Historic changes and challenges. Breakthroughs in human knowledge and opportunity. And yet for vast numbers across the globe the daily realities have not altered.

I received $100 per week when I started working at the Globe after graduation.

We live in a land like no other - a land of freedom and opportunity unparalleled on the face of the globe.

By helping readers understand these mechanics I hope they will appreciate why freedom is for everyone why it is essential for our security and why the free world plays a critically important role in advancing democracy around the globe.

In times such as these people should recognize that evil knows no borders knows no limits and knows no compassion. Those around the globe that value freedom must continue to persevere even in the darkest of times.

But it wasn't until I graduated from Texas A & M University and joined the United States Air Force flying C-130's all around the globe that I truly appreciated the blessings of freedom.

Today if you look at financial systems around the globe more than half the population of the world - out of six billion people more than three billion - do not qualify to take out a loan from a bank. This is a shame.

It may sound ambitious but I really hope that modern design will spread all around the globe.

To a billion people around the world surviving on just a dollar a day the question of what to eat tonight is more about life and death than about recipes. The struggle of poor people around the globe weighs heavily on me especially now that I am a mother which is why I work with Oxfam.

Mum and dad thought I was going to say I was pregnant. I said oh no no I've just been nominated for a Golden Globe. They were like oh that's lovely love.