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Innovation of the Week: Water Out of Thin Air
by Molly Theobald In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, people are forced to travel long distances and spend hours at a time collecting the water needed for cooking and drinking from far away streams or wells. But the residents of Cabazane, South Africa have found a much less labor intensive alternative. They use gravity and let water come to them. • In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, people are forced to travel long distances and spend hours at a time collecting the water needed for cooking and drinking from far away streams or wells. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack) • With the...More
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Add to NewsvineThe Sad Fate of Stolen Cars
Every 24 seconds, a motor vehicle is stolen in the United States. Contrary to popular belief, thieves not only target expensive cars, but most frequently, the cars more often stolen are in the middle price range. Cars are stolen not for their value but for the resale value of their parts particularly valuable when they are no longer manufactured or are too difficult or too expensive to obtain. Stolen cars transported across frontiers have become common features in many countries, an almost inevitable consequence of globalization. Recently in Albania, I was amazed at the high number of Mercedes Benz cars...More
Invitation to Submit Essays Dedicated to the Advancement of Women’s Rights
Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia and The Washington College of Law 2010 Legal Essay Writing Competition. The Modern American (TMA) announces the American University Washington College of Law (WCL) essay competition, open to all full-time and part-time law students enrolled in and attending an accredited law school in the United States. The Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia (WBA) and WCL share an important history in advancing women in the law and women’s rights. TMA celebrates this history by creating a writing competition that highlights the status and future of women’s bodily freedom in American...More
"Even if We're Peasants, We Deserve to Live Too:" Tet Kole on the Needs of Haitian Farmers
Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen (Heads Together Small Producers of Haiti) is the oldest peasant group in Haiti, born covertly in 1970 during the Duvalier dictatorship. Today Tèt Kole is one of Haiti’s two national peasant farmer movements, with more than 55,000 members in all ten departments of the country. Here, members talk about their problems, needs, and priorities for their future.* Silion Pierre, national coordinating committee of Tèt Kole: • Tèt Kole members head into a banana grove for a meeting. Photo: Roberto (Bear) Guerra. • How to improve the lives of peasantry? We are always battling for decentralization, the...More
Not If, but When Disaster Strikes: The WIP talks with the Red Cross
Listen to the August 29 broadcast of Sundays at Five by clicking the play button below. In this week’s broadcast of Sundays at Five, Kate and Ali talk with Joan Kelley-Williams, the Director of International Services for the American Red Cross San Francisco Bay Area Chapter. Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the lives of many people on the Gulf Coast are still not “back to normal.” Yet another disaster - the current flooding in Pakistan – is having an impact many times more devastating than Katrina. Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io For more information about preparing yourself and your...More
Innovation of the Week: Staying Tuned for More Innovations
By Molly Theobold Listen to Radio Fanaka Fana and Radio Jigiya, in the Fana and Zégoua regions of Mali, and you are much more likely to hear tips for improving compost piles and soil quality than you are pop music hits or current events. That’s because the station is participating in Farm Radio International’s Africa Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI), a project to test the viability of using radio as a tool for spreading agricultural information to farmers throughout Africa. • Mali: Meeting with EVOCA MALI Outside Bamako. Photo courtesy of the author. • Farm Radio International is a Canadian-based, non-profit organization...More
The Iraq War's Tragic Legacy
The return of U.S. forces from Iraq in what is euphemistically called the end of the Iraq war is anything but the end of the conflict. The consequences of the war will be felt for many years to come. Former President George W. Bush and his advisers should be blamed for engaging in a war that has ravaged Iraq and cost the United States not only economically but also the lives and well being of hundreds of thousands of its soldiers. As of February of 2010, approximately $700 billion had been spent in the war. This figure is based on...More
Balance of Power in Both Nepal's Rebel Forces and Parliament
Listen to the August 22 broadcast of Sundays at Five by clicking the play button below. The WIP’s film critic Jessica Mosby joins Kate and Ali in conversation with first-time filmmaker Kiran Deol. Her new documentary film Woman Rebel tells the story of Silu, an officer in Nepal’s rebel forces, which are made up of 40 percent women. Silu is a true female change agent: by the end of the film she is transformed from rebel leader to member of parliament. Listen to their conversation about Nepal, the People’s Liberation Army, and what leadership balance has meant for the revolution...More
New York, City of Charms
There is no denying that big cities have a special attraction to most people. And New York, being one of the biggest cities in the world, has many qualities that make it unique. Not so for me at the beginning. I came to New York in 1971 with my wife and daughter to do research in microbial genetics, a new field of research for me. Despite my having lived previously in Buenos Aires, another big city, for five years, the culture shock was tremendous for me (my wife had been here before). And it didn’t help that when we arrived...More
