October 10, 2009 · 11:54 am

Street Child World Cup, March 2010

logoBringing the football World Cup to South Africa provides an opportunity to highlight both the good and the not-so-good of that beautiful country.

The Umthombo team who have been working with street children in Durban over the last decade are using this opportunity to draw attention to the plight of street children across the world. More importantly, though, this event highlights the skills and successes of children living and working on the streets, as well as schemes that can really support them to achieve their potentials.

The Street Child World Cup team notes the following: “Street children from eight countries will come together to play football and find their voices through the game they love. The Street Child World Cup will place street children centre stage, celebrating their potential and providing a platform for them to talk about their experiences, rights and ideas. Street children will work with international coaches to express themselves on the football pitch and with specially trained artists, who will enable them to tell their stories and to be heard. They will launch a campaign to win rights for street children all over the world.

  • The Street Child World Cup will use this game, which is loved all over the world, to help give kids a fairer deal. No child should have to be on the streets.
    Gary Lineker, speaking at the Street Child World Cup launch

Leave a comment

Filed under Africa

Tagged as , ,

October 9, 2009 · 4:43 pm

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

I saw this headline and could not believe it – the Nobel Peace Prize this year has been awarded to Barack Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”!

How could someone who kept on saying in his election speeches that he would change a particular state, he would change America and then he would change the world if elected receive such a prize? What is this brave new world going to be like? Under his ‘leadership’ so far the USA is continuing to try to impose its authority on Iraq and Afghanistan, imposing ‘democracy’ by military force? Do people in the USA not realise that most of the world does not actually want to be changed by them, but would much prefer to have greater self-determination without US interference?  If Obama’s policies led to a substantial reduction in the size of the USA’s armed forces and their rapid withdrawal from parts of the world where they are seeking to impose their military power, then perhaps he would indeed be a worthy recipient. Such awards should surely be for achievement?  What evidence is there that Obama has yet made any serious impact on peace in the world?  As the UK’s Times notes, he “has yet to deliver on any of the major foreign policy initiatives upon which he has embarked”

Hamas, for example, according to the Xinhua News Agency has been outspoken in its criticism of this award: “Islamic Hamas movement said Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama does not deserve a Noble Peace Prize since he failed to give the Palestinian people their legitimate rights. Fawzi Barhoum, Gaza Hamas spokesman told Xinhua that “Obama does not deserve this prize,” after the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.”We believe that there are lots of things needed from Obama to be presented to the Palestinian people in order to deserve this reward. Obama should change his manner and be fair,” said Barhoum”

This decision devalues the Nobel Peace Prize.  It may well be that Obama will indeed help to shape a more humble and peaceful USA, and in time therefore be a worthy recipient of a peace prize, but until then we should not be so full of sycophantic praise.  If Obama is as great as so many claim, then he will have the humility to decline this award.

6 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as ,

October 9, 2009 · 3:05 pm

Waitrose, Fox News and Barack Obama

I enjoyed the following report from the Guardian illustrating just how seriously some UK companies consider comments on US news channels in determining their advertising spending:

“His last-minute Olympic sprint to back Chicago may have come to nothing, the Afghan quagmire may be bubbling away and Sarah Palin may be topping the bestseller list, but Barack Obama can at least take comfort from the fact that Britain’s most upmarket supermarket chain is on his side. Waitrose, which prides itself more on its “quality food, honestly priced” than staring down rightwing attack dogs, has become the latest firm to pull its ads from Fox News after presenter Glenn Beck’s remarks about the US president. In July, Beck called Obama “a racist” with “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture” after the president said that police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had “acted stupidly” in arresting the distinguished professor Henry Louis Gates as he entered his own home. Beck’s outburst prompted dozens of companies – among them Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Travelocity – to withdraw their adverts from his show for fear that their businesses might become tainted by association. Now Waitrose, which advertises on the channel carried by Sky in Britain, has followed suit after customers complained about the Glenn Beck Show”

It made me wonder what Barack Obama might do for Waitrose in return?

