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Scowcroft: Globalization erodes power of individual countries
Globalization is "reducing freedom of action of the nation state," former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft told a National Press Club luncheon audience June 14 during the annual Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation journalism awards presentations. Scowcroft, the top security aide to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, said that globalization in communications, economics and other fields is "eroding the power of nation states" that have been the framework for international relations since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. He cited the global economic crisis that began in…
Type: News
Ag Secy: Global food security requires innovation, accurate information
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called for innovation and accurate market information to meet global food needs at a National Press Club luncheon June 13. "We must ensure that food makes it from farms to mouths," he said. "The solution to global food security lies in innovation, arising from research and development." The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 925 million people were undernourished last year. Although an improvement over 2009, the number is still "unacceptably high," Vilsack said. Vilsack spoke in advance of the first meeting of G20 agriculture…
Type: News
Club 5K participants beat heat; race draws record number of entrants
Hundreds of participants in the National Press Club Beat the Deadline 5K endured hot, humid conditions on June 11, despite the race's 7:30 a.m. start time. The event drew a record number of entrants -- more than 800 -- and likely will produce the highest fundraising total in six years for the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library. But the cohort of runners and walkers was fewer than the total registered -- probably due to the warm temperature. "It shows how tough you people are," former Club President Alan Bjerga told a post-race awards breakfast crowd in the ballroom. "Thanks for…
Type: News
Go Campaign initiates $500,000 drive to help youth solve world problems
Leaders of the non-profit Go Campaign announced at a June 9 Newsmaker a $500,000 fund drive to help youth "solve real world problems and combat poverty in developing nations." The initiative will support a five-year grant program to find the innovators and entrepreneurs who will inspire youth to tackle challenges in their communities and around the world. Campaign board member and exercise guru Tony Horton, who will be a marshal at the June 11 Club 5K race, touted the drive. "We need something new in the fitness world...to help people to help their friends and neighbors" to be healthy, he…
Type: News
Babbitt: Radicals in Congress waging shadow war on environment
Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt today accused “radicals” in Congress of waging a shadow war against the nation’s wilderness areas and called on President Barack Obama to gird for battle against increasing assaults on the environment at a June 8 Newsmaker. “It is clear to me that the House of Representatives will not only block progress but will continue to sustain an assault on our public lands and water,” he said, urging the president to act more forcefully to aid the cause of conservation. Babbitt, a popular former Arizona governor and unsuccessful 1988 Democratic Party presidential…
Type: News
Pakistani ambassador mourns slain journalist
During a condolence meeting convened by Pakistani reporters in the United States on June 6 at the National Press Club, Pakistani Ambassador Husain Haqqani mourned the death of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, stating that his passing diminishes the humanity of everyone and that he was grieved that Pakistan has become a battlefield. Shahzad,an Islamabad-based investigative journalist,was found dead in his abandoned car 100 km north of Islamabad on May 31. Shahzad called Haqqani a few days before he was killed, Haqqani said. A journalist himself before being appointed to his post in Washington,…
Type: News
Democracy meeting in Lithuania to focus on North Africa, Middle East, diplomats say
A high-level democracy meeting in Vilnius beginning June 29 will have a special focus on supporting democratic transition and consolidation worldwide, but especially on North Africa and the Middle East, and on helping bridge the gap between the principles of democracy and universal human rights, Egidijus Meilunas, Lithuania's vice minister of foreign affairs, and Dr. Tomicah Tillemann, senior advisor to Secretary of State Clinton for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies, said at a Newsmaker press conference May 26. Egidijus said the meeting will seek to achieve these goals by "strengthening…
Type: News
Former NPR journalist Williams says honest debate "essential" to the nation's future
Former NPR and current Fox News commentator Juan Williams told a National Press Club luncheon audience May 26 that he had attended many events in the Club's ballroom but "I never thought I would be the speaker." Williams became a news story seven months ago when he was fired by NPR for expressing discomfort at seeing persons in Muslim garb boarding an airplane with him. His comments caused a firestorm of controversy and Williams said he was shocked by the attention given his dismissal. In spite of years of exposure on television and radio, " I was fairly anonymous before this happened."…
Type: News
Environmental questions fuel natural gas drilling debate
Uncertainty over the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing, a method of drilling for shale natural gas, dominated a debate on regulating such drilling at a May 24 NPC Newsmaker. Adrian Kuzminski, an anti-drilling activist from Sustainable Otsego, an upstate New York "grass roots" organization of 600 people, opposed fracturing. "Natural gas is not a substitute for oil, but an extension," he said. Gas is at least as dirty as coal or oil because it releases methane that could migrant into water supplies, he said. He proposes substituting conservation and clean energy sources for further…
Type: News
Africa looks to reap development benefits from diaspora
Africans living outside the continent who remain committed to its development are considered its "sixth region," according to the organizer of an upcoming summit designed to tap the diaspora who spoke at a May 18 Newsmaker. Ambassador Mbulelo Rakwena of the Africa Multilateral Branch of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said the meeting will bring together leaders from politics, business, culture, civil society and other sectors of the diaspora, together with their counterparts from the African continent. The event, which will be held in South Africa, will "put flesh…
Type: News