria, AIDS, and other illnesses things of the past.
I'll also explain exactly what you can do to make a difference. Increased public awareness—and the political will it engenders—has been a major factor in the progress we’ve achieved so far. Ending death from diseases like malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, pneumonia and diarrhea is now possible and can be accomplished at little cost. If we hope to finish the job in the next two years and nine months, your support will be crucial. We need you to spread the word—and in these columns, I will do my best to provide the ammunition you need to do just that.
Will you join us in the effort to save the lives of more than 4 million children by the end of 2015? The next 1000 Days? The countdown begins April 6.
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Saving The Lives Of 4 Million Children In 1,000 Days | LinkedIn

What will you do with the next 1,000 days of your life? Buy a car? Change jobs? Lose those 10 extra pounds? Save the lives of 4.4 million children? On December 31, 2015, 1,000 days from April 6, we’ll reach the deadline for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. These goals represent the most important effort to improve lives in history, endorsed by leaders from 193 countries and 23 international agencies, and they include three that are dedicated to global health, focused largely on children under 5 and pregnant mothers: Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality — specifically, reducing by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health — including reducing by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Other Diseases— including eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV and reducing deaths from malaria to near zero To reach the goal of decreasing deaths of children who have not yet reached their fifth birthday to 4 million in 2015, we estimate that 4.4 million children’s deaths must be averted in the next 1,000 days. Can the global community from the South, North, East and

2013-03-21

Help stop the UK Governments plan to retrospectively change a law, one which they had broken! | Campaigns by You

Dear Lord Prescott On the 19th of March 2013 the House of Commons passed a Bill which will allow the Government to retrospectively change a law, a law which the Tory Government had broken, to protect themselves and ensure they do not have to face the consequences of their illegal actions. In this case it was in relation to the illegality of the controversial Workfare scheme. This Bill was passed solely to protect the Government from having to reimburse job-seekers of the money which they illegally sanctioned from them. Labour assisted with rushing through of the Bill by deciding to abstain from the vote. Labour had always prided itself on the mantra of a fair days pay for a fair days work - obviously up until yesterday - when they allowed this to pass. By Labour abstaining from the vote it sends a strong message that they are no longer for the working people of Britain. The absence of courage to stand up for what was right has been noted by the public. We, the undersigned, ask you and the House of Lords please, do not allow this Bill to go through any further. Changing the law, retrospectively, sends a dangerous message that the Government are above the law and precedent

UK Hindu's Challenge British Wheel Rule

UK HINDU'S CHALLENGE BRITISH WHEEL RULE Category: Frontpage Published on Tuesday, 19 March 2013 19:34 Hits: 172 British Wheel of Yoga accused of "Colonial Arrogance and Religious Denigration" as it tries to enforce its dubious status as the "Governing Body of Yoga".    "ONE WHEEL TO RULE THEM ALL...... AND ONE WHEEL TO BIND THEM, ONE WHEEL TO BRING THEM ALL AND IN THE DARKNESS BIND THEM! IN THE LAND OF SLEAFORD WHERE THE GRASPING YOGIS LIE.." Great Britain, the birthplace of the Slave trade, the Pillaging Crusades, the Zulu wars, the rape of India, the Malaysia and Amritsar massacres ..... the Fountainhead of Domination and Control .... meets Yoga! So what is it about this little grey rock stuck in the cold waters of the Eastern Atlantic which spawns so many control freaks? If it sits still long enough, quick .. fear it, regulate it, control it!.... What started with the best of intentions has long become a byword for control freakery and domination, the very antithesis of its purpose the support of the practices for the liberation of the human spirit. The latest news is that the hitherto sleeping (like Vishnu!) largest community of Yoga practitioners in the UK, the Hindu's th

Rocky Mountain Innocence Center

CHEYENNE, WYOMING – Today attorneys for the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center (RMIC) filed a motion in Wyoming’s First District Court on behalf of Andrew Johnson, a man convicted of sexual assault and aggravated burglary over 23 years ago. Initial tests on the newly found DNA evidence confirm his innocence.

Mr. Johnson was arrested for first-degree sexual assault and aggravated burglary in June of 1989. Mr. Johnson has maintained his innocence throughout his trial and has continued to do so during his over 23 years spent in a Wyoming state prison.

RMIC Managing Attorney, and co-counsel on the case, Elizabeth Fasse stated, “The Rocky Mountain Innocence Center has been working on Andrew’s case for over 10 years. We are confident the Wyoming judicial system will do the right thing and exonerate Andrew.”

“We’ve been pleased to be able to work closely with Laramie County District Attorney Scott Homar to correct Andrew’s wrongful conviction,” says Attorney Aaron J. Lyttle, of Long Reimer Winegar, Beppler LLP, and Wyoming co-counsel on the case.

Mr. Johnson’s potential exoneration would not have been legally possible just a few short years ago. Prior to 2008, the state of Wyoming did not have a statute in place providing prisoners with a right to petition courts for DNA testing in their cases. RMIC, working closely with prosecutors in Wyoming, helped to draft the law allowing Wyoming prisoners to petition for DNA testing to prove their innocence.

