Thursday, April 30, 2015

Thousands March Nationwide Protest Police Violence | Al Jazeera America

Thousands March Nationwide Protest Police Violence | Al Jazeera America: "Thousands of people nationwide joined marches on Wednesday evening to protest the death of Freddie Gray under uncertain circumstances in a Baltimore police van after his arrest.

The biggest march was in Baltimore itself, where several thousand peaceful mostly young demonstrators walked through downtown to City Hall.

In New York, protesters gathered at Union Square, in Lower Manhattan, for a rally dubbed on a Facebook page, "NYC Rise up and Shut it down with Baltimore."

"We call on New Yorkers from across the five boroughs, #BlackLivesMatter activists and organizations as well as all organizations that stand for social, economic, and racial justice to rally," said the organizers.

Many of the Manhattan marchers chanted “I can’t breathe,” quoting Eric Garner, the black man whose death last year in a police chokehold in Staten Island launched several nights of protest nationwide after a grand jury decided not to indict the white police officer.

At the New York march, police arrested more than 60 people. There were smaller, mostly peaceful marches in Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Washington."



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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Commission approves policy for Los Angeles police body cameras | Reuters

Commission approves policy for Los Angeles police body cameras | Reuters: "(Reuters) - The Los Angeles Police Commission approved a policy on Tuesday clearing the way for the widespread use of body cameras by patrol officers in the second-largest U.S. city, as tensions rise in the United States over police use-of-force incidents.



 Mayor Eric Garcetti said in December the city would equip 7,000 Los Angeles Police Department officers with the devices over the next two years to capture their day-to-day interactions with civilians. 




The commission's 3-1 vote on rules governing the use of the devices brings Los Angeles closer to becoming the largest U.S. city to put body cameras into widespread use. New York, Chicago and Washington are conducting pilot programs to test the cameras and evaluate their worth."



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Don’t rush to Nepal to help. Read this first | Claire Bennett | Comment is free | The Guardian

Don’t rush to Nepal to help. Read this first | Claire Bennett | Comment is free | The Guardian: "Something that has been much discussed in the international aid community is the lack of coordinated response to the Haiti disaster. Ragtag brigades of well-intentioned do-gooders flooded the country: students, church congregations, individuals who had previously vacationed in the area, all clambering over one another looking for a way to make their mark and do good, but lacking either the skills or coordination to have an impact. Indeed, many ended up slowing down the aid efforts.



 There were even reports of teams of doctors who arrived to help but were unable to feed themselves. This wave of unsolicited and poorly planned shipments of untrained people and donated goods was dubbed by some humanitarians “the second disaster”.



One of the biggest problems with relief work is that it is a free-for-all. Anyone who wants to, and who is privileged enough to afford a plane ticket, can pitch up. Unlike doctors or engineers, who need to train for years to gain qualifications that prove they probably know what they’re doing, no such qualification exists for aid workers."



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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Hopes Fade to Find Nepal Survivors Among Thousands Buried - Bloomberg Business

Hopes Fade to Find Nepal Survivors Among Thousands Buried - Bloomberg Business: "Hospital workers struggled to treat thousands of wounded after Nepal’s worst earthquake in decades, as the search for survivors entered its fourth day and hopes faded for finding those trapped under rubble.



Governments from around the globe rushed to aid one of Asia’s poorest economies following the magnitude 7.8 temblor on April 25 that killed more than 3,862 people and injured at least 7,100. International relief agencies warned of water-borne diseases spreading as millions camped outdoors.



The army is searching 19 separate areas for survivors, mostly in the Kathmandu valley, Colonel Naresh Subba, director of disaster management in Nepal’s army, said in Kathmandu on Monday. Aerial surveys showed that some villages accessible only by dirt roads have been “completely flattened,” he said."



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Vertical Gardens Beat Soil Made Salty by Climate Change - Scientific American

Vertical Gardens Beat Soil Made Salty by Climate Change - Scientific American: "KHULNA, BANGLADESH—The soil in Chandipur village in southwest Bangladesh has become increasingly salty because of incursions of seawater. The situation became particularly acute in the aftermath of Cyclone Aila in 2009, which brought storm surges that broke embankments and flooded farmland. After 2009 vegetable crops planted in the ground there yielded only meager returns—if they didn’t fail completely. 




