Vivimos en un mundo con desigualdades económicas, divididos entre los países “desarrollados” y los en vía de desarrollo, el Norte y el Sur. Como ciudadanos del mundo, reaccionamos con estás desigualdades económicas de diferente manera. Naciones desarrolladas y sus ciudadanos muchas veces sienten “la responsabilidad del hombre blanco” (para citar el poema de Kipling). Para …
Tag: sustainable impact
Aug 15
Finding a New Use for Twitter in Egypt
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 …
Aug 12
Freedom of Speech or Insensitive Gibberish?
I am all for freedom of speech but not when it becomes abusive and offensive. On Wednesday, the New York Post released their daily newspaper displaying a controversial image and relaying what many are calling a highly absurd and unreasonable message to the public. The Post, in their attempt to metaphorically compare the recent highs …
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
El Sistema: Música para el cambio
El sistema es un programa de educación musical presente en Venezuela (y en algunos estados de los Estados Unidos) que ofrece a niños pobres la posibilidad de volverse músicos profesionales. El programa empezó en 1975, despés de que el economista y músico José Abreu dió una clase de música en un garage a 11 niños …
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 02
A Plan for Dadaab Refugee Camp – Part III
Money allocated for mental health services and social entrepreneurship support in Dadaab could help refugees build a future outside the camp Last week, Rebecca posted the second entry of our series on the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. Much of her post focused on the monetary difficulties related to the camp. She explained how there …
Aug 01
Building Back Better in Pakistan
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the opportunity and need for Haiti to redevelop sustainably after the devastating earthquake in 2010. I also discussed how construction in Bihar, India – after a flood completely washed away the area – could be a model for rebuilding homes in Haiti. Unfortunately, like Haiti and India, Pakistan …