Half the Sky

by Nicholas D. Kristof

A man goes out on the beach and sees that it is covered with starfish that have washed up in the tide. A little boy is walking along, picking them up and throwing them back into the water. “What are you doing, son?” the man asks. “You see how many starfish there are? You’ll never make a difference.” The boy paused thoughtfully, and picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean. “It sure made a difference to that one,” he said.

“Women are not dying because of untreatable diseases. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.”

Conservatives, who have presumed that the key to preventing AIDS is abstinence-only education, and liberals, who have focused on distribution of condoms, should both note that the intervention that has tested most cost-effective in Africa is neither.

Arthur Brooks, an economist, has found that the one third of Americans who attend worship services at least once a week are “inarguably more charitable in every measurable way” than the two thirds who are less religious.

Toward the end, during the question-and-answer session, a member of the audience noted that Saudi Arabia aimed to be one of the top ten countries in the world in technology by 2010 and asked if that was realistic. “Well, if you’re not fully utilizing half the talent in the country,” said Gates, “you’re not going to get too close to the top ten.” The small group on the right erupted in wild cheering, while the larger audience on the left applauded tepidly.

In general, the best clue to a nation’s growth and development potential is the status and role of women.

“You educate a boy, and you’re educating an individual,” Greg says, quoting an African proverb. “You educate a girl, and you’re educating an entire village.”

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. —DEREK BOK

One study after another has shown that educating girls is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty.

One early pair of studies found that when women hold assets or gain incomes, family money is more likely to be spent on nutrition, medicine, and housing, and consequently children are healthier.

What matters to the children’s well-being isn’t so much the level of the family’s wealth as whether it is controlled by the mother or by the father.

Some development experts hope to see more women enter politics and government, with the idea that they can do for their countries what they do for a household. Eighty-one

It was Mao who proclaimed: “Women hold up half the sky.”

challenges are insurmountable only until the moment that they’re surmounted.