meeting in the aisle

My latest link love - get your links here!

• BREAKING: Kim Jong II, the North Korean Dictator, has died.
•  HIV/AIDS impacts women and girls differently to men (and boys)  - the ways in which the impacts differ are organised into neat little row of easy to read dot points
• Hillary Clinton has addressed the UN about defending the rights of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) people around the world. It’s an amazing moment in history and an incredible speech. And since we’re on the topic, if you missed Pixar’s contribution to the It Gets Better campaign, grab a tissue and watch it now.
•  You heart Bill Gates, oh yes you do – (because someone is finally telling a good story about aid, after all the recent doom and gloom of Bad Aid etc)
•  Why we give – another look into the minds and motivations of donations and why using your brain when donating is not necessarily good.
• What country in the world has a life expectancy of just 32 years?
• I like remembering there are great ways to give thanks. (Apart from CARE Gifts, of course. Have you bought yours?)

The latest - International development in 7 links

·         What are young chinese thinking about? – I recommend starting from the 3^rd one down.

·         What did Live Aid do? (Or Ethiopia and drought 1984 vs 2011)

·         Visualising Hunger Around the World – takes a little bit to load, but only a few seconds to see what’s going on with people’s tummies in certain regions around the world.

·         Mixed messages: communicating the challenges of development – a must read for all communication folk

·         Income inequality between high earners and low earners – relevant given the Occupy Wall St movement. 

·         Admitting failure – should we?

·         The silliness of busyness – I’ve snuck this one in in direct response to all the “I’m so busy!” going on in my office. 

International Development in (almost) 7 links

·  When is a $300 house a bad idea? Otherwise known as Bad Aid In Action!

·  One for the statistic and data nerds among us – poverty in the era of data and why monitoring and evaluation (M&E for the acronym lovers) is the catchphrase of the day

·  The 100 Social Enterprise truths – complete with  a pic of a granny lighting up. Seriously.

· What do intestinal worms have to do with getting kids into schools? (Otherwise known as ‘Getting smart about aid”)

·  Working in the arse-end-of-nowhere in the name of delivering aid – aka an insight into the lives and minds of International NGO field workers.

·  A good news story from Karonga, Malawi from the folks at Water Wellness (p.s. keep the challenge of governance in the back of your mind when reading this one)

· Oxfam launches its GROW program with Scarlett Johansen, Desmond Tutu and others, to international fanfare (think food crisis). 

· (And just so we remember what we’re up against here, they New York Times appoints its first female editor ever, after 160 years)

7 links on international development this week

·         One in three Africans is now middle class

·         Did you know  baby carrots are actually junk food? (This is more relevant to development than you think)

·         One third of the world’s food goes to waste – which is particularly interesting given the current world food crisis.

·         Could a global databank warn of natural disasters – and thus save lives?

·         More than 1 billion people are hungry in the world? – One of the best articles I’ve ever read on food security. Ever.

·         Measuring how or why aid works, or doesn’t Two new books on aid and development (and a review of them here in case you don’t actually want to read them)

·         Just how dangerous is sitting all day? (Gulp)

[image: sitting down all day]

10 links from international development world this week

So I used to have this weekly “Weekend Reader: Links I loved” regular feature on the blog. But somehow, with everything that has been going on in 2011, I have been struggling to maintain the link love.

In response, I’ve decided to change the format and extend to this blog the links I collate for my work colleagues. This means that, at least initially, they will be a bit more international development focused than usual, but I think that’s ok.

Link Love:

·         The World Bank has launched a map which visually tracks its projects and funding in a bid to better monitor impact and improve transparency.

·         The latest buzz in development circles is really focusing on aid transparency, and this article by Global Development’s Owen Barder is a good place to catch up on the debate (it’s only 3 pages long and has pictures!)

·         Coke analyses its “Poverty Footprint” – an interesting direction for corporate social responsibility

·         A bedtime story for the world economy by development economic genius Dani Rodrik. Globalisation 101 for emerging economies (and a follow up explanation in case you want more)

·         Great quote on understanding food security coming out of the Global Poverty Project’s Live Below the Line campaign (which is currently running and has Hugh Jackman as an Ambassador) (Rachel Hills)

·         How the news was broke about Osama Bin Laden’s death (and what that means). Also, have you heard that someone unknowingly tweeted the whole thing live from Pakistan?

