by John Prendergast with Don Cheadle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 7, 2010
Sometimes overblown and repetitive, but an important, valuable toolkit that will inspire many.
In follow-up to their bestseller Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond (2007), Prendergast, a human-rights activist and co-founder of the Enough Project, and actor Cheadle urge ordinary citizens to take action against genocide, the recruitment of child soldiers and the use of rape as a war weapon in African nations.
Hoping to galvanize readers, the authors trace the history of these “heinous and despicable” war tactics, which have resulted in some 10 million deaths in the last 20 years in east and central Africa, and tell the stories of U.S. and African activists who have worked to foster the political will and policies needed to put an end to these abuses. The authors demonstrate how individuals can reach the point where they feel “enough is enough” when it comes to human-rights outrages, and actually do something as a result. Examples include: An Ohio minister, moved by a newspaper story, got church members to participate in rallies and petition drives to help survivors of war in Darfur; students visiting Uganda witnessed an attack involving child soldiers of the Lord’s Resistance Army and created a group that involves hundreds of thousands of young people in efforts to end the child militia. An award-winning filmmaker met rape victims in the war-torn Congo, wondered why the world isn’t “tearing its hair out at the horror of this” and made the widely viewed film The Greatest Silence (2007), which sparked global action. Focusing on genocide in Darfur, child-soldier recruitment in Uganda and sexual violence in the Congo, Prendergast and Cheadle chronicle actions by diverse individuals, including survivors, teachers and journalists, as well as such celebrities as Sheryl Crow and Angelina Jolie. Noting that the Obama Administration’s strong stand against human-rights crimes makes this an opportune moment for activists to press for action, the authors suggest a comprehensive strategy for ending each wartime abuse. They list more than a dozen ways in which people can take a stand, from calling government officials to organizing teach-ins.
Sometimes overblown and repetitive, but an important, valuable toolkit that will inspire many.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-307-46482-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Three Rivers/Crown
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2010
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by John Prendergast & Fidel Bafilemba photographed by Ryan Gosling illustrated by Sam Ilus
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by Paul Kalanithi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 2016
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
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A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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by Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2019
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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