Sep 21

Social Good Summit Recap – Day 2

So day two of the Social Good Summit, was another jam packed day of speakers and social media.

Key Takeaway-

Empowerment of women is more important than ever

Geena Davis, actor and advocate, shared a startling statistic that the United States is responsible for 80% of all media, so we are in fact exporting many of the negative stereotypes and images about women and girls around the world.

Senator Tim Wirth, President of the UN Foundation, shared that the United Nations General Assembly is also focused on the empowerment of women making our conversations at the summit extremely timely.

An exciting public media initiative on women’s issues was announced with many of the activities starting October 11, 2011. Abigail Disney’s mini-series, Women, War and Peace will air on PBS and look at the burden and issues around conflict and peace that impact women. One statistic shared in the preview of the film was that “in many wars it is more dangerous to be a woman than it is to be a soldier.” This is true in many places around the globe and this chilling documentary provides these stories and shows the ways that women are addressing conflict. Another great project coming from this panel focused on ideas children have on gender roles and gender stereotyping. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media is also releasing a series of films tailored around the perceptions children have around occupations and gender. Children are given identifiers for an occupation and then asked to describe what that person looks like. This strategy has been successful in raising awareness about racial stereotyping and helps to create a conversation about gender and gender roles in our society. Lastly, Games for Change is bringing female centered digital game content to social media platforms such as Facebook and mobile phones. These games will raise awareness of issues about maternal health and medicine and allow adults and children to connect to gender based issues. To learn more please visit the Women and Girls Lead website.

Key Idea – Cross Sector Collaboration

Ericsson’s CEO Hans Vestberg sat on two panels focused on cross sector collaboration between the private sector and the social sector. Ericsson is leading the way in connecting their mobile technology to address issues such as refugees and education and providing their technology to empower and connect communities. He pushed for technology and those in the business sector to be engaged in these issues not only in emergency and response situations, but that there is a place for business and technology to be used in preparation and prevention as well. As a CEO of a major company, such as Ericsson, his awareness and connection to social issues was refreshing and engaging and hopefully leads to additional increased social change efforts by the business sector. As the sponsor of this event, they are hearing from a variety of social change actors about global issues and his interest in being a strategic partner will hopefully move the needle on some of these problems around the globe.

Quote of the Day

There are no quick fixes. It is about long term commitment – Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees

I think as changemakers and people working for social change, we often look for the simple and quick solution without taking in the whole picture or issue. It is important to see the ways that organizations, agencies, and partners can work together to look at the long term solution rather than the short term strategy. For instance, though the malaria nets provided by Nothing But Nets are a strong strategy to address the immediate issue of malaria throughout the developing world, it needs to be combined and partnered with other strong organizations and interventions to make lasting change. As the nets only last 3 years, if there is no sustainability plan these nets will need to be redistributed again every three years. That is not effective social change. But in partnership and with a long term plan, Nothing But Nets can meet their goal of eradicating malaria. This is true for most of us working on social issues. If we work together we will see greater lasting change.

Thanks to all that are joining in my conversation on twitter and continue to stay connected throughout the week by following @NotEnoughGood.

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Sep 20

Judging Development: Supercomputers And Your Emotions

On Sept 16th, Foreign Policy magazine printed an article about the predictive powers of computes in foreshadowing revolutions around the world. The writer claims that in the not so distant future, technology and super computers will be able to predict pubic unrest and reveal incredible insights to the functioning of society. Drawing extensively from Klev Leetrau’s work on “Culturomics”, the article describes how by monitoring social networking sights, social media, and news, scientists can perform “sentiment mining” to draw conclusions about tone and polarity of text. Sentiment mining is essentially analyzing the polarity or neutrality of a given word or text and afterward more advanced into the emotional states of documents.

To me, all of this seems a bit surreal: A computer understanding tone and emotion from text in such a way that can predict future events? As skeptical as I was initially, what is stranger is that I have hard about this future of technology TWICE this week already, and this hypothesis does not seem to be fading away.

Over the weekend, I went to a lecture where Robert Kirkpartick from Global Pulse (a UN initiative) was discussing a future goal where a “platform will be developed as a global public good based on open design, free and open source and open standards.”

Their goal is to be able to convert all types of media data into measurable scales and determine the state of the nation on given topics.