But for the past three years hundreds of villagers have enjoyed the bounty of so-called vertical gardens—essentially crops grown in a variety of containers in backyards and on the rooftops of their humble homes. Despite their modest size, these gardens produce quite a bit. Shakuri Rani Debnath, a 30-something resident of Chandipur, says hers generated nearly 200 kilograms of vegetables this summer"



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Monday, April 27, 2015

Shocks Terrify Survivors of Nepal Quake That Killed 2,500 - NYTimes.com

Shocks Terrify Survivors of Nepal Quake That Killed 2,500 - NYTimes.com: "By late Sunday, the aftershocks appeared to be weakening. A magnitude 5.3 quake shook an area east of Kathmandu.

Nepal authorities said Sunday that at least 2,430 people died in that country alone, not including the 18 dead in the avalanche. Another 61 people died from the quake in India and a few in other neighboring countries.

At least 1,152 people died in Kathmandu, and the number of injured nationwide was upward of 5,900. With search-and-rescue efforts far from over, it was unclear how much the death toll would rise. Three policemen died during a rescue effort in Kathmandu, police spokesman Komal Singh Bam said."



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Sunday, April 26, 2015

Five Habits of Creative People | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

Five Habits of Creative People | Fast Company | Business + Innovation: "A key to creativity is to pursue knowledge without a sense of whether it will be relevant in the future. Too often, people assume that they can judge in advance what they need to understand and what they do not. Instead, creative people build up their knowledge base so that they will be ready for the opportunities that come later.



 THEY CONSIDER THE TIMING.

Truly successful creative endeavors are products that fit into their time. That means that creative individuals need to understand both the technical aspects of their craft as well as the context in which the work is being done.

"



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Death toll in Nepal quake exceeds 1,900 - The Washington Post

Death toll in Nepal quake exceeds 1,900 - The Washington Post: "Nearly 24 hours after a devastating earthquake shook Nepal, killing more than 1,900, workers were still trying to rescue victims in rural areas of the Himalayan nation and atop Mount Everest, efforts that were complicated by weather and recurring aftershocks that kept the country on edge.

After Saturday's 7.8 magnitude earthquake left a trail of devastation across the region, Nepal’s capital had become a tent city, as thousands of residents displaced stayed in their dark gardens and out on the cracked streets and lanes, afraid to go back inside because of waves of aftershocks. They remained there out of fear Sunday as day dawned. The most recent tremor happened east of the capital Sunday afternoon, registering 6.7 on the Richter scale, according to the United States Geological Survey."



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Thursday, April 23, 2015

Chinese scientists just admitted to tweaking the genes of human embryos - ScienceAlert

Chinese scientists just admitted to tweaking the genes of human embryos - ScienceAlert: "A group of Chinese scientists just reported that they modified the genome of human embryos, something that has never been done in the history of the world, according to a report in Nature News. 

A recent biotech discovery - one that has been called the biggest biotech discovery of the century - showed how scientists might be able to modify a human genome when that genome was still just in an embryo.

This could change not only the genetic material of a person, but could also change the DNA they pass on, removing "bad" genetic codes (and potentially adding "good" ones) and taking an active hand in evolution."



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Gap's Big Bet On Athleta And The New Way American Women Dress - BuzzFeed News

Gap's Big Bet On Athleta And The New Way American Women Dress - BuzzFeed News: "Lululemon’s IPO filing back in 2007 noted that founder Chip Wilson had observed “the increasing number of women participating in sports, and specifically yoga,” and saw a lack of style amid functional, comfortable athletic apparel. More importantly, the company believed that people were increasingly wearing technical athletic gear in casual settings “to create a healthy lifestyle perception.” In other words, it was becoming fashionable to give off the vibe, via clothing, that you were active and mindful — particularly among educated women. Whether you really were was another matter entirely.



Lululemon was right on the money on both counts. Gap scooped Athleta up for $150 million in 2008, an acquisition Lululemon briefly considered, when the brand was about 10 years old and only available via catalogs and the internet. Since then, it’s evolved into a private-label clothier with a strong brick-and-mortar foothold, taking quite a few pages out of Lululemon’s playbook. Like Lululemon, Athleta offers discounts to fitness instructors and holds classes in stores. It has also mimicked the company’s “community boards” with “community tables” to give stores a local feel. Athleta only opened its first store in 2011, but it’s quickly ramped up to at least 101 this year.



The desire to look good while working out, or just dress as if you’re about to, comes from a deeper trend: Women really are exercising more, and yoga’s popularity is a big part of that."



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Google unveils ultra low-cost Project Fi wireless service with pay-as-you-go data rate | VentureBeat | Mobile | by Mark Sullivan

Google unveils ultra low-cost Project Fi wireless service with pay-as-you-go data rate | VentureBeat | Mobile | by Mark Sullivan: "Google is offering one plan for now, called Fi Basics. For $20 a month users get talk, text, Wi-Fi tethering, and international coverage in 120+ countries. Customers pay a flat $10 per gigabit GB for cellular data while in the U.S. and abroad.

