In today’s world, Brazil is commonly viewed as the shining star of South America – both in terms of political and economic stability. President Lula has proven to be a reasonable man, a well-fed middle class is beginning to poke through a society previously marked by strong class differences, and the sun continues to shine. [...]
Here’s something short and sweet to cure you of your workaholic blues during the recession. These four Ghanian postal workers use the sounds of their machinery to demonstrate how to make work not feel like work. So what exactly are you listening to? The two men seated at the table slap a letter rhythmically several [...]
I know, I know, I know. You already have your backpack burping out loose socks and cowboy hats for your great Asian adventure – there is NO WAY you can fit anything more in there and still be able to hoist it on your back. But then you realize you’ve forgot extremely important – in [...]
On Friday, the city of Derry, Northern Ireland was put on high security alert by the Real IRA while the people of France were still brewing over the death of what is thought to be the first French police officer to be killed by the ETA. I was in the Basque Country – geographically and [...]
It seems like once a year, the famous left-wing comedian John Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, gets angry enough to light a fire under one of his counterparts and the whole (liberal) world is overcome with shivers of awe and delight. Last year, it was Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money that received [...]
On the subject of charities, comedian Ben Stiller has come a long way from his days of “Derek Zoolander Center For Children Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too” to arrive at something quite possibly even funnier: STILLERSTRONG. His organization to ameliorate poverty in Haiti proudly boasts the slogan: [...]
I was at a reggae beach party last night, mixing with the ridiculously good-looking and creatively homemade surfer crowd. (One of my most favorite, secret niches of the Basque Country). I say “homemade” not only because you know those muscles are so ocean-fresh that they still reek of saltwater, but also because almost everyone was [...]
Singapore International Foundation has been around since 1991 carving out greater community understanding on the western seaboard, but this year marks the first time they’ve instituted a camp for young, aspiring social entrepreneurs. In partnership with Volans Asia, they’ve launched a five-day camp at the YWCA Fort Canning Lodge in Singapore to cultivate the basics [...]
One of the greatest challenges of being a teacher is trying to convince your students why they should care about anything that you write on the blackboard. You have to bridge the gap between their current boredom and ten years later, when they will finally appreciate the utility of what they are learning. Yet there [...]
As a follow-up to my last post (an ode to self-reliance), I want to give mad props to Afghan locals and the MIT Bits and Atoms lab crew. It took over seven years for the World Bank to deliver on its promise of some wireless internet access and that was seven years to get with [...]
Today is the last day to send in your nominations for Civic Ventures annual Purpose Prize, dedicated to people over the age of 60. If you know a senior who has taken advantage of their retirement to change the world for the better, you can nominate them to receive a cash prize of either $10,000 [...]
Now we have a problem. On January 12th, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the tiny island nation of Haiti. Just a month and a half later, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake ripped through the South American country of Chile. Death tolls in Haiti have now climbed well over 150,000 while Chile has reached at least [...]
My notoriously unsleeved laptop has seen its fair share of abuse, but it knows nothing in comparison to the approximately 17,000 people who are sex-trafficked into the United States each year. Laptop dents and scratches and the plight of sex-trafficked women might seem completely unrelated and a somewhat insensitive correlation to make, but due to [...]