"Part of the Dream for National Reconstruction": Haitian Refugee Camps Model Future Society
While it should never be the case that a high percentage of the Haitian population remains living in refugee camps seven months after the earthquake, still camp residents have managed to create in a few of those camps a small-scale model of the type of future society that many would like to see. This includes democratic participation by community members; autonomy from foreign authority; a focus on meeting the needs of all; dignified living conditions; respect for rights; creativity; and a commitment to gender equity. The Petite Rivière Shelter Center (CHHPR by its French acronym) camp, near the epicenter of...More
Massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran could be repeated by Mullahs
The 1988 massacre in Iran and the repetition risk of another catastrophe is a serious international concern. We need global support to to save the life of present political prisoners in Iran among them many women who are the first victims of such atrocities. This is call upon all to awaken consciousness throughout the world to help to prevent another catastrophe. In Iran’s history, the summer of 1988 represents a time of genocide and massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. Yet to this day, human rights violations and arbitrary executions are continuing in Iran. Due to the appeasement policy and concessions...More
Innovation of the Week: Funding a Blue Revolution
By Molly Theobold As climate change worsens, and fresh water availability grows more erratic, the food security of small-scale farmers throughout Africa will increasingly depend on their water management abilities. Luckily, the tools for improving water management already exist. But, as a recent report from the Rockefeller Foundation notes, the key to getting these tools to the people who need them the most will be making sure that the funding, donor, and policy-making community understands what they are and why they need more support. • As climate change worsens, and fresh water availability grows more erratic, the food security of...More
With Taxes We Buy Civilization
The goateed face of Fred Thompson, Law and Order actor, one time senator, and failed presidential candidate doing tax-hating video bites to preserve the deficit bloating Bush tax cuts is the latest in a series of right-wing maneuvers to promote factional greed and ignorance. Video bites like Fred’s are a principal source of public information and no counter-bites have appeared. Where is the immediate response strategy of the ’08 Obama Campaign? It may be beneath presidential dignity for Obama to return to the campaign trenches. So send a stand-in with equivalent or greater visibility to Fred Thompson’s to educate the...More
Iran's Unrelenting Path to Nuclear Power
The recent statements by Gen James Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser that the door is open for President Obama to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if the Iranians agree to resume talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding their nuclear program could break the impasse in the situation with that country. President Ahmadinejad should eagerly take this opportunity to present Iran’s position to President Obama and improve relations with the U.S. “There is no point in a theatrical meeting,” stated Gen Jones in an interview with CNN. “One thing they must do is return our three hikers....More
For Partners in Health, Good Health Means Justice and Rights (Alternative Health Care in Haiti, Part IV)
With the motto “Providing a preferential option for the poor in health care,” Partners in Health offers an unusual model of health care provision. Its mission is both medical and moral. Partners in Health is widely recognized as changing the potential for health for low-income people and countries throughout the world. Partners in Health’s extraordinary success comes from its philosophies regarding health and justice, which include a belief in the power and dignity of the patient; a commitment to health care as a human right; and an understanding that true health for the poor can only come through challenging the...More
Separate and Unequal: Sierra Leone’s Conflict with Tradition
“Should government change for the people or people change for the government?” This question posed by a professor in Sierra Leone serves as a major source of friction in this post conflict society. In developing a new governance system, Sierra Leone struggles to reconcile traditional, tribal ideologies with Western, democratic principles encouraged by the international community. During a recent visit, I experienced the struggle to reconcile these systems. This struggle hinders continued development, particularly for women and youth, whose disenfranchisement was a root cause of the Eleven Year War. If the two, opposing systems are not rectified, then lasting peace...More
Innovation of the Week: Turning Agriculture into Gold
By Molly Theobald Before Kenya’s independence, the Migori District’s economy was driven by the Macalder Mining Company, the area’s largest employer. When the company shut down in 1966, it left behind a lot of abandoned land—and a lot of unemployed miners. These miners, some of whom bought up land from the closed-mining company, continued, for the most part, to mine for gold. But the work became increasingly dangerous as gold deposits shrunk over time and miners were forced to go deep into abandoned mines to look for what little gold was left. Many of the miners were poor in gold...More
A nutritious meal and an education for every child in Malawi!
