beyond buzz words

I believe each of us is meant to do what is right, whatever the personal cost; to show kindness to those in need, even when they seem to not deserve it; and to remember that we are all human, both deeply flawed and completely miraculous.

[emilysaur]

The Cold War split [in the human rights language] basically was where the US insisted on civil and political rights, while the Soviets and various authoritarian countries insisted that this was a bourgeois trap and what was important were social and economic rights. One aspect of the Cold War was fought out over which interpretation was valid, and with the collapse of the Soviets, triumph of capitalism and rise of US hegemony, we know who won that battle. So it is civil and political rights which are enforced and those to do with fundamental issues of torture, genocide (which is fine — I would have been for military intervention in Rwanda, when push came to shove, to prevent the violence that happened). But you cannot divorce these questions from capitalism, poverty and deep exploitation, from the whole way in which the sub-Saharan African continent has been made the world’s basket case in terms of economic development. All of these issues have to be addressed as well. I do believe in the undivided character of human rights and there remains important work to show how inadequate it is to wrench out one set of rights from their connections with the others.

Nancy Fraser, on the multidimensional nature of human rights (via emilysaur)

[tedx]

Who has the power to end poverty?

Poverty isn’t one simple, easy-to-identify problem. It’s a catch-all term for droves of problems that stem from many sources. It’s daunting to think about solving such a sprawling issue, but there’s power in that too. Change needs to happen at so many levels that everyone from local communities to big governments can make a tangible difference. Below, TEDx Talks with creative ideas about how to make a dent in poverty at three different levels — local, national, and global:

**Become the leaders of your own community: Boniface Mwangi at TEDxKibera Boniface Mwangi calls on his community to demand representation and take charge of it’s own future. Kibera, the urban slum around Nairobi, is the largest in Africa. Despite the creativity of local innovators and entrepreneurs, infrastructure remains unsound and human rights abuses are widespread. At TEDxKibera, Boniface calls on his neighbors to demand justice and take action before outside sources forge their future for them.

**For money, insert human rights: Susan Randolph at TEDxUConn What’s more important for a government hoping to improve the lives of its citizens: growing its economy or strengthening its social safety net? According to Susan Randolph, one might not work without the other. She measures a country’s human rights achievements, relative to its GDP per capita. She’s found that a country’s economic growth is unstable when it’s not coupled with policies that secure citizens access to the food, health, education, housing, work, and social security that’s within the country’s means. Reducing poverty is hardly just about money; it’s about guaranteeing citizens reasonable levels of dignity and stability, too.

**In defense of foreign aid: Joe Cerrell at TEDxASL Wealthy countries like the US and UK have impressive aid programs, but many of their citizens view these as a colossal waste of money that ought to be spent solving the problems at home. What that argument usually misses, however, is that foreign aid makes up a near infinitesimal portion of most national budgets and that even those modest investments make a tremendous impact. Concerns about implementation notwithstanding, Cerrell makes the case that the spending is well worth the cost.

[takepart]

Plus: it’s actually livable.

[verticaltheory]

[permatech]

DiSalvo Fosters Community Involvement through Digital Media

How might communications technology support local food-production systems?

One of the basic questions is land use. Let’s say you want to grow a garden, and you pass by an empty plot of land every time you go into town. How do you find out whether or not you can use that land? How do you find out if the city or a private business owns that land, or how it’s zoned? We want to know how these answers can be communicated to people and provide them with access to underutilized land.

Read the full article here.

via verticaltheory

[jayendaya-deactivated20150326]

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (via jayendaya)

[archiemcphee]

Something awesome recently happened in Istanbul, Turkey. As a city with many hills, Istanbul is home to lots of long staircases that intersect its centuries-old neighbourhoods, enabling pedestrians to avoid streets filled with heavy car traffic.

Last week Huseyin Cetinel, a retired forestry engineer, decided to paint the stairs connecting the neighbourhoods of Findikli and Cihangir all the colors of the rainbow.

"He told the local news media that his original motivation for applying a fresh coat of paint to the stairs was not activism, but the desire “to make people smile.” Mr. Cetinel said he spent nearly $800 on paint and devoted four days to sprucing up the stairs, with help from his son-in-law.”

Public reaction to the colourful stairs was overwhelmingly positive. People turned out in droves to pose for photos on the cheerful staircase. Some decided it was a gesture of support and call for equal rights for the city’s LGBTQ community.

But then sometime strange happened. Just a few days after Huseyin finished beautifying the staircase, residents woke up to discover that overnight the city had hastily re-painted the rainbow steps a dull, disheartening gray. The gray cover-up was so secret and sudden that locals took it very personally. It was interpreted as “a sign of intolerance and a lack of respect for their right to claim public space.”

Speaking to Turkish television reporters after the stairs were painted over, Mr. Cetinel pointed out that all of nature — “cats, birds, flowers, mountains” — is brightly colored. “Where does this gray come from?” he asked. “Did we have another Pompeii and got flooded with ash?”