Leave a comment

Filed under Communication

October 8, 2009 · 8:22 pm

Is this a normal distribution?

Stats 2009One of the challenges I have taken on is that of trying to make statistics and quantitative methods interesting to Master’s students, most of whom are highly committed to qualitative and ethnographic approaches.  This must imply that either senility, or madness, has taken hold a little early…

So, in an effort to enliven things today, I thought that we would use ourselves to illustrate a frequency distribution…

Judge whether this is normal or not – and then pick out who is enrolled in the Master’s course on Practising Sustainable Development, and who on the Course on Cultural Geography!

Thanks Bjorn for the photo…

1 Comment

Filed under Higher Education

Tagged as

October 7, 2009 · 3:36 pm

London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange – The Inside Out Festival

The London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange (LCACE) is organising a one week festival – the Inside Out Festival – from 19th-25th October, highlighting the contribution made by nine London university institutions to the arts and to culture.

The Festival will showcase the exciting, unexpected and sometimes unsung contribution made by nine London universities to the arts and culture. A packed programme of public events will include film, music, theatre and visual art, exhibitions and screenings, workshops and debates, with great thinkers of the day, high-profile figures and well-known academics, as well as up-and-coming undergraduate and postgraduate students. The events will take place all over the city both on university campuses and at leading cultural venues such as Kings Place, the National Portrait Gallery and Somerset House.

Highlights of the Inside Out Festival will include

  • a hard-hitting and controversial debate Art: What’s it good for? chaired by Michael Portillo at Kings Place with panellists including Evelyn Welch (Dean of Arts at Queen Mary, University of London), The Guardian’s Economics Editor Larry Elliott and contemporary artist Nasser Azam
  • ‘Colour, The Big Draw’ a fun, free, family drawing event at Goldsmiths, University of London
  • a performance by the improvising ensemble the Laptop Orchestra with experimental musician and sound curator David Toop from the London College of Communication

There are currently some 41 events listed in the programme, including student film screenings, Tudor and Stuart Southwark, a series of concerts on the theme of Impressions of Spain, a Gamelan concert, Andrew Motion in conversation, a creative writing workshop, and lots more

LCACE is a collaboration promoting the exchange of knowledge and expertise with the capital’s arts and cultural scholars. The partners are: University of the Arts London; Birkbeck, University of London; City University; Courtauld Institute of Art; Goldsmiths, University of London; King’s College London; the Guildhall School of Music & Drama; Queen Mary, University of London; and Royal Holloway, University of London.

Leave a comment

Filed under Education, Higher Education, Music

Tagged as

October 6, 2009 · 8:23 pm

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2010 Access to Learning Award

Perhaps an unusual theme for my blog, but this seems a worthy cause to support:

The deadline for applications to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2010 Access to Learning Award is October 31, 2009. Applications must be submitted via an online submission process that can be accessed at www.gatesfoundation.org/ATLA. Please contact the Administrator at atla@gatesfoundation.org if you have any questions or concerns.

About the Award:

  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is currently accepting applications to its annual Access to Learning Award (ATLA), which recognizes the innovative efforts of public libraries and similar institutions outside the United States to connect people to information and opportunities through free access to computers and the Internet. The award is given by Global Libraries, a special initiative of the foundation’s Global Development Program. The recipient of the Access to Learning Award will receive US$1 million.
  • Computers and the Internet are powerful tools that provide opportunities for people to improve their social and economic well-being. Worldwide, just one person in six has access to the Internet. This means that more than five billion people miss out on chances to pursue education and employment, access government services, learn about valuable health information, conduct business online, and exchange information and ideas. The Access to Learning Award encourages new, innovative ways to provide computer and Internet services to people without access, and promotes greater development of public access technology programs around the world.
  • The Access to Learning Award honors innovative organizations that are opening a world of online information to people in need. The foundation’s Global Libraries initiative invites applications from libraries and similar organizations outside the United States that have created new ways to offer these key services:
  • Free public access to computers and the Internet.
  • Public training to assist users in accessing online information that can help improve their lives.
  • Technology training for library staff.
  • Outreach to underserved communities.

