...s that does not risk triggering civil war, civil society is remarkably mobilized, and—to risk repeating an aphorism that has grown trite in our days—is moved by hope, not fear. The students, union leaders, movement activists, NGO workers and government politicians may bicker endlessly amongst themselves; but they share a profound belief that they live in historic times in which Bolivia has the chance to emancipate itself from an outdated colonial...
...he election. As I waited for the election to happen, I spent my time exploring Goma. A funny town, Goma is known as the “tourist capital of Congo,” but it is entirely financially supported by the heavy presence of NGO and United Nations workers, so most businesses in Goma have been built specifically for these customers. There are three kinds of bars in Goma: UN/NGO only, ones for locals only, and the rare mixture of the two. While I...
...lling financial ties between major environmental advocacy groups and environmentally unfriendly corporations, focusing particularly on the bonds between BP and the Nature Conservancy and the limits those bonds placed upon the NGO’s ability to criticize the destructive practices of its donor. A look at TI’s list of donors illustrates why this concern might be equally valid in the issue of tax evasion. Among the firms on the TI steering committee...
...on-profit organization. Despite Kenya’s daunting 40 percent unemployment rate, Vituko took a stand for what he believed in and made the decision to quit his job. Vituko was working as a teacher at Hot Sun Foundations, a local NGO commissioned by various governments and organizations that teaches the youth of Kibera skills needed in the many processes of filmmaking through a training program. Vituko was in Hot Sun’s 2009 graduating class but staye...
...ffice in Misrata, a member of the High Commission on Elections, and an investigator for the International Criminal Court, Mr. Emad M. Salem Ali, Editor in Chief, Libya Al Hurra TV, and Ibrahim Saad A. Elshgaabi, founder of an NGO to help displaced refugees, held a discussion on Libya’s civil society since the revolution began February 13, 2011. Alsaghayer began the discussion, recalling Libya’s transition which has moved the nation past Qaddafi’s...
Media outlets have long tended to oversimplify the news and serve the public an easily digestible mix of shocking sound bites. Even storied traditional news organizations have fallen victim to sensationalism, caught by incentives to distort and dramatize, though such a “business model” may seem in outright conflict with their stated purpose to provide truthful and objective reporting. “Facts” created by such media practices, and even by NGO act...
...that of the majority (among other distasteful elements, Pham notes, it would call for the execution of any converting away from Islam), but he is now by connection to the TFG viewed as a Western proxy. As an anonymous Somali NGO director noted earlier this year, the TFG has been so tainted that “Muhammad the prophet could be in change and the result would be the same.” And Ahmed has been notoriously uncooperative with U.S. actors since he took h...
...cally, though the United States is leading the developed world on anti-slavery policy (however, it is worth noting that there are important anti-slavery initiatives in other countries, including the Anti-Slavery International NGO in Britain). American persistence would be instrumental in convincing the governments of developing countries to implement stricter anti-slavery policies. For example, in March 2006, John Miller tried to pressure the Bus...
...th themselves for keeping the process going forward and that’s about all that there can be said about it at this point I think. CPR: What kind of role did 350 play at the conference? BM: We were sort of the busiest hub in the NGO space there. Our work isn’t really centered around these conferences. What we do is in between. By the time you get these conferences, it’s really too late to affect policy. What you got to do is build a group in the mea...
Follow us at
Like us on
Recent Comments