Roots~Where do flowers come from?
[youtube=http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=pYdYDEFcaIY] A reader of the betterplace blog in German commented on From Kenya with love – and left the link to this great film. Thank you!
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Tags: ecobalance, flower industry, from kenya with love, work conditions
Thank You, Bonty
This morning I received a well-worn parcel in the mail. When I opened it, what a wonderful collection I found! Bonty, who had received some support from betterplace for her cultural project Patterns in the Sky, had sent full documentation of the event, from the receipts of the expenses to a dvd of the show. [...]
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Design for the other 90%
“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.” Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises One of the developments I find most compelling among poverty reduction [...]
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Tags: Design for the other 90%, Environfit, Freeplay Foundation, Schwab Foundation, Selco Solar Light, Solar energy, wind-up energy
Saving Children’s Lives
Every year 10 million children die before their fifth birthday, 99% of them in the developing world. Is it inevitable that poor countries should have high child mortality rates? Are governments in developing countries powerless to improve the survival prospects of their children? These are questions asked by a report from Save the Children in a [...]
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Tags: child mortality, Save the Children, U.N. Millenium Development Goals
From Kenya with Love
Today development-conscious people should make sure that the Valentine-flowers they get for their loved one(s) are from Kenya. At least that’s what Hilary Benn, British International Development Secretary, recommended yesterday: “This Valentine’s day, you can be a romantic, reduce your environmental impact and help make poverty history.” (The environmental isn’t obvious considering that the flowers [...]
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Tags: ecobalance, flower farms, Kenya, Valentines Day
win-win partnerships
This morning I experienced an ICT disaster: Upon starting my laptop it reset itself into its virgin state and that during a time when I had been more than lazy with my back-ups. Fortunately my internet access was still intact and my mood was raised by an email from Michael Gleich, science journalist and [...]
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Tags: aid by trade, cotton made in Africa, Otto group, solar lamps
Aid – free or cost-sharing?
One of the many open questions discussed in the aid community is whether aid is more effective if offered free of charge or if the poor have to pay for it. In White Men’s Burden. Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, development expert William [...]
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Tags: cost-sharing, free distribution, Making aid work, next billion, Population Service International, Poverty Action lab, William Easterly
Without words – the digital divide
From Map of Science
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Tags: digital divide, map of science