Philanthropy
Items related to philanthropy and public service
Bush in Africa: Unexpected Encomiums
Mon 25 Feb 2008 • Responses: 1 • by David Aikman
President Bush has not exactly been above the fold of the front pages of most American newspapers these days, let alone on prime-time TV news. Understandably, with one of the most interesting presidential election cycles in decades well under way, attention has been focused on whoever is considered most likely to be Bush’s successor as the tenant of Washington’s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in just eleven months. Many people—especially Democrats, who smell blood and victory in November 2008—wish that the President would just go away. His popularity is quite low, with poll numbers regularly in the 30s. Past months have even had him rated in California within two points of President Richard Nixon after Watergate, and Reuters last October pegged him at 24 percent. (At the same time, however, Gallup had him in the 30s).
But the President doesn’t have to go away until noon on January 20, 2009, and as President Nixon once famously remarked, even three weeks is a long, long time in American politics. Every president holds onto the possibility of a turnaround in popularity. In fact, the President for the past week has been in one continent of the world where he is decidedly popular: Africa. During a five-day tour of five countries—Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia—Bush was welcomed by ecstatic crowds and told by one African leader, “You have been a good friend of our country, and of Africa.”
Making a Difference
Fri 21 Dec 2007 • Responses: 6 • by Donald M. Bishop
‘Young Altruists’ Need a Broader View of Doing Good
Donald Bishop, a senior U.S. Foreign Service officer, looks at the difficulties faced by some young adults who want to use their careers to make the world a better place. He argues that they leave unexplored real possibilities to do good. It’s time to question the conventional wisdom and consider the possibilities of business, the military, and long-term overseas service as means to help the poor and suffering.
Today’s Fight for Abolition
Thu 15 Feb 2007 • Responses: 3 • by Jody Hassett Sanchez
“The concept that it is wrong for any individual to own and control another remains as powerful a catalyst for change today as it was in Wilberforce’s time.”
LOME, TOGO—Amazing Grace, the new film about William Wilberforce, concludes with what many consider his greatest life work—the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807. But a walk through a dusty open-air market in Lome, Togo today makes it painfully clear that the slave trade is flourishing two hundred years later.
Tiny boys—they would be considered “preschoolers” in the West—strain to push overloaded wooden carts through the crowded market. Their workday begins before dawn and continues until late in the evening when they are permitted to collapse beside their cart, in the dirt, for a few hours of rest.
Most of these young laborers can’t remember what rural village they came from or who their families are. All they know is that they will be beaten and killed if they attempt to escape those who took them from their homes and force them to do this brutal work.
Gates and Buffett and Carnegie
Fri 07 Jul 2006 by Peter Edman
John Miller, author of a book on the Olin Foundation, has a commentary in the Wall Street Journal of 7 July 2006 on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I am with him in agreeing that it is better that Warren Buffett give his money to the Gates Foundation rather than spend it himself on global population control.
In “Open the FloodGates,” Miller argues that the Gates family should follow the Olin model at least, and either give the money away during their lifetime or arrange for it to be done so within a couple decades after their death. This is certainly what Andrew Carnegie would have advised, I expect, seeing what has become of his foundations.
Definitely worth a quick read. But let me also comment on a few items of interest.
Guptara on the Gods of Business
Wed 01 Jun 2005 by TTF Staff
Senior Fellow Prabhu Guptara was featured on American Public Media’s Speaking of Faith program in late January 2005.
In addition to the radio program itself, the program site includes PDF and Web versions of his presentation slides, a transcript of a related speech, and several other interesting items.
Professor Guptara takes a fascinating cross-cultural view of contemporary business, discussing the major world religions (secularism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam, Judaism, and the Christian Faith) and their ethical implications in the age of Enron. He suggests that from an ethical point of view the world now exists in a multiple tension between traditional Judeo-Christian values; thorough pragmatism/ unethical materialism; and reviving fundamentalist values among Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and other communities belonging to New and Fringe Religions.
Guide: To Change the World
Sun 23 May 2004 by TTF Staff
A discussion guide for the Trinity Forum Briefing “To Change the World” by James Davison Hunter.
You can also
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