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Here is a higher quality video of Jay-z at the United Nations Association 50th anniversary gala, via MTV.

AND, by way of introduction, the Secretary General of the United Nations tries his hand at rapping. Lyrics via OG Hip Hop. The video is below. (N.B. Bill Luers is the head of the United Nations Association of the United States.)

Global Classrooms are a cinch
With the help of Merrill Lynch
When you put the org in Google
Partnerships go truly gloooobal
There is hope for Earth's salvation
With the Cisneros Foundation
With Jay-Z there's double strife
Life for children and water for life
Human health will get ahead
With the valiant work of (RED)
For the poor and doing good
Stays the job of Robin Hood
UN stays on the front burner
Thanks to our champ Ted Turner
And whole revolutions stem
From the work of UNIFEM
But tonight my special shout-out
Goes to one I can't do without
We have traveled up and down
Frisco, Atlanta, Chicago town
Yes, the king of all the doers
Is my trusty friend Bill Luers
Bill, I cannot say goodbye
So take the floor and take a bow.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Ambassador Bill Luers"

My advice to the Secretary General: A valiant effort, but don't quit the day job, which, you know, includes trying to save the world.

Via Technology, Health and Development, the acclaimed photojournalist James Nachtwey is pointing his camera lens to a neglected but dangerous threat to global public health.

According to XDRTB.org

TB can usually be treated with a course of four standard, or "first-line," anti-TB drugs. If these drugs are misused or mismanaged, multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB) can develop. MDR-TB takes longer to treat, and requires "second-line" drugs that are more expensive and have more side effects. XDR-TB can develop when these second-line drugs are also misused or mismanaged and become ineffective. Treatment options for XDR-TB are seriously limited.

[snip]

Many people think of TB as a disease of the past, but in 2007 alone, TB killed 1.7 million people. That's 4,660 deaths a day, or one death from TB every 20 seconds. TB is the leading killer of people with HIV: Individuals are able to live with HIV but are dying from TB. Without proper treatment, 90% of those living with HIV die within months of contracting TB.

The drugs to treat a standard TB case cost only $20 per patient in the developing world, and are almost always completely effective in curing a person of the disease when taken properly, even among people living with HIV.

XDR-TB and MDR-TB, the drug-resistant strains of TB, are much more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to cure. Cases of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extremely drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) have been found in almost every country of the world. It is not clearly known how far these strains have spread.

While the Dow's dip below 10,000 certainly does not bode well for investors, its significance is largely symbolic. Contrast this with the every-day impact felt by the millions of people at the forefront of an even more sobering milestone:

The number of urban slum-dwellers worldwide has broken the one billion mark, making it clear that the urbanization of poverty is arguably one of the biggest challenges facing development today, executive director of UN-Habitat, has said.

According to the UN Secretary-General, over a third of urban dwellers in the developing world live in slums. This problem is even more acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where breakneck urbanization has created slums that contain more than 60% of cities' inhabitants.

The S-G cited these statistics in his message on "World Habitat Day" yesterday, which marked an occasion to "reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right to adequate shelter for all." It also signals how far we have to go if we are to meet the Millennium Development Goals' challenge of improving at least 100 million slum dwellers' lives by 2020.

Sign up here to Stand Up against poverty and in support of the MDGs.

Certain aspects of the saga of the weapon-laden Ukrainian ship hijacked by pirates two weeks ago never seemed quite right, as articulated here by The New York Times' Jeffrey Gettleman:

Why was the ship left unguarded in some of the most dangerous waters in the world, given its cargo of 33 tanks, 150 grenade launchers, 6 antiaircraft guns and heaps of ammunition? Why does Kenya, known for its wild animals, not its wars, need so many tanks? And if it does need tanks, why suddenly switch from British armor, which it has used for decades, to incompatible Eastern-bloc equipment?

The BBC now seems to have uncovered some hard evidence to answer these questions:

A copy of the freight manifest appears to show contracts for the hardware were made by the Kenyan Ministry of Defence on behalf of South Sudan's government.

Uh-oh. This is bad P.R. for Kenya (perhaps it needs a spokesman more like the pirates'), but it is worse news for Sudan, where an "arms race" between North and South would be a bad sign in the run-up to next year's important national elections.

Jay-Z was honored at the United Nations Association 50th Anniversary Gala last Wednesday. The person offering the funny introduction is United States Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad.

Check out Jay-Z's adopted project, Water for Life and his MTV documentary on global freshwater scarcity.