·         REWIND: This is one of the best ever things I’ve seen on health and statistics by the genius demographer Hans Rosling. It’s a TED talk from 2006, and is still fascinating.

[image: Melbourne in Autumn is stunning right now!]

Weekend Reader - links I loved

I know it’s not the weekend, but I felt like bringing you some link love anyway. Here’s the seven links I loved most last week:

* Liberia, When Darkness Falls is an astonishing account of the war in Liberia by photojournalist Gregory Stemn. Be warned, the images are confronting.

* It’s official, sleep is more important than food. This is not news for someone like me who struggles to catch enough Zzzzs on a regular basis:

“even small amounts of sleep deprivation take a significant toll on our health, our mood, our cognitive capacity and our productivity.

Many of the effects we suffer are invisible. Insufficient sleep, for example, deeply impairs our ability to consolidate and stabilize learning that occurs during the waking day. In other words, it wreaks havoc on our memory.” - Tony Schwarz.

* If you had to guess the most generous country towards refugees in the world, who would you pick? - Chris Blattman.

* Now that I’m standing in front of classrooms full of students on a regular basis as part of my day job, I take my hat off to teachers who do it all the time, and I have a whole lot of empathy for the incredible hours teachers can work - Amy Letter.

* Every time I buy bottled water a little bit more of my self respect dies. Particularly after I’ve reminded myself, again, why bottled water sucks:

“some 2.7 million tons of petroleum-derived plastic are used to bottle water around the world every year” - Scientific American

* I recently rewatched Walk the Line and fell back in love with Johnny Cash, not that we’d ever really been estranged. But it is a good time to discover Johnny Cash’s cover of The Beatle’s “In My Life” - Something Changed.

* I didn’t like it the first time I saw it, and I still don’t like it after a second, but you might. This is what the most typical person on earth looks like today - National Geographic.

[image: St Kilda in the dying sunshine]

Weekend Reader - links I loved

The view from Alexandria, Egypt, in more peaceful times.

Another week, another set of intense world events. I’ve been following the latest with Egypt all week, but have also been sharing my attention with Cyclone Yasi. It’s a strange old time.

But let’s look elsewhere for a moment:

The rules of aid blogging could easily be renamed ‘the rules of blogging,’ the points raised by Tales from the Hood are so good:

“Aid Blogging Rule #4: Don’t allow yourself to be called out. Your blog is your space where you set the rules of engagement. Only take on the issues that you want to take on. Not every idiotic or malicious comment deserves response. Pick your battles. You don’t have to argue with everybody.”

I’m not sure of the veracity of this post, but apparently Saatchi and Saatchi advertising giants have turned their ad genius to human rights in china with these Amnesty chop pencils. Interesting. - Selectism

Speaking of Human Rights, The Economist has a confronting article on rape in war time - the whole article is worth reading:

“As the reporting of rape has improved, the scale of the crime has become more horrifyingly apparent. And with the Bosnian war of the 1990s came the widespread recognition that rape has been used systematically as a weapon of war…”

I have been thinking about human connection, and this great talk by Bruce Feiler is another reminder of why it’s all about connection. Literally, all of it. When the worst strikes, all the world is noise apart from the people you are connected to. Also love his idea of the Council of Dads for his daughters.

Volkswagen have launched a new ad for the Superbowl (which I assume is a big deal, but not being American, the phenomenon escapes me a bit). But better than that is Penelope Trunk’s analysis of the ad as an anthem for Gen X.

As someone who has not spent much time with young children, or particularly watching television/film for children since I was one, I didn’t know there was such a gap in female characters for kids. Consider me alarmed:

While the percentage of female characters in children’s movies is just under 30 per cent, the percentage of female characters in crowd or group scenes is an even more pathetic 17 per cent.

