“(Australian Aid will) increase the number of trained midwives from 2002 to 8635, and increase the number of deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants from 18 to 62 per cent.”

I've just finished two days of exhilarating meetings with colleagues from the World Evangelical Alliance and emerged to find that while we were meeting here in Washington, just a few miles away, China's Vice President, Xi Jinpin, was visiting the White House to meet President Obama. Funny that: because we were also talking about China, a country about which many nations are concerned, with regards to any number of issues - from religious liberties to economic growth.

Since the economic crisis, people have been questioning whether money = happiness.

For years we were told that economic growth was vital for our well-being and the best way to help keep the economic engine healthy was to spend. Japan, with economic growth of 1% pa (or less) was like a spluttering 4-door sedan compared with India and China's turbo-charged growth of over 8%. You just need to look at some headlines from Bloomberg's Business Week to get the picture – "What's New for China's Miracle", "A Thousand Desires Bloom" and "India's New Worldly Women".