So data costs 1GB is $10/month, 2GB is $20/month, 3GB is $30/month, and so on. Customers get credit for the full value of their unused data. If a user goes with 3GB for $30 and only uses 1.4GB one month they get $16 back. See full plan details here.

The new offering makes Google a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), selling cellular service that runs on T-Mobile and Sprint infrastructure."



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Ikea's hi-tech table teaches you how to cook - Telegraph

Ikea's hi-tech table teaches you how to cook - Telegraph: "Ikea has predicted how the kitchen of the future will look, and its most revolutionary idea is a table that teaches you how to cook.
The furniture giant's Concept Kitchen 2025, shown at this year's Milan Design Week, aims to show how people will be growing, storing and cooking food in a decade's time."



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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The seven sins of humanitarian douchery | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian

The seven sins of humanitarian douchery | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian: "“Hi. I’m just calling because I’m looking for some more information about helping or aiding the local youths of North America. I really hear that obesity is a huge problem over there ... ”

This is the opening line from the video If Voluntourists Talked About North America, a video launched last week to kick off the End Humanitarian Douchery campaign."



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Small, medium scale aquaculture seen providing big investment opportunity | Undercurrent News

Small, medium scale aquaculture seen providing big investment opportunity | Undercurrent News: "GEORGE TOWN, Malaysia — Potential aquaculture growth to meet an anticipated shortfall in global seafood supply will be dominated by small- to medium-sized businesses, presenting a large investing opportunity, according the head of WorldFish.

“There’s a huge business opportunity,” Stephen Hall, director general of the global research organizaion, told Undercurrent News during a visit to the organization’s headquarters in this costal city.

The World Bank estimates that by 2030, aquaculture will produce 62% of food fish as seafood farming “will continue to fill the growing supply-demand gap in the face of rapidly expanding global fish demand and relatively stable capture fisheries""



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LED Bulbs Are Now Two for $5—Officially Too Cheap to Ignore | WIRED

LED Bulbs Are Now Two for $5—Officially Too Cheap to Ignore | WIRED: "There are more capable and longer-lasting LEDs than the new Philips LED A16 bulbs, but you won’t find any that are cheaper. A single bulb, rated for ten years, will set you back $4.97 once they go on sale in May at Home Depot. That’s already a significant savings over Philips’ existing $9.97 60w equivalent, and in line with the most affordable options in the market. But what makes the new bulbs especially notable is that for the first three months they’re available, you’ll be able to get two bulbs for that same five bucks."



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There's a Place That's Nearly Perfect for Growing Food. It's Not California. | Mother Jones

There's a Place That's Nearly Perfect for Growing Food. It's Not California. | Mother Jones: "So here's an idea that could take pressure off California. In my Times piece, I looked to the Corn Belt states of the Midwest as a prime candidate for a veggie revival: Just about a quarter million acres (a veritable rounding error in that region's base of farmland) from corn and soy to veggies could have a huge impact on regional supply, a 2010 Iowa State University study found.



Now my gaze is heading south and east, to acres now occupied by cotton—a crop burdened by a brutal past in the South (slavery, sharecropping) and a troubled present (a plague of herbicide-tolerant weeds):


 







 Let's leave aside all of the cotton growing on the arid side of the map. (The drought is already squeezing out production of the fluffy fiber in California; as for the Texas panhandle, cotton production there relies heavily on water from the fast-depleting Ogallala Aquifer—not a great long-term strategy.)

Small-scale fruit and vegetable farms are "already gearing up down there," said one expert.



What I'm eyeing are those cotton acres on the water-rich right side of the map—the Mississippi Delta states Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Louisiana, along with the Carolinas, Alabama, and Georgia to the east. According to the USDA, mid-Southern and Southeastern states planted more than 4 million acres of cotton in 2014. This is what's left of the old—and let's face it, infamous—Cotton Belt that stocked the globe's textile factories during the 19th-century boom that delivered the Industrial Revolution (a story told in Sven Beckert's fantastic 2014 book Empire of Cotton)."



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Senegal: Decade of Abuse in Quranic Schools | Human Rights Watch

Senegal: Decade of Abuse in Quranic Schools | Human Rights Watch: "(Dakar) – Senegal has prosecuted only a handful of cases involving children who are trafficked and forced to beg by abusive teachers in Quranic schools despite a decade-old law outlawing the practice, Human Rights Watch and the Platform for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (PPDH), a coalition of 40 Senegalese organizations, said today.

