The aid workers who really help, October 8, 2009, The Economist: “As the dust settled after the attacks of September 11th 2001, officials in America and elsewhere started tracking cross-border flows of money from migrants, in the hope of nabbing terrorists. Remittance agencies were regulated more heavily; cash transfers from foreign workers were monitored. Not much was discovered about terrorism, but lots of new data emerged on the economics of migration. It was a happy side-effect. Over the past few years migration experts have gained a clearer view of how some 200m people working abroad affect the lives of compatriots who stay home. The impact, it turns out, is huge and benign. Obviously, migrants help their homelands by remitting cash on a vast scale. Armies of itinerant nannies, dishwashers, meatpackers and plumbers shift more capital to poorer countries than do Western aid efforts. (This may long have been true, but without the data who knew?) The World Bank says foreign workers sent $328 billion from richer to poorer countries last year, more than double the $120 billion in official aid flows from OECD members. India got $52 billion from its diaspora, more than it took in foreign direct investment…”

Inner-city L.A. hungers for good grocery stores, By Daniel B. Wood, October 10, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “East L.A. resident Olga Perez has to take two buses to a store about eight miles away to get fresh fruits and vegetables, or decent cuts of meat, for her family. ‘The only thing I can get at my corner store are spoiled or expired,’ explains Ms. Perez, a dental assistant and single mother who lives in a two-bedroom apartment with two daughters and a granddaughter. The round trip costs her $5 and limits what she can carry home. ‘I can only get so much milk and when I get home the eggs are cracked and the bread is smashed,’ she says. And because she works until 6:30 p.m. most nights, Perez doesn’t often have the time to make the trip and get home in time to cook for her family. Her solution: ‘Open a can of ravioli or make hot dogs,’ but that sometimes keeps her daughter and granddaughter up at night, complaining of insomnia and stomach aches. It’s a situation the Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores, a city-wide coalition of 25 community, faith-based and environmental organizations, is trying to change. They formed a Blue Ribbon Commission in early 2007 to address the chronic absence of quality grocery stores in several L.A. neighborhoods including East L.A. and South Central - and are now trying to draw such stores to these underserved areas…”