I hate to break up the pattern of alternating cute baby pictures with rants about science and the general public, but I wanted to sneak in a plug for a new initiative that I’m very tangentially involved in on campus. Union has launched a new fellowship program, the “Minerva Fellows”, providing funding for 7-ish students a year (it’s supposed to be seven but they did eight this year) to spend most of a year providing aid to poor people in developing countries, and then return to campus to talk about their experiences.
This year’s Fellows and their projects are introduced on this page, with links to their individual blogs (of course they have blogs– this is 2008, people). Of particular interest is Steve Po-Chedley, one of this year’s stellar group of Physics majors, who is currently working at a clinic in southern Uganda.
All of the projects, and all of the blogs are worth a look, though. So go check them out.
providing aid to poor people in developing countries
That has been a roaring cataract of stolen tax monies since the mid-1960s. After 40 years and $13+ figures dumped off-shore, what has obtained? Unbridled appetites and 15-fold more beggars. An advocate makes virtue of failure. The worse the cure the better the treatment – and the more that is required.