Tens of thousands of children face rampant abuse and exploitation despite the 2005 law, the groups said. Social workers, government officials, and activists Human Rights Watch interviewed in January 2015 said they believe the number of boys, known as talibé, enduring abuse in the Quranic schools, which are not regulated, is increasing, with more and younger children affected. A 2014 government census of daaras, or Quranic schools, found over 30,000 boys subjected to forced begging in the Dakar region alone."



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Burnout: What I experienced so you don't have to | Devex

Burnout: What I experienced so you don't have to | Devex: "Those of us working in development and global health almost always speak about burnout as it relates to others — nurses in rural clinics and civil servants — instead of talking about it as it relates ourselves. Additionally, we are surrounded by a culture of stress and burnout, where those who push themselves the hardest are often the ones acknowledged for their passion, grit and perseverance.

This makes it hard to draw the line between what is normal versus not in terms of what sacrifices we should make in the name of doing good."



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Are we ready for an Asia-Pacific influenza outbreak? | Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre

Are we ready for an Asia-Pacific influenza outbreak? | Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre: "The West African Ebola outbreak largely took the world by surprise. As a result, the global response to the epidemic – which has now killed 10,000 people – was slow. Despite the pleas of Doctors Without Borders for action in April 2014, it took until early August for the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and then another three months before the WHO intervention was on the ground.

Australia’s response was even slower. An initial contribution came from Australia in mid-August, which was followed by months of discussion before the early November announcement that Australia would fund the running of a treatment centre in Sierra Leone – a centre that began seeing patients only in mid-December.

The glacial pace with which Australia (and much of the global community) acted is perhaps not surprising given the massive distance from West Africa to our shores.

But if there is a disease outbreak in our region, will we be able to respond faster and stop an outbreak in its tracks?

Such an outbreak is likely. Over the last 12 years, there have been three major outbreaks of mutated influenza strains or respiratory disease that emerged from our region: SARS in 2003, H5N1 in 2004–05, and the current H7N9 emerging from China. Most experts believe that another mutation – perhaps of greater virulence – is almost inevitable over the coming years as humans and animals interact more often in the shadow of urbanisation and resource constraints."



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Govt, donors prepare new development schemes | The Jakarta Post

Govt, donors prepare new development schemes | The Jakarta Post: "A number of Indonesia’s philanthropic foundations gathered on Monday to introduce a new funding platform to the government in an effort to combat poverty and promote sustainable development in the country.

The project, called the Post-2015 Partnership Platform for Philanthropy, is collectively run by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Foundation Center and a group of philanthropic foundations guided by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

It aims at gathering philanthropic foundations worldwide to participate in development programs through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) program, a replacement of the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which will finish by the end of this year.

This year, Indonesia has been selected to be a target country for the project, along with Colombia, Ghana and Kenya. "



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Innovative models, finance and approaches to tackle the SDGs | Devex

Innovative models, finance and approaches to tackle the SDGs | Devex: "Banking giants like Credit Suisse are also innovating and designing products that target base-of-the-pyramid consumers and small and midsize enterprises, which could play a part in the effort to develop new financing mechanisms for the SDGs. Client demand has driven the company to first develop microfinance products and increasingly explore additional impact investing products, said Laura Hemrika, the head of Credit Suisse’s impact and microfinance capacity building initiative.

“We need mortgage products, business loans, personal loans — there’s no reason people at the base of the pyramid don’t need those,” she said.

The challenge is developing the right types of products that are profitable, scalable and work for the customers at the base of the pyramid. Credit Suisse is partnering and supporting some capacity building and product development to help create additional financing mechanisms — a move that may also lead to increased investment opportunities for the company’s clients. But the company still has a lot to learn and certainly sees more room for innovation, she said."



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Jim Kim, safeguards and 'the problem of multilateralism' | Devex

Jim Kim, safeguards and 'the problem of multilateralism' | Devex: "As the drama unfolds, Devex sat down with Kim to discuss allegations that the bank is relaxing its oversight policies in an effort to stay competitive with other development finance institutions, like the ascendent Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which many have described as a potential competitor to the Western-dominated Bretton Woods institutions of which the World Bank is a part.

Kim remains adamant that the safeguards revision is not a “dilution” of the bank’s commitment to social and environmental standards, but instead consistent with his commitment to serve “at the very cutting edge” of development finance.

At the same time, Kim acknowledged that leading an institution composed of 188 member states, where “all of the conflicts of the world exist on my board,” means that there will be people “unhappy on both sides of every issue.”"



