Stories about Development from July, 2011
Gambia: Peace Corps Volunteer Visits Gambia After 38 Years
“The first black US Peace Corps volunteer to come to The Gambia, in 1970, nine years after the founding of Peace Corps by former US President John F Kennedy in 1961, has arrived in The Gambia with his family, to share his experience as a peace corps volunteer,” Shout-Africa reports.
Cote d'Ivoire: Unequal pay for equal work
Siriki Moustapha explains on africavox.com [fr] why equal pay for women still is a subject of debate in Ivory Coast: “These are men of varying socio-economic and intellectual levels; they do not think of themselves as old-fashioned, enemies of women, or even anti-feminist. Their logic is that the Ivorian woman...
Malawi: Ports Turns Into Fishing Ground
Nsanje Port in Malawi has turned into a fishing ground, Face of Malawi reports: ”We’re happy that Mutharika built us a fishing pond.We used to go very far away crossing shire river but now we are doing it at the port.”These are words of fishermen based in Nsanje district where...
Kenya: Follow 10 International Bloggers Visiting Kenya
Follow 10 international bloggers visiting Kenya: “This week, ONE is joining 10 bloggers who are making their way through Kenya to see what life is really like for moms in the developing world.”
Global Voices Bloggers to Mentor Youth Activists from 10 Countries
Today we announce the names of 10 Global Voices bloggers and 11 activists who will be working together virtually over the next months as part of a new mentoring initiative developed by Global Voices and Activista, the youth network of international development organization, ActionAid.
Armenia: The Barber of Ashtarak
Ianyan pays a visit to Ashtarak, a small city just outside Yerevan, the Armenian capital, and a local barber's shop. The blog posts photographs and a brief account of the experience.
China: Ministry of Railways
Twitter user @JAYxiaomuzhu posts a number of T-shirt design using the logo of PRC's Ministry of Railways to protest against its handling of the recent train crash incident in Wenzhou.
Republic of Congo: Is the New ‘Made In Africa’ Tablet Actually Chinese?
A new ‘made in Africa' tablet computer from the Republic of Congo was announced in June 2011 to much fanfare. While technical innovation in Africa is worth celebrating, it's worth double-checking whether the new VMK tablet is actually designed, developed and engineered in Congo as advertised.
Bangladesh: Financial Inclusion Of The Poor Via Mobile
In Bangladesh 7 out of 8 people remain out of banking service but the interesting thing is that half of those people have access to mobile phones. BRAC has a solution for financial inclusion of these people, especially the poor and the marginalized, via mobile phones.
Bolivia: What needs to improve in La Paz?
Luis Ramos in Citizen of La Paz [es] asks, “what do we need to change in La Paz?”. He answers his own question with a list of ten ideas, including improving transportation, planting more trees, building a convention center, more malls, a theme park, among other things.
Africa: Participate In Photo Competition And Join NEPAD’s 10th Anniversary
Participate in a photo and essay competitions to win a prize in celebrating celebrating NEPAD’s 10th Anniversary: “This contest also falls in the framework of CTA activities on Youth, Women and ICTs. In line with these objectives, CTA and the NEPAD Agency are searching for enthusiastic Africans, who want to...
Africa: Africa Cartoon Stirs Famine Pornography Debate
Natasha Elkington looks at satirical newspaper cartoon commenting on media priorities around the Murdoch scandal and the East Africa famine which has sparked debate about pornography: “The image, labelled “Priorities”, depicts three naked, emaciated children holding empty bowls, with swollen bellies, ribs sticking out and flies swarming above them.”
Bangladesh: Popular Theatre For Social Change
Popular Theater is a simple and live theater initiative by BRAC which is enacted by members of many Bangladeshi villages. These grassroots productions provide specific commentary on common social issues such as healthy parenting, the environment, hygienic practices and gender-based violence, to name a few.
India: Resolving The Mumbai Potholes Problem
Ugich Konitari at Gappa has a solution to the pothole problem on Mumbai roads.
Africa: Start-Up Cafe Africa launched
Start-up Cafe Africa launched: “The platform seeks to offer resource support to all businesses springing from within Africa through Weekend Start-up Cafe’s, Start-up Seminars, Web and Mobile portals.”
Factory Closing in South China
Steve Dickinson from China Law Blog explains that the factory closing phenomena in South China is part of the government's plan to upgrade the manufacturing sector.
Barbados: Legal Battle over Wetlands
Barbados Free Press recounts the falling out between a Canadian philanthropist and the government over the latter's alleged action of “dumping raw sewerage into the Graeme Hall wetlands and other violations of various treaties and agreements”, saying: “The truth is that Peter Allard has been a better friend to ordinary...
China: Bring Your Books to Rural Villages
A prominent Chinese scholar is encouraging netizens to "bring their books to the villages". Now a number of centres have been set up in cities across the country to handle the book donations and collect funds to go towards building libraries in rural areas.
Russia: Online Effort to Discredit Environmentalists Exposed
Suren Gazaryan, Russian environmentalist, publishes [ru] the scan of the document that describes the strategy of discrediting local environmentalist organizations protesting against the development of the Tuapse oil terminal. The “plan” includes prices for the paid posts in the blogs, forums, media outlets, as well as a list of possible...
Peru: Amazonian Indigenous Life Threatened By Petroleum
An hour long documentary shows the traditional lives of indigenous people in the Amazon, and how their subsistence lifestyle is threatened by petroleum exploitation and monoculture of renewable energy sources like palm oil.
Lets Clean Bangladesh
The Dhaka Project (TDP) has launched a campaign called “Let's Clean Bangladesh”. On the 17th of July 2011 the TDP school team cleaned several streets in Dhaka to teach the community people to keep the society clean.
