Echoing Green is a neat organization that "invests in and supports outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs to launch new organizations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions." They offer a two-year fellowship program to help a group of "visionaries develop new solutions to society's most difficult problems."
This year's slate of finalists promise some great problem-solving and good to be done. A few that caught my eye:
The Op-Ed Project: Targeting, training and channeling women experts to the op-ed pages of top newspapers, online sites, and other key forums of public debate to project new diverse voices into national conversation.
GreenMango: Bringing the power of online marketing technologies to poor business owners in developing countries to enable them to grow their businesses and increase their income.
Hot Bread Kitchen: Creating well-paid careers for immigrant women while preserving baking traditions, harnessing lost human capital, and building esteem for immigrant communities.
Sustainable Health Enterprises: Unleashing girls' and women's economic potential by starting up female-run franchises that manufacture and distribute low priced, high-quality, and environmentally friendly sanitary towels for domestic and international markets.
Green Coast Enterprises: Building environmentally sound structures that can withstand the rigors of hurricanes, termites, heat, and humidity at a price that is within the reach of average people.
Check out the entire list (about 30 projects)
here.
posted by Alexandra at 4/29/2008 12:15:00 PM
Upon the fortieth anniversary of the May '68 student protests in the streets of Paris,
Patrice de Beer, former London and Washington correspondent for
Le Monde, explores France's politics of memory and finds the French caught between remembrance and forgetting.
An interesting point with particular resonance:
"Julie Coudry, the (possibly departing) president of the Confederation Etudiante, has made the point that in 1968, students (and striking workers) opposed to the ordre etabli sought new forms of participation and communication; while in 2008, people are fearful of all-powerful globalisation yet also anxious to play their part in the reform of an (again) blocked society where a new generation of young people (again) has little say."Read the entire article
here.
posted by Alexandra at 4/28/2008 05:16:00 PM
It's Earth Day's 38th birthday...so get out there and celebrate, or at least consider doing one thing to benefit the environment on April 22. Here's
Identity Theory's Top Ten things to do on
Earth Day:
1. Shake Some Action. Find out what you can do in your own city, town or neighborhood. Visit
Earth Day Network,
EarthDay.gov or the
EPA's web site to browse volunteer opportunities.
2. Start At Home. Somebody famous said, "the revolution starts at home" (I think). There are so many simple, energy-smart things you can do around the house. In addition to recycling, consider switching out the six bulbs you use the most to
CFLs. Then,
get these to show-off to all your friends.
3. Compare Notes. Energy policy will clearly be on the top of the deck for the next president of the United States. Find our where
John McCain,
Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama stand now.
4. Make the Call. Got something to say to your representative or senator about climate change legislation or environmental policy? Get on the horn.
5. Travel More. Volunteer with
Earthwatch Institute and travel alongside scientists and researchers to preserve coral reefs and save endangered species.
6. Go Back to School. A bunch of colleges and universities now offer "green" academic programs.
University of Texas-Austin offers a masters degree in sustainable design and other school are following suite. Already working in the green sector? Get together for
Green Drinks, an organization that schedules meet-ups.
7. Eat Up! Sprig.com lists
seven foods you should add to your grocery list, from Stonyfield Yogurt to Carbon Neutral Wineries. These companies are carbon-offsetting so these foods don't contribute to climate change.
8. Make An Eco-Resolution. Use a
green calculator to figure out how small changes in your everyday life could positively impact the environment. Then, pick one action and stick with it for the year.
9. Get in the Sack. Yes, there are a plethora of ways to green your sex life, and
Treehugger has got an exhaustive list of what you can do between your bamboo bed sheets.
10. Look Beyond This List. For more ideas, check out the
New York Times Magazine's Green Issue.
posted by Alexandra at 4/21/2008 10:21:00 AM
"For years now, I've grimaced when I see polls showing the persistent downward slope of public trust in the American news media. This Wednesday night, I could hardly blame that public."-Jerry Lanson, Professor of Journalism-
Emerson College professor Jerry Lanson reacts to Wednesday night's presidential debate in
"A Pathetic Round of 'Gotcha' Questioning," and wonders:
"Someone might just as well have asked: 'Senator, are you or were you ever a member of the Communist Party? A sympathizer, perhaps? Because the tenor of the questions at times seemed vaguely reminiscent of the '50s, the early '50s when Joseph McCarthy took his communist witch hunt from the State Department to Hollywood."Meanwhile,
FactCheck.org puts what both candidates said to the test.
Read it all here.
posted by Alexandra at 4/18/2008 10:18:00 AM
"Imagine if every week a televised roll call memorialized Iraq's civilian casualties with individual portraits. If this were possible, we would witness, in full, the staggering human costs of Iraq's occupation on a personal level. The politics of history dictate who is remembered and who is not, and most countries prefer to honor only their own dead. Perhaps, if we were confronted with those we've killed, face-by-face, we could better question the notion of 'us and them' and address the abstraction of death that skews our understanding of war."Read more of Caroline E. Winter's
Witness column at AdBusters. Winter takes as her point of departure the recent release of stills taken of Khmer Rouge victims at the notorious
Tuol Sleng prison where an estimated 1.7 million people were tortured and killed between 1975 and 1979. The images, taken by Nhem Ein, are now housed at the
Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide.
posted by Alexandra at 4/14/2008 11:51:00 AM
Find out what the Dalai Lama and Tibet's Prime Minister in exile have to say about this year's Summer Olympics in China. Read the
New York Times article
"Dalai Lama Show Support for Games" and
Good Magazine's "Remember Tibet?".
posted by Alexandra at 4/10/2008 09:38:00 AM 
