Human Rights

How technology is cracking the world’s toughest problems

3 ways technology is cracking the world’s toughest problems The sun is setting on old ways of tackling social problems. Social entrepreneurship – applying innovative, market-based models to solve social problems – is about impact and scale, not just the product or service itself. Fundamentally, that’s about implementation. How do you get a life-saving vaccine or a life-changing piece of educational software into the hands of people who need it, on a scale that matters? When you’re trying to change behaviour and disrupt the conventional way things are done, whether that’s getting poor people in Mexico to manage their diabetes better or provide financial services to rural communities in the Philippines, the toughest nut to crack is not the what but the how. And leveraging new technology is often part of the answer. “The ICT industry has created tremendous infrastructure for delivering social goods more effectively and cost-efficiently,” said Jim Fruchterman, the Founder of Benetech, a Palo Alto-based non-profit focused on harnessing the power of technology to provide public goods like education and services for disabled people. Indeed, across the Schwab Foundation’s network of more than 300 social entrepreneurs, technology is enabling and transforming business models in ways that were unthinkable ten years ago. Tripling artisan incomes in India Industree is a social enterprise that brings together traditional female artisans making modern lifestyle products (think placemats and pillowcases) into producer-owned companies. You may have seen Industree-produced baskets at IKEA, for example. Industree triples these women’s incomes by cutting out the middlemen and tweaking their designs for Western (and high-end Indian) markets, and their projections were to grow from 2,000 artisans to 30,000 artisans within the next decade. But then they were connected with Mindtree, the IT and business consulting firm headquartered in Bangalore, who helped them totally revamp their model. […]

Rotary honors ‘Global Women of Action’ for leadership and humanitarian service

Rotary will honor six women – all members of Rotary clubs across the globe – at its “Rotary Day at the United Nations” event on November 7. Rotary’s ‘Global Women of Action’ will be recognised for donating their time, talents and expertise towards helping thousands of people in need throughout the world. Since the volunteer service organisation’s founding more than 100 years ago, Rotary has harnessed the strength of professional and community leaders to tackle humanitarian challenges at home and abroad. Today, Rotary provides a platform for successful men and women of all ethnicities, faiths and cultures to make the world a better place through volunteer service. Rotary’s ‘Global Women of Action’ are: Kerstin Jeska-Thorwart, Nuremberg, Germany: A member of the Rotary Club of Nurnberg-Sigena, Jeska-Thorwart is the creator of the “Baby Hospital Galle” project, which she launched after surviving the devastation of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka. With a budget of USD 1.8 million and the support of 200 Rotary clubs and 6,000 members, the project rebuilt and equipped the Mahamodara Teaching Hospital in Galle, Sri Lanka. In the 11 years since its inception, the project has helped more than 150,000 children and provided healthcare services to more than 2.2 million women. Dr. Hashrat A. Begum, Dhaka, Bangladesh: A member of the Rotary Club of Dhaka North West, Begum has been at the forefront of the women’s health in Bangladesh, implementing several large scale projects to deliver health care to underserved communities. She works to organize free weekend clinics for slum dwellers, providing vocational training to girls who have dropped out of school, empowering women to earn livelihoods as seamstresses, and working to raise awareness of social and health issues among young people. Begum also works to fund a clinic for the people of Washpur, a densely populated […]

Bloggers jailed for abusing democratic freedoms

Reporters Without Borders condemns the sentences ranging from 12 to 18 months in prison that a people’s court in the southern province of Dong Nai imposed last week on three bloggers ¬– Le Thi Phuong Anh, Do Nam Trung and Pham Minh Vu – under criminal code article 258, which penalises “abusing democratic freedoms.” The sentences, passed on 12 February, were clearly unjust and violated freedom of information and expression. Arrested while covering an anti-Chinese demonstration by South China Sea oil rig workers on 15 May, they were accused in connection with their Facebook posts (see here, here and here) about anti-Chinese protests and China’s violations of Vietnam’s territorial waters. The issue often gives rise to accusations by members of the public that Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party is too lax with China. In its verdict, the court said the bloggers had used their Facebook account to “disseminate content (articles and photos) that incited and led to anti-state demonstrations.” Ruling that a total of 157 posts had “insulted the prestige of the state and Communist Party and undermined the trust of the people, especially workers, students and young people, in the Party,” the court sentenced Anh, Trung and Vu to 12, 14 and 18 months in prison respectively. “We strongly condemn the court’s verdict and call for the immediately release of these jailed citizen-journalists,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk. “These harsh sentences show that the Communist Party does not fear the consequences of its violations of fundamental freedoms and human rights. To put pressure on the authorities, we urge the international community to react and to demand the release of all bloggers and citizen-journalists imprisoned in Vietnam.” The authorities also confiscated two motorcycles, several mobile phones and cash from the bloggers, whose sentences reflect […]

