In Kampala, Uganda this weekend, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will briefly trade his loafers for cleats and participate in a ceremony at at special soccer match with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni.
Our friends at the Better World Campaign give you the opportunity to thank a peacekeeper.
The Obama Administration's National Security Strategy drops today. No big surprises for those who have been following Administration rhetoric and action over the past eighteen months or so. The United Nations and "UN issues" -- like global health, genocide prevention, and fighting poverty -- feature prominently. The "Millennium Development Goals" are even mentioned by name.
David Roberts has a powerful essay up at Grist.
I'm curious to see how the public's mood shifts once it becomes clear that we are powerless in the face of this thing. What if there's just nothing we can do? That's not a feeling to which Americans are accustomed.
Over at Huffington Post the Egyptian and Chadian ambassadors to the United States team up in an op-ed. They use the occasion of Africa Day to stress the importance of the health related Millennium Development Goals. Meanwhile, in a statement posted to the UN Foundation website, Foundation chief Sentator Tim Wirth has echoes the ambassadors' call to action.
A new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington shows that childhood mortality rates have plummeted world-wide since 1990. According to the report, "Worldwide mortality in children younger than 5 years has dropped from 11.9 million deaths in 1990 to 7.7 million deaths in 2010, a rate of decline that is faster than expected."
That's good news. But it gets better:
Newsweek has my take on Ban's rather remarkable suggestion yesterday that the Security Council take action on North Korea.