Globalization
Submitted by Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 3:09am.
The op-ed in today's New York Times written by Secretary Gates and the Columbian Minister of Defense, Juan Manuel Santos, reflects the spirit of shared responsibility and mutual respect that has led to dramatic progress in improving security in Colombia. The two leaders met today to discuss the U.S.-Colombia security relationship - just one day after NDN hosted Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco at a Latin American Policy Initiative to hear her perspective on the historic liberation of several hostages held by the FARC, Colombia's growing economy, and the proposed CTPA.
It's important that the administration take stock of the fact that Colombia's gains are America's gains. During her presentation, the Ambassador pointed out that over the last 10 years Colombia has been on a path to eradicate drug production, which - in combination with economic and legal reforms - has led Colombia out of a "vicious cycle" of drugs, insecurity, and poverty, into a "virtuous cycle" of security, investment, and economic growth. The remarkable transformation in Colombia's security situation is largely the result of a partnership between the U.S. and Colombia. The U.S. understands the benefits to be gained from having a strong, prosperous, and secure ally in Colombia, and has thus committed resources to help consolidate Colombia's hard-won freedom from violence and its economic prosperity. One can only hope that the next administration will remain invested in the security and prosperity of the Latin American region, continuing the partnership with Colombia and extending similar commitments in the rest of the region - recognizing that any instability in the region has repercussions in the U.S., and by the same token, the gains of its neighbors are the gains of the U.S.
Submitted by Jake Berliner on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 4:00pm.
With rapidly rising energy costs changing the way Americans live and work and global warming threatening even greater harm to our future prosperity and well-being, it is clear that a fundamental change in America’s energy policy is needed. Bold new policies and leadership can turn these twin crises into historic opportunities.
In that spirit, NDN is pleased to announce that on Friday, August 1, Assistant U.S. Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin will deliver an address on the economic benefits for America in moving from carbon-based fuels to renewable energy sources. Senator Durbin’s remarks will be followed by a panel discussion on "Energy and the American Way of Life." Both events are hosted by the NDN Green Project.
During the panel discussion, energy leaders and experts will discuss how this transition can take place. NDN Green Project Director Michael Moynihan will also be discussing his new paper entitled, Solar Energy: The Case for Action.
Assistant Majority Leader Durbin will speak at 11:15 a.m. on Friday, August 1, in the Ballroom of the Phoenix Park Hotel, 520 N. Capitol St., NW, in Washington, DC. The panel will follow the senator’s remarks. Lunch will be served. Please click here to RSVP.
NDN’s Green Project is a program of the Globalization Initiative that seeks to develop a legislative, regulatory and advocacy framework to address climate change, enhance energy security, and accelerate the development of green technologies to promote economic growth. Through this initiative, NDN serves as a bridge between key stakeholders such as the new clean technology community and public leaders as we build a post-carbon economy.
For more information on this event, please contact Courtney Markey at cmarkey@ndn.org or 202-384-1214. We look forward to seeing you Friday, August 1, at 11:15 a.m.
Submitted by Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 2:10pm.
NDN will host the next in its series of Latin American Policy Initiative forums tomorrow, Tuesday, July 22, at 9:30 a.m. The guest for tomorrow's forum is the Honorable Carolina Barco, Colombian Ambassador to the United States, who will talk about issues of importance to Colombia. A 45-minute panel will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A session.
Tomorrow's policy forum follows this weekend's mass protests against kidnappings by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the recent dramatic rescue of several of those hostages, and will serve as an opportunity to speak to the Ambassador prior to President Bush's remarks in honor of Colombian Independence Day, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at the White House.
LAPI Forum with Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco
Tuesday, July 22
9:30 a.m.-11 a.m.
Reserve Officers
Association Building
5th Floor
One Constitution Ave., NE
Washington,DC
Submitted by Maggie Barker on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 12:28pm.
Today marks former South African president Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday. What an unbelievable life he has led and what an inspiration of hope he is to so many of the world's citizens.
In 1994, Mandela arose from the ashes of South Africa's terrible years of apartheid to lead the "New South Africa" to a better future. After years of imprisonment, he worked with President FW DeKlerk in the early 1990s to end apartheid and open the country to free, democratic elections. Mandela and DeKlerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
I had the great opportunity to live and study in South Africa while Mandela was president. It was just a few years post-1994 and despite high crime rates and rampant unemployment, the country was imbued with hope and optimism. Mandela, it seemed most could agree, was the beacon of light to lead the country in a new direction. Today, he continues his good work to address S. Africa's HIV/AIDs crisis and remains a symbol of perserverance and hope in the darkest of times.