The idea for this endeavor initially came from looking into past data that revealed spikes or dips in emotion towards a range of topics preceding events such as the financial crisis or the Egyptian uprisings. While acknowledging that there is a knowledge gap and that often hindsight is more encouraging than making predictions for the future; this technique of curbing a problem before it starts appears to be the way our world is moving.

As with any new breakthrough in predictive political discourse, the serious questions of legitimacy and reliability are raised. Personally, I have a number of questions regarding final goals and incentives of developing this project further.

To begin with, what incentives does the UN face in promoting this platform and spending millions of dollars on predictive technologies? I am curious as to why would not a single nation take on this task, instead of being spearheaded by the UN when they could simply adapt more reliable technologies once fully developed. While the UN is predominantly using funds from the UK and Sweden, they clearly have much more liquid capital to put into the project than the previous computer hackers who proposed the idea initially. However, I can imagine that with legalities surrounding privacy issues differing in every nation this project has had to adapt to many hurdles, despite access to all of the useless facebook and tweets floating in unprotected cyberspace.

Another hesitation I hold towards this project is that the UN claims the predominant goal is to better understand the poor and how to handle stress in developing countries. During these lectures I attended, the Millennium Development Goals were often cited in saying that this kind of technology will help better predict how these people are living. However, I find an inherent flaw in this argument because these Millennium villagers are not necessarily the ones who are using social media. While it would be true that reports and news articles are written about these projects, it does not appear that these people will truly be expressing their “sentiment” through personal tweeting and blogs. Therefore, this project is inherently self selective from the onset. I would therefore be much more willing to accept the hurdle of creating the technology to bridge the data-emotion gap before placing it with the guise of helping the very people who technology has long left behind.

However, I know that being of an age where technology and computers are slowly seeping into every aspect of our lives, I will have to reconcile with the fact that soon these computers will be able to read our emotions as well. While understandably they will have a difficult time with sarcasm and nuance, I suppose a sense of humor will soon be the only way to beat the system in the future.  #smileherecomesAI

Katherine Peterson is a Program and Research Intern with the SISGI Group focused on theories of development, globalization, and political ramifications of development work. 
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Sep 20

Migración rural en México

Read this post in English

Se calcula que en México, alrededor del 50% de la población es urbana. Desde 1940, la población urbana empezó a crecer exponencialmente porque hubo una falta de apoyo a la población rural. En los últimos 50 años, han habido decisiones económicas y políticas que han cambiado la distribución de la población. Ya que la falta de oportunidades en el campo, muchos campesinos están forzados a emigrar a las ciudades. Cuales fueron algunas de estas políticas?

Antes que nada la revolución agrícola que empezó en 1940 por el presidente Ávila Camacho incluyó una serie de reformas que afectaron a muchas comunidades rurales organizadas en “ejidos”. El ejido es una clase de territorio comunal administrado por campesinos locales. Camacho empezó políticas de expropiación de los mejores ejidos (los mas productivos) con el propósito de venderlo a grandes propietarios. Al hacer esto, buscaba atraer a grandes inversiones en agricultura y modernizar la industria agrícola de México. Como esperado, las inversiones incrementaron. Pero estas políticas solo crearon beneficios para los inversores, porque la mayor parte del dinero que se ganó regresó a mercados internacionales (algo que en economía se llama fuga de capital). Por consiguiente, el aumento en ingresos no se pudo redistribuir a los campesinos relocalizados.

Es posible que estos cambios hayan traído algunos beneficios al consumidor mexicano, pero definitivamente trajeron muchas desventajas al campesino. Los campesinos, ahora sin tierra para cultivar y con poco ingreso, tuvieron que buscar empleo ya sea en las ciudades o como empleados de grandes empresas agrícolas. Esto dio nacimiento a la primera ola de emigración. Los gobiernos sucesivos tampoco hicieron mucho para proteger a los campesinos locales. Las emigraciones del campo continuaron hasta los años 90. Hubo poca ayuda para los campesinos y mucha par alas grandes industrias.