The gorgeous love-interest or selfless mother or adorably ditzy sidekick might be female, but the hero and most of his friends, the villain and his lackeys, the soldiers or townspeople or ant colony population are not.- SMH (via Howling Clementine)

Have you heard Allen Ginsberg read his phenomenal poem Howl?

Travel photos from the 1950s are (unsurprisingly) awesome.

What I’ve been listening to this week: Josh Ritter.

Weekend Reader - links I loved

The return of my Weekend Reader has been derailed by the activities in Egypt. Very little else stacked up, in comparison, so I’ve kept it short and sweet. Enjoy.

Egypt:

I spent this morning watching the situation in Egypt unfold via Al Jazeera’s quality live coverage. The Guardian’s coverage is also good, but as for any Australian media outlets? Disappointing.

But wait a second - do you know what is happening? To catch up, this explanation of the situation in Egypt is great, and includes the latest developments.

Will Mubarak be forced to resign? Will this be Tunisia over again? How will governments react to such visible political unrest, courtesy of the internets (apart from blocking it)? The times, are they a changin’?

Want some visuals? This photo collection of Egypt’s Protests is excellent but WARNING - They are very, very graphic.

The rest:

Gen Y bashing is popular. Selfish, unmotivated, disconnected, self-absorbed, and unconcerned about the hard stuff are just some of the usual accusations. Which is all rubbish, of course. But it’s great to actually hear people like former PM Kevin Rudd coming out in support of Gen Y:

Everywhere I have been in Brisbane, I have seen Gen Y out there in droves. Out there doing all the grotty stuff. Cleaning mud and sludge out of peoples’ homes. Using high-pressure hoses. Putting themselves in the mud and running the risk of all sorts of infections as well. Out there distributing water and food.

How are your New Year’s Resolutions going? I made some of my own, and so far so good, but I know keeping them will be hard. Zen Habits’ take on the spiral of success might just help:

“In 2005 I was in a bad place in my life with so many changes I needed to make that it was utterly overwhelming and discouraging. Then I made one of the smartest decisions of my life…I chose just one habit. The other habits would come later.”

We’ve seen them all before, but as a vegetarian, they still fascinate me - what is really in Taco Bell “beef”. This PR crisis is not being managed particularly well, either.

This week Amazon’s ebook sales eclipsed paperback sales for the first time. Watch this space.

Weekend reader - links I loved

Our house is starting to smell a lot like Christmas…

What’s the most effective development intervention we know? Tip - it has serious implications for immigration policies - Chris Blattman

Is it time to call it quits on the Euro? I hope not, but…

“…you cannot achieve monetary union, among democracies, without political union…It is a very sad story for one of this century’s boldest economic experiments.” - Dani Rodrik

Are you internet famous? Another great artwork by Gaping Void.

I’ve been reading about the “sex by surprise” charges apparently being waged against Wikileak’s front man Julian Assange? Not so simple, says Jessica Valenti in this excellent blog post.

“Now, I have no opinion about Assange’s innocence or guilt – we don’t know shit about it.  But I hardly think that accurately reporting the charges against him is some sort of militant feminist conspiracy.  Because of the irresponsible reporting of AOL News, the truth has been muddied and even lost; even worse, women who may be rape victims have been lied about, smeared and trashed the world over.” - Jessica Valenti

Speaking of WikiLeaks, I’m very glad I don’t work in diplomacy or for a nasty, unethical mega company like Shell right now:

[Shell’s] top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew “everything that was being done in those ministries”. She boasted that the Nigerian government had “forgotten” about the extent of Shell’s infiltration and was unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations. - The Guardian

Have you heard about Amazon’s (shocking/exciting/overdue/utilitarian/depressing) decision to show authors just how many books they’re selling:

“For the vast majority of authors, whose books have been out for six months or three years, the live recent data is just upsetting…And it’s freaking out publishers, too…” - The Awl.

