Category: Lessons Learned from…

Best Practices and ideas from experienced individuals and groups working on the ground.

The Missing in Latin America

Insecurity along the U.S border is a daily reality experienced by those who cross to and from Mexico each day. Media coverage has shown how everyone has been affected including businesspeople, tourists and children who live in one country but study in the neighboring one. Apart from the killings and rapes that are highlighted in …

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Honor Killings – Culture and Education

Honor killings are generally associated with cultures that treat women with contempt. These cultures see females as objects that can be owned, sold, and handled in whatever way is deemed appropriate by a male. When a woman commits an act that traditionally “brings shame” to a family or community, she is killed. More often than …

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Guantanamo – 10 Years at the Starting Line

It was ten years ago that the United States opened up the now infamous detention facility nicknamed “Gitmo”. Gitmo, or Guantanamo Bay as it is formally known was first leased to the United States in 1903. Under the terms of a lease provision by Cuban dictator Batista in 1934, it cannot be terminated except by …

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Tackling Intergenerational Issues: Bolsa Familia

Have you ever seen the MTV show Skins?  Wait, it’s okay, I won’t subject you to the embarrassment of admitting to it; I’ll fill you in.  The show (a replica of a British hit) fictionally illustrates the lives of a group of American teenagers.  These teenagers participate in pretty much every morally questionable activity imaginable …

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The Dark Side of Super Bowl

Every winter millions of people around the world tune in to watch Americas biggest sporting event, the National Football League’s Super Bowl Sunday game. Whether it’s to support that year’s two tops teams, watch the much anticipated half-time show, or comment on which of the different commercials shown took 1st place for creativity, there is …

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End of Year Review: Arab Spring, Part Three

After reading parts one and two of this series on the Arab Spring, you hopefully have a better grasp on what some of the major moments of the movements were, how the revolutionaries in various countries drew inspiration from each other, and the difficulties of transitioning to a democracy.  So, for this post, I thought …

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Looking Forward to Next Year’s Foreign Aid Budget

On Friday of last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill approving the foreign aid budget for 2012. Anticipating that the Senate will pass the bill this week, the winners and losers of the proposed budget allocations becomes clear. Foreign aid has become a big target in this economic recession, with government more hesitant …

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End of Year Review: Arab Spring, Part Two

For part one of this series, click here. Libya February 16th, 2011—Demonstrators, emulating those in Tunisia and Egypt (which Libya is located between), take to the streets of Benghazi to protest Muammar Gaddafi’s 41 year regime.  The arrest of Libyan human rights activist Fethi Tarbel is believed to have sparked the protest.  An estimated 38 …

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Entendiendo el cambio climatico

Read this post in English El cambio climático es aceptado como un hecho científico hoy en día, la discusión ha terminado. Las temperaturas medias globales están en aumento y se pueden relacionar con las actividades humanas que han llevado al aumento de las emisiones de dióxido de carbono durante los últimos siglos. Pero la discusión sobre …

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Chaplin’s World

A few nights ago, just as I had closed the books and decided to go to sleep, I stumbled upon a clip of Charlie Chaplin’s impressionable speech at the end of his 1940 film The Great Dictator. In his speech, he made an emotional appeal against the direction the world was headed. He acknowledged that …

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