Egypt: Obama Blunders With $65 Million In Unwanted Democracy Grants

15 July 2011 - Tahrir Square protests, Photo by Kahlil Hamr/AP

From Denny: President Obama campaigned on how things would change in Washington. Well, he lied. Not much has changed, at least for the better.

The New Egypt

Fast forward to The Egypt Revolution and their transitional government getting its feet wet trying to create a new Egypt. 

What does Obama do? He tries to do what America has always done: patronizingly decide what is good for someone else because we want to give it to you. Of course, foreign country gifts always come with a price tag, now don't they?

How Do Mothers Fare Around The World?

*** original post found here at http://thesocialpoets.blogspot.com Photo of International Women's Day celebration in Afghanistan of Women from the Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team and Iowa National Guard’s 734th Agribusiness Development Team, 8 March, photo by DVIDSHUB @ flickr


From Denny:  The recent Mother's Day celebration does make us wonder how other women fare in the rest of the world. The organization, "Save The Children," conducted a study and ranked the best - and the worst places - in the world to be a mother.

They ranked child and maternal mortality, health care, and education. The disparities were glaring:

Women who die from pregnancy-related causes:

Afghanistan: 1 in 11 women die
Norway: only 1 in 7,600 die

The bottom worst countries ranked:

Children that die before the age of five: 1 out of every 6 children
Women who die of pregnancy-related causes: 1 out of 30 women die
A skilled attendant at birth: fewer than 50 percent
Children who suffer from malnutrition: 1 out of 3 children

How well did America fare in the study? Not that well. We were ranked at 31 out of the 43 developed countries. Considering the state of our expensive health care system and wages driven down to the point people have dropped their health care insurance it's no surprise.