Thanks to Bob Walker for this OpEd, which was distributed to 800 newspapers and magazines by the Cagle Syndication Service. As you may have heard, on June 12, Malawi’s Supreme Court overruled the lower court’s negative ruling, allowing Madonna to move forward with the proposed adoption of the three-year-old girl from Malawi named Mercy. The editorial by Bob Walker is a relevant today as it was when it was written. See http://www.caglecartoons.com/column.asp?columnID={D3E9BC0D-4E54-4F19-AC25-73FAD25742AF} and http://www.cagle.com/news/PopeHatesCondoms/main.asp for related editorial cartoons.
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April 16, 2009
By Robert J. Walker

Malawi’s rejection of Madonna’s attempt to adopt a little three-year-old girl named Mercy makes for alliteration and good headlines, but it’s the underlying story that really deserves the attention. Mercy is just the unfortunate poster-child for a much larger tragedy.
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Many thanks to Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura for the attached article in the June 2009 issue of The Psychologist. The article describes the work of Population Media Center. Dr. Bandura is a member of PMC’s Program Advisory Board.

Social Cognitive Theory Goes Global (PDF, 92 KB)

http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk

Thanks to Bob Walker for this editorial, which was distributed to 800 newspapers and magazines via the Cagle Syndication Service. See http://www.caglecartoons.com/column.asp?columnID={44517672-469B-4300-BA67-35259CC2A067} in order to see the cartoons that accompanied Bob’s editorial.

As mentioned in Bob’s editorial, the TLC cable network has been featuring “reality shows” like 18 Kids and Counting that showcase super-large families without any apparent regard to the ecological consequences. While TLC and its various channels, including Discovery Health, seek to promote “eco-savvy” behavior, they are largely oblivious to the population dimension of the environmental crisis facing the world. Please take a minute to comment on their programming. To learn more about the “18 Kids and Counting” program go to: http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/18-kids-and-counting/duggar-family.html. To record a “viewer comment” with the parent company (Discovery Communications, Inc.), go to: http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations.
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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