the drop » Quality of Life & Prosperity

The (RED) ALERT for AIDS. Keep the Promise.

More than twenty-five million human beings have died of AIDS since the first case of HIV was reported in 1981: on average, over a million people a year every year for the past two and a half decades. So far in 2006, according to UNAIDS and the World Health Organization, 2.9 million people died of AIDS and 4.3 million more were infected with HIV. As of today, December 1, 2006 — the nineteenth annual WORLD AIDS DAY — there are 39.5 million men, women and children in the world living with HIV, of whom 63% (around 25 million) live in Africa south of the Sahara.
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The Most Polluted Places on Planet Earth

The international non-profit environmental action group, the Blacksmith Institute, last week released its rankings of the world’s most polluted places. Out of over 300 sites nominated by NGOs and local communities, 35 were identified by an advisory board of international environment and health experts as meriting special emphasis. Of these, ten locations were singled out for tragic infamy, ranked together as the Top 10 worst polluted places on the planet:

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Wheels on Meals

18,000 miles at the cost of 4 cents per mile

‘Grease Not Gas’ is a group dedicated to social change through alternative fuels. Originally founded to create a diesel-to-oil information DVD, their project has grown, through collaborations with Snowboarder Magazine and MTV, into a documentary detailing the ins and outs of renewable energy. The movie shows the nationwide tour of the band Piebald and their snowboarding friends, who’re traveling across the US powered by SVO (straight veggie oil) and WVO (waste veggie oil).
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Abortion Ban Debate

The Fall issue of Ms. features the cover story â��We Had Abortions.

On November 7th, South Dakotans will vote on whether to ban abortion or not. The choice is whether to approve a sweeping ban on all abortions or not, an intentional provocation meant to set up a direct legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 United States Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal. The law makes it a felony to perform any abortion except in a case of a pregnant woman’s life being in jeopardy.
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City’s ‘Green Lungs’ Can Be Anywhere

Go to 'Respiratory Oases' on WorldChanging

Elegant Embellishments is developing a decorative, three-dimensional architectural tile that can reduce vehicular air pollution — specifically, nitrous oxide and ground-level ozone — in urban environments. EE’s tiles respond to the priorities set by the EU Clean Air Strategy 2005, which aims to reduce pollution deaths by over 100,000, and air pollution related damages by up to 45 billion Euros annually. Emissions from combustion engines are identified as the largest contributor to air pollution in cities and often invisibly affect our breathable air. The tiles, when positioned near pollutant sources, can re-appropriate these polluted spaces for safe pedestrian use.
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Third Annual Ethical Fashion Show in Paris

The third edition of The Ethical Fashion Show takes place in Paris this weekend. The fair presents fashion that respects people and the environment. Over 20 nationalities and cultures will be represented. Organizers say that the fair seeks to be a unifying event where the fashion industries’ various players meet.
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Violence Against Women Is A Violation Of Human Rights

WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women

The United Nations released a report late last week officially classifying violence against women as a human rights violation. From the Human Rights Watch press release:

“Human Rights Watch and the Center for Women’s Global Leadership welcomes the report that classifies abuse against women - whether it happens in the home or elsewhere - as a human rights violation. As such, states are obliged by international human rights standards to hold perpetrators accountable.”
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Ban on Child Labour in India Comes Into Force Today

Thousands of children work in roadside food stalls (bbc)

A new law that bans the employment of children under 14 in residences and the hospitality sectors comes into force today in India. It also prevents children from working in teashops, restaurants, spas, hotels, resorts and other recreational centres. Officials say the ban on employing children in homes and roadside food stalls will affect 255,000 children. But activists say these numbers could be as high as 20 million and point out that the most widespread forms of child labour in India continue to be allowed.
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Farming for Biofuels

Fields of Biofuel

This week on BBC’s Green Room, president of the UK’s National Farmers’ Union (NFU), Peter Kendall, argues that UK agriculture can meet the country’s demand for both food and fuel crops: “Farmers in the UK see the opportunity to provide the feedstock to biofuel producers as a way to deliver secure, low-carbon fuel to the nation’s motorists.”, he says.
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Chinese Car Boom

