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The 2009 overseas aid figures, released today, show that rich countries are failing to deliver on their promises to poorer countries.

The figures, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), show that although there has been a fraction of an increase in total aid, from $122 to $123 billion, the amount of aid has actually fallen by $3.5 billion when compared with last year’s prices. This comes at a time when the World Bank forecasts that 50,000 more children in Sub-Saharan countries may have died this year because of the financial crisis.

Max Lawson of Oxfam said, “This lacklustre performance from donors is not close to meeting the needs of poor countries, who are suffering now from the impact of the economic crisis. It is a scandal that more than half of rich nations have cut their aid this year and are giving less of their income than last year – just 31 cents in every hundred dollars.

“Whilst some countries like the UK have made efforts to increase aid, others are really letting the side down. Italy’s aid spending has plunged by a massive 31 per cent, Ireland’s by 18.9 per cent, Germany’s by 12 per cent, Japan by 10.7 per cent and Canada by 9.5 per cent.”

The UK is actually on track to meet its aid commitments, reporting a jump from 0.43 per cent of GDP in 2008 to 0.52 per cent in 2009. Yesterday the Conservatives’ joined the other main parties by pledging in their manifesto to introduce legislation to require UK governments to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid.

Lawson said: “Whoever wins the election must work to pass a Bill as soon as possible, to give legal force to the UK’s promises to the world’s poorest people and increase the budget to meet 0.70 per cent by 2013.”

Forty years ago* rich countries pledged to spend 0.7 per cent of their annual national incomes in development aid. And so far, just five nations – Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – have actually reached the target. Today’s figures show that some donors have increased aid, demonstrating that even in hard economic times this is possible where there is political will to meet international commitments.

“Its crunch time. More aid is vital now to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and world leaders must rebuild their credibility on the global stage before its too late. All rich countries must commit to timetables to meet 0.7, backed by national binding legislation, when they meet at the UN summit in September to review their progress on MDGs.” Said Lawson.

Delivered well, aid saves lives. In Nepal development aid has been pivotal in dramatically improving healthcare, with a series of reforms including abolishing health fees. Since 2006 the under-five mortality rate has reduced by 22 per cent, neo-natal mortality by 38 per cent and maternal mortality has fallen by 19 per cent. In fact maternal mortality has now fallen by 58 per cent in the country since 1996 – a towering success.

New research published on Monday** revealed that maternal deaths have fallen worldwide, from over half a million a year in 1980 to less than 350,000 in 2008.

“The heartening fall in global maternal mortality comes in large part because of well-targeted aid spending. It is unconscionable for rich countries to fail on aid promises when there are such rich rewards to be won in the fight against poverty.” said Lawson.

/Ends

For more information please contact Sarah Dransfield, Oxfam Press Officer on +44 (0) 1865 472269, +44 (0)7767 085636 or [email protected]

* In 1970 the UN General Assembly committed to providing 0.7% of Gross national product in aid. This was recommitted to by rich countries attending the 2002 Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development, and at the G8 meeting in Gleneagles in 2005 where European members of the G8 also recommitted to reaching the 0.7% target, by 2015.

**According to a study published in the Lancet.

Aid levels from G8 member countries Canada and Japan have dropped, by 10.2 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively. Aid from the US registered a small increase from 0.19 to 0.20 per cent of GDP. The UK remains on target for its aid commitments, reporting a jump from 0.43 per cent of GDP in 2008 to 0.52 per cent in 2009. France has increased its aid from 0.39 per cent to 0.46 per cent of GDP.

After debt relief is deducted the increase in aid from 2008 to 2009 was better, but still way off track to meet promised increases.

EU 15 Member States pledged to spend 0.7 per cent of their GNI on aid by 2015. EU 12 Member States committed to spend 0.33% of their GNI on aid by 2015. The collective EU target for next year is to provide 0.56% of GNI in aid by 2010. The EU is off track to meet this target.

Some donors have increased the percentage of aid given, but are actually spending less. Aid from the Netherlands rose slightly as a percentage of the economy, but actual spend fell by nearly $600 million. Spain’s aid rose from 0.45 to 0.46 as a percentage of GDP but its actual spend fell by $200 million, a disappointing record for the country holding the Presidency of the European Union. Although both Sweden and Luxembourg gave over 1% of GNI, the actual amount given was less than in 2008.