I chuckled and sniffled my way through Tao Lin’s 10 Bleakest Unpublished Blog Posts from 2009 -

“raw organic veganism is scary to me, it seems like selling all my possessions and giving my money to a charity and moving into the forest or to live on a farm, without internet access or a cell phone; training for ten years in an isolated institute funded by the government to be an astronaut that lives alone in outer space for the rest of my life; or living in africa and being in a tribe that values long necks and adding rings to my neck each year to make my neck longer…i feel afraid of 100% of anything, maybe” - Tao Lin

Earlier in the year I was freelancing from home as my only workplace and I found it really lonely and isolating (granted, the home I was working from was in the middle of ‘suburban hell’ where the only coffee around was at the nearby McCafe). So the idea of coworking is really appealing to me:

“It seemed I could either have a job that would give me structure and community,” … “or I could be freelance and have freedom and independence. Why couldn’t I have both?”

Enter the idea of coworking:

coworking creates a “third place.” “Something which is neither a desk in a company nor the domicile of the person; it is a kind of public place you can join when you want, with the guarantee of finding some social life and the chance of a useful exchange.” - Dominique Cardon and Christoph Aguiton via PSFK

The ten weirdest animals of 2010 is not the kind of thing I’d normally link to, but the creepy-but-cute looking ‘Yoda Bat’ is just too intriguing not to share.

Looking for free Christmas cards to send online? You can’t go past Someecards for the most inappropriate cards you’ll send all season.

Lastly, Happy Holidays!

Weekend reader - links I loved

Let’s start with a letter to Santa by Saul Williams:

And who says I understand how to fight disingenuous governance, poverty or hate? I’m just saying I understand the importance of counterculture, of those who prefer boom over pop. Hardcore. Underground. The ones who dare to question and expose, who put their lives at risk… Those who stand up and speak out even when the masses seem apathetically addicted to the status quo, which is probably good for business. And I’m not anti-good business. I’m just for new business models. And new fashion models, while you’re at it. They don’t have to be so skinny!
             - (via Champagne Candy)

Just because she isn’t saying no…doesn’t mean she is saying yes is a Canadian anti-rape campaign discussed here by Rachel Hills:

There’s a big difference between sharing a couple of glasses of wine on a date - or flirting with someone who’s had a few vodka mixers at a club - and deliberately pursuing someone who is stumbling around wasted or passed out on the couch…

Have you heard about the new Oscar-buzz movie Black Swan starring one of my favourite actresses Natalie Portman? Here’s why I’m not going to see it (Jezebel).

Here’s what the average American thinks is spent on foreign aid (or if you prefer to watch over reading, here is Peter Singer talking about this issue).

There’s a new bottom billion, according to Andy Sumner from the Institute for Development Studies, and they live in middle-income countries, not low-income countries. Look out  for the implications for aid budgets.

What makes countries corrupt? Richard Florida, The Atlantic:

If we really want to combat corruption we must deal with the broader and much harder challenges of economic development. When less developed nations begin to leverage their knowledge, skills, and human capital to raise their levels of economic output, then the battle is already won.

When is a movement a movement?

Getting 50,000 people to join a Facebook group is impressive…but it’s not a movement. - Samba

The Cancun climate talks are in danger of collapsing, reports The Guardian.

These cartoons depicting the relationship of Belgium and The Congo are …arresting. That might not even be the right word, so take a look and come up with a better one - Africa is a country.

p.s. I know it’s not cool, but I love Christmas

Weekend reader - links I loved this week

Sometimes graffiti makes me smile. Like this. I think it’s all in the ‘ew.’ (snapped in Brunswick last week).

I think we’ll start with one of the most overdue decisions ever - this week The Pope finally okayed the use of condoms based on the ‘lesser of two evils’ approach:

“Well, holy shit. This is the first time a pope has ever publicly acknowledged that condoms might be a semi-righteous choice in the context of preventing HIV in heterosexual sex. Of course, the church’s opposition to condoms as contraception remains — but this is still an enormous development, and it is shamefully overdue.” - Tracy Clark-Flory for Salon

Why does Australian law demand all vaginas be digitally altered? (NSFW)  - Mama Mia

“It’s important to be clear that this is not something magazines do to suit the taste of their readership…They’re not removing lady bits because people don’t want to see them…They’re removing them because as far as the Classification Board is concerned, the labia minora are too rude for soft porn. It’s as though the censors think you could only possibly see it by spreading your legs or pulling your flaps apart.” - Kirsten Drysdale.

