Provocative Perspectives Speaker to Discuss ‘Sweet Charity and Smart Bombs’ at Cal Poly March 7

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly’s Provocative Perspectives series will commemorate International Women’s Day with the presentation, “Foreign Aid: Sweet Charity and Smart Bombs,” by Anuradha Mittal.

Mittal, executive director of The Oakland Institute, a think tank that works to promote social and economic policy, will address the issues of foreign aid and trade. The free event will take place in the Vista Grande Café at Cal Poly, beginning with breakfast at 7:30 a.m., followed by the lecture at 8 a.m.

Mittal will examine U.S. foreign aid through the lens of economic and social human rights, with specific focus on food aid and its impact on women. Using the case study of Niger, a nation widely covered in the news recently due to widespread hunger and destitution, Mittal will share new perspectives on famines, how they affect women and some opportunities for taking action. She will also make available copies of the Oakland Institute’s new study, “Food Aid or Food Sovereignty: Ending World Hunger in Our Time.”

Mittal is a native of India and an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights, democracy and agriculture issues. Prior to founding the Oakland Institute, she spent nearly a decade at Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy and was the co-director of that organization from 2000-2004. Mittal is the author and editor of numerous books on globalization and its impact on poor countries, as well as a number of articles on bioengineering and world trade. She has appeared on television and radio around the world.

This event (including breakfast) is free and open to the public; reservations are required. For more information or to make reservations, call Liz Cofer at 756-0327 or e-mail lcofer@calpoly.edu.

For more information on the Provocative Perspective series, visit the Web site http://www.calpoly.edu/~saffairs.

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