Please note:

  • Applications are open to institutions outside the United States that are working with disadvantaged communities.
  • To be eligible, the applying institution must allow all members of the public to use computers and the Internet free of charge in a community space.

Applications for the 2010 Access to Learning Award must be submitted via an online submission process by October 31, 2009. The application form is available only in English and must be completed in English to be eligible for consideration. However, while applications must be submitted in English, the foundation does offer informational brochures in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. You may find these and additional information on eligibility requirements and the process of selection at:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ATLA

Leave a comment

Filed under ICT4D

Tagged as

October 6, 2009 · 2:21 pm

ICTs and Nobel Prizes

The 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics has a decided ICT theme to it!  Congratulations to the following:

  • Half of the prize goes to Charles K. Kao (Standard Telecommunication Laboratories Harlow, United Kingdom; Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China) “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication”; and
  • Half of the prize is shared by William S. Boyle and George E. Smith (both from the Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA) “for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor”

Video of the announcement

Leave a comment

Filed under ICT4D

October 5, 2009 · 8:21 am

Hollywood, star brokers and influential charities

This recent article in the UK’s Sunday Times magazine is well worth a read.  In it, Jonathan Foreman provides  insights into the ways in which the power brokers of the talent agencies match influential charities with guilt-ridden celebrities.

I particularly enjoyed the following clips:

  • “Over the last decade and a half, the agency foundations have grown in influence as Hollywood has become obsessed by philanthropy and social activism. It is now all but socially unacceptable for Hollywood big shots ­— and wannabe big shots — not to have a cause. Yet little has been written about the foundations’ existence or the power they wield. Hollywood agencies are famously discreet, even secretive, as they must be for their clients to trust them. It stands to reason that their foundations operate in the same way.”
  • “Such is CAA’s influence that when the agency began to focus on malaria last year, this suddenly became a subject Hollywood people cared about. It was CAA that arranged for FC Barcelona to team up with the Fox soccer channel and to back Malaria No More, a charity that sends thousands of lifesaving $10 mosquito nets to Africa.”
  • “Hollywood’s obsession with philanthropy may also be a sign of deeper cultural shifts in the entertainment industry. The screenwriter Lionel Chetwynd, a prominent conservative, is convinced that it reflects a profound change in the way that actors see themselves. “People become actors because they want adoration and adulation,” he said. “But these days they’re surrounded by MBA types, and it often feels like being an actor is an immature thing to be. Their agents and publicists are better educated than they are. In the old days an agent was a high-school dropout too.”

Who gains most from such celebrity endorsement?  I wish it were really the world’s poorest and most marginalised – but I guess that’s not really going to be the case!

1 Comment

Filed under Africa, Ethics

Tagged as , , , ,

October 1, 2009 · 2:20 pm

European Technology Platforms in the field of ICT4D

Oct 2009 smallOne of the interesting things about the latest  EuroAfrica-ICT 7th Concertation Meeting held in Brussels on 1st October was the opportunity that it provided to learn about the large number of overlapping initiatives funded by the European Commission that are exploring ways in which ICTs can be used both to support development initiatives in Africa, and also to facilitate increased collaboration between European and African researchers and organisations.

In particular, presentations by four of the European Technology Platforms drew attention to the potential for the work that they are doing in this ‘space’:

1 Comment

Filed under Africa, ICT4D

Tagged as

September 13, 2009 · 12:51 pm

Obama in Barcelona

ObamaWalking down the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes in Barcelona last week I came across Obama – well, I guess not the Obama that most people will automatically think of!  What is the significance of “Obama – British Africa – Gin and Rhum”?  Could it be that Obama seeks to recreate a new empire in  the spirit of British Africa?

OK – it’s a bar/restaurant opened in 2008, and it being mid-morning on a trip to buy maps at Altair, I did not have time to check it out – but at least it served as a reminder of what might be behind the US administration’s current global agendas.

Leave a comment

Filed under Africa, Beer, Restaurants