Happy V-Day indeed! That’s both in the Valentine’s & the V-Day sense of the well-wishing. I know I mentioned V-day last year, but my, what an interesting & cool movement. I got my V-Day fix this year watching a 2004 speech by Eve Ensler, the woman who wrote the “Vagina Monologues.” On the Valentine side of things, I’ve got another digikitten piece for you to enjoy. This one was for the February’s V-Day Inspired Twisted Pixel and dedicated to my Valentine

Backing up a little, I found Eve Ensler’s presentation on the website of the TED Conference. While TED stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design it’s not really for computer geeks or MTV fans. They bring together people from extremely different backgrounds & have them discuss their passions. For example, another TED presentation I enjoyed recently was by Bjorn Lomborg. In a nutshell, he was part of a committee of economists who have tried to prioritize the world’s biggest problems based on where money would do the most good. They concluded that programs like AIDS prevention & nutritional supplements for regions were malnutrition is rampant are the areas where the least money can do the most good. Meanwhile, global warming is at the very bottom of their list because it will take huge investments to improve the situation, even slightly. So just when I (and everyone else it seems) is getting excited about the issue it turns out that it may not be the best place to focus after all Now, I know I’m not arguing his point extremely effectively, I’m not even sure that his is the best conclusion to come to. For example, what good does it do to aid in AIDS prevention & malnutrition if global warming continues & that in combination with increasing survival rates just leads to huge food shortages. Nonetheless, it’s a compelling & though provoking argument. Well worth the 17 minute watch. Prioritizing global problems also make me think a lot about the political motivations of our nation. Effective Fair Trade was the 3rd most effective way to help the world because it would “enliven the global economy” helping to “pull 200 to 300 million people out of poverty.” Wouldn’t that be awesome! Think it’s something our government (or most of our nation) would be crazy to start? I’m not so sure. I have a feeling businesses would cry foul because it would hurt their bottom line. I’m going to stop ranting before I get too far in over my head, but yeah, watch TED presentations, they’ll get you thinking