Oct 19
Chances are, if you haven’t been living under a rock for the past month, you’ve heard about Occupy Wall Street – a burgeoning movement that protests against economic inequality and corporate greed and has spread not only around the country but around the world. Although the concrete goals of the protestors are not completely clear, …
Oct 13
Do you know where your clothes were made? Whose hands picked the tomatoes you eat? How the items you use on a daily basis are manufactured? Your answer is probably no and the truth is that most of us don’t really take the time to find out. We might read the label stitched to our …
Oct 13
When it comes to development, is GDP the only thing that matters? The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) says no. The OECD released a new report that looks at a variety of statistics with the hope of finding new measures for assessing well-being that go beyond Gross Domestic Product. The authors of the …
Oct 13
El 25 de Septiembre falleció en Kenya Wangari Maathai, la ambientalista, política y activista de derechos humanos. Ganadora del premio Nobel en 2004, murió a los 71 años dejando un legado detrás de ella. Es conocida por haber fundado la organización no-gubernamental Green Belt Movement (Movimiento del Cinturón Verde). Green Belt Movement (GBM) aboga por …
Oct 12
What do the countries of India, Mexico, Thailand, Cambodia, and Brazil have in common? You could say rich histories, luscious and picturesque landscapes, succulent foods and colorful settings. Hidden beneath these vacationers’ paradise; however, is a cloak of secrecy that is a concealing a dark reality. These locations are not only a tourists dream, but …
Oct 11
In my last post I discussed the Global Conference for Social Change that I attended last week here in New York. With one day focusing on women and girls, the second day was all about leaders of change. Guests ranged from business to business (B2B) organizations such as DSM, to the department store Marks and …
Oct 06
In previous posts, I’ve stated that I consider myself a human rights advocate. I define this term as an individual who works to ensure that all human beings have their basic needs met and rights enforced. This includes needs such as food, housing, clothing and rights to education and physical and religious freedom. Under international …
Oct 06
As you may recall, I wrote a post over the summer about Responsibility to Protect and the Arab Spring. In this post I discussed the intervention in Libya and how the creation of a “no-fly zone” was a manifestation of this RtoP. I also discussed the reasons why RtoP was not going to be invoked …
Sep 30
Anyone having read aid literature is familiar with the stories about underfunded and overcrowded disease clinics throughout Africa. Where patients don’t have the means to pay for treatments, and often medications are in too short supply. These grueling stories tug at the heartstrings of foreign donors, and because they are so far removed from a …
Sep 30
Today I thought I would talk to you about an interesting twist on responsible tourism that I stumbled upon: the Youth Career Initiative (YCI). The YCI was launched in 1995 in Bangkok as part of a community initiative by the Pan Pacific Hotels Group, and was intended to “give back” to society by teaching disadvantaged …