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IRIN Global | Why are humanitarians so WEIRD? | Afghanistan | DRC | Central African Republic | Haiti | Indonesia | Kenya | Lebanon | Liberia | Myanmar | Papua New Guinea | Philippines | Sierra Leone | Somalia | Syria | Thailand | United Arab Emirates | Aid Policy

IRIN Global | Why are humanitarians so WEIRD? | Afghanistan | DRC | Central African Republic | Haiti | Indonesia | Kenya | Lebanon | Liberia | Myanmar | Papua New Guinea | Philippines | Sierra Leone | Somalia | Syria | Thailand | United Arab Emirates | Aid Policy: "BELGRADE, 15 April 2015 (IRIN) - I'm WEIRD. I'm not sure whether I became an aid worker because I'm weird, but I was definitely a WEIRD aid worker. I realised this after reading a 2010 academic article which pointed out that an overwhelming proportion of psychology experiments were carried out on an “extraordinarily restricted sample” of humanity – American university undergraduates. The article concluded that this sample was “one of the worst subpopulations one could study for generalizing about Homo sapiens,” because they were too WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic."



"The result, noted by the 2015 World Development Report (WDR to its friends), is that “development professionals are not always good at predicting how poverty shapes mindsets,” a phrase that maintains the World Bank's position as gold medallists at the Understatement Olympics. Meanwhile the 2014 World Disasters Report (confusingly, also WDR to its friends) emphasises that “Many... organizations are divorced from the realities of the life and the expectations of those who are at risk,” leading to what the Disasters Report describes as a clash between “people's culture” and “organizational culture.”"



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Justice Department Launches Police Probe After Baltimore Man’s Death - WSJ

Justice Department Launches Police Probe After Baltimore Man’s Death - WSJ: "The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday it has launched a civil-rights investigation into the death of a 25-year-old black man who suffered spine injuries and lapsed into a coma after his arrest by Baltimore police."



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Friday, April 17, 2015

Jim Kim, safeguards and 'the problem of multilateralism' | Devex

Jim Kim, safeguards and 'the problem of multilateralism' | Devex: "Kim acknowledged that leading an institution composed of 188 member states, where “all of the conflicts of the world exist on my board,” means that there will be people “unhappy on both sides of every issue.”

The safeguards — which just completed a second round of consultations with civil society stakeholders around the world — will go to the executive board for approval early this summer. If the draft isn’t approved, it will undergo a third round of consultations. The bank hopes to present a completed framework by the end of 2015."



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Thursday, April 16, 2015

Collaboration not competition: could this be the future of development?

Collaboration not competition: could this be the future of development?

“Now the intention is to form interesting collaborations.” He believes that innovation happens when different people with different perspectives work together. The aim is that this project will bring development professionals together with the private sector, tech startups, local experts and anyone else who has an idea and interest in solving the challenges.
Amplify will look at 10 global development challenges over five years. Anyone can contribute ideas to solve these problems on an open-platform website. The ideas are then refined through a series of stages where experts and opinionated amateurs give their feedback, before the best few are awarded DfID funding. It’s crowdsourcing development: but will it work?

Setting the stage for African success in global value chains | The Trade Post

Setting the stage for African success in global value chains | The Trade Post: "Value chains, whether they are regional or global, offer developing countries new opportunities to engage bigger markets, gain new skills, and innovate. As developing countries participate in increasingly complex production processes, they gain knowledge and modern techniques from foreign companies. When Toyota makes car parts in Thailand, for example, Thailand imports the company’s technology, managerial and business practices, and more.

Historically, GVC-related opportunities for economic development have come in the form of manufacturing: East Asian countries saw tremendous growth and poverty-reduction as a result of their engagement in electronics and automobile production. Observers have long lamented – and studied – Africa’s difficult relationship with manufacturing. Currently, the continent’s share of manufacturing in GDP is lower than most developing countries, and it is declining. In “Can Africa Industrialise?” John Page postulates that the steep manufacturing decline in the 1980s and 1990s happened because the continent shed protectionist and import substitution policies that had propped up manufacturing. With these policy changes, African economies shifted to producing more in sectors in which they were internationally competitive, including natural resources and agricultural products.