“Wyoming state officials and legislators should be applauded for passing legislation that gave Andrew a chance to prove his innocence,” stated RMIC Executive Director Jennifer Hare Salem.

A hearing on the motion for a new trial has yet to be scheduled.

 

The Rocky Mountain Innocence Center is a non-profit organization working to correct and prevent the conviction of innocent people in Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming.  RMIC also conducts outreach and education about the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions and promotes legal reforms to prevent the conviction of innocent people.

###

Press Coverage:

Casper Star Tribune

Local News, News. -->

£6m Harlech Castle development

Green light for £6m castle developments

21 March 2013

Planning officials have given the go-ahead to a multi-million-pound development at Harlech Castle. The Snowdonia National Park Authority (SNPA) planning committee carried out a site visit before approving the plans with conditions.

The plans include turning the ground floor of the former Castle Hotel into a visitor centre and converting the upper floors into five self-contained visitor apartments, as well as creating a new café, and a new more accessible bridge from the visitor centre to the castle.

The castle currently attracts 93,000 visitors a year but it is hoped that the new development will help attract 145,000 visitors. The conditions will be imposed in relation to parking for the disabled, non-reflective glass and potential noise for the electricity sub-station. 

Cllr Caerwyn Roberts, who represents Harlech on Gwynedd Council, said that Cadw was investing £6-million in the project. He said: “The project is a good opportunity for better interpretation of the castle and the history and the new bridge to the castle will make it accessible to everyone.

 

Click here for the full story, or see this week's Meirionydd edition of the Cambrian News

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63 economists pledge support for People’s Assembly | Coalition of Resistance Against Cuts & Privatisation

63 economists pledge support for People’s Assembly March 21, 2013 After Osborne’s disastrous budget yesterday, 63 economists have pledged their support for the People’s Assembly with a letter to the Guardian. Published in the Guardian on Thursday 21 March George Osborne‘s latest budget confirms that austerity policies are set to continue for years to come (Budget 2013, 20 March). This is a call from economists and academics to all those millions of people in Britain who face an impoverished and uncertain year as their wages, jobs, conditions and welfare provision come under renewed attack by the government. It is important that people understand that there is a large body of opinion against these policies. With some 80% of austerity measures still to come, and with the government lengthening the time they expect cuts to last, we are calling a people’s assembly against austerity to bring together campaigns against cuts and privatisation with trade unionists in a movement for social justice. We aim to develop a strategy for resistance to mobilise millions of people against the Con Dem government. Register for the People’s Assembly here Professor Ha-Joon Chang Cambridge Profess

2013-03-19

Boycott Workfare » Blog Archive » Contact workfare exploiter Salvation Army – Day 2 Workfare Week of Action

Boycott Workfare is a UK-wide campaign to end forced unpaid work for people who receive welfare. Workfare profits the rich by providing free labour, whilst threatening the poor by taking away welfare rights if people refuse to work without a living wage. We are a grassroots campaign, formed in 2010 by people with experience of workfare and those concerned about its impact. We expose and take action against companies and organisations profiting from workfare; encourage organisations to pledge to boycott it; and actively inform people of their rights. Know your rights on workfare schemes! Also visit consent.me.uk and donotsign.com Contact workfare exploiter Salvation Army – Day 2 Workfare Week of Action Posted: March 18th, 2013 | Author: editor | Filed under: Call to action | 1 Comment » Salvation Army International and UK HQs were paid a surprise visit to launch the week of action. [Photo: Sinister Pics] Join the online day of action on Tuesday 19th March and tell workfare exploiters The Salvation Army exactly what the public think about their use of forced labour. The Salvation Army released an astonishing statement recently which seems to suggest they will force people on sicknes

Sign Petition | National Assembly for Wales

e-Petition:Wanted - Buses for Meirionnydd We call upon the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Government to: • Review the funding for rural bus services to ensure adequate levels of service for the whole of Gwynedd but particularly south Meirionnydd. • Consider funding to be ensured for additional services to improve access to health services, education, and employment, and thus support the economy and tourism of the area.

2013-03-04

Posterous will turn off on April 30 - The Official Posterous Space

Posterous launched in 2008. Our mission was to make it easier to share photos and connect with your social networks. Since joining Twitter almost one year ago, we’ve been able to continue that journey, building features to help you discover and share what’s happening in the world – on an even larger scale.

On April 30th, we will turn off posterous.com and our mobile apps in order to focus 100% of our efforts on Twitter. This means that as of April 30, Posterous Spaces will no longer be available either to view or to edit.

Right now and over the next couple months until April 30th, you can download all of your Posterous Spaces including your photos, videos, and documents. 

Here are the steps:

  1. Go to http://posterous.com/#backup.
  2. Click to request a backup of your Space by clicking “Request Backup” next to your Space name.
  3. When your backup is ready, you'll receive an email.
  4. Return to http://posterous.com/#backup to download a .zip file.