En años más recientes, el acuerdo NAFTA de libre comercio (firmado en 1994) dio origen a toda una nueva ola de emigraciones. NAFTA es un tratado de libre comercio que permite la libre circulación de productos entre Canadá, Estados Unidos y México. Con el acuerdo, las tarifas de aduana que México imponía en productos agrícolas (como frijol y maíz) Estadounidenses se canceló. Sin la tarifa, se importaron más productos ya que los precios bajaron. Aunque esto resultó ser altamente provechoso para los productores Americanos  subsidiados, fue devastador para los mexicanos que trabajaban el campo. Los productores Mexicanos ya no podían competir con la tecnología y la producción Estadounidense. Esto ocasionó que los empleos agrícolas de México volvieran a disminuir y que más mexicanos emigraran a los Estados Unidos. Si no migraban a los Estados Unidos, muchos mexicanos se quedaron en las ciudades de la frontera trabajando en “maquiladoras” (plantas industriales de ensamblaje), famosas por violaciones a derechos humanos, bajos salaries y discriminación.

Es mi impresión que la gran expansión urbana y las emigraciones rurales trajeron muchas malas consecuencias al país.

Internacionalmente, las migraciones crearon más tensiones en la frontera con los Estados Unidos. Después de NAFTA, más y más desempleados mexicanos querían cruzar la frontera. NAFTA permite la libre circulación de mercancías, pero no de personas, para poder proteger a los empleos estadounidenses. Por consiguiente el acuerdo de libre comercio está incompleto, ya que el trabajo mexicano no se pudo exportar. Para disminuir el impacto negativo de NAFTA (en lo que respecta a la emigración rural), sería necesario negociar la libre circulación de las personas también, o restablecer los impuestos aduaneros a los productos agrícolas. Los productores mexicanos necesitan protección y apoyo del Mercado nacional para expandirse.

Nacionalmente, el creciente desempleo del país hizo que el tráfico de drogas se volviera la fuente principal de muchos campesinos. Muchos se involucraron en actividades ilegales y ahora son parte del conflicto más importante de México. Se tiene que recordar que los narcotraficantes no son únicamente gente malvada que quiere hacer dinero. También es gente a la que se le ha ofrecido pocas oportunidades de desarrollo y que por consiguiente acabaron en el tráfico ilegal para sobrevivir. El narcotráfico es un problema complejo en México y resolverlo requiere un análisis cuidadoso y una estrategia inteligente. Pero lo que es seguro es que la estabilidad a largo plazo no se podrá alcanzar hasta que la vida rural se estabilice.

La negligencia del sector rural ha traído malas consecuencias. Como se podrían prevenir y eliminar los impactos negativos de la emigración rural? En lo que concierne a NAFTA, se tendría que negociar ya sea la libre circulación de personas- para que los campesinos tengan la opción de buscar otras oportunidades en el extranjero, o bien restablecer los impuestos aduaneros. En lo que concierne al narcotráfico, se necesitarán grandes apoyos económicos y sociales (educación, infraestructura) a los campesinos y a la población rural. Se tiene que apoyar la producción de productos agrícolas legales (y no la eliminación sistemática de cultivos ilegales, como en el caso de Colombia). Estas medidas serán necesarias para detener la violencia de las drogas y las emigraciones rurales masivas.

Julia Naime es Asistente a la Investigación y Programas del SISGI Group. Es estudiante de Economía en New York University. Durante su estancía en el SISGI Group, investigará sobre Desarollo rural, Problemas ambientales y Economía internacional
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Sep 20

Social Good Summit Recap – Day One

I walked into the 92Y building just a few minutes before the program was scheduled to start. I was attending the Social Good Summit presented by Mashable, the UN Foundation, 92nd Street Y and sponsored by Ericsson, which is a four day event starting September 19th during UN week. I scanned the room looking for a seat and noticed the amount of people already busily typing away on their laptops. I also planned to connect with social media throughout the afternoon, but still the sight of so many computers and iPads was a little surprising. I wondered how it felt, as a presenter to speak to a room this large and have so few people actually looking at you? Whenever I have been speaking or training to a large audience such as this, I always enjoy the moment when you can catch someone’s eyes and gauge that they are on the same page, that what you are saying is making sense. It must be interesting to talk to the tops of heads and hear the clicking of keyboards and not know if anything you are saying is sinking in. That is until you see the twitter thread after your presentation with direct quotes, which confirms they heard you. Obviously, this is a group of multi-taskers.

The design of the Social Good Summit is simple. Several leaders in the fields of social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, development, along with nonprofit directors, government officials, a few celebrities and others who have made a name in social change, share/present for less than 30 minutes, some for as short as 8 minutes. It keeps the program moving but at times means that some presenters do little more than pat themselves and their programs on the back for a job well done at their method of addressing their target social issue. Several of the presenters presented great ideas that their organizations were implementing but there was not a takeaway as to how this could be duplicated or replicated by others trying to work on a similar issue. This is not to say that these presenters and moments are not engaging or inspiring, it just provides very little in a way of maximizing efforts or sharing of best practices.

