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Michelle Obama and Social Entrepreneurship

Michelle Obama spoke about Donors Choose, Project Health, NOLA 180 and the administration’s new Social Innovation Fund at Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Awards last night.

This is not Latin America…

We have the luxury of upholding the law without facing a military uprising. Journalist and human rights lawyer Susan Benesch makes the case for investigating U.S. officials for torture.

Ask What You Can Do For Your Country!

President Obama’s words at the signing of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act:

“We need your service right now, at this moment in history. I’m not going to tell you what your role should be. That’s for you to discover. But I’m asking you to stand up and play your part. I’m asking you to help change history’s course, put your shoulder up against the wheel. And if I – if you do, I promise you your life will be richer, our country will be stronger, and someday, years from now, you may remember it as the moment when your own story and the American story converged, when they came together, and we met the challenges of our new century.”

The folks at Be the Change, New Profit, Hands On Network and Civic Ventures deserve a resounding applause.

The Final Inch in Polio Eradication

Four million people are currently working to eradicate Polio in India today. Twenty million have served in the Polio-eradication army around the world. It’s been called the greatest peacetime mobilization in human history. In 1988, there were 350,000 cases in 125 countries. Today, there are 1,500 cases in 4 countries — and the vast majority are concentrated in the poorest parts of India and Nigeria. The Final Inch, a new HBO film, gets inside the houses and mosques, where the disease is being wiped out one child at a time. If you don’t have time to watch the film, check out this short slideshow created by photo journalist Richard Wainwright.

The Many Faces of BRAC

BRAC explained through the eyes of the people who experience it.

China’s Troubled Skies

Anything in China can be justified by calling it “development.” But as this slideshow makes clear, the environmental costs are mounting.

The Quiet Coup

This article on the financial crisis by Simon Johnson is unmissable. If the United States were not the United States, and the dollar wasn’t the dollar, American bankers would have to face up to reality the way emerging market bankers have had to many times before.

As Johnson, the IMF’s former chief economist, explains:

“The challenges the United States faces are familiar territory to the people at the IMF. If you hid the name of the country and just showed them the numbers, there is no doubt what old IMF hands would say: nationalize troubled banks and break them up as necessary.”

Peace Games at P.S. 84

I spent the morning yesterday hanging out with the 10-year-old Peacemakers at P.S. 84 in Manhattan and had a blast. Peace Games teaches youngsters how to transform their schools and families using peacemaking techniques.  Is it possible for fifth graders to change their schools? Just ask “lunch leaders” Carlos and Tiffany, ten year olds who, after six weeks, are remarkably fluent in the nuances of how to manage conflict. Assisted by the Peace Games school coordinator Elizabeth Alter and 25 college student volunteers (who teach a research-tested curriculum to every class in the school), the youngsters show their peers and the younger kids in the cafeteria each day how to handle conflict. “We talk about things that escalate and things that de-escalate conflict,” Carlos explained. “We tell them that you don’t have to fight. Just talk it over. Walk away, take a deep breath and count to ten, or just apologize.”

Sounds too simple? The kids in their class say they have started doing this regularly and the results have been immediate — and surprising. Principal Robin Sundick agrees. She fought for 3 years to bring Peace Games to her school. Already, bullying is way down, she notes, and the lunchroom is visibly calmer — and happier. She suspects that more relaxed children will be better learners. The kids also report that they use their newfound ’skills’ with brothers and sisters at home, and the results hold up. One young Peacemaker has started giving his mom shoulder massages when he sees she’s tired and tense. There used to be a lot more yelling, he said. “Now we just talk,” he added. “It feels nice.”

Post Holiday Landscape

One of the best programs I’ve come across all year is Tux Paint. My five year old son loves it and can navigate all the commands by himself. He insisted that I add a variety of superhero stamps, so I had to figure out how to get inside the program innards. Pretty straightforward. A novice user can produce interesting art work. The program is free and has been made available around the world on the One Laptop Per Child platform, which is where I first discovered it. There are MAC and Windows editions, too. One of the most relaxing things to do on a computer with a young child or when you don’t feel like writing.

Here’s my latest landscape:

“Mountains as seen from 83rd Street”