If you want to move your site to another service, WordPress and Squarespace offer importers that can move all of your content over to either service. Just remember: you need to back up your Spaces by April 30.

We’d like to thank the millions of Posterous users who have supported us on our incredible journey. We hope to provide you with as easy a transition as possible, and look forward to seeing you on Twitter. Thank you.

Sachin Agarwal
Founder and CEO

2013-03-02

Evernote hacked – almost 50 million passwords reset after security breach | Naked Security

Evernote, the online note-taking service, has says that it has suffered a serious security breach which saw hackers steal usernames, associated email addresses and encrypted passwords.

2013-03-01

Qatar Foundation social media accounts... hacked!

Qatar Foundation social media accounts... hacked!

In the early hours leading upto Friday prayers, Qatar Foundation's social media accounts were hacked. Signs show that the Pro-Assad Hackers take responsibility. Both platforms have seen their share of slanderous content being posted. See the reactions below.

  1. For those who follow Qatar Foundation, they begin to discover weird behavior...

  2. @qatarfoundation Is THAT a serious tweet or have your account been hacked?

  3. Why hasn't the @qatarfoundation twitter account hijack been noticed?

  4. Has @qatarfoundation's Twitter a/c been hacked, or is it just early still, and I'm missing something?

  5. WHAT IS WRONG WITH @qatarfoundation it's obviously hacked or has a drunk user >.>;

  6. Ummm...I think @qatarfoundation 's twitter has been hacked...why has no one else noticed this? @dohanews @iloveqatar

Two more zero-day Java bugs discovered | IT PRO

Polish researchers find more flaws in Java 7 browser plug-in.

Sacrifice of Bradley Manning's liberty will not have been made in vain - Commentators - Voices - The Independent

History will damn the persecutors of Bradley Manning. Big powers who hide crimes away from their own people – while claiming to act in their name, of course – fear few more than those determined to hold them to account. No wonder Manning was subjected to what the UN special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, described as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment: left languishing in solitary confinement for months, regularly stripped naked, forced to sleep without darkness, deprived of any right to privacy. An example had to be made of a soldier who helped strip away the humanitarian pretences of US power, and revealed a far uglier reality. Although it is Julian Assange – hiding from sex allegations in London's Ecuadorian Embassy – who has dominated the WikiLeaks story, Manning is the real martyr of the story. One of the videos released gave an insight into the horror of the US-led war in Iraq: an Apache helicopter shooting dead 11 Iraqis in a Baghdad suburb, none of whom returned fire. Among the dead was a 22-year-old Reuters' photojournalist Namir Noor-Eldeen; two children were brutally wounded. The crew laughed as they massacred: the video was one striking example of how occupati

Why a one-room West Virginia library runs a $20,000 Cisco router | Ars Technica

Why a one-room West Virginia library runs a $20,000 Cisco router Cisco, West Virginia wasted $5M on enterprise-class gear. by Nate Anderson - Feb 25 2013, 11:40pm GMTST 258 Yes, this library has a Cisco 3945 router. Marmet, West Virginia is a town of 1,500 people living in a thin ribbon along the banks of the Kanawha River just below Charleston. The town's public library is only open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. It's housed in a small building the size of a trailer, which the state of West Virginia describes as an "extremely small facility with only one Internet connection." Which is why it's such a surprise to learn the Marmet Public Library runs this connection through a $15,000 to $20,000 Cisco 3945 router intended for "mid-size to large deployments," according to Cisco. In an absolutely scathing report (PDF) just released by the state's legislative auditor, West Virginia officials are accused of overspending at least $5 million of federal money on such routers, installed indiscriminately in both large institutions and one-room libraries across the state. The routers were purchased without ever asking the state's libraries, cops, and schools what they needed. And when

BBC E-mail: Manning guilty plea on some charges

Mark Aldiss saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you
should see it.

** Manning guilty plea on some charges **
Bradley Manning, the US Army private accused in the Wikileaks case, pleads guilty to lesser charges but may still be prosecuted for aiding the enemy.

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10 Pro-Gun Myths, Shot Down | Mother Jones

10 Pro-Gun Myths, Shot Down Fact-checking some of the gun lobby's favorite arguments shows they're full of holes. —By Dave Gilson | Thu Jan. 31, 2013 3:01 AM PST 1150 By cutting off federal funding for research and stymieing data collection and sharing, the National Rifle Association has tried to do to the study of gun violence what climate deniers have done to the science of global warming. No wonder: When it comes to hard numbers, some of the gun lobby's favorite arguments are full of holes. Myth #1: They're coming for your guns. Fact-check: No one knows the exact number of guns in America, but it's clear there's no practical way to round them all up (never mind that no one in Washington is proposing this). Yet if you fantasize about rifle-toting citizens facing down the government, you'll rest easy knowing that America's roughly 80 million gun owners already have the feds and cops outgunned by a factor of around 79 to 1. Sources: Congressional Research Service (PDF), Small Arms Survey Myth #2: Guns don't kill people—people kill people. Fact-check: People with more guns tend to kill more people—with guns. The states with the highest gun ownership rates have a gun murder rate