On a recent ‘Car Free Day’ in Beijing, the capital was clogged with vehicles and the sky a drab shade of grey. The sheer number of cars on the roads had made a mockery of the city initiative to make dwellers ride their bicycles or use the public transport. As the expanding Chinese middle class aspires to car ownership, studies project China will have more cars on the road than the United States within 15 years. For everyone from environmental activists to government officials, China’s growing addiction to the automobile is a worrying trend.
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Susu Collectors: Microfinance in Ghanaian Culture

Connecting informal and formal financial services

While microfinancing is being touted as the new wave of aiding developing countries, informal financial structures on a micro-scale aren’t that new at all. At Timbuktu Chronicles, there’s an example of institutional microfinance combining with traditional Ghanaian financial services, the Susu collectors.

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Regulating What We Eat

NYC Board of Health proposes regulating trans fats in restaurants

As obesity and diabetes statistics are climbing steadily in the U.S., health experts are caught in between public policy makers and the food industry. The numbers have been debated and revised without any viable public health strategies developing. Yesterday, the New York City Board of Health voted to propose regulating the maximum amount of trans fats used in NYC restaurants. Stepping out of the obesity debate, the regulation is focused on reducing heart disease.

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The Homeless World Cup 2006

The Homeless World Cup soccer tournament kicked off this Sunday in Cape Town, South Africa. The idea for the games was conceived in 2001 after a conference of the International Network of Street Papers sold by the homeless. The first tournament took place in Graz in 2003. “We really can help change the world, end poverty and homelessness,” said organizer Mel Young in an interview with Associated Press writer Clare Nullis. “All we have to do is take a little round ball and start kicking it around.”
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Development and Microfinance: Some Sources

Photo: Adam Rogers/UNCDF

In the most recent issue of the New York Review of Books, Nicholas D. Kristof reviews William Easterly’s latest book about foreign aid in the context of recent literature on this hot topic. It got me thinking about some of the useful Internet sources out there for people that want to learn more about microfinance. Here’s a short list:
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Social Entrepreneurship in Brazil

Brazil’s Catalytic Communities (CatComm) is a database of noteworthy social innovation initiatives. It was recently selected as a Tech Museum of Innovation 2006 Tech Laureate in the Equality category. CatComm’s online Community Solutions Database (CSD) offers public, freely available information (in three languages) on community-initiated solutions to local challenges, which may include everything from sanitation to unemployment to HIV.
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Olympic Development and Social Costs

Is gentrification part and parcel of the Olympics?

Many cities look forward to Olympic bids as a chance to provide a burst of development into ailing downtowns. Local residents are often less enthusiastic, watching neighborhoods turn into Potemkin villages as low-income housing and homeless people are relocated. With the Summer Games in 2008 slowly approaching, Human Rights Watch announced the closing of many Beijing schools for migrant workers’ children in China.
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Foreign Policy Index: Commitment to Development

The Netherlands tops the 2006 FP Index

Foreign Policy and the Center for Global Development released their annual ranking of the 21 richest countries, as posted on Idealist.org. The Commitment to Development Index analyzes at seven government policy categories to determine which countries are living up to promises to end world poverty.
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“How can the Internet…serve to enhance our own communities?”

Women use the Internet cafe during a Refugees Emancipation computer course

“In order to turn that technology into something that enhances our communities, we need to direct the technology towards a specific end. We need to organize, and then technology alone won’t enable us to do that. It’s just a tool in – among many tools that have to be used to fight for that kind of vision.” - Anthony Arnove, activist, author and Table of Free Voices participant.
Fighting for that kind of vision, Eben Chu organized Refugees Emanicipation (RE), an NGO begun by asylum seekers in Germany.
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Reach Out and Finance Someone

Courtesy Grameen Foundation

A few weeks ago I interviewed Peter Bladin, vice president of Grameen Foundation, the US-based wing of Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank – the Bangladesh institution often referred to as the first large-scale microfinance project in the world. Although the interview (published today) focuses on the connection between technology and microfinance, we also talked a bit about Village Phone, the program where locals sell mobile phone air time in their communities, and make a profit doing so.
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Beer, Chips and… Internet TV

The end of TV? Crowds create and rate their own media...