Now that the Google Buzz hype and controversy have died down, it’s probably the best time to find out if it has what it takes to become a popular social web product. It would be Google’s first if it did. Any social web service, especially one focused on sharing as much as Buzz, needs to make it easy for sites to add sharing options for it. Two mont… (read more)

We know the fourth generation of the iPhone will be announced sometime this June, but what date should you book off work so you can be glued to Gizmodo all day? June 22, according to a date booked at YBCA. More »

While we wait for bigger, cheaper OLED displays to knock LCD and plasmas off their perch, Sony has released the first field display to use an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) display panel. The PVM-740 is a 7.4-inch 960 x 540 pixel resolution portable monitor designed for professional users (with professionally deep pockets) that offers picture contrast greater than a CRT display and is less affected by ambient light, allowing images to be viewed even in strong sunlight…
Continue Reading Sony unveils first professional field monitor with OLED display

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Daily Random Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup brown lentils
  
• 2-3 cups water
  
• 1 carrot
  
• 500 g / 1.1 lb sweet potato, peeled
  
• 1 onion, finely diced
  
• 2 t soy sauce (or tamari)
  
• 1 T tahini
  
• 2 T finely chopped fresh coriander, chives or parsley
  
• Freshly ground black pepper
  
• 1 cup wheatgerm
  

METHOD:
Wash lentils thoroughly, cover with water and bring to the boil. Remove any foam that rises to the top and simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until soft. Drain well.

Boil carrot and sweet potato until soft. Drain well and mash. Add onion, soy sauce, tahini, herbs and pepper.

Shape into round burgers and roll in wheatgerm. Place burgers on a tray and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Lightly oil a frying pan and heat until very hot, cook burgers on both sides until brown.

NOTES:
Serve alone, or with this Curry Silken Tofu Dressing

I’m going into my third month now on this going sugar little journey, and I can tell you this, my taste buds sure have changed quite a bit. In fact, there are some sweet foods I used to eat/drink all the time, and now I take a couple bites or sips and it’s just too sweet for me. My taste buds are literally reacting to all the sugar, and it’s making me cringy. I find it utterly amazing how the body can acclimate once you start working with it…and in my case, slowly doing a wean versus going cold turkey.

Here’s a good example of what is too sweet to me now. Back in January, every day I would drink 1-2 16oz bottles of Sweet Leaf Tea. I love the tea because they have organic versions, the flavors are awesome, and admittedly, I find the picture of the sweet granny on the label endearing. I’d actually call it Sweet Grandma Tea.

One bottle contains 2 servings, so that comes to a total of 32g of sugar for the Plain Original Flavor. The Raspberry and Peach have 36g, and my former favorite the Half & Half (lemonade and tea) has a whopping 48g of sugar per 16oz bottle. If I stick to my, 25g/day of sugars goal, then just about half that bottle of the Half & Half is my entire day’s worth of sugar.

Cutting back 12g/day just in drinks

I have a hard time even drinking the Original flavor Sweet Leaf tea now. In fact, I got a bottle the other day and had to add some water to it to help make it taste less sweet. Whole Foods had a sale on organic Steaz iced teas, and so I got a bunch because one can at 16oz is also 2 servings, but the sugar content is 20g of sugar for the whole bottle. Cutting back from 32g to 20g for 16oz of flavored iced tea is a significant change. So now, I’ve moved from Sweet Leaf to Steaz for teas. The folks at Steaz are really nice too. I wrote about them back in 2008 because I liked how they focused on diversity and fair trade.

I’ve also been drinking more sparkling waters because I love the carbonation minus all the sugars. The hardest part for me in this whole sugar weaning thing has been cutting down the sugars in my drinks because in the 80g/day of sugars I used to consume, more than half of those grams came from drinks alone. I’d rather be eating my sugar than drinking it.

Going into month 3 on the sugar wean, I’ve also noticed some odd but good cravings. One morning I woke up and craved kale. I’ve been on a bit of a kale binge lately. On another morning, I woke up and craved fiber. Yeah, I actually craved fiber, and honestly, it was the weirdest thing because normally I’ll crave bready sugary things like pancakes or muffins. So to satisfy my morning fiber craving, I went and got a box of Whole Foods 365 brand High Fiber cereal. I threw in some walnuts and dried cherries to the cereal for added protein, MUFAs, and some sweet.