Burma returns to market

Along the Rangoon River, where tigers and elephants once roamed, two 12-year-old boys dig through heaps of brick and debris, looking for metal to sell. ÒMoney,Ó says one, thrusting a fistful of antique reinforcing bar at me. The other stoops to the ground and hits the ReBar with a small hammer, breaking apart the mortar that once held the slender rod in its place. Almost overnight, a colonial-era wall, dividing the river from the city, was demolished. Those who need money the most have come to pick through the rubble at dawn. When the Myanmar Port Authority announced unprecedented dredging of the Rangoon River in early 2011, a contract to widen the Strand Road quickly followed. It was a vital link connecting timber farmed upcountry to waterways that carry the wood away, and has long facilitated the export of this precious resource. The road was built by the British nearly 150 years ago, and is the city grid’s southern anchor – a line laid down along a faraway river to make ‘order’ seem part of nature. It was the last land stop for the colony’s exotic exports. Today, the road is too old and too narrow to bear the weight of Burma’s predicted export upswing. Thus the multi-million-dollar upgrade, adding as many as 10ÊadditionalÊlanes in high-traffic areas. Soon the number of boats docking in Rangoon (now Yangon) will treble. Individual cargo limits will rise from 15,000Êtons to 35,000 tons of deadweight per vessel. With the dredging, the port of Rangoon, the link between upper Burma and the lower Irrawaddy regions, will become vital once again. In the 1920s and 1930s Rangoon was the second busiest immigration port in the world, trailing only New York City. Indian, Bengali, Armenian and European workers and merchants arrived in astounding numbers, hoping to […]

The life of a Nobel Peace Prize winner

Liu Xiaobo, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, was born in December 1955, is a Chinese literary critic, professor, and human rights activist who called for democratic reforms and the end of one-party rule in China.He is currently serving as a political prisoner in China. He has served as President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center since 2003. On 8 December 2008, Liu was detained in response to his participation with Charter 08. He was formally arrested on 23 June 2009, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power and sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of political rights on 25 December 2009.[5] During his 4th prison term, he was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.” From 1969 to 1973, he was taken by his father to the Horqin Right Front Banner of Inner Mongolia during the Down to the Countryside Movement. At the age of 19, it was once again arranged for him to work in a village in Jilin province and later at a construction company. He is married to Liu Xia, who lives in the couple’s apartment in Beijing. In 1976, he studied at Jilin University and obtained a B.A. degree in literature in 1982 and an M.A. degree in 1984 from Beijing Normal University. After graduation, Liu joined the faculty at Beijing Normal University, where he also received a Ph.D. degree in 1988. In the 1980s, his most important essays, Critique on Choices – Dialogue with Li Zehou and Aesthetics and Human Freedom earned him fame in the academic field. The first essay criticised the philosophy of a prominent Chinese thinker, Li Zehou. Between 1988 and 1989, he was a visiting scholar at several universities outside of China, including Columbia […]

Afghanistan’s soft-spoken rebel

The voice from the back of the room Malalai Joya is only 32, but she has been an exile, a refugee, a teacher of girls in the Taliban’s Afghanistan, and now that country’s youngest member of parliament. She’s still on the run though, and still threatened with assassination by Andrew Oxford Afghanistan is a young nation ravaged by old conflicts. This does not refer to the new government created after the 2001 invasion (or the violent battles between different tribes that have carried on into the new millennium). Its youthfulness is a statistical fact buried in UN and World Bank reports: 60% of the country is under the age of 25, and many may not live much beyond that (1). Nearly a decade has passed since Nato troops, led by the US, “liberated” Afghanistan. But there is little to show for the occupation, the billions of dollars of aid money, and the thousands of soldiers and civilians killed. Not much is heard from the young majority. The political discourse in Kabul neglects their future; it is dominated by the usual suspects, bearded bureaucrats and provocateurs of wars past. “They are law brokers not law makers,” says Malalai Joya. At 32, she is Afghanistan’s youngest member of parliament (and has adopted the name Malalai after the Afghan nationalist hero Malalai Maiwand). She is an outspoken critic of the fundamentalists who subjugate the women of her country. Now she is internationally prominent as the voice for an independent Afghanistan. Her message – end the occupation and the Karzai government – is refreshing and daunting, a manifesto for what the West should really be fighting for. Her parliamentary career began with the Loya Jirga, or grand assembly, of 2003, which sought to shape the “free” Afghanistan. As Afghan politicians fought for their place […]

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