Fight Hunger and Ho-Hum Language (2007-11-05)
For every word you get right on this vocab game, Free Rice donates ten grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. So much more fun than reading the thesaurus -- and for a good cause.

Mother's Day has Radical Roots (2003-05-11)
Growing up, when I asked my mom what she wanted for Mother's Day, she always said world peace. I figured that was just her way to let us know that she didn't expect lavish gifts from our $5 allowance. Little did I know that one woman's call for peace was the reason behind the first Mother's Day. Here's an excerpt from Juliet Ward Howe's Mother's Day proclamation.

"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm, disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

It's too bad the swarmy Hallmark images of breakfast in bed have taken the oomph out of that first Mother's Day rallying cry. For this Mother's Day, forget the flowers. I want radical moms to unite in a call for justice. I want peace.

Half an hour ago, the oil filled trenches were put on fire (2003-03-24)
That's the opening line for today's entry in the Where is Raed blog, a firsthand account of life in Baghdad under the bombs. Though writtern under the pseudonym Salaam Pax, I somehow trust this coverage more than what I'm hearing on CNN. "The whole city looked as if it were on fire," writes Pax, "The only thing I could think of was 'why does this have to happen to Baghdad.'"

It's 2003: Do You Know Where Your Rights Are? (2003-03-01)
In case you don't, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights is keeping track for you. The group recently release a report, Imbalance of Powers, documenting the U.S. government's erosion of rights in the ares of open government, privacy, immigration and criminal justice.

The Human Consequences of War (2003-01-15)
Photojournalist Peter Turnley share his images of the first Gulf War. They aren't pretty. Said Turnley in his intro to the online exhibition, "War is at best a necessary evil, and I am certain that anyone that feels differently has never experienced or been in it. I have always hoped that true images of conflict give one the opportunity to witness and reflect more fully on the full realities of war."

The world according to UNDP (2002-12-05)
The United Nations Development Fund has more than 400 human development reports online, organized by nation, region, year and theme.

Get some perspective (2002-11-06)
Want to know how many television receivers there are in the United States compared to how many there are in Botswana? Want to know the life expectancy for women in the EU compared to that in Brazil? Your-nation.com lets you look up comparison data on these and other indicators, from number of paved airports to highest elevation above sea level. The results are displayed in slick, easy to read, Flash graphics. Cool.

Children's rights--at what age... (2002-10-30)
In Saudi Arabia, the minimum age for public employment is 18, but there is no minimum age for marriage. If you want to find out how other countries fare on age requirements, Right to Education, a non-profit education think tank has researched laws in 125 countries and compiled an online report on minimum age requirements for compulsoy education, marriage, employment, and criminal prosecution.

Who's online and who's behind (2002-07-03)
Sudan has 10,000 Internet users. India has 5 million. Cyberatlas.com tracks the latest data on the world's online population.