Social technologies have broken the barriers of space and time, enabling us to interact 24/7 with more people than before. Most people spend their time sending emails, chatting with friends, posting videos or pictures, to being informed of the latest events. Everything can be done through Facebook, and Twitter. New social networking sites pop up …
Tag: sustainable impact
Mar 25
Tourism in Cuba?
I’ve written a lot about the opening up of Myanmar and Bhutan and their possibilities for sustainable tourism, so today I thought I would look at another isolated country: Cuba. Travel between the United States and Cuba has been forbidden since February 8th, 1969, just a few months after the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis. …
Mar 15
Exploring the New Frontier: Space Mining
Growing up, many of you have probably watched Star Trek. Exploration of space was an exciting prospect indeed. What fascinated me though, while watching, was the huge abundance of resources available, such as basic raw materials, energy, even food and water. I remember thinking that if this was actually possible it would solve all of …
Feb 21
What’s in a Name?
The Social Security Administration has officially joined the club. Better late than never, you could say. In August 2010, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed Rosa’s Law, which legally required the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” to be removed from all federal education, health, and labor laws. Just last month, the Social …
Jan 16
Just The Tip of The Horn
It’s the start of a new year, and a new beginning. A renewed hope for something better for all, yet a crisis still looms and has been around for far too long. I am referring to the food crisis, in the Horn of Africa. So why hasn’t the problem been resolved, after so many decades? …
Jan 10
A Culture of Consumption: Living in a Material World
I’ll let you in on a secret. You know that shirt you received on Christmas? The one that you were thrilled to wear the first time around? Slightly amused by the second time? And all too soon, you realized the novelty was gone? In a couple of months, the same shirt will inevitably end up …
Dec 18
Doomsday Tourism
With the End of the World fast approaching, I thought it would be interesting to look at the impact fears of Earth’s imminent destruction are having on tourism. It may seem like an odd line of inquiry, but in fact many people have flocked to areas believed to be, for various reasons, the only place(s) …
Dec 13
Brand Name Disaster Relief
The lives of Haitians are threadbare and there is little in the way of relief funds. How is this possible? When international donations totaling more than $10 billion were donated to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake . The disparity in the suffering of the Haitian people and the astronomical amount of money donated …
Dec 10
Community Empowerment in Haiti
A great sense of empowerment is needed for the people of Haiti, who remain in a housing crisis two years after the earthquake. The empowerment of people in need is paramount to creating change. The best Aid workers are sometimes individuals who have lived in the communities needing help and are invested in their communities. …