Key Takeaway from the Day –

Mobile Technology is the technology of choice for global and major social efforts

Though people often talk about social media and its impact in social efforts, it is really the mobile phone that is an instrumental tool for change. It is mobile that is global. Data and internet service are not always accessible but in high poverty and disaster areas it is the mobile phone that is key to connection.

  • Valerie Amos Under Secretary General and Relief Coordinator at the UN, explained how mobile technology has been used to connect to people during humanitarian efforts
  • Nancy Lublin CEO of Do Something provided statistics on text usage and youth. Texts have a 100% open rate and are over indexed by urban youth and minorities
  • Simon Mainwaring of We First shared the ways that corporate social responsibility can be connected to mobile technology with barcode apps that can scan a barcode to tell you a product’s social rating.

For those of us looking to create global social change we must look for ways to use our mobile phones and mobile technology as a vehicle for connecting and creating lasting change for major social problems.

Key Idea

Idealist is looking to push connection to a higher level. The SISGI Group has a core belief as an organization that the only way to truly address global social problems is through connected efforts, so we were excited to hear some of the suggestions made by Idealist Founder Ami Dar. Though I still am unsure exactly what he is proposing from his brief 10 minute speech, the key ideas of collaboration and connected efforts were right in line with the focus of our initiative work at the SISGI Group. We will be attending Idealist’s information session on Wednesday about this new initiative but invite you to also check out their site for information on their new push for collaboration in New York at idealistnyc.org

Quote of the Day –

Doing Good Does not Excuse Us From Doing Better. – Howard W. Buffett, Executive Director of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation

This quote could have easily been written from the NotEnoughGood blog, as we also believe that “Doing Good” requires a high level of responsibility and accountability. During his presentation, Mr. Buffett discussed the ways that traditional philanthropy has practiced a form of “Philanthropic Colonialism,” another quote I loved. This idea can be seen in the methods of building a home or fixing a problem in a community without engaging with the community members about the ways in which they would like their community improved. His ideas for Social Value Investing will hopefully move charitable and philanthropic efforts away from those types of practices, which isolate the community from participating in the changes that are occurring around them. He also discussed the Learning By Giving program that was launched with a $5 Million donation from his aunt to provide college courses that prepare students to understand all aspects of social change and philanthropy. Students in a select course at several universities will as a class receive $10,000 to invest in their communities, based upon the tools and techniques they have learned throughout the course. This is a great way to prepare young leaders to enter the social sector, something that has been overlooked in many curriculums.

Overall day one was interesting and it was great to connect with so many people in the room and on Twitter throughout the afternoon, even if it was a little surreal that I might be sitting right around a person that just retweeted my comment and not know it. I will provide a final analysis at the end of the event, but it does seem that the key thing that is missing from this summit is more voices from local people creating social change and diverse perspectives. Its only day one so hopefully that will change as the event progresses. I will keep you posted.

You can follow along as I tweet key points and comments throughout the summit on Twitter @Notenoughgood using the hashtag #socialgood. You also can see the livestream of the event at socialgoodsummit.com

Thenera Bailey is the President/CEO of the SISGI Group and Editor of this blog. To learn more about the SISGI Group visit www.sisgigroup.org
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Sep 19

Volunteerism in Kenya

A few weeks ago, I went on a journey to Kenya and Tanzania. As you may know from reading this blog, I spent a decent amount of time this summer investigating what was happening in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, near the border with Somalia. My colleague Rebecca and I took a look at the camp, trying to understand who was working there, what they were doing and what could be improved.

Research from a cozy coffee shop in the states is one thing, but there are things that can only be understood by experiencing a situation firsthand. There’s something to be said for meshing external research with time actually spent working in the field, so to speak. So when a friend of mine asked if I wanted to travel to East Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro (in Tanzania, just south of Kenya), I figured it’d be an excellent way to experience a bit of the culture I had been blogging about for the better part of the summer. I planned a three-week trip, with the last week focused on our climb and the first two open to whatever I wanted to do.