Happy Birthday, Madiba.
Submitted by Jake Berliner on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 5:55pm.
Al Gore delivered a major speech on Climate Change today in Washington, DC detailing his challenge for America to generate “100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.” Said Gore:
We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change.
As Al Gore issues this extremely aggressive challenge that states compellingly the reasons to combat climate change, he prioritizes American leadership on climate and energy. This strategy contrasts strongly with the one discussed by Sen. Richard Lugar and Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson in an op-ed in Monday’s Wall Street Journal.
As our vigorous domestic debate shows, there is disagreement within America about whether we should take strong steps to limit greenhouse gas emissions if fast-growing emitters in the developing world do not make similar commitments. Yet nations such as China and India say that fossil fuels are essential to power their economies, raise living standards and pull millions of their people out of poverty. Expanding the use of clean technologies is one way to address the common challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while transcending the differences here at home and between developed and developing countries.
That is why we support a new multilateral initiative to help finance the deployment of commercially available clean technology to the developing world. This Clean Technology Fund, proposed by President Bush last September, is an important opportunity for which American leadership is vital.
This bridge, of promoting voluntary action on climate change, has already been crossed, and this Clean Technology Fund, contrary to what Lugar and Paulson argue, runs away from actual leadership on this issue. Instead of leading a clean technology revolution, they recommend deploying existing technologies to the developing world and unfairly placing the onus on economies that are attempting to lift millions out of poverty every year.
Instead, as Gore argues, putting a price on carbon (domestically and internationally) is crucial to combating climate change:
Of course, we could and should speed up this transition by insisting that the price of carbon-based energy include the costs of the environmental damage it causes. I have long supported a sharp reduction in payroll taxes with the difference made up in CO2 taxes. We should tax what we burn, not what we earn. This is the single most important policy change we can make.
NDN Globalization Initiative Chair Dr. Robert J. Shapiro’s proposal, which he discussed yesterday at NDN, is in line with Gore’s, and, earlier this month, we heard from Sen. Bingaman on his ten principles for cap and trade legislation.
Moving forward, NDN’s Green Project hopes to hear more about meaningful solutions to climate change. For more on the Green Project’s work on energy and climate, check out our blog.
Submitted by Maggie Barker on Wed, 07/16/2008 - 4:33pm.
A new study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project shows that nearly all countries polled have more confidence in U.S. Sen. Barack Obama than U.S. Sen. John McCain. McCain beats Obama by just one point in the United States and Jordan. This should bode well for Obama when he soon visits Europe, but he may face diplomatic hurdles in the Middle East, where confidence for either candidate is quite low.
The Pew Center cites a quip from Financial Times columnist Philip Stevens: "Europe can scarcely contain itself." According to Pew, Obama T-shirts have been spotted on the streets of Berlin and the Internet is full of Facebook groups with names like Brits for Barack and France 4Ob.
For more on the study, click here.
Submitted by Maggie Barker on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 5:53pm.
Oh, and - breaking news - the president does not, I repeat, does not, have a magic wand. He can't just say, "low gas." Well, I'll be darned. That really throws a wrench in things here. What will we do now.
The truth of the matter here is that no blog can truly capture the essence of Bush's speech on the economy today. You just have to watch yourself and hope that change is truly, finally just around the corner in 2009.
Submitted by Melissa Merz on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 4:12pm.
Lots of activity and energy coming from NDN over the next few weeks. Today in San Diego, NDN Vice President for Hispanic Programs, Andres Ramirez, will be presenting NDN's lastest thinking on the Latino vote in the 2008 elections on a panel at the National Council of La Raza Conference.
Last week, NDN was proud to join up with other leading thinkers and and strategists to launch Immigration '08, a new initiative and Web site that will be tracking how the immigration issue plays in the elections this year. If you haven't seen it, make sure you check out our major new report on the growing importance of the Hispanic vote, Hispanics Rising II. Andres will be the featured guest on our weekly Members' Conference call this Friday, July 18, at 2:15 p.m. ET. To RSVP, click here. Also catch Simon in an excellent overview by NPR's insightful reporter Jennifer Ludden on the impact Latinos will have on the 2008 elections. Click here to listen.
In DC this week, we have two compelling events:
A discussion tomorrow, Wednesday, July 16, with Dr. Rob Shapiro about the new and important paper he co-authored. The paper is an important addition to a growing body of thought on creative ways to confront the challenge of climate change and details a strategy for shifting to a carbon-based tax through using 90 percent of the revenue to cut the payroll tax, thereby tackling climate change without placing undue burden on average Americans or the economy as a whole. To learn more or RSVP, click here.
