The events around the world of the past month, affirming gay rights, have demonstrated the power of evolution. They demonstrate what is possible when people finally realize that at the core of human existence there is no hierarchy of being, only an equality of one.

While other major development initiatives -- schools, medical clinics, roads, human rights laws to protect women -- will take years to reach their potential, the digital age lies as a present powerful tool to assist women.

We were going into battle against poverty, and we were going to win. But the battlefield was strewn relics of past attempts; most common were rusted water pumps. We naively thought that we could simply "engineer" better solutions. We couldn't.