In recent years, global value chains have become much more diverse than manufacturing: no longer are offshore workers in developing countries just soldering microchips or sewing t-shirts. They are using advanced technology to package locally grown fruits and vegetables, and they are providing back-end administrative support to US companies. Take flowers – they might be grown in Colombia or Kenya, but they are sold in the US or Europe. They must be kept cool and fresh through sophisticated cold-chain logistics and be transported quickly to market.  Or take shared-services centers in India. They must have fast internet technology and an educated workforce. This business-driven modernization drives development. "



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Peace Corps cites 20 percent increase in sexual assault reports: A sign of progress? | Devex

Peace Corps cites 20 percent increase in sexual assault reports: A sign of progress? | Devex: "At 24, Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet was a volunteer teaching secondary school English in Western Samoa. She was also grappling with the decision of whether to report her own sexual assault — the assailant a prominent member of the community in which she worked.

“Being a model Peace Corps volunteer didn’t include being a victim,” she shared at a Peace Corps-organized event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., in recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Hessler-Radelet didn’t report the three instances of sexual assault, too afraid she would be removed from the community and the work she believed in. Looking back, she’s “baffled” by her decision to stay silent."



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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

You Can't Trust Buzzfeed - Breitbart

You Can't Trust Buzzfeed - Breitbart: "For example: late last week, British political blog Guido Fawkes revealed that Buzzfeed UK had removed an article from its website that embarrassed an advertiser. The article was a frivolous, derogatory rant about the board game Monopoly by recent recruit Tom Chivers.

It turns out that Hasbro, which publishes Monopoly, had paid Buzzfeed to promote one of its other games. Anxious about upsetting a major sponsor, someone higher up the chain at Buzzfeed yanked the article. Buzzfeed even added a line of code to its website so no one could find the page using a search engine.

It would have been predictably skanky behaviour, but not a scandal, were it not for the fact that Buzzfeed UK had, a few short weeks earlier, gleefully reported on allegations that the Daily Telegraph gave HSBC, a regular Telegraph advertiser, an easy ride in its business pages.

Arguably, Buzzfeed’s sin was greater, both because it involved a retroactive deletion and also because the stakes were so low: if the site was prepared to edit the code on its website to cover up such a trivial article, how could the site be trusted to write fairly about the social issues it aspires to cover in its long-form journalism?

The chutzpah and hypocrisy are jaw-dropping."



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Senate passes bipartisan Medicare bill fixing doctors' pay - UPI.com

Senate passes bipartisan Medicare bill fixing doctors' pay - UPI.com: "WASHINGTON, April 15 (UPI) -- The Senate passed a $200 billion Medicare reform bill Tuesday, just in time to prevent a 21 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
In a rare bipartisan move, the Senate voted 92-8 to replace an unpopular "fee-for-service" payment system from 1997.

President Barack Obama said he plans to sign the bill into law, calling it a "a milestone for physicians, and for the seniors and people with disabilities who rely on Medicare for their health care needs."

The new system will base physician fees on the quality of the care they provide as opposed to the number of services they perform. The instability of the old formula has been criticized for discouraging doctors from taking on Medicare patients.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the bill was a "solution to a broken Medicare payment system that had vexed congressional leaders of both parties for years."

"It would mean an end to the annual exercise of Congress passing a temporary 'fix' to the problem one year and then coming right up to the very same cliff the next year, without actually solving the underlying problem," McConnell said.

The bill was drafted as a compromise between House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif."



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"Give one": What happens after you buy TOMS? | WhyDev

"Give one": What happens after you buy TOMS? | WhyDev: "One for One. You buy shoes; we’ll give a pair away in a developing country. Makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over, doesn’t it? Knowing you’re helping a barefoot child in need?



 TOMS Shoes aren’t big in Australia, so I’d never bought any. But after being in Kenya for five months, I was swamped with them. 27,000 pairs, to be precise. I worked with a branch of the Kenya Red Cross, one of TOMS’ 100+ partner organisations, and I was asked to head up the distribution of free shoes. The Kenya Red Cross is primarily volunteer-run, and it took around 40 volunteers to do the distribution.



 Their past shoe distributions had been marred with problems. Previously, TOMS had organised for around 10,000 primary school students to come to a single school to receive their shoes. Unfortunately, some schools couldn’t afford transportation and were unable to attend. Even without the full list of schools in attendance at the distribution, there still weren’t enough pairs for all the students who’d been told to come and get them."



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UNHCR - UNHCR statement on the future of Kenya's Dadaab Refugee Camps

UNHCR - UNHCR statement on the future of Kenya's Dadaab Refugee Camps: "This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Karin de Gruijl – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 14 April 2015, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The Government of Kenya has announced that the Dadaab refugee camps should be closed within three months and the 350,000 Somali refugees living there returned to their country. The Government's decision was announced this past weekend following the horrific attack at Garissa University earlier this month.

UNHCR too has been shocked and appalled by the Garissa attack. High Commissioner Guterres and his staff stand in solidarity with the people of Kenya. We reiterate our condolences to the families of all the victims.

