Many thanks to Mark O’Connor for this link to Peter Hall’s essay: http://www.hunterhall.com.au/content/upload/files/Lumberjacks_in_Eden.pdf

Lumberjacks in Eden (PDF, 341 KB)

“My Speech to the Graduates”
By Woody Allen
First published in the New York Times in 1979

More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

I speak, by the way, not with any sense of futility, but with a panicky conviction of the absolute meaninglessness of existence which could easily be misinterpreted as pessimism.
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The problem of limited access to contraceptives is taking centre stage at an African Union (AU) meeting currently underway in Maputo.

Since Monday, health experts have been holding talks in the Mozambican capital about a plan of action that seeks to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services across the continent. This comes ahead of a gathering of AU ministers of health (Sep. 21-22), who are expected to adopt the plan.

“There hasn’t been adequate emphasis on family planning as a strategy, and yet it is a cost-effective thing,” says Chisale Mhango, a public health expert at the AU’s Department of Social Affairs.

For full article, visit:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200906120724.html

PMC’s Ethiopian serial drama, Sibrat (”Trauma”), is featured in this month’s edition of Harper’s Magazine.

Sibrat, Harper’s Magazine Article (PDF, 104 KB)

Sibrat (”Trauma”) is being broadcast throughout Ethiopia on the National Service of Radio Ethiopia in the Amharic language. Sibrat is a 25 minute program that airs every Sunday and Wednesday after the 21:00 news. It is repeated on FM Addis on Monday and Thursday at 15:00. The main themes of the program are female genital mutilation/cutting, gender equity, and child abuse.

Thanks to Greg Morgan, whose daughter was among the graduating students who heard this address by Professor Jere Lipps at the University of California Berkeley.
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After Darwin?
Graduation Talk, May 22, 2009
Jere H. Lipps, Professor of Integrative Biology

Parents and families, Friends and Neighbors, Student Advisors, GSIs, and Fellow Professors—CONGRATULATIONS! YOU did it. You got them through and now you see before you — our—all of ours—graduating bachelors, masters and doctoral students. In a few more minutes, they will walk up these two aisles as Cal Graduates. We are all very, very proud.

And CONGRATULATIONS graduates. You put in the hard work and sometimes it was frustrating and you got mad at all those people who supported and taught you, other times you were so thankful, and that was wonderful.
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Thanks to Fred Stanback and Joyce Tarnow for sending Paul Hawken’s Commencement Address to the Class of 2009 University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009. Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., when he delivered this speech. See: http://www.up.edu/commencement/default.aspx?cid=9456&pid=3144
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Thanks to Richard Cunningham for suggesting another family planning method. See www.conceptus.com and http://www.essure.com/Home/Understanding/BenefitsRisks/tabid/56/Default.aspx

Thanks to Don Collins for this statement. See www.quinacrine.com. Also see Bruce Sundquist’s paper on quinacrine sterilization at http://home.windstream.net/bsundquist1/qs.html.

QS: A Safe, Inexpensive, Readily Administered Method of Family Planning

The need for better access to modern family planning methods worldwide remains only slightly over half accomplished. While better educational opportunities for women remains central to such improvement, the means for women regulating their fertility should constantly be enhanced. One method, quinacrine sterilization or QS, which has huge promise, remains underutilized.
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Many thanks to John Coulter of Sustainable Population Australia for this article, which apparently created quite a stir when it came out in 1967. It could just as easily have been titled, “The Religious Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis.” If you are a student of history or religion, I think you will find this article fascinating. It is also impressive that it was published in Science magazine.
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Many thanks to Bruce Sundquist for his paper on the most compelling arguments for increasing U.S. support for international family planning. You can visit his home page at http://home.windstream.net/bsundquist1/. The latest version of his paper on the changing rationales for funding family planning is at http://home.windstream.net/bsundquist1/ifp.html. His paper on strategies for funding family planning is at http://home.windstream.net/bsundquist1/fund.html.

Bruce Sundquist Arguments for Increasing U S Support for Family Planning (Word doc., 304 KB)