Kudos to HBO Films for making an important (and entertaining) romantic comedy about -- the Millennium Development Goals (yes, that's correct). Screenwriter Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Notting Hill) wanting to address a more weighty topic, penned a screenplay of serendipitous romance against the backdrop of a G8 conference debating poverty strategy. I saw last night the premier of "The Girl in the Cafe" at the French Embassy in Washington DC -- it is a fine film. The movie debuts Saturday June 25th at 8pm on HBO and will be replayed subsequently.

Kudos to the New York Times for being a consistent voice in calling for increased US assistance for global AIDS and for African relief. Today's editorial "Crumbs for Africa" criticizes the Bush Administration for its miserly African aid offer of $674 million of funds already allocated by Congress.

The United States currently gives just 0.16 percent of its national income to help poor countries, despite signing a United Nations declaration three years ago in which rich countries agreed to increase their aid to 0.7 percent by 2015. Since then, Britain, France and Germany have all announced plans for how to get to 0.7 percent; America has not. The piddling amount Mr. Bush announced yesterday is not even 0.007 percent.

What is 0.7 percent of the American economy? About $80 billion. That is about the amount the Senate just approved for additional military spending, mostly in Iraq. It's not remotely close to the $140 billion corporate tax cut last year.

There is little enthusiasm in the Executive Branch for more generous assistance to Africa. Congress is somewhat better, but still ineffectual. Even the American public is divided: in today's CNN web poll "Is the United States doing enough to help Africa?", of the first 100,000 respondents, 51% answered "yes".

Most Americans believe we spend much more on assistance than we do. In reality we're at the bottom of the list of rich countries in terms of aid as a percent of GDP. As Jeff Sachs says, the notion that there is a flood of American aid going to Africa "is one of our great national myths." It unfortunately doesn't appear to be a myth that will be rectified soon.