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July 2007
Freedom of Information Comes of Age in Mexico
Illustration by Arturo Rosas Pineda
Former Mexican president Vicente Fox, who while in office backed a precedent-setting law in support of the public’s right to government information, recently learned the hard way that the offspring of democracy can be unruly.
Last month, the Mexican political magazine Emeequis used the very freedom of information law that Fox championed to write stories alleging that, while in office, he used public funds to conduct political polling to test support for a presidential run by his wife.
This turn of events is hardly thanks for helping to enact what has been touted as landmark legislation altering the relationship between the Mexican government and its people. But, of course, proponents of government transparency would argue that such uses of the freedom of information law are precisely the point. They say that the public has the right to know how the government uses its money regardless of how that may affect a politician’s fortunes. Read more... | | |
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The Hewlett Foundation Goes Carbon Neutral
The Hewlett Foundation has purchased greeen tags from the Stateline Wind Energy
Center, the nation's largest wind farm, pictured here.
(Photo courtesy of Stateline Wind Energy Center)
What does a lonely stretch of wheat fields along the southeastern border of Washington State have to do with the work of the Hewlett Foundation?
It’s the home of the Stateline Wind Energy Center, the nation’s largest wind farm and one of more than a dozen sources of clean energy from which the Foundation has agreed to purchase so-called “green tags” to offset the carbon emissions that it generates in the course of its philanthropic work.
The Foundation has committed to purchase $130,000 in green tags over the next three years to compensate for an estimated 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions it generates annually from electrical and natural gas consumption at its building and through staff commutes and air travel. Read more...
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“Foundations”
A Q&A with Moy Eng- Program Director, Performing Arts
“Foundations” is a series of informal question-and-answer sessions with employees of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Moy Eng is the director of the Foundation’s Performing Arts Program, which since 1967 has awarded nearly 1,500 grants totaling $135 million to performing arts organizations in the Bay Area. In the past year, the Performing Arts Program and the Foundation’s Education Program have teamed to explore the possibility of improving arts education in California’s public schools.
Before joining the Hewlett Foundation, Moy directed the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation’s domestic and international grantmaking programs in energy and human rights and worked in development at both the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, among many other positions.
She holds a B.A. in theater arts from Douglass College and an M.A. in arts administration from New York University.
When and why did the Performing Arts Program decide to become involved in improving California’s arts education?
Several things had happened that made us think it would be a good time to try. One was that the State Board of Education adopted standards for what students should know in music, visual arts, theater and dance. Another was that California’s public university system started to require a year of course work in the arts as a criterion for admission. Read more... | | |
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The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
2121 Sand Hill Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025
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