Rain clouds ringed the lush hillsides and poor neighborhoods cradling Caracas, Venezuela as dozens of Latin American and Caribbean heads of state trickled out of the airport and into motorcades and hotel rooms. They were gathering for the foundational summit of a new regional bloc aimed at self-determination outside the scope of Washington’s power.
As at any international gathering of public health specialists and women’s advocates, there was hope, hype, and a bit of hypocrisy when more than 3500 participants from 140 countries convened for the “Women Deliver 2010” conference in Washington, DC June 7 to 9. “We’re at a tipping point,” claimed Jill Sheffield, Founder and President of Women Deliver, an organization aimed at monitoring progress toward meeting specific Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations for 2015. 
The town hall meetings being held across the country by Democrats to revive Obama's gasping healthcare plan have opened a door that Americans from all corners of the political spectrum hoped would stay closed. This time around, the right may have gotten more than they bargained for. 
I had come to Calais, France to accompany the No Borders activists in their solidarity work with the hundreds of migrants trying to make it across the channel to the promised land of Britain.
