Europe failing in foreign aid?

BBC News has a strong article up today accusing France and Italy of completely failing in meeting their pledges to provide assistance and debt relief to African countries. The accusations come from the anti-poverty group ONE, as well as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and refer to the pledges made by G8 countries during the 2005 Summit in Scotland. While I, like many others, tend to believe that European countries are at the forefront in terms of foreign aid, this article clearly shows that the United States, Canada and Japan are closest to meeting their aid commitments. Just some food for thought.

Amazing in Egypt

I'll write about this in greater detail when I have more time, but Obama's speech in Cairo today was truly one of the most powerful moments in recent political history. Whatever your opinions are on the various policy arguments he presented, Obama undeniably shifted America's dialogue with the Islamic world towards civility and even mutual respect. A variety of things he did in this speech - his tone, use of Qu'ranic verses, a historic re-telling of Muslim achievements, choosing to say "violent" extremists, instead of "Islamic" extremists - demonstrated that our policies and politics regarding Muslims will no longer be fixed in the post-9/11, War on Terror framework. While we will have to wait and see if hard policy changes follow, I for one am optimistic about America's new, empathetic approach towards the Arab and Islamic world.

P.S. While earlier reports indicated that Obama would not mention the struggle for more democracy in Egypt by opposition movements (the focus of my senior thesis), I am glad that Obama gave some time to this issue, guaranteeing support for "the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose". However, he was generally vague, and did not go far in calling upon the Mubarak regime to open up the political system and civil society in Egypt. Hopefully this speech just marks the first engagement with an issue that is of vast importance to Egyptians, and Arabs in general.