Benny Avni of the New York Sun knows how to write a lede. For example, "Saudi Arabia, which does not allow women to drive or vote, says it has achieved ‘equality between the sexes.'"Saudi officials announced earlier this week that the kingdom has managed, almost a decade ahead of schedule, to achieve a set of U.N. goals that includes gender equality.Imagine that. The United Nations has devised a measure which makes Saudi Arabia look good in terms of gender equality. Which shows you that with creative use of definitions and metrics, bureaucrats and social scientists can design a study that will prove anything.  This information comes from a speech given by the Saudi minister of economy and planning, Khaled al-Gosaibi, ...about the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, targets set by the U.N. Development Program that include eradicating poverty, promoting education, fighting AIDS and other diseases, and protecting the environment.The targets, known as MDGs, include...(Read Full Post)