U.N., Google, Cisco Unite on poverty-tracking web site

(Article from Computerworld) The United Nations, Google and Cisco Systems have launched a Web site that will track the progress toward decreasing global poverty by 2015. The online project, called MDG Monitor (Millennium Development Goals) was launched by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to focus attention on the need for people, companies and governments around the world to…

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The tension between our own needs and others needs

Ok, I succumbed and spent $29.95 to buy “Planet of Slums” by Mike Davis. I think this is going to become one of my most valuable texts in understanding and prioritising the needs of poverty relief. It’s packed with so many cross-references to other sources to back up his studies, and even just reading up on those referenced…

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Citizen Journalists

Whilst browsing Blogs this evening, I found this interesting story about Citizen Journalists in Kolkata, India — I was immediately fascinated as, despite the lack of refinement and grammatical perfection, the stories being shared online by inexperienced local Indian writers give such vivid insights into the lives of real people living in real poverty. Even though we can’t directly connect…

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Planet of Slums

Last night I read just the first ten or so pages of a book called “Planet of Slums” by Mike Davis. Fascinating and thought-provoking stuff. I’ll have to go back to Borders (my regular haunt) and keep reading it (or even buy it!). Davis points out that right about now, for the first time in human history, we’ve…

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Why are people more interested in Britney than the needy?

Doesn’t it strike you as strange that Britney Spears can still make the news headlines day after day after day, and yet we struggle to draw people’s attention to the need for financial and practical contributions toward helping genuinely needy people discover a path out of their poverty? It seems that “Britney Spears” is among Technorati’s Top 10…

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Bill Gates and Creative Capitalism

Okay, it might be almost 3am but I’ve just read an article reporting on Bill Gates’ newly-coined term of “Creative Capitalism” that I finally felt is starting to ‘get it’, so I just HAVE to throw in my 2 cents! I suspect that Bill Gates and I are still a fair way apart in our thinking on this,…

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Heather Ledger : symbolic of a lost generation?

While millions are dying each year because they can’t afford to stay alive, it seems that at the opposite end of the spectrum those with millions of dollars and every opportunity available to them are struggling with incredible internal pain and confusion, falling hopelessly into a spiral of self-destruction and, in some terribly sad cases, even death. Heath…

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