Dec 06
MyMela’s model of Social entrepreneurship: combining fair trade and micro finance. I’ve previously written about the social and environmental responsibilities that we have as consumers. It is extremely important to know your products and their stories. As consumers, we have much more impact than what we understand. As we enter the holiday season- where everyone …
Dec 02
By now, it is accepted as a scientific fact that climate change is happening. The average global temperatures are rising and it is related to the human activities and the increase of emissions of carbon dioxide over the last centuries. But the discussion as to what we should do about climate change is more complex …
Dec 01
The Republic of Myanmar (commonly known as Burma) is not the most tourist-friendly place. That may change soon, however, as the government seeks to capitalize on the benefits of 50 years of heavy tourist restrictions and isolation: beautiful, unspoiled landscapes and culture. For decades the country has faced heavy sanctions because of the oppressive regime …
Nov 23
Evelyn Beatrice Hall, a writer who published a biography on philosopher Voltaire in 1906, concisely summarized Voltaire’s beliefs with the now widely recognized phrase “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The Founding Fathers of the United States also seemed to take Voltaire’s teachings …
Nov 22
This last week, I had the honor to attend the Festival of Thinkers conference in Abu Dhabi. In what turned out to be essentially a whirlwind trip, I was chosen to represent NYU over a weekend, and by the following Wednesday I was on an airplane to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Now …
Nov 18
During recent years the Global South is experiencing a surge in foreign direct investments in agricultural land. Prompted in part by the food crisis, state and private investors are buying and leasing millions of hectares of farmland in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, many large-scale land investments do not service the goal of ensuring …
Nov 18
Two weeks ago the Syrian government agreed to ends its crackdown on anti-government demonstrators, a development I was skeptical of. I hoped that the Syrian government was legitimately ready to end the violence, but worried that President al-Assad’s history of broken peace agreements was a sign that he was not going to commit to a …
Nov 11
Read this Post in English ¿Sabe dónde está hecha su ropa? Que manos recogieron los tomates que usted come? ¿Cómo los cosas que usa a diario se fabricaron? Su respuesta probablemente es no, y la verdad es que la mayoría de nosotros no tomamos el tiempo para averiguarlo. Podemos leer la etiqueta cosida en nuestra …
Nov 10
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the possibility of including factors besides GDP as measures of development, so I thought today it might be interesting to do a sort of case study on a country that has done just that. I’m sure many of you have heard that Bhutan, that small kingdom …
Nov 07
It is always fascinating to be in a room full of people focused on changing the issues that plague society. For some it will be improving education, for others it is funding that next great social innovation. For others it may be researching and determining the best way to address a community health crisis. Though …