The more I read about what was happening in Dadaab, the stronger my desire to see it for myself became. I don’t mean this in a morbid way – there is nothing pleasant about being around such immense suffering as what is happening in and around Dadaab right now – but I wanted to connect my research to something real, something tangible. With only a couple weeks left before my trip, I didn’t have any real plan on how to get near the camp. I only knew that it was a day bus ride away from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya where I was flying into, and that there was a slew of organizations working in the camp. How hard could it be to hop on an eastward bus and volunteer at the gates? With proof of up to date vaccinations and a couple of open weeks, I set out on my journey.

On a quick flight from Adis Ababa, Ethiopia to Nairobi, I sat next to an Italian gentleman who managed an orphanage in a slum nearly an hour outside of Nairobi. We introduced ourselves on the tarmac at Adis and as we talked, I told him the reasons I was travelling to Kenya in the first place – part adventure, part vacation, part research, part whatever. After he described the work he was doing in Kenya, I asked what I would have to do to volunteer at his orphanage. Not quite the reason I came to Kenya, but I figured I might as well help out however I could while I was there. He told me about the lengthy application process and the even lengthier approval process for helping out – three months at least, he told me. When I told him I’d only be in town for a couple of weeks, he simply pointed me in the direction of his organization’s website and told me to check them out for the future.

It didn’t take long to realize that months long application processes were commonplace for aid organizations working in Kenya. A friend of mine who lives in a suburb of Nairobi introduced me to many people who had done volunteer work of one sort or another in the area. Every one of them told me the same thing – there really wasn’t any place they knew of where I could just show up and start lending a hand. Disheartened, I found my way to an internet café to search out opportunities for aid work in southern Kenya. Perhaps you can guess the result of my Google queries. While there were hundreds of organizations working in an aid capacity in Kenya with active websites, none of the ones I clicked on offered volunteer opportunities without a lengthy application process.

I had never before considered this aspect of volunteering, that there is a lot more to it than just a willing spirit and some free time. These organizations I wanted to lend a hand to probably would have had to spend a good amount of time training me in their practices – after all, I’ve never worked in a refugee camp before. In the end, I may have taken up the time of a trained worker who could have been spending that time helping refugees instead. Perhaps there is a reason for a lengthy application process. Considering the strained resources many aid organizations deal with, it’s important that they make the most of their time and money, maximizing the benefit of the people they are trying to help. The random two-week volunteer, while well intentioned, is probably not the best use of those resources.

This sort of realization, while disheartening at the time, is the reason why I have always loved to travel. What I learned seems relatively basic, but I never would have learned it had I not made the journey. Experiences like this lend fresh perspective to deeply ingrained ideas and concepts. My trip challenged my concept of volunteerism and helped me develop a more realistic picture of how to help others. Next time I head to Kenya, I’ll have a plan that will allow me to accomplish what I hoped to achieve on this trip.

Ryan Pavel is a Program and Research Intern with the SISGI Group focusing on foreign military involvement, policy and strategy into conflicts and motivations behind and impact of foreign aid. To learn more about the SISGI Group visit www.sisgigroup.org
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Sep 19

A Failing Grade for Standardized Tests

Standardized tests, for years, have been a hot topic for advocates interested in reforming the United States education system.  In fact, recently some of the concerns that education advocates have about standardized tests have manifested themselves across the nation.  Recently, the College Board released the average SAT scores for students across the nation, and the results showed that the scores have fallen drastically.  Furthermore, there have been a plethora of stories in the news of how some teachers, out of desperation, have fabricated test scores in order to keep their jobs in this dire economy.  Blame for the low standardized test scores have been put on everything from social demographics of students changing in recent times, and the No Child Left Behind Act administered under the Bush administration.  Regardless of what has caused low test scores, it is time to look at the idea of the now deceased Dr. Vito Perrone Sr.

Perhaps one of the most important reasons to look at Dr. Perrone’s ideas is because he fought against using standardized tests in schools.  According to Dr. Perrone, standardized tests put too much stress on students and teachers, and debilitated a child’s desire to learn for the sake of learning.  Dr. Perrone believed that forcing students to continuously take standardized tests keeps them from appreciating all that they are taught in school, and instead causes them to despise school and learning.  Instead of looking at school as an opportunity to learn something new in an open atmosphere, students are turned into a robotic figure whose sole purpose is to perform well on a national test.