My desire for cookies and cakes has dropped too. The cravings are not totally gone but I’d guess they are over 50% gone which is much better progress in 3 months than I expected. I believe this sugar wean is going pretty smooth now because I’m doing it slowly over time, and working with my taste buds as they change. It’s really exciting to get to a point where you know your body is enjoying the changes for better health.

So, how has your sugar weaning week been going? Notice any changes in the taste buds too?

Electrical engineers from University of California San Diego (UCSD) are building the foundations for wireless networks of the future. Hoping to bring mass access to the the kind of high capacity, extremely low power wireless networks found only in expensive defense and satellite applications, the researchers are merging silicon chip technologies with sophisticated wireless communications tools in the millimeter and microwave range. This work, according to UCSD, could result in personal wireless networks that make current high-speed wireless connections feel slower than the dial-up connections from the early 1990s…
Continue Reading UCSD engineers working towards faster wireless networks… for everyone

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Here’s the video of the Aston Martin Gauntlet design concept in which we get a 360-degree view of all the various components of the car and its style. Like the Gauntlet images, this is strictly a computer-generated video showing the design project from Ugur Sahin. While these kinds of projects generally give vent to the designer’s imagination, Sahin has been faithful to the Aston style, using evident inspiration from models such as the One-77 and the Vantage. Would Aston Martin consider building something like? We don’t know, but we’ve certainly appreciated the design in the meantime.

It’s no secret that porn can be a tremendous driver for the adoption of new technologies: VCRs, DVD players, cable and satellite TV, and the internet. But apparently it’s also helping teach Chinese folks how to scale the country’s Great Firewall. A few days ago, the Twitter name of a Japanese porn actress got “discovered” in China, and thanks to her apparent popularity, tons of people started trying to access her Twitter page. Twitter, though, is blocked in China, and since the woman is a porn actress, information on her is blocked as it “could cause harm to youngsters’ mental and physical well-being”. These blocks are apparently driving people to learn how to use software to get around the Great Firewall (via Jan Chipchase) so they can follow the actress on Twitter. Perhaps the best way to deal with China’s internet censorship isn’t technical tricks, but to point Chinese surfers to porn so they’ll learn about how to get around the wall on their own?

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Cay is a low lying island composed mainly of sand and corals. Very often, the Caribbean islands are synonymous with the word “cay.”

lyng883

The Florida Keys, an assortment of coral islands and limestone reefs forming the southern edge of Florida and the Great Barrier Reef (the largest coral reef in the world) are also termed as “cays.”

The cays are formed over a period of time from the action of tidal waves, wind and the deposit of sea birds. The weather conditions influence the arrangement of cays to a great extent. If there is heavy tidal action, then it would result in the addition of a lot of debris and subsequent cays.

However, anything adverse like a hurricane can totally eradicate a cay. Incidentally Cay was also the name of a female rockband from London which had a short span of popularity from 1998 to 2001.

Yes, yes, the iPad is so simple to use, your 2 year old kid can understand it. But so can a cat! And what fun it has, too: pawing at that thing like it’s a kitty-litter tray. [DoobyBrain via CrunchGear] More »

El Club Automovilístico Alemán ha sacado un estudio en el cual se ve que los faros de xenón tienen entre el doble y el triple de capacidad de iluminación en la carretera que los faros convencionales. De esa manera se garantiza una visibilidad mayor no sólo a largo alcance (dado su mayor rango) sino también a corto, ya que hacia los lados también se expande la luz.

En este mismo estudio se revela que sólo el 70% se siente más seguro con estas luces. Es un dato peculiar que se deriva del hecho de que muchos conductores los tienen un pelín desregulado y deslumbra a los que vienen de frente: si a esto le añadimos la mayor altura de los vehículos modernos, si llevamos un coche de hace 10 años casi seguro que un todoterreno nos va a deslumbrar con xenón.

Sin embargo, en un post que vimos hace unos meses pudimos comprobar cómo la baja iluminación es uno de los principales factores de riesgo en los accidentes de tráfico. De esta manera no es de extrañar que dentro de poco los gobiernos comiencen a poner estos sistemas de iluminación como obligatorios basándose en la seguridad de los vehículos, tal y como se hizo con el cinturón de seguridad.

