International Political Will

On May 25, I will return to the United States after four years abroad. I am doing a countdown from 10 – starting at 10 and ending with 1 the last week of May when I depart India. And then that’s it – the end. I’ll ride off into the sunset where all the other [...]

When you hear “third world labor exploitation,” a few standard images come to mind: sweatshops full of hungry people making Nike tennis shoes 18 hours a day for pennies in Indonesia; young mothers sewing $25 T-shirts for The Gap in return for a few cents in Honduras; children chained to a loom making carpets in [...]

Garbage is a problem that has plagued India for longer than most people have been alive.
Gandhi addressed it in his day, noting Indian’s penchant for keeping their houses immaculate yet caring little for anything outside of their doors. And this was 50 years before plastic.

Any area in India where people live is cursed with plastic. [...]

Everyday in Mumbai, 10 people are killed on the local trains.
But no one is demanding seat belts or railroad crossing guards.
In India, diarrhea and water-born illness accounts for 20% of all child deaths under the age of 5 (double the rate in Zimbabwe), and only 50% of urban areas have proper sanitation.
Yet no businesses and [...]

There is a joke that circulates among ex-pat teachers of English in Japan (though Japanese never found it funny):
On the Titanic, moments before it sank, there were special announcements.
“Attention all British citizens. Women and children first. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do.” And all the British men replied with “here, here,” and “I say, cheerio, [...]