A day in the life of a rape crisis centre - The Guardian

“Someone has stuck a public information poster on the wall above her computer that declares: “Rape – short word, long sentence.” But the trouble is that rape, short word or not, usually doesn’t result in a long sentence, which is why this unit has been set up”. - Amelia Gentleman

Kevin Rudd made an announcement that rippled through the aid world in Australia this week with the independent review of aid effectiveness - AusAID

The Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness, to be completed by April 2011, will build on existing measures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the aid program as Australia increases its Official Development Assistance to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income by 2015-16.

While aid effectiveness is an important issue, so too is public opinion and support for aid programs, which is something Political Dynamite tackle this week:

“…public attitudes towards those experiencing poverty are harshly judgemental or view poverty and inequality as inevitable. But when people are better informed about inequality and life on a low income, they are more supportive of measures to reduce poverty and inequality.” - Teresa Hanley

I don’t much like The Punch, but I do like the idea of highlighting our best performing politicians for 2010. (For the record, I disagree with their first choice.)

“…the Greens have done what neither of the major parties were able to do: win votes through getting people interested political ideas.”

And let’s lighten things up a bit.

Do you see? is a fantastic initiative depicting Africa outside the stereotypes (via PSFK)

Have you seen the phenomenon that is the lying down game? It’s gone global, apparently. - PSFK

Melbourne’s kissing man, Philip Thiel, who I kissed earlier this year, has announced his new project for 2011.

For your amusement: dog owners click here and Cat owners click here.

Weekend reader - links I loved

Another week closer to summer, and today, I can almost tell. Sunshine is on my shoulders, I’m almost warm, and I’m definitely ready for the weekend. Are you?

Links I loved this week:

Yes, I’m just another Mad Men tragic, but it’s with good reason: The Mad Men guide to changing the world with words is one of them - Copyblogger

Transparency is something I am hyper-aware of in my communications-adviser/NGO world, so my ears pricked up when I read Paul Wallbank’s thoughts on the illusion of transparency:

Transparency is one of the great excuses of our era; the belief that something is correct as long as it is disclosed has been used to justify unethical or downright deceptive behaviour by groups ranging from financial advisors to gadget bloggers - Paul Wallbank

I also surprisingly enjoyed this look at the arguments behind providing Afghanistan with more reliable electricity, mobile phones and other technologies as a way to ‘win the war.’

In my quest to learn more about where good ideas come from, I found Alain de Botton’s words interesting about workplaces (or better yet, work spaces):

Objectively good places to work rarely end up being so; in their faultlessness, quiet and well-equipped studies have a habit of rendering the fear of failure overwhelming. Original thoughts are like shy animals. We sometimes have to look the other way – towards a busy street or terminal – before they run out of their burrows. - Alain de Botton

What’s this? Another reason for me to dislike Tony Abbott? - Grogs Gamut

Thank you, Meanjin, for bringing together two of the things in my (and possibly your) life this week: Mad Men and Freedom - On liking the unlikeable: the case of Betty Draper

Are you a womanist? (Alice Walker, PDF file, via my ever-insightful friend Jo)

7 talks to help you change (the world) in one place - handy! My personal favourite is The Secret Powers of Time.

Radiohead front man Thom Yorke (one half of the voice in This Mess We’re In, perhaps my favourite song of the decade) has a new project, predictably odd: 2 minutes silence. I am not convinced enough to hand over my hard earned, but maybe you will be?

And finally, did you know 1000 people from America’s underlclass live underground in Las Vegas?

p.s. I’ve written you a letter

p.p.s. What do you think of freedom?
 [image]

Weekend reader - links I loved

What better weekend to launch into the links I recommend, given the wild weather Melbourne is expecting this weekend. For everybody else not in Melbourne - lucky you!!

I have been arguing for a while now that the people, organisations and companies who provide us with the tools to personalise our lives will be the strongest over the next decade, so it is a relief to read that shopping malls are dying.