Did I mention that I studied TV but never actually watched it? Anyway, last night I tried to promote my transcriptions of Bill Joy´s answers from the Table of Free Voices, so I went to problogger for some tips, and learned that I ought to pitch the story to places like reddit, furl or digg - where real people choose which content matters. I was a good digital citizen and uploaded my photo to digg, but then I found myself overwhelmed by the real-time barrage of story suggestions every second. So then I went to see digg Offbeat News. That´s where I found out about “yruhrn – First Book Created by Global Collaboration of Over 1,000 People”. And that´s where my zig-zag tour through our lovely social web started…
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Migrant Crisis Continues in Spain

Spain signed a repatriation agreement with Senegal, Photo: BBC News
You had promised me that I would never be hungry
You had promised me of true activities and a future
Really up to here I still see nothing
That’s why I decided to flee

The lyrics are from DJ Awadi, a Senegalese rapper and producer, who is promoting awareness of the migrant crisis with his song Sunugaal and an online slideshow.
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The Nemesis of Nike?

America's new

New sports shoes tend to arrive on the scene with high-profile celebrity endorsement, a dodgy manufacturing background and a killer price tag. New York Knick player Stephon Marbury is setting out to change that. His Starbury shoes have become a word of mouth phenomenon.
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Design for Life

Massive Change exhibit, © Bruce Mau Design Inc 2006

What is sustainable design? Its reach is enormous. Everything from a Kinder Egg to a skyscraper is designed but sustainable design seeks to develop goods that will leave a minimal environmental footprint and not cause tricky social or economic consequences and that’s a tall order.
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Reinventing School Lunch

Let's get the grease out of school lunches

In relation to my ASK YOURSELF Blog Post from August 28, ‘Where can I find open-source food?’ I came across an article by Micheal Ableman from the Center for EcoLiteracy on the Alternet site: “Imagine a world where students could plant, harvest and cultivate the foods they eat in their school cafeterias.” Here are some highlights from the article:
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Defining Ecotourism: Is the Flight Included?

The Bishop of London calls flying on holiday a symptom of sin.

On the Idealist blog, there’s a recent link to a story on World Changing about an ecotourism project in Patagonia, Chile, called Dos Margaritas. While the profile highlights a successful project, the comments tell a larger story about the ecotourism concept. World Changing readers replied to the post concerned about the vague definition of “ecotourism” and the lack of standardization and certification for ecotravel companies.
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features

Upgrading International Development, Part II

Upgrading International Development

Fighting Corruption: Bribe Payers Index 2006

Recycle Your Cell-Phone, Save a Gorilla

A Look Behind the Prison Walls

The Homeless World Cup 2006

Reach Out and Finance Someone

Arundhati Roy asks herself: What form of resistance is effective and acceptable?

Iranian Bloggers Joined by President Ahmadinejad

Creating A New Universe

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Quality of Life & Prosperity

The (RED) ALERT for AIDS. Keep the Promise.

The Most Polluted Places on Planet Earth

Wheels on Meals

Abortion Ban Debate

City’s ‘Green Lungs’ Can Be Anywhere

Third Annual Ethical Fashion Show in Paris

Violence Against Women Is A Violation Of Human Rights

Ban on Child Labour in India Comes Into Force Today

Farming for Biofuels

Chinese Car Boom

Susu Collectors: Microfinance in Ghanaian Culture

Regulating What We Eat

The Homeless World Cup 2006

Development and Microfinance: Some Sources

Social Entrepreneurship in Brazil

Olympic Development and Social Costs

Foreign Policy Index: Commitment to Development

“How can the Internet…serve to enhance our own communities?”

Reach Out and Finance Someone

Beer, Chips and… Internet TV

Migrant Crisis Continues in Spain

The Nemesis of Nike?

Design for Life

Reinventing School Lunch

Defining Ecotourism: Is the Flight Included?