Instead, Dr. Perrone believed that a special relationship needs to be fostered between students and teachers.  Teachers are meant to help students not only enjoy coming to school and learning, but also help them become good citizens.  In this way, children will not only love to read, write, and do math, but they will also have a sense of respect for the society in which they live in.  Unfortunately, with the way schools put so much stress on strong standardized test scores, teachers are forced to spend almost all of their time preparing students on what will be asked on standardized tests.  Teachers are unable to encourage open discussions and debates, and are instead left to lecturing in front of students who become empty receptacles that mindlessly accept whatever a teacher is saying from the front of the room.  Furthermore, teachers are left with little time to help students appreciate the importance of volunteering, becoming positive members of society, and giving back to their communities.  All are important tools, according to Dr. Perrone, that should be taught to students from an early age.

Though Dr. Perrone’s views were not widely adopted during his lifetime, it is perhaps time to re-evaluate the education system.  Standardized tests do offer students and teachers a way to see how children perform on a national level, but the tests have been inhibiting the teaching/learning experience.  As teachers panic about how their students will perform on national exams, they are forced to simply cram information into a child.  This, however, does not teach a child anything because many students “learn and purge,” meaning that they forget what they have learned after a school year ends.  For this reason, perhaps a new method of teaching should be created in which standardized tests are administered in select years during a child’s pre-college years.  In this way, tests will still be given out, but teachers might be able to dedicate more time towards cementing foundations, and instilling a love for all subjects; not just math and reading.  Whatever comes out of the education debate, it is clear that the emphasis on standardized tests needs to be checked, and the education system needs to help both teachers and students.

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Sep 16

Seeking Refuge in South Florida

I once met with a refugee who was days away from graduating from college.  He was proud of this accomplishment, not only because he was the first member of his family to achieve such a feat, but also because he was proof that his family had made it in America.  He was the first member of his family to leave their refugee camp, as he received his visa first.  He was forced to leave on his own and almost 24 hours later arrived in sunny Florida.  He recounted his long journey and remembers stepping off the plane and being met with resettlement staff at the airport.  He smiled remembering their warm welcome, and laughed at his shock over seeing the highways and skyscrapers all around.  He was whisked away and soon arrived in his new apartment.  He was shown where everything was and asked if he had any questions. Here is where I assumed that he would ask what was next or maybe state that he was hungry and wanted something to eat or was tired.  Instead he pointed at the square box in top of the kitchen counter and asked what that was. He meant the microwave.

Being an immigrant in the United States, I thought I understood the mixed emotions, the hope, sadness, the fear, excitement, and nostalgia that follow someone who migrates to another country.  While that feeling is shared by refugees, this story shows a different reality for those who flee their home and seek refuge in this country.

This young man is one of the 80,000 refugees who arrive each year to live in America.  He and his family were forced from their home because of fear of persecution and lived in a refugee camp before being resettled in the United States.  Refugees, unlike immigrants, are individuals who migrate somewhere else because they fear harm due to their race, religion, nationality, participation in a particular group. They seek asylum while in their home country and then are granted the chance to be resettle in another country that offers them a safe haven, such as the United States

I came to know this young man because right out of college I “accidentally” began working with an agency that resettled refugees. I say that because I knew they helped victims of conflict but didn’t really understand the population they served.  South Florida is a mecca for vacationers who want to enjoy the sand and sun; investors and financiers looking for a nexus between Latin America and the United States; and immigrants looking for a better economic life.  Unbeknownst to most is the fact that it is also home to one of the largest refugee populations in the country.

Refugees; however, are found in most communities in the U.S.  There are Congolese and Bosnian refugees in Boise, Idaho and Serbians in Arizona.  You can find Bhutanese refugees in Jacksonville, Florida and Iraqi on the East Coast.  While not all groups experience the culture-shock the young man in my story experienced, they all need assistance acculturating.  Agencies who resettle refugees do a great job with assisting in finding them appropriate housing, jobs training and placement, food and medical assistance and helping them thrive in their new home communities.  However, these programs are funded by the federal government and with budget cuts, they are being affected.  Many times we look for places to volunteer our time or donate our money.  I encourage people to reach out to these agencies and help others start their journey towards the American dream.  Money is not the only necessary thing.  Sometimes, helping someone learn to ride a bus has a bigger impact, as it gives the person a sense of purpose, freedom and independence, and the opportunity to explore a new world.

To look for refugee resettlement programs in the United States, please see the following link.

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Sep 16

Greenpeace 40 year Anniversary: How Much Has Been done?

