Book picks similar to
Doomed Interventions by Kim Yi Dionne
africa
community-development
economics
health
Live a Little!: Breaking the Rules Won't Break Your Health
Susan M. Love - 2009
. . .Yes, it’s true—more or less. Why? Women do need to eat healthier, exercise, get adequate sleep, and take preventive health care seriously, yet it’s equally important for them to relax. Relax, take a breather, and give up trying to follow the narrowly prescribed health “rules” that are constant sources of unhealthy stress and guilt. In Live a Little!, women finally get a long-overdue dose of realism about what’s truly healthy and what’s mostly hype. Susan Love and Alice Domar take on the health police, whose edicts make us feel terrible when we don’t get eight hours of sleep or eat the maximum daily serving of veggies. Most important, they remind us of a forgotten truth: Perfect health is not achievable.Breaking down the prevailing health “musts” in six areas—sleep, stress, preventive care, exercise, nutrition, and personal relationships—these doctors, with a little help from the other experts of BeWell, cut to the heart of these topics and give us realistic guidelines for living a healthy enough life, one that also includes laughter, relaxation, and a commonsense attitude about being pretty healthy.To learn more health truths and whittle down your overblown expectations of yourself, open this book. Using science combined with these experts’ surprisingly refreshing opinions, Live a Little! shows you how to be healthy without driving yourself crazy!
On Roads That Echo: A bicycle journey through Asia and Africa
Charlie Walker - 2019
The two-and-a-half-year journey spanned the mountains and deserts of former Soviet Republics, Afghanistan on the fearful brink of foreign withdrawal, and remote corners of the Congolese jungle. From hiking through sandstorms in the Gobi desert to barrelling down rapids in a dugout canoe, this perilous adventure, and Charlie’s many encounters along the way, gives insight into the past, present, and future of often-overlooked places during periods of great change. 'A first class adventure by a first class adventurer - packed with compelling incident and insight.' - BENEDICT ALLEN ‘An epic adventure, told candidly and vividly. Charlie’s words make me want to go back and experience these places with the same depth.’ - MARK BEAUMONT. ‘A mammoth journey that makes me yearn for the formative freedom of the open road.’ - ALASTAIR HUMPHREYS
Development as Freedom
Amartya Sen - 1999
Freedom, Sen argues, is both the end and most efficient means of sustaining economic life and the key to securing the general welfare of the world's entire population. Releasing the idea of individual freedom from association with any particular historical, intellectual, political, or religious tradition, Sen clearly demonstrates its current applicability and possibilities. In the new global economy, where, despite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers—perhaps even the majority of people—he concludes, it is still possible to practically and optimistically regain a sense of social accountability. Development as Freedom is essential reading.
Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father—and How We Can Fix It
David Goldhill - 2011
The bill was for several hundred thousand dollars--and Medicare paid it. These circumstances left Goldhill angry and determined to understand how it was possible that world-class technology and well-trained personnel could result in such simple, inexcusable carelessness--and how a business that failed so miserably could be rewarded with full payment. Catastrophic Care is the eye-opening result. Goldhill explicates a health-care system that now costs nearly $2.5 trillion annually, bars many from treatment, provides inconsistent quality of care, offers negligible customer service, and in which an estimated 200,000 Americans die each year from errors. Above all, he exposes the fundamental fallacy of our entire system--that Medicare and insurance coverage make care cheaper and improve our health--and suggests a comprehensive new approach that could produce better results at more acceptable costs immediately by giving us, the patients, a real role in the process.
Three Famines
Tom Keneally - 2010
"In the Irish, Bengali and Ethopian famines, ideology, mindsets of governments, racial preconceptions and administrative incompetence were more lethal than the initiating blight, the loss of potatoes or rice or the grain named teff."--Dust cover.
Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs and Sugar; Your Brain's Silent Killer
David Potter - 2015
Carb-heavy diets lead to big-time inflammation, and inflammation leads to everything you don’t want: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease. Neurologist David Perlmutter forks over the straight scoop in Grain Brain, laying out data to back up his claims in such a convincing presentation you’ll let go of the conviction that a slice of whole wheat bread is “good” for you.In this detailed summary, you’ll find out how foods you think are healthy, like orange juice, low-fat milk, agave nectar or whole grain pasta, set your grey matter on fire. The brain’s lack of pain receptors make it hard to tell when damage is being inflicted, and by the time brain dysfunction is diagnosed, it’s usually too late. Cutting-edge research shows dietary choices either help us or hurt us, and this summary is packed with information to help you keep your brain sharp and nimble while cultivating vital health in your body.There’s no pill or protocol to fix a faulty brain, so prevention is the best bet for keeping your marbles. Start by going over Dr. Perlmutter’s “Hazard Zone” list to determine your risk factors for developing brain disease. This comprehensive summary includes all the information you need to make wise choices today through simple, powerful course corrections.You’ll find out:•How genetics influence our ability to digest and utilize glucose-rich fuels like fruit and grain•How the demographics of a skewed ratio between fat, protein and carbohydrates affect human biochemistry•How toxic components in processed foods impact system efficiency and function•Why as many as 9 out of 10 people may be suffering from undiagnosed gluten sensitivity•How gluten has become our generation’s addictive weakness as it wreaks havoc on our “second brain,” the digestive system•Strategies for using diet therapies to eliminate gluten and sugar to relieve headaches, insomnia, depression, ADHD, and a host of other health issues, including obesity and diabetes•How misinformation about low-fat diets has contributed to ravaging the health of millions worldwide•Why adding carefully chosen high-cholesterol foods into your diet is the best plan for avoiding heart disease and preserving brain power•How eating quality fat in generous amounts can help you achieve and maintain ideal weight•How sleep deprivation and chronic stress sabotage physical and mental health•Why consistent, vigorous exercise makes you smarter•How you can drop your triglycerides, blood pressure, weight and blood sugar in just four weeks•Ways to dramatically cut your risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseaseMake a “brain-smart” decision today by accessing the comprehensive information in this summary that allows you to identify counterproductive choices. In as little as two weeks, you can experience greater clarity of thought and better sleep, as well as a lighter body and improved digestion, and you can begin taking vital steps to establish and protect the biochemistry that will allow you to live and age gracefully.
The 30-Day No Alcohol Challenge: Your Simple Guide To Easily Reduce Or Quit Alcohol
James Swanwick - 2016
You will look and feel better, save and make money and be happier. James Swanwick is a former social drinker. He is an Australian-American entrepreneur, award-winning journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter anchor. In this groundbreaking book, Swanwick reveals strategies for you to prepare for, and take, a break from alcohol. Learn how to easily reduce or stop drinking, identify what type of drinker you are, successfully socialize without drinking, relieve stress without alcohol and finally break your habit. Join thousands of people around the world taking the 30 Day No Alcohol Challenge and kick-start the healthier and happier you.
The Lion and the Leopard (The Lion and the Leopard Trilogy, #3)
Brian Duncan - 2016
"The Lion and the Leopard" takes place during the Great 1914-18 War when German forces invaded Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa. Martin Russell ("The Settler") and his step-daughter, Clare, travel to the war front, while the Spaight family (Alan, from "Lake of Slaves", and his son Drew, and daughters Mandy and Kirsty) are also drawn into the conflict. A young British officer falls in love with Mandy, but she finds her true love elsewhere. Kirsty's friend, a Britsh naval reservist, joins the gunboat flotilla on Lake Tanganyika. The Chilembwe Uprising in Nyasaland provides an unwelcome distraction early in the war. The loves and tragedies in the families unfold during the long and bitter campaign.
The Fast Diet Magic Book: The Cheat's Guide to Easy Weight Loss with Intermittent Fasting
Caitlin Collins - 2014
But for some of us, things haven’t been quite so simple. Some of us have found intermittent fasting difficult, unpleasant or we simply have not lost as much weight as we had hoped. So why read The Fast Diet Magic Book? If you tried 5:2 fasting but just didn’t lose much weight you had some success with intermittent fasting but found it very difficult If you need a way to cope better with the hunger If you wish your weight loss could be much faster while intermittent fasting If you suffered with headaches, ravenous hunger or low energy If you are just starting out and don’t know which type of intermittent fasting to do …then you should read this book. There are plenty of weight loss books detailing the science behind intermittent fasting. This is not one of them. The Fast Diet Magic Book is written as a helper, a friend to guide you through the psychological side of fasting – to help you manage the hunger, the boredom, the weaker moments, the side-effects to keep your weight loss motivation high. If you are one of the very many people who doesn’t seem to lose weight doing normal 5:2, this book will suggest various ways in which you may have been going wrong. And for those of you who have been doing everything right and still had little success with intermittent fasting, it will show you exactly why. You can even use it as a guidebook to create your own programme for weight loss, all based on variations of intermittent fasting. This book will show you: The simple but crucial mistakes you may inadvertently be making which may be sabotaging your weight loss How to almost magically accelerate your weight loss with small but powerful changes to the standard 5:2 fast diet All the other kinds of intermittent fasting such as 16:8, 19:5 and 24 hour fasts All about ‘eating windows’ and how these are often the missing key to successful weight loss How to create intermittent fasting combinations that will allow you to lose weight faster, even if it hasn’t worked before Strategies to help you deal with hunger, lose weight and feel great while doing it How to cope with possible side-effects such as headaches, constipation and insomnia All about the psychology of fasting: how to manage the boredom, irritability and cravings and stay upbeat and positive while fasting How to plan for and cope with your first fast Dozens of weight loss tips and tricks for making intermittent fasting easier and more effective How to make the whole thing so effortless that you actually begin to enjoy fast dieting But most of all, it will show you how to create a personal plan which will allow you to lose a lot of weig
Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty
Roger Thurow - 2008
Yet while the “Green Revolution” succeeded in South America and Asia, it never got to Africa. More than 9 million people every year die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases every year—most of them in Africa and most of them children. More die of hunger in Africa than from AIDS and malaria combined. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse.In the west we think of famine as a natural disaster, brought about by drought; or as the legacy of brutal dictators. But in this powerful investigative narrative, Thurow & Kilman show exactly how, in the past few decades, American, British, and European policies conspired to keep Africa hungry and unable to feed itself. As a new generation of activists work to keep famine from spreading, Enough is essential reading on a humanitarian issue of utmost urgency.
Monrovia Mon Amour: Travels in Liberia
Theodore Dalrymple - 2012
In the film, Johnson – now a Liberian senator – calmly sips a Budweiser as the naked Doe’s ears are hacked off. Unsurprisingly, Dalrymple forms the professional opinion that Johnson is a psychopath.Monrovia was once a peaceful and reasonably ordered city; now, it has been almost completely sacked. Burnt-out cars are everywhere; doors have been chopped up for firewood; rubble lines the streets, with the vandalism forming a systematic attempt to destroy every vestige of the old regime (and, the author speculates, of civilisation itself). The destruction of the university and library, for instance, seems to be little more that the revenge of the ignorant upon the educated. In a local hospital (once the pride of West Africa, now long ruined and abandoned), the professor of surgery’s office has been ransacked, and medical books and papers have been ripped up; in another, infant welfare records have been smeared with faeces. In the wrecked Centennial Hall, the body of a beautiful Steinway grand piano lies on the floor, its legs senselessly sawn off. In a Lutheran church, Dalrymple finds the floor covered in the blood silhouettes of 600 Liberians massacred by Doe’s soldiers.Dalrymple – who achieves the near-impossible by making a book about such barbarism at times amusing – lays much of the blame for what happened at the feet of Western intellectuals and their African counterparts.Monrovia Mon Amour is a profoundly moving and interesting book about a country which is little-understood and less visited.
Saturday Is for Funerals
Unity Dow - 2010
In Saturday Is for Funerals we learn why that won't happen.Unity Dow and Max Essex tell the true story of lives ravaged by AIDS of orphans, bereaved parents, and widows; of families who devote most Saturdays to the burial of relatives and friends. We witness the actions of community leaders, medical professionals, research scientists, and educators of all types to see how an unprecedented epidemic of death and destruction is being stopped in its tracks.This book describes how a country responded in a time of crisis. In the true-life stories of loss and quiet heroism, activism and scientific initiatives, we learn of new techniques that dramatically reduce rates of transmission from mother to child, new therapies that can save lives of many infected with AIDS, and intricate knowledge about the spread of HIV, as well as issues of confidentiality, distributive justice, and human rights. The experiences of Botswana offer practical lessons along with the critical element of hope.
Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practice of Transformational Development
Bryant L. Myers - 1999
"A masterpiece of integration and application that draws widely on the best Christian and scientific sources on development and draws solid conclusions from what we have learned from experience in ministries around the world." From the Foreword by Paul G. Hiebert"A book from which Christians of every church tradition can draw deeply and profit greatly. The practical wisdom found here can only be the result of what is expressed by its title: 'walking with the poor.'"� --Stephen B. Bevans, Catholic Theological UnionIn this revised and updated edition of a modern classic, Bryant Myers shows how Christian mission can contribute to dismantling poverty and social evil. Integrating the best principles and practice of the international development community, the thinking and experience of Christian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and a theological framework for transformational development, Myers demonstrates what is possible when we cease to treat the spiritual and physical domains of life as separate and unrelated.
Falling Off the Edge: Globalization, World Peace and Other Lies. Alex Perry
Alex Perry - 2008
What if that's not the case? Alex Perry travels from the South China Sea to the highlands of Afghanistan to the Sahara to see globalisation at the sharp end.
Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations
Ray Fisman - 2008
He's the United Nations diplomat who double-parks his Mercedes on New York City streets at rush hour because the cops can't touch him--he has diplomatic immunity. He's the Chinese smuggler who dodges tariffs by magically transforming frozen chickens into frozen turkeys. The dictator, the warlord, the unscrupulous bureaucrat who bilks the developing world of billions in aid. The calculating crook who views stealing and murder as just another part of his business strategy. And, in the wrong set of circumstances, he might just be you.In Economic Gangsters, Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel take readers into the secretive, chaotic, and brutal worlds inhabited by these lawless and violent thugs. Join these two sleuthing economists as they follow the foreign aid money trail into the grasping hands of corrupt governments and shady underworld characters. Spend time with ingenious black marketeers as they game the international system. Follow the steep rise and fall of stock prices of companies with unseemly connections to Indonesia's former dictator. See for yourself what rainfall has to do with witch killings in Tanzania--and more.Fisman and Miguel use economics to get inside the heads of these "gangsters," and propose solutions that can make a difference to the world's poor--including cash infusions to defuse violence in times of drought, and steering the World Bank away from aid programs most susceptible to corruption.Take an entertaining walk on the dark side of global economic development with Economic Gangsters.