This past weekend, the Sherpas for the group of 20 nations met for the third time in St. Petersburg to lay the ground work for the G20 Leaders’ Summit in September. Absent from any public disclosures of these meetings and the proposed fall agenda, so far, have been a newly revealed underbelly of disease and poverty in the G20 countries resulting from a group of chronic and debilitating infections known as the neglected tropical diseases or “NTDs.” NTDs are long-lasting and disabling parasitic and related infections that few people know about, such as leishmaniasis, elephantiasis, liver fluke, Chagas disease, and hookworm infection. They are the most common infections of poor people, rendering them too sick for work or productive activities and with the ability to reduce child intellect and future wage earning. The NTDs disproportionately affect girls and women.

There's not much good news coming out of the broader Middle East these days and so the successful election this past weekend in Pakistan is cause for at least muted elation. It is, after all, the first time in Pakistan's beleaguered 65-year history that a democratically elected government has been replaced by a democratically elected government. So that's the good news. Toss in the fact that the voter turnout, the highest for parliamentary elections in nearly two generations, was spurred upward by women and younger voters, and was not deterred by Taliban attacks, then add that Pakistan does have a remarkably free press and a quite independent judiciary and, obviously, a military that now is willing to let democracy play out -- and things don't look so bad.