Today, I was forwarded a Youtube clip from a friend only titled “Greenpeace”. While I was expecting a video of protesters waving signs on a dingy boat out in the Aleutian Islands, I instead got a cacophony of foul language and brief clips of international people on telephones.  I had no idea what where it was going until the final scene exclaiming that Greenpeace turned 40 on Thursday Sept 15th , and they are still a force to be reckoned with.

Doing some more background research into the organization, I found a much more inspirational video on their website, where more of their mission is explained.  However, I was still curious about the claim of “40 years of victories”, and the organization’s declaration of such successes.

Claiming to be the first environmental movement, starting in 1971 Greenpeace began it’s focus on stopping the whaling industry, and has since expanded to such causes as saving the forests, oceans, and reducing nuclear testing. With these damaging practices still in effect today, how is this organization measuring their success? Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo stated, “Greenpeace’s ultimate success will be measured when we are no longer necessary”.

However, this seems a bit unrealistic, especially when the organization is claiming to be bigger than ever, currently operating in over 40 countries and 2.8 million donors worldwide.

While I have no intention to discredit the work that Greenpeace has done, or ignore the movement they have started towards environmental protection; I would like to propose to the organization a different approach for the next 40 years.

I believe that Greenpeace has missed an invaluable opportunity to create a sustainable impact for their movement. In 1971, they began as a renegade group of individuals fighting against the whaling industry, and as their website states, “just like then, our activists are our greatest strength: ordinary people willing to do extraordinary things to protect the environment. Over the years, they have faced jail, physical threats and political persecution”.  While this is admirable both for ensuing an international movement, and not out of character for the protest atmosphere of the 70’s era, I would have hoped that the organization had modernized with the time. Unfortunately, this does not appear to have happened.

This stagnation frustrates me for two reasons. First, it appears that Greenpeace has Continue reading

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Sep 16

Becoming Limitless

I recently watched Neil Burger’s movie Limitless. It started by depicting the main character Eddie Morra as an intelligent writer who struggled in finding inspiration to finish his novel and could not find an appropriate balance between his work and his relationship. This depressing beginning reminded me that so many people, for various reasons, squander their natural ability. But luck turned around for Morra early in the movie. He ran into an old friend who gave him the fictional drug NZT. NZT was a drug that gave Morra better access to old and vague memories and increased his ability to learn.

With NZT, Morra was ‘limitless.’ He finished his book, rekindled his relationship with his lost love, and learned several languages. He decided he wanted to get rich, and using his new finely tuned analytical skills, was able to make millions of dollars by recognizing patterns in the stock market.

Of course, the drug had its disadvantages. Morra faced adverse side effects such as blackouts, heart palpitations, and withdrawal. He also had a limited supply of the drug, and when he ran out of it, the withdrawals had the potential to be crippling. Finally, because there was a limited supply of NZT, others who had tried it before but no longer had access to it followed Morra around and tried to take it from him forcibly.

In spite of the drawbacks of NZT, as I watched the movie, I wondered what the world would be like if we had the ability to effectively make ourselves smarter and more productive. Would it be good for humanity, or would it end up causing too many problems?

It turns out that scientists are actually working on something similar to NZT. While they haven’t developed a drug, engineers at the University of South Carolina have built a prosthetic chip that “enhances and expands memory abilities.”

While this device has not been tested yet on humans, it has been successfully used on rats. According to lead researcher Dr. Theodore Berger, rats’ memories can improve at the flip of a switch:

Flip the switch on, and the rats remember. Flip it off, and the rats forget […] These integrated experimental modeling studies show for the first time that with sufficient information about the neural coding of memories, a neural prosthesis capable of real-time identification and manipulation of the encoding process can restore and even enhance cognitive mnemonic processes.

The implications of these findings could be huge. Imagine how much more productive we could be with Berger’s chip. According to most economic models, total production (GDP) is a function of capital, labor, and technology. With more capable workers, our labor would be of higher quality, and our ability to innovate would grow exponentially. With such a quickly growing economy, we could see quality of life skyrocket as we did during the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

Beyond just economic growth, we could do something perhaps even more important – maximize human potential. Imagine smarter Shakespeares, smarter Mozarts, smarter CEO’s and smarter inventers. We could produce better music, art, policies, and academic findings. Shouldn’t improving ourselves and improving the world be a goal we strive for collectively?

