Nov 21
The other day I was waiting in line at my local Starbucks, and noticed the coffee shop was selling what appeared to be bracelets. Upon further inspection, the bracelets claimed to be a part of a national job creation program. Anyone who purchases a bracelet for $5 or more is showing his or her support …
Nov 15
Read this post in English ¿La nueva revolución verde sucederá en las ciudades? Existen dos principales razones para explicar el creciente interés en la agricultura urbana. Una de ellas es la creciente preocupación que muchos individuos sienten sobre los impactos en la salud y en el medio ambiente de la agricultura industrial. La agricultura urbana …
Nov 01
Yesterday, October 31st, we saw the earth’s population reach 7 billion people. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel the ground shake or claustrophobia overwhelm me when I went outside. Instead, it was not until my Twitter feed started sharing all sorts of stories about what should/would/has happened and how us humans are going to face the …
Oct 27
Creating freedom and peace in Palestine I’ve previously written about how art, and in particular music, can help to solve social and economical disparities (read post). I recently learned about another great example of how art can be useful to alleviate social conflicts. I attended a talk by Palestinian actors from The Freedom Theater. The Freedom …
Oct 25
Pocas veces tienes una idea clara de dónde viene el producto que nos obtenemos en el supermercado del vecindario. No sabemos lo que implica la cadena de producción o cómo el producto llegó hasta tus manos. La mayoría de nosotros somos consumidores extremadamente ignorantes, ciegos a lo que pasa en la cadena de producción. Como …
Oct 20
Last week I wrote a post about some of the aspects of development besides economic growth that policy makers should take into account when dealing with the developing world, and today I would like to continue in a similar vein. This time, however, I am going to discuss a different variable: culture. Over the summer …
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 04
Two years ago, I was backpacking though Asia, I found myself in Seoul, South Korea visiting friends and watching the World Cup finale. Against direct orders from my parents, I decided to take a tour up to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) along the North Korean border. Having known a substantial bit of history about the …
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 …
