“I am in pain 24 hours a day”, Mamadou* told a Human Rights Watch researcher. “The pain I have all over my body…it is in my bones.” Mamadou, a 47-year-old man from rural Senegal, has advanced prostate cancer that has spread throughout his body. He can no longer be cured, but with morphine, a strong [...]
Press Review: Record levels of carbon dioxide & Insects seen as weapon against hunger
As concentrations of carbon dioxide reach record levels, climate change experts warn that hundreds of millions of people will find themselves displaced in the next century due to desertification, floods, and rising seas. [The Guardian] The geopolitics behind the Syrian conflict and the instability in the Arab world. [The Guardian] After severe conflict in northern [...]
Signs of the NY Times: Talks of Syrian talks. Haitian angst. Persecution in Pakistan. Iraq descending.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher R. Hill, has high hopes for the upcoming talks between Russia and the U.S., as they try to facilitate steps to ending the civil war in Syria. In his recent Op-Ed piece in the NY Times, he expressed these hopes while criticizing U.S. diplomacy early on in the crisis, [...]
A new approach to wind energy
One company from the United States is about to throw a serious game changer to the clean-energy industry. Its new wind turbine produces 600% more power than conventional wind turbines with a new design that uses funnels to channel wind to the ground. Meet SheerWind’s INVELOX wind turbine. It will revolutionize not only the wind [...]
Press Review: Labor laws changed in Bangladesh & Genocide in Guatemala
Bangladesh’s government votes to allow garment workers to form trade unions without approval from their bosses. [The Guardian] Rios Montt is found guilty of genocide in Guatemala and sentenced to 80 years in prison. [Huffington Post] Over 5,000 refugees displaced by violence in Myanmar have been evacuated to higher ground in preparation for Cyclone Mahasen. [...]
MIDDLE-EAST NEWS ROUNDUP: Anti-Austerity Protests in Israel, Turkish-Syrian Tensions, Egypt’s Latest Controversy
Anti-Austerity Protests in Israel This may come as a surprise for those who thought that anger over austerity plans was a sentiment confined to Europe. However, in Israel public frustration over rising living costs has been growing for some time. Never before had so many demonstrators taken part in street protests like in 2011; with [...]
Armed Resistance in the Niger Delta: SHELL CLEAN UP YOUR MESS!
“I fish every day to feed my children. I fished all weekend but there are no fish, so I can’t raise my children… So I’ll drop this net and pick up the knife… so that they remember us in this bush where we live and where they drill our oil” These were the words of [...]
The World’s First Fairtrade Smartphone
In light of the recent collapse of a Bangladeshi clothing factory, which killed over one thousand people, the debate surrounding fairtrade products has returned to the spotlight. We’ve heard of organic food, ethically traded coffee, conflict-free diamonds and clothes that have been produced under humane and fair conditions. Now a Dutch-based company is trying to [...]
Press Review: Malaria in the UK & Preventing Landgrabs with Mobile Technology
Despite a statistical decrease in global poverty, the numbers aren’t as positive when China is removed from the picture. [CNN] Sexual violence in Syria is widespread, but international aid for the survivors of rape is non-existent. [Huffington Post] As the UK’s climate warms, health experts urge the British government to take immediate public health precautions [...]
Signs of the NY Times: Private schools in Bangladesh. Water shortage in Yemen. Quagmire in Syria. Civil war in Iraq?
Opinionator Tina Rosenberg has detailed the remarkable educational innovations and success of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO. Although BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) has rather large field of action that includes health, microfinance, agriculture and water, its chain of “private” schools is perhaps its most inspiring. BRAC schools are private in that they [...]
Crushed to make our clothes
We’ve all seen the horrific images of hundreds of innocent women burned or crushed to death in factories while making our clothes. In the next few days we can get companies to stop it happening again. Big fashion brands source from hundreds of factories in Bangladesh.Two brands, including Calvin Klein, have signed a very strong building [...]
The Energy Groove: using the power of dance to create electricity
What with all of the cocktails, pick-up lines and seductive dancing, a nightclub might be low on the list of places associated with environmental sustainability. But what if with every two-step you took, you were helping to cut carbon emmissions? That was the goal for Temple Nightclub’s founder Paul Hemming. The San Francisco-based club opened [...]
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