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Benchmarking Digital Inclusion

A new report entitled Benchmarking Digital Inclusion (36 page PDF) groups countries together on the basis of factors such as size, economic strength, and technology infrastructure. It argues that if the leaders in each group could help those doing less well, millions more people across the world would be online. This report is partly promotional in nature, coming from a consultancy that would help share such practices, but the numbers are solid and the recommendations sensible. Posted: 12/16/05; 11:06:29 PM #

Gulf Coast Hunger Spreads as Food Banks Struggle
	Hunger is spreading as food banks along the Gulf Coast are struggling. According to a study from America's Second Harvest, demand in the worst hit areas tripled but the food banks are struggling with destroyed facilities and other limitations to their work. Posted: 12/16/05; 11:00:22 PM #

Report of NSA Spying Prompts Call for Probe

The revelations of domestic spying just keep piling up. Now we learn that President Bush himself ordered surveillance of thousands of U.S. citizens without court orders. If you're a U.S citizen, and have made a phone call or sent email to someone outside the country in the last three years, they might be watching you. Have you expressed an opinion critical of Bush or his wars? I would be quite willing to wager that this makes the chances much higher. Republicans and Democrats alike are alarmed by this, given that the act is, by any reasonable standard, a crime. Posted: 12/16/05; 10:55:34 PM #

America's Most Popular Internet Companies are Helping China Crack Down on Free Speech

The most popular Internet companies in the United States, including Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo are helping China crack down on free speech and crippling the development of civil society there. These companies have grown fat on the freedoms of the U.S. and it's reprehensible to see them hiding behind "business is business" language when it comes to China. This is not some small cultural difference; China imprisons and shoots dissidents. Is any regime off limits, if it has enough money? Posted: 12/16/05; 10:44:47 PM #

Trust in All Institutions Declining
	An annual poll that tracks public trust in major institutions has shown a widespread downturn in the last year. Trust in NGOs is still high, but declined as well, in ten of the seventeen countries surveyed. NGOs held their own in the U.S., but did particularly poorly in India and Brazil. Posted: 12/16/05; 10:37:34 PM #