And we follow with a very exciting event on Thursday, July 17 -- a conversation with Declan Ganley, the dynamic leader of the recent Irish "no" vote campaign, and head of the Libertas Institute, about the future of Europe. To learn more or RSVP, click here.
NDN travels to Texas this weekend as a major sponsor of Netroots Nation, an event that has become an important meeting of the new 21st century progressive movement. We will present two panels on Saturday, July 19. To learn more about our panels and what we'll be talking about, please click here.
Next week is just as busy. For our friends in New York, come have breakfast with Simon and NDN Green Project Director, Michael Moynihan, on Monday, July 21, to talk politics, presidential campaigns, energy and climate issues and the dramatic developments in our national economy. To RSVP, click here.
On Tuesday, July 22, we hold another in our series of events about the future of U.S.-Latin American relations, this one with Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco. With all the controversy and interest in Colombia this year, this is certain to be an interesting event. Click here to read NDN's statement on President Bush's submission of the recent Colombia Free Trade Agreement. This event is the latest in our Latin American Policy Initiative (LAPI) series. Click here to learn more or RSVP.
Comments, thoughts, suggestions - send ‘em my way at mmerz@ndn.org.
Submitted by Andres Ramirez on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 12:20am.
San Diego, CA - US Senator John McCain delivered an impressive performance today to the conference attendees at NCLR. I must admit that he performed much better than I was expecting. Senator McCain focused on his support for improving relations with Latin America (something that NDN had been promoting through our Latin American Policy Initiative), the importance for assisting small businesses to help the economy, he spoke of the contributions that many Hispanics provide to our Armed Forces and yes he spoke of immigration. Although he did not provide the rock star atmosphere that was evident during Senator Obama's speech, he kept the audience engaged and informed. It is no secret that I disagree with many of Senator McCain's positions, and that I have criticized him for betraying Hispanics when he walked away from his own bill to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform, but you have to give credit where credit is due. Senator McCain acknowledged that he was not in the most friendly room given recent polls that show Hispanics favoring Senator Obama by 2 to 1, and yet he still allowed the audience to pepper him with questions that were clearly difficult for him to address. In the most important exchange, at least in my opinion, Senator McCain was asked to clarify if his modified position on immigration that emphasizes border enforcement would be submitted in ONE bill or separate bills. Senator McCain stated that his proposal would be ONE bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants in this country, but would provide for securing the border first. This is an important clarification to make because he has not made this statement before. NDN has advocated over the past few years that any Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill must include all aspects in one bill as opposed to multiple bills that deal with the various issues of immigration reform. This statement is significant, and it is important for immigration activists to confirm that this is in fact his position, and hold him to this position.
Tomorrow, I will be speaking on a panel titled - Latino Voters: Making their mark on the 2008 Election. For more info on the panel click here. Exciting times my friends, Iand will report back tomorrow.
Submitted by Robert J. Shapiro on Thu, 07/10/2008 - 4:26pm.
Ooops ... The Financial Times reports today that China and India once again have rejected a cap on CO2 emissions -- and without these countries and the other large developing nations that will follow their lead, the world cannot seriously address the threat of climate change. China and India's response should be no surprise: as fast growing developing economies, their appetite for the energy that produces most of the CO2 increases sharply every year. Moreover, their modernization programs are concentrated in the most energy-intensive industries around - basic manufacturing and energy-intensive agriculture - while most of their own domestic energy supplies lie in coal, the most climate-damaging fuel. One way to move forward is to give them an alternative to a CO2 cap. Carbon-based taxes should be more appealing, since China and other fast-growing developing countries need more revenues to support the basic public goods of modernization -- infrastructure programs and greater access to education and health care. But that won't be enough: we will have to make it worth their while economically to join us, Europe and Japan in a global campaign to address climate change. That will mean offering them better and cheaper alternatives to the hundreds of coal-burning electricity plants they plan to build every year into the indefinite future. Better alternatives for the climate are widely available, for example, in hydropower or natural gas-fueled generating system, and perhaps soon, in solar and wind as well.
In the end, however, the United States, along with Europe and Japan, probably also will have to make those alternatives cheaper by providing large technology transfers at cut rates. And the United States is the only country that can make any of this happen, at least regarding China. As the largest foreign direct investor in China, its largest export market, and the guarantor of the sea and air lanes across which all of China's trade and oil supplies travel, China's leaders recognize America as the indispensable economic and military power for China's own progress. All we need is a president and administration prepared to use that position to advance the global agenda on climate change.
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