Kenya has been generously hosting and protecting refugees from violence and persecution in neighbouring Somalia for more than two decades. UNHCR works closely with the Government of Kenya and we understand well the current regional security situation and the seriousness of the threats Kenya is facing. We also recognize the obligation of the Government to ensure the security of its citizens and other people living in Kenya, including refugees."



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Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Australia To Cut Welfare Payments For Anti-Vaxxers | IFLScience

Australia To Cut Welfare Payments For Anti-Vaxxers | IFLScience: "The Australian government will tighten the rules requiring children to be vaccinated in order for parents to receive welfare payments and childcare subsidies.

Current Australia law states that children must be vaccinated if their parents are to get the Family Tax Benefit A and rebates for childcare costs. However, exemptions are allowed under three circumstances: medical grounds that make a child at increased risk of unusual reaction, religious opposition or other “personal objections.”

The new rules would remove the last option, while still allowing exceptions on religious and medical grounds. The proposal has the support of the Labor opposition, guaranteeing it passage through both houses of parliament.

As in other developed countries, Australia has experienced outbreaks of diseases such as measles and whooping cough that were once controlled or eliminated entirely as a result of increasing numbers of parents choosing not to vaccinate their children.

"The choice made by families not to immunize their children is not supported by public policy or medical research, nor should such action be supported by taxpayers in the form of childcare payments,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Social Services Minister Scott Morrison said in a joint statement."



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Chibok kidnappings: Nigeria marks one year since abduction of school girls by Boko Haram - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Chibok kidnappings: Nigeria marks one year since abduction of school girls by Boko Haram - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): "Special church services and vigils are being held across Nigeria to commemorate the anniversary of the abduction of almost 300 school girls by Boko Haram militants.

Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from their school in the remote town of Chibok, in Borno state, north-eastern Nigeria, on the evening of April 14 last year.

Fifty-seven managed to escape soon afterwards but the remainder have not been seen since an appearance in a Boko Haram video last May.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed they had all converted to Islam and been "married off".

Despite appeals by relatives and the global 'Bring Back our Girls' campaign, the government of outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan failed to rescue them.

President-elect Muhammadu Buhari vowed to rescue the girls after winning the presidential election earlier this month.

Mr Buhari criticised his rival for not doing enough to find the missing girls and combat the Boko Haram threat."



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Thursday, April 9, 2015

From Poverty to Power » How to get a job in development: the definitive (368 page) guide

From Poverty to Power » How to get a job in development: the definitive (368 page) guide: "How to get a job in aid and development? That is the question hovering over lecture theatres and seminar rooms everywhere, as students rack up those debts and wonder if/how they will ever get a job which both fulfils them and keeps them solvent.

Up until now, the only place to refer people has been long lists of links, a scatter of websites like Devex or AidBoard  and random posts from people like me.

Now, there’s something much more substantial. This week, Routledge is publishing ‘Working in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance: A Career Guide’ by Maia Gedde, with a foreword by me. It’s 370 pages of invaluable material, but it costs $60 in paperback – maybe one for a library order?"



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How to work in international development - book extract | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian

How to work in international development - book extract | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian: "In the past two decades the number of people interested in pursuing a career in the fields of development and humanitarian assistance has grown exponentially. One of the development veterans I spoke to [while researching my book] said: “When I entered the field no one wanted to go to work in a place like Africa. I was one of just a handful of candidates.” These days, there could well be over 200 applicants per post.

As the quest to end poverty remains in the limelight, young people from developing and developed countries alike are turning towards the sectors of development and humanitarian assistance in search of a dynamic and multidimensional career - often more attractive and exciting than some of the other more conventional employment options. The question for them is how to launch a career in these increasingly competitive sectors with relatively little experience.

Mid-career professionals from other fields, in search of a more meaningful and socially responsible career or to pursue personal growth and new professional horizons, are also keen to explore this transition. As the sectors are increasingly valuing corporate experience this crossover is becoming easier. They want to explore what skills are in demand, and how they can market these in a way that is attracted to recruiters in the sector."



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Sanctions, higher costs considered under California drought plan - Yahoo News

Sanctions, higher costs considered under California drought plan - Yahoo News: "SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California may require communities to pay for water according to how much they use and impose sanctions on those who do not conserve, in the state's first-ever mandatory cutbacks in urban water use because of ongoing drought, regulators said Tuesday.

The tactics and issues under consideration for a still- developing conservation plan were distributed at a meeting of the State Water Resources Board on Tuesday, just days after Governor Jerry Brown ordered mandatory 25 percent cutbacks in urban water use as the state's devastating drought enters its fourth year."