Listen to the August 15th broadcast of Sundays at Five by clicking the play button below. In this week’s broadcast of Sundays at Five, Kate and Ali interview Mary Mangwiza Manyusa from Malawi and Mary Burns of Mountain View, California. Mary Manyusa was formerly Malawi’s chief of police and has used her pension to fund the organization, Mother Mary’s Children Centre, which feeds 1200 orphans every day. Mary Burns is the founder of Kasimu Grammar School in Manyesa, where 1300 students attend elementary school. Both women provide the only nutritious meal these receive each day. Discover Simple, Private Sharing at...More
Media and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone
Coated in red dust, we traipsed across the scorching hot sand dunes, quickly making our way towards the barely clothed, emaciated men who were sieving through endless piles of sand. The agitated workers shouted incomprehensible phrases to us, but the one that I clearly understood was, “You here to buy diamonds!” I was frightened, and for the first time after a week of being in Sierra Leone I sensed the hostility and aggression that only eight years ago fueled a horrific civil war. I had already lost hope that we would be able to conduct an interview with the workers....More
"Who will come to cover them?-Unresolved question"
Last month I Fortunately got the chance to confront with the unfortunate situations. May be because of my passion of travelling and observing the situation I came across the harsh reality. Which is invisible for all of us or we deliberately try to make it invisible. At that time temperature in Rajasthan was around 480c. And I was reached at another tribal area located at Kasbanonea Gram panchayat of Shahabad block in Baran district. Wandering for fathom all the aspects of project for which I was there in that scorching heat. I become victim of dehydration, dyeing because of...More
Missing the Boat to Cuba
On one of my visits to Cuba on UN-sponsored health-related missions I received one of my most useful foreign policy lessons from a young Cuban. On learning that my group came from the U.S., he told us, “Americans don’t understand Cuban reality. They can get more changes in Cuba with Levi jeans than with an armed invasion.” His commonsensical reflection is in stark contrast with the U.S. government Cuban policy. The election of president Obama raised hopes that there would be a dramatic change of policy towards Cuba. After all, in April of 2009 he had said that it was...More
“Education is the greatest asset you can give a child.”
Listen to the August 8th broadcast of Sundays at Five by clicking the play button below. In this week’s broadcast of Sundays at Five, Kate and Ali interview Judge Rose Mbah Acha of Cameroon’s court of appeals. In Cameroon, approximately 50,000 children are not registered at birth. This is significant because without a birth certificate children are not able to attend school. Rose envisions that every child born in Cameroon starting in the year 2011 will be registered at birth. Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io About the Broadcast: The WIP’s Executive Editor, Kate Daniels teams up with identical twin...More
Innovation of the Week: Handling Pests with Care Instead of Chemicals
By Molly Theobald Between the years of 1975 – 1976, the Cambodian farmer, Name Name, like most farmers in the country during that time, grew vegetables and rice to feed the soldiers of the Lon Nol regime. Using his bare hands, Name mixed the chemicals DDT, Folidol, Phostrin and Kontrin in order to keep the pests away from his crops. As a result, he suffered from strange and uncomfortable physical symptoms. Sometimes he was unable to move or feel his hands and lower arms, and he experienced pain in his lungs and heart. His short term memory was also affected....More
Legacy of Exploitation in Sierra Leone
“The rebels receive more from the government than we do,” a man told a small group of us. He leaned on his crutches, one of his legs having been forcibly amputated during the war. “If we had some opportunity here, in this place, life would be better…. We don’t feel the sympathy from the government in Sierra Leone.” He trailed off and stared a thousand miles into the distance. At the rural campus of Njala University I chatted casually with a student, answering his inquiries as to what I was doing in Sierra Leone. “Yes, but you know we are...More
An Unaddressed issues- "Related with children"
Children constitute principle assets of any country. Children’s Development is as important as the development of material resources and the best way to develop national human resources is to take care of children. India has the largest child population in the world. All out efforts are being made by India for the development and welfare of children. Significant progress has been made in many fields in assuring children their basic rights. However, much remains to be done. The country renews its commitment and determination to give the highest priority to the basic needs and rights of all children. Children...More
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