This is about the masses rejecting mass marketing. - SAMBA

Speaking of consumption, what is the value of a dollar?

With all this focus on ‘what works,’ I agree with the Acumen Fund that following what happens to things that don’t work (like investments, for example) is also important. It says something about the value of failure and of taking risks.

If learning from failure is essential to our future success, what lessons does our field continue to miss as a result of not learning from the deals we did not do? - Brian Trelstad, Chief Investment Officer at Acumen Fund.

I like this (small) photo diary of Uganda for the …normality it displays. No starving children. No sick mums. Smiles. Lush vegetation. Food. Water. Life.

I’ve linked to Duncan McNicholl before, but I’ll do it again because his work on pictures, pity and poverty is so important. Framing is everything (in my communications-drenched world).

I really like the idea of a sharing economy (and no I am not a secret communist - a year living in Russia cured me of ever heading down that path)

The rise of sharing requires us to use a new language where ‘access’ trumps ‘ownership’; social value becomes the new currency; ‘exchanges’ replace ‘purchases’; and people are no longer consumers but instead users, borrowers, lenders and contributors. - Neela Sakaria (via Social media for social well being)

Did someone say food? The Australian Veg Food Guide has launched! - Lisa Dempster.

And finally, Mexico’s underwater sculpture wonderland is creepy and captivating and kind of wonderful…

[image: Mexico’s underwater sculptures]

Weekend reader - links I loved

This installment of links I loved is brought to you by my old faithfuls, the people I read even when I have no time to read (like this week itself)…ah, their wonderfully wise words….

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Need some ideas on how to go about changing the world? Nicholas Kristof gives you somewhere to start. (NYT)

The Congo is not a good place to be right now for many people, but especially the Congolese. And there are mumblings that a planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission just ain’t going to cut it:

Attention everyone: please stand aside while the international knee jerks - Chris Blattman

If you are reading this it is unlikely you are a person who is deliberately and relentlessly uninformed, but I bet you know someone who is:

The thing is, watching TV has its benefits. It excuses you from the responsibility of having an informed opinion about things that matter. It gives you shallow opinions or false ‘facts’ that you can easily parrot to others that watch what you watch. It rarely unsettles our carefully self-induced calm and isolation from the world. - Seth Godin

After the week of creative idea explosions I’ve had for my Wilderness Society work, I enjoyed contemplating where good ideas come from.

And lastly, What do you wish for? (via Mondoblogo)

Weekend reader - links I loved this week

This week’s edition of Links I Loved is brought to you by the delays at Melbourne Airport and the erratic weather gripping Australia’s Eastern seaboard this week. Sub 10 degree temperatures in mid October? Did someone say Climate Change???

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This snapshot of the new workplace raised some of my feminist shackles, and some of my “oh, have I been there” shackles, and made me consider Mad Men in another light and for all those reasons I’m linking to it:

The workplace has women everywhere. Even a place like Google, known for their tech guys, is also known for having a sales force full of very hot women. So middle-aged men are often alone, day after day, with single, hot young women.- Penelope Trunk.

And while we’re on the topic of women and sexuality in the workplace, do we want our politicians to be sexual people? Our female politicians?

I know it’s not technically a link, but have you read Primo Levi’s If this is a man? If not, you should. This memoir, and his fictional novel If not now, when? keep haunting my mind, coming back to me in small grabs, and catching me unawares.

Over at the Acumen Fund, they ask ‘If it’s so obvious, why hasn’t it been done before?’ - and look here at a new public toilet system in Nairobi.

Which leads me perfectly to the Search for the Obvious where I learned that (the fabulous invention) the tampon was invented in the 5th century BC!

WIth Heart on Sleeve is a cool new blog by a fellow international development devotee, Casey McCarthy, but with, well, added heart.

And finally, I have been spending hours with the voice of Gil Scott-Heron, the American singer, poet and all-round soul man. I suspect it’s a little bit Stuff White People Like of me, but I cannot stop playing his album The Revolution will not be televised. Perhaps my music find of the year???

p.s. Do you think Gen Y can get over the ‘all about me’ factor?