Since Mubarak stepped down as president of Egypt, some of the bloggers and activists who devoted their online time to organizing revolution have turned to a new use for social media: economic aid. 20 prominent Egyptian bloggers—the same ones who previously blogged about overthrowing Mubarak—have joined together to create a Twitter fundraising campaign, Tweetback. The …
Category: General Information
Aug 12
The Power of Students in Chile
Chile, one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, has been going through its own array of protests and demonstrations these past few months. In the past, students did not take a great degree of interest in their country’s political decisions, but the tide appears to be changing. Though the student population of Chile has …
Aug 11
Sustainable Stoves
I’ve written a lot about climate change and how future development needs to be sustainable and environmentally friendly. It’s easy to talk about these things like there are simple solutions and unlimited funds to develop sustainable products. In reality, however, it’s an extremely difficult process to create a product that is the perfect intersection between …
Aug 11
Voluntourism: the Good and the Bad
On Tuesday afternoon I gave a webinar presentation on voluntourism, or volunteer tourism, and though it is now available on the SISGI Group Institute for Social Change website, I thought I would give a quick summary of it for those of you who couldn’t attend (or didn’t know about it). Voluntourism is the combination of …
Aug 09
Another Type of Refugee
As I was writing the blog series analyzing the current situation at Dadaab Refugee Camp, I started to think about the need for refugee camps and services in general. A refugee is a person who flees – or who has been displaced – from their home and seeks refuge elsewhere. Many refugees flee in fear …
Aug 08
Introducing the MIFFs
There’s a new kind of state (country states, not US states, just so we’re clear) emerging: MIFFs, Middle Income Failed-Fragile states. These MIFFs are classified as middle-income states in the World Bank list of countries by income category, but they have highly unstable governments and a lot of conflict. They are—or are close to being—failed …
Aug 05
Fossils, Artifacts, and Higher Education
Today’s Museums are Delving into Academics, and Giving out Graduate Degrees. Though museums have always been known to be educational havens, they have never been quite as educational as they are today. As mentioned in a previous post, many undergraduate students have been looking to further their occupational prospects by pursuing higher education. In an …
Aug 05
Sustainable Agriculture (Part II)
Our agricultural and food system have many inefficiencies. Damages to the environment and promotion of an unhealthy food system are both causes and consequences of bad agricultural practices. We’ve previously studied the dangers of the monocrops. They’re apparently threatening our long-term agricultural sustainability (to learn more see posts). A change is needed, but how can …
Aug 03
A Plan for Dadaab Refugee Camp, Part IV
Yesterday, Ryan wrote the third post in our series discussing the current situation in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. He talked about the need for mental health care and social entrepreneurship services in Dadaab, as they crucial in enabling the refugees to eventually leave the camp and rebuild their lives. Both of these services, along …
Aug 03
Responsibility to Protect and the Arab Spring
We all know that the no-fly zone and military action in Libya is ongoing, but what few people know is that the action was undertaken using the Responsibility to Protect doctrine and as such is fairly controversial. The United Nations enacted Responsibility to Protect (RtoP or R2P) during the 2005 UN World Summit as a …