El elevado precio que tienen en alguno de los modelos y la poca importancia que le dan a la seguridad muchos de los compradores de vehículos hace que no lo veamos tan a menudo en la carretera. La obligatoriedad del mismo abarataría su coste al producirse más masivamente y abandonarse la producción de lámparas convencionales y además podría reducirse un 42% las víctimas mortales. Esperemos verlo pronto en todos los coches.

Vía | Cocheslujo

Facebook has reached a stage where it can pursue any product or feature it wants and enter pretty much any market as a strong competitor. Google is one of the few other companies in this position and Facebook has only recently become so powerful. It’s not wasting any time, though, and it is looking at various opportunities. One of these is the Q&A… (read more)

Egypt State Information Service

Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni announced on April 12, 2010 the discovery of 14 Greco-Roman tombs dated back to 2,300 years at a construction site near al-Baweeti town in al-Baharia Oasis, October 6th Governorate.

The archaeologists discovered four plaster human masks, a gold fragment decorated with the four sons of the god Horus, as well as coins, clay and glass, said Zahi Hawwas, the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

A mummy of a woman measuring 97 centimeters, wearing some jewelry and covered with colored plaster depicting a Roman costume, was also found.

The tombs were unearthed in an area where a youth center was to be built in a village there, Sabri Abdel-Aziz, the head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities department, said in a statement.

The antiquities department has halted construction at the site, where a large necropolis may exist, he said.

Discovery News (Rossella Lorenzi)

A bejeweled mummy dressed in Roman robes has emerged from the sands of Egypt’s Bahariya Oasis, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Monday.

Entombed in a decorated gypsum sarcophagus, the 38-inch tall mummy belonged to a woman or girl who died in the Greco-Roman period about 2,300 years ago.

Unearthed in a rock-hewn tomb at a modern construction site near the town of Bawiti, in Bahariya Oasis, some 185 miles southwest of Cairo, the mummy points to the existence of a large Greco-Roman necropolis nearby, Mahmoud Affifi, director of Cairo and Giza antiquities, said in a statement.

Google/AFP

Egyptian archaeologists unearthed a Roman mummy entombed in an elaborate sarcophagus at an ancient grave site alongside gypsum masks, the antiquities council said in a statement Monday.

The one metre (three feet) long gypsum sarcophagus portrays a woman dressed in Roman robes and contains a mummified woman or girl who died in the Greco-Roman period about 2300 years ago.

“We are sure (the mummy) is female. Either she was a small woman, and mummies always shrink, or she could have been a young woman,” Zahi Hawass, chief of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP.

Presstv

Findings suggest that the tombs might have been part of a much larger necropolis, Egypt’s Culture Ministry said in a Monday statement.

The female mummy was found in the stair-lined interior of one of the rock-hewn tombs, Reuters reported.

The 97-centemeter tall mummy was cast in colored plaster inlaid with jewelry and eyes.

Archeologists also found four anthropoid plaster masks, a gold fragment adorned with engravings of the four sons of Horus and a collection of coins, and clay and glass vessels.

Monsters and Critics

5-photograph slideshow, with captions.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Car kits for iPods and iPhones aren’t exactly big news, with plenty of third party accessory companies feeding off the ecosystem already. But an Apple-branded kit, found buried in iPhone OS 4? More »

Last month at the meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics, a research group from the Kyoto Institute of Technology introduced a new photovoltaic cell that is capable of generating electricity not only from visible light, but from ultraviolet and infrared light as well. The research group, led by associate professor Saki Sonoda, hopes that this will lead to a more efficient PV cell that can be single-junction rather than the more conventional multi-junction. ..
Continue Reading New PV cell generates electricity from UV and IR light

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In the emerging Internet of Things, everyday objects are becoming networked. Clothing is no exception. It’s still early days for Web-enabled clothes – the best example so far is the Nike+ running shoe, which contains sensors that connect to the user’s iPod. But expect to see everything from your shirt to your underwear networked in the not too distant future.

In the following list of ten ‘smart clothing’ items, we showcase Internet pants, a proximity sensing shirt, a heart sensing bra, biosensor underwear, a "thought helmet", and more!

Sponsor

Motion Detecting Pants

Now, we’re know what you’re thinking – it’s already pretty easy to detect ‘motion’ in pants isn’t it? Nevertheless, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg has developed a pair of pants "that detect movement and let a computer know your every move."

