Shakira’s Early Education Advocacy

The New York Times Magazine has an interesting article about pop singer Shakira’s efforts to encourage Latin American governments to invest more in education, development, and health of their youngest children. Key graf:

Celebrity philanthropy, rock ’n’ roll philanthropy, is no longer a novelty, but what Shakira and ALAS were trying was indeed new. They were looking to use the power of pop to help the populations not of distant impoverished lands but of the Ibero-American world from which they come. They have a policy focus — early-childhood nutrition, education and medical care — that is on a scale beyond the reach of private charity. It requires the steady effort of the state.

Shakira and her fellow advocates are focusing on Latin American countries that are poorer than the United States. But you could say something similar–about the need for increased investment in children’s wellbeing and development, and that such investment requires a more robust public role–in the United States as well.