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Wednesday, April 8, 2015

The CEO Who Took On Indiana's Anti-LGBT Law -- And Won

The CEO Who Took On Indiana's Anti-LGBT Law -- And Won: "“CEOs are very much the advocates of their customers and employees, as well as of the environment and local communities,” Benioff said. “The most successful CEOs today are advocates for their stakeholders, not just their shareholders.”

After a week of backlash, Pence approved a revised version of the measure, this time explicitly banning businesses from refusing service because of a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.

Benioff may have been the first major CEO to express his opposition to the legislation, but he was soon joined by others. Corporate giants and organizations from Apple to NASCAR rallied behind LGBT rights groups in Indiana to fight the law.

Still, the Salesforce chief may have been uniquely positioned to champion the cause in Indiana. For starters, San Francisco-based Salesforce became the state's largest tech employer when it acquired the marketing software firm ExactTarget in 2013.

And, Benioff has a lot of powerful friends."



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Malaysia’s Controversial Service Charge

Malaysia’s Controversial Service Charge: "Though it’s encouraging that the Malaysian government has done right by the people, and beyond question that consumers will benefit from this new regulation, it seems much of it was prompted by confusion about the service charge once the GST programme was implemented. Comments I’ve read on various stories about the service charge seem to bear this out – many Malaysians don’t understand that the service charge doesn’t have anything whatsoever to do with tax, nor did it ever. Many customers had apparently refused to pay the service charge once GST was imposed, which is baffling since there had always been a government tax levied anyway (at least in restaurants that served alcohol or had a certain level of annual sales). But GST, which is imposed on all restaurants now, seemed to be the catalyst here, and the lack of understanding about service charges prompted renewed discussion, and in my opinion, the government made the right call. It protects consumers, and it protects restaurant and hotel service staff."



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'Strong is the New Pretty': See mom's powerful photo series of her daughters - Parents - TODAY.com

'Strong is the New Pretty': See mom's powerful photo series of her daughters - Parents - TODAY.com: "And the photos aren't just for show; some of them have proved to be important teaching moments for the photographer's daughters.

“I took one of my favorite photos just before Ella's first triathlon," says Parker. "She was really nervous, so I said, hey, let me see how brave you can look. When I showed her the photo, she said, ‘Aw, yeah!' Pretending to be strong gave her the confidence to say, 'Wait a minute, I really am that way.'""



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Video Shows Officer Michael Slager Shooting Unarmed Black Man In The Back In South Carolina

Video Shows Officer Michael Slager Shooting Unarmed Black Man In The Back In South Carolina: "A white South Carolina police officer was arrested and charged with murder Tuesday after video showed him fatally shooting a fleeing, unarmed black man in the back.

North Charleston Police Officer Michael T. Slager, 33, can be seen shooting 50-year-old Walter Scott after a confrontation on Saturday, according to The Post and Courier. Slager chases Scott and shoots at him eight times in the video recorded by a passerby and obtained by The New York Times."



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Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Why "Choosing Your Battles" May Not Be An Effective Parenting Strategy - RESPECTFUL PARENT | RESPECTFUL PARENT

Why "Choosing Your Battles" May Not Be An Effective Parenting Strategy - RESPECTFUL PARENT | RESPECTFUL PARENT: "Many people were bringing different perceptions on limit setting to the table.  Some didn’t realize that they should be setting limits on certain things because those things didn’t bother them, some set them inconsistently, some were giving too many choices, others too many chances, while others hadn’t adjusted to their children’s new developmental stages. Then there was me, who let the small stuff go because it didn’t seem worth it in the moment.  I was “picking my battles” as the saying goes, or waiting for a better, more convenient time.  I was reinforcing my children’s tendencies to persist with their wants because they couldn’t determine when I would and when I wouldn’t stick to my guns.

It became clear as the discussion evolved that none of these varying perceptions mattered a whole lot – at the crux of the issue, our problems were the same.  Most of us weren’t setting the strong limits we thought we were.  Some of us were better at recognizing the limits, but engaging in power struggles.  Some of us weren’t seeing the limit and some of us were inconsistent. Some of us would make excuses for behaviors when children were tired, sick or stressed; essentially teaching them that it is acceptable and excusable to act poorly during times of strife.  Toward the end of the discussion, Brettania, a mother to  3 year old and 15 month old boys, wrote a comment that transcended all our perceptions and we began to see that the issue was much simpler than we were making it.  Our children needed leaders and once they had them- life would get easier for us and our children."



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