These smart pants work via a loom that helps sew the wires and fabric together. Sensors embedded in the fabric measure the speed, rotation and flexibility of the pants with every movement. Wireless signals are sent from the pants to a computer to display the activity. The scientists at Virginia Polytechnic don’t yet know why this activity would be useful (to a computer), but we’re sure that use cases will arise.

Proximity Sensing Shirt

The Locked ON Proximity Sensing T-Shirt is currently available at the ThinkGeek store. It features a "radar screen" on the shirt that scans for matching shirts. If you get within a few meters of your counterpart wearing the same shirt, the radar on your shirt "locks on" and detects the other. This could be useful for love or war – the video below shows the latter scenario.

Heart Sensing Bra

The Numetrex heart sensing bra uses electronic modules and silver coated electrodes to pick up a person’s heart rate and transmit the data to a watch worn on the wrist.

Says NuMetrex Marketing Director Meg Burich, “It’s a comfortable way to wear a heart rate monitor, because we knit flexible heart sensing fibers directly into the fabric of the garment. There’s no hard plastic belt to strap around your chest.”

Smart Running Shoes

Nike+ running shoes come with a sensor that tracks your run, then sends the data to your iPod. It even has its own social network and can automatically tweet and post a status report on Facebook.

See ReadWriteWeb’s review of the Nike+ shoes.

Networked Jacket

According to a report from GizmoWatch a couple of years ago, Lunar design’s BLU Jacket is a futuristic concept that could make walking billboards a reality.

Lunar Design used organic fabrics containing semiconductors in the BLU Jacket, in order to display your moods through signs and colors. This BLU Jacket also has a GPS module built into it. So if someone asks you directions, you could theoretically project a map onto your jacket’s sleeve through it’s flexible display. Or, asks GizmoWatch, "how about getting paid for displaying advertisements on your jacket?"

Next Page: Neuro Headset, Thought Helmet, Biosensor Underwear, iPod Watch, Nanofibers.

Al Masry Al Youm (Ekram Ibrahim)

The Egyptian government and the United Nations held the first workshop in their “Mobilization of the Dahshour World Heritage Site for Community Development” program on 10 April. The program aims to focus on developing the community while preserving the area’s rich cultural and natural heritage.

The workshop, held under the auspices of 6th of October Governor Fathy Saad at the famous Sakkara archaeological site, was attended by Spanish Ambassador to Egypt Antonio Lopez Martinez, and UN Resident Coordinator James W. Rawley.

“I am confident that programs such as the Dahshour World Heritage Site for Community Development will succeed in improving the quality of life of the people of Dahshour while at the same time contributing to the preservation of the area’s unique cultural heritage and biodiversity for future generations,” Rawley declared in an opening address.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Heritage Key (Owen Jarus)

Throughout their history the ancient Egyptians recorded making voyages to a place called the ‘Land of Punt’. To the Egyptians it was a far-off source of exotic animals and valuable goods.

From there they brought back perfumes, panther skins, electrum, and, yes, live baboons to keep as pets. The voyages started as early as the Old Kingdom, ca. 4,500 years ago, and continued until just after the collapse of the New Kingdom 3,000 years ago.

Egyptologists have long argued about the location of Punt. The presence of perfumes suggests that it was located somewhere in Arabia, such as Yemen. However the depiction of a giraffe, at a temple built by Queen Hatshepsut, tells archaeologists that Punt is likely somewhere in Africa – perhaps around Ethiopia, Eritrea or Somalia.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

afrik.com (Shahinez Benabed)

With Meroitic timeline.

Meroë is one of the great kingdoms of ancient Sudan. Perched next to it was Egypt, another, great kingdom. For several centuries, especially the late period and during the reign of Cleopatra, Meroë was strategically positioned in terms of its geographical location, thus contributing to its reputation as a hub, or a melting pot, for several civilizations. However, till date, very little is known about this great civilization. An exhibition to enlighten the general public, on the vestiges of a great kingdom that hint on an atypical culture which could have influenced or been influenced by African, Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilizations is underway at the Louvre Museum in Paris until September.

Meroë or Ethiopia (“The Land of Burned Faces”— as termed by Greco-Roman historians, or “The Kingdom of Kush” — as termed by ancient Egyptians) covered large areas within the confines of present day Egypt and Sudan, over 1000 kilometers along the banks of the Nile river for over six centuries.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes