"Polio is only a plane ride away."

So began my sobering interview with Carol Pandak, Manager of PolioPlus for Rotary International about polio, a crippling and potentially fatal disease that still threatens children in Africa and Asia (video).

People in...

Several weeks ago Brian Williams profiled the children of the Afghan Child Education and Care Organization (AFCECO) and its founder Andeisha Farid in Kabul, Afghanistan for NBC Nightly News’ segment Making a Difference (video).

Brian is anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News based in New...

Wynton Marsalis received France’s highest distinction last week in New York – the insignia of chevalier of the Legion of Honor, an honor that was first awarded by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Sitting literally at his feet during the performance of the Wynton Marsalis Quintet which followed the ceremony, I witnessed why...

Forty years ago, El Museo del Barrio was a dream contained in a single classroom so far north that “sophisticated” Manhattanites would not visit there after dark.

It was founded in 1969 by artist and educator Raphael Montañez Ortiz and a coalition of parents, educators, artists, and...

Ten years ago, Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden reached the point where she could no longer witness the appalling conditions of children around the world – especially child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.

She took action and founded the World Childhood Foundation, known often as simply...

Flashbulbs popping non-stop, H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations in New York, entered the U.N. General Assembly Hall in New York City.  He has attained the status of a rock star.

Speaking at the U.N. Day Concert 2009: A Tribute to Peacekeeping in the...

I first met Clifton H.W. Maloney two years ago when the organization I founded, Orphans International, honored his wife, U.S. Congress member Carolyn B. Maloney, at a dinner on New York’s Upper East Side.

Clif and daughter Virginia came with Carolyn, and we all sat together at the...

Four hundred years ago an Inca princess bore the son of a Spanish Conquistador.  Their child, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, grew up to write the first Spanish-American masterpiece, The Royal Commentaries (Comentarios reales).

Last week, with a panel of preeminent scholars and the great Peruvian writer 

Donald and Shelley Rubin are Tibetan art in New York City.  This point is difficult to argue with.  They founded the Rubin Museum of Art (RMA), which opened its doors in October 2004 and is now recognized as the premier museum of Himalayan art in the West.

What is less...

There are few male Asian-American sex symbols.  Violin prodigy Hahn-Bin, studying under Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho, is one of the few.

Opening the 49th Young Concert Artist Series in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Susan Wadsworth, Hahn-Bin’s New York debut last week mesmerized...

Fourteen years after the civil war in Rwanda, refugees are still living in mud huts.  In Bosnia, following Balkanization, people lacked heat and electricity for years.

On the Afghani-Pakistani border, millions today are living in squalor.

In all of these refugee populations, disease was...

Maggie Doyne is your typical girl from New Jersey.  She happens to live in Nepal caring for 27 orphans - in an orphanage she built herself.

I met with her recently to hear about her incredible journey. 

I was introduced to her by Tony award winning producer Brian Swibel.  Maggie was in...

The biggest Turkish Festival in the history of the U.S. -- "Turkish Days in New York" -- is now upon us.

It is bringing the Grand Bazaar on the beautiful banks of the Bosporus to our own Grand Central – and out to the streets of our city.

By Jim Luce and David Gilfix

The fury over the Gates arrest was never really about Gates’ arrest. 

People who continue to debate the veracity of charges of racism in that particular incident fail to recognize that the anger unveiled could not have arisen from a...

Twenty years ago, a friendship between two women of different cultures and backgrounds cemented, and a bond was formed to create a women's development organization -- to empower women -- throughout Latin America.

Lynne Patterson, an American school teacher, and Carmen Velasco, a Bolivian professor in psychology, wanted to use...

“As Americans, we have the unfortunate idea that we should and need to learn more about the world, but it’s not a priority. 

“We get to it when we can, which is seldom,” said Dr. Vishakha Desai, president of the Asia Society. 

So began an interview with a brilliant woman...

Alastair Onglingswan, Iris Chau and Stephen Chen, co-founded GreenSoul Shoes (GSS), a social enterprise where their mission is to shoe underprivileged children around the world in a sustainable fashion.

They do this by working with local third-world artisans to produce a 100% up-cycled sandal (that is a sandal...

Bob Zuckerman does not want to wait for the economic stimulus package to drip down to Brooklyn's quickly emptying storefronts. He wants to lead the developed world in making New York City home to "retail condos."

Like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Bob believes New York City...

Ana Langer, M.D., spoke recently at a Smith Barney seminar on health in the developing world. She was talking about the problem of obstetric fistula, of which I was ignorant.

Obstetric fistula is a devastating medical condition in which a fistula (hole) develops between the vagina and either the rectum...

Two Nigerian girls waiting for their malaria test results.

There were so many burned patients I even had to help cut off patients clothes, try to secure IV lines, and help patch burns all while trying to stomach the constant screams and distinct...