I’m here at the Global Voices Summit in Budapest and I just listened to a panel on Rising Voices, a group within Global Voices dedicated to supporting the efforts of people traditionally underrepresented in citizen media. (See their trailer here). At the end of the panel, the question was asked ‘how can we help?’ The […]
Archive for the 'Developing world' Category
Vacations or “Vacations” :)
Published June 28th, 2008 in Developing world, Technology, Media and Conferences. 0 CommentsAmartya Sen at the Aurora Forum at Stanford University: Global Solidarity, Human Rights, and the End of Poverty
Published April 5th, 2008 in Developing world, Human Rights, Talks, Economics and Conferences. 0 CommentsThis is a one day conference to commemorate Martin Luther King’s “The Other America” in his 1967 speech at Stanford, and heed that speech’s call to create a more just world.
Mark Gonnerman, director of the Aurora Forum introduces the event by noting that economic justice is the main theme of King’s legacy. He references King’s […]
The Internet Drives Election Results in Malaysia
Published April 4th, 2008 in Internet and Democracy, Developing world and Media. 1 CommentOn March 8, elections were held to the Malaysian parliament. The incumbent Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, who lost its two-third majority in parliament, had held power since independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. In the months leading up to the election, accusations had been flying about corruption and a system designed to keep the […]
A Test of the Internet’s Free Speech Promise: China and Tibet
Published March 25th, 2008 in Internet and Democracy, Developing world, Media and Human Rights. 0 CommentsI haven’t seen any evidence that the internet was an important facilitator of the organization of the protests in Tibet, but citizen reporting on the events in Lhasa beginning March 10 made heavy use of the internet. The interesting question is whether perspectives other than the official view are getting through to discussions inside China. […]
Book Review: “Development as Freedom” by Amartya Sen
Published March 18th, 2008 in Book Reviews, Developing world, Statistics, Human Rights and Economics. 0 CommentsWhat is a developed country? According to Sen, development should be measured by how much freedom a country has since without freedom people cannot make the choices that allow them to help themselves and others. He defines freedom as an interdependent bundle of:
1) political freedom and civil rights,
2) economic freedom including opportunities to get credit,
3) […]
Implementing a Human Rights Policy at the World Bank
Published March 17th, 2008 in Developing world, Human Rights and Talks. 0 CommentsGalit Safarty gave a talk at Harvard Law School today titled: Why Culture Matters in International Institutions: The Marginality of Human Rights at the World Bank. Sarfaty obtained her JD from Yale and is a lawyer and anthropologist. She is a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program and writing her dissertation based on […]
Book Review: “What Went Wrong” by Bernard Lewis
Published March 15th, 2008 in Book Reviews, Internet and Democracy, Women's rights, Developing world and Middle East. 0 CommentsWhen we were in Istanbul my mother picked up this book on a whim. It was published in 2002 and entirely written, excepting the preface, before 9/11. The subtitle of the book is “Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response” and Lewis’s goal is to explain thinking in the Islamic world as they confront, after several […]
Reducing Election Violence Cheaply - eVoting?
Published March 12th, 2008 in Internet and Democracy, Developing world and Technology. 0 CommentsI can’t help but notice the violence surrounding the recent elections in Kenya, Pakistan, Zimbabwe (where I still have family) and many other places. To the extent that the problem is citizen mistrust of the voting process, this seems like an effective place to direct aid resources and energy. Why not fund, with the host […]
Choosing not to Choose - Turkish Headscarves and Governance in Somalia
Published March 7th, 2008 in Developing world and Middle East. 0 CommentsWhat happens when the results of democratic choice do not align with traditional democratic values, such as freedom and choice? A Feb 19 New York Times article discusses the proposed repeal of a ban on the wearing of headscarves at universities in Turkey. Those supporting the ban are concerned about the rise of Islam and […]