What happened next is what’s really awesome. Residents began to organize with each other via twitter and soon, not only were Huseyin Cetinel’s stairs returned to their rainbow glory, but - as a sign of solidarity - entirely different stairways all over the city, and eventually in other Turkish cities as well, were painted too.

Click here to view more photos of Istanbul’s new rainbow staircases.

[via Street Art Utopia and The New York Times]

[treehugger]

Cinnamon and spice candied almonds recipe

[science-is]

[thedapperproject]

Every street in the United States.

All Streets consists of 240 million individual road segments. No other features — no outlines, cities, or types of terrain — are marked, yet canyons and mountains emerge as the roads course around them, and sparser webs of road mark less populated areas. 

Buy the poster.

[kjgibbs]

(via Cash or Cows? | Innovations for Poverty Action)

This is a really interesting article. Definitely food for thought.

[fairtradeusa]

Before Fair Trade, Monica never knew if her family would have enough income. Now she can plan for her family’s future, read her story here: http://fairtrd.us/14Ufh4z

[infographicjournal]

Sauce and Pepper: 7 of Our Favorite Latino Sauces

[kjgibbs]

[infographicjournal]

Social Media as a Crisis Management Tool

[unicornexplorer-blog]

So you want to work in ...

[kjgibbs]

International development

[chrisbielecki-deactivated201409]

Guatemala: A Post-Conflict Nation?

 Guatemala is often referred to as a post-conflict nation. The country ended 36 years of civil war in 1996 when a “firm and lasting peace” was signed between the government and a coalition of guerrilla groups. Yet, if peace was signed nearly 20 years ago, why is there still so much violence in Guatemala?

Today there are no battles between government and guerrilla forces. Young men (as well as a smaller number of young women) are no longer scooped up off the streets to serve as combatants, nor are curfews enforced by “shoot on sight” rules. Thankfully, there are no scenes of spectacular violence like the frequent bombings seen on CNN in Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq. Instead, conflict in Guatemala takes the form of a slow but ever so steady bloodletting of murders, kidnappings, robberies, and violent assaults. In fact, between 2000 and 2010, 4,929 people were murdered per year on average, while it is estimated that 4,166 people died per year on average during the 36 year civil war (original source-log-in required). Yes that’s right, more Guatemalans are being murdered today then during the civil war years. Why is this?

Guatemala represents a cautionary tale of what happens when the root causes of conflict are never addressed. 

When the peace accords were signed in 1996, combatants from both sides never laid down their arms and integrated peacefully back into society. During the civil war young men were taken away from their family and trained to fight, how could they be then expected to go back to their life as it was before? What education or skills did they have besides knowing how to wage war? Hence many former fighters are now the leaders of the criminal gangs (or they are their enforcers) engaged in trafficking drugs, people, and carrying out the daily laundry list of executions, extortions, and kidnappings. The poor state of education and employment in Guatemala is also a root cause. Many lower-income adolescents in urban areas face three choices in Guatemala; join a gang, be killed for not joining a gang, or make the dangerous trek across Mexico and cross illegally into the United States. Still another main cause for the violence is the systematic discrimination of the indigenous Mayan. Lack of investments in education, infrastructure, and land rights reform drives many to engage in criminal activities to support themselves and their family.

Although the Peace Accords were signed more than 15 years ago, whenever I ask Guatemalans what has changed, nearly all say nothing at all. In a testament to the crushing violence, just last night 8 police officers were found murdered execution style in their very own police station located in the center of a relatively large town (News article-In Spanish). Their chief has been kidnapped. Like most Guatemalan kidnap victims, he will most likely turn up dead in a few days after being tortured. Preliminary reports state this police unit recently detained several bodyguards of a powerful drug lord. Two trucks pulled up to the station around 9PM, and men dressed in military uniforms executed the 8 police officers and took the chief (his radio was found along a highway leading to the Mexican border). The message is clear; interference by anyone (even the Guatemalan government) will be met with swift revenge. How could this happen? In the United States when two or more police are murdered in one act, federal, state, and local authorities dedicate enormous amounts of investigative resources, swiftly investigate and nearly every time, bring those responsible to justice. In Guatemala, unfortunately, this brazen act of violence is not unprecedented. The Guatemalan Human Rights Office estimates that only 6% of murders result in a conviction. If you murder someone in Guatemala, you have a 94% chance of getting away with it!

How is this relevant to Development? Andrew Wainer, a senior immigration policy analyst at Bread for the World Institute, recently wrote an article arguing for greater integration of U.S. foreign assistance and migration policy in Latin America. He called for creating a baseline assessment of the factors driving unauthorized migration to the U.S. Similarly, development agencies should integrate country-specific drivers of conflict into their projects. Much of this is already happening in development work (USAID conflict publications) in Africa and the Middle East. However, is the conflict-development nexus being paid sufficient attention to in Guatemala and other nations which suffer not from headline news worthy violence, but endemic impunity, weak institutions, and high crime rates? Because for Guatemalans it is clear: they do not live in a post-conflict nation.

[kjgibbs]

[questionall]