However, as Neil Burger’s movie warns us, we have to be careful if we allow a product that improves our capacity to learn to be commercial. First, this good must be improved such that it doesn’t have noticeable adverse effects. As the current device has only been tested on rats, we clearly have a long way to go before humans can use it. More importantly, it is crucial that everyone has access to it. Inequality is a huge problem around the world. I envision this invention fighting inequality, not increasing it. If only some people are given access to the technology, they will continue to widen the gap between those with wealth and power and people on the other end of the spectrum. However, if everyone has access to it, we’re all on an even playing field and can improve the world together. What do you think?

Shaunak Varma is a Program and Research Intern with the SISGI Group. To learn more about the SISGI Group visit www.sisgigroup.org.
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Sep 16

Penang’s Economic Revivial

The state of Penang, Malaysia, has stumbled upon an interesting economic growth device: hospitals.  The region boasts numerous private hospitals and those hospitals draw an impressive number of medical tourists each year, which boosts Penang’s economy, as well as Malaysia’s as a whole.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, medical tourists are pretty much exactly what they sound like: people who travel abroad in order to receive cheaper medical care.  If you’ve watched enough soap operas or after school specials this probably conjures up images of people going to Mexico or Canada for cut-rate, but not always safe, procedures that American doctors refuse to provide or that are unaffordable without great health care coverage.

This is not the case in Penang.  The hospitals in the area are as well-equipped as any in the West, and the doctors equally well trained. And, as a bonus, the surgeries they perform are often much cheaper than those in the US or other parts of the world. For example, open-heart surgery, which would cost about $100,000 in the States, would only cost about $10,000 in Penang.  Since the technology is as advanced there as it is in the US, it’s pretty easy to see how Penang’s hospitals draw tens of thousands of medical tourists per year.  Even after factoring in travel costs and other expenses it still probably comes out cheaper to have a procedure done in Penang, especially if you live in the ASEAN region.

In fact, the area is such a hotspot for medical tourism that seven of the private, specialized hospitals in Penang have joined together to form PenangHealth, an alliance that works to build the area’s reputation as a world-class hub of medical tourism.  Together, the seven hospitals can offer a wide variety of medical treatments and care, and even offer to arrange accommodations for patients and their families.  If you browse their website you can see that PenangHealth is trying very hard to cement their reputation as the top international medical tourist destination.

And why shouldn’t they?  Thanks to the recent boom in medical tourism, Penang now accounts for 21% of Malaysia’s GDP, making it one of the wealthiest states in the country.  Penang also accounted for 66% of Malaysia’s medical tourism industry in 2010, and has continued to grow since then.  The growth of the medical tourism industry promoted growth in other areas, too, including technology—and not just medical technology.  In the last year Penang received more investment than any other state in Malaysia, and numerous electronics firms set up shop on the island.  Importantly, most of the jobs offered by those firms are in research and development, rather than the assembly line type jobs that contributed to Penang’s economic downfall in the 80s.  The first electronics companies to come to Penang in the 70s did so in order to set up offshore assembly lines, and while they were initially quite profitable, the electronics manufacturers soon abandoned Malaysia for places like China and Vietnam, which offered even cheaper labor.

I find the idea of the medical tourism industry contributing to the economic growth and development of a struggling region to be very heartening.  I find the concept odd—traveling abroad to get cheaper medical care?  Seems sort of like outsourcing medicine—but it is drawing in millions of tourist dollars each year and promoting growth in other industries.  It isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach (you can’t just come into another struggling region, build some hospitals, train some doctors, and expect it to have the same results), but it’s working well for Malaysia and seems to be sustainable, at least for now.  The economic growth Penang has experienced has encouraged other industries to invest in the region, bringing in new jobs in industries that hopefully will continue to expand.  I guess we will just have to wait and see, however, if the medical tourism industry is ultimately sustainable or if Penang will sink back into an economic recession.  Tourism is a fickle industry, after all, and it just takes one or two mishaps to turn a hotspot into a ghost town, especially when people are coming for risky operations, not for the scenery or the food–though of course both of those things also draw people to Penang.  Would the state have been better off building up a different industry, one that doesn’t rely on a constant influx of international tourists, or building up a variety of diverse industries instead of focusing on one area?  What do you think?

Michelle Bovée is a SISGI Group Program and Research Intern focused on international affairs, economic development, and responsible tourism. To learn more about the SISGI Group visit www.sisgigroup.org

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