Blogs

From Linda Raftree's blog site “Wait… What? bridging community development and technology", August 6 2012, this blog is about sharing experiences, good practice, challenges, thoughts, and ideas on the intersection of ICTs [Information and Communication Technologies] and Children on the Move [CoM]:

Background

Sleek smartphones. Wafer-thin tablets. Ingenious apps. We all love the latest technology. But let me tell you about a device that is truly revolutionary. A device that can save lives. A device that is right now helping millions of people live healthier lives. 

In an agriculture and micro finance project in India, it was found that the woman participant had economically improved. She however described herself as sadder than before the project began. When the reasons were explored, it was revealed that her daughter had been sent back to her home in order to get more dowry, in light of the economic improvement in the family. The organization sponsoring the project then had to help her intervene on the dowry harassment case.

It was October. I had just returned from an interview on a local television focusing on a mother's responsibility in protecting her children from polio. I was very energetic and optimistic about eradicating this crippling disease when I received calls from the remote areas of the province asking questions and showing their commitment for vaccinating their children. This can be done, I thought!!!

Bus journeys are fairly intimidating for women and girls, especially during the morning and evening peak hours. They also pose special risks for men and boys.

It's long been contended, debated and then established that insights occupy a central position in the branding exercise. By the same token, it should be central to the planning of (social and) development communications. While in the first case (subsequently called 'brand insights'), the role of the insight is to get the consumers to part with money, time & brand-association - in the latter case (subsequently called 'people insights') it reaches for real lifestyle choices. It seeks to understand fundamental behaviors that have personal and social ramifications.

Tax havens are allowing a "tiny global elite" to "extract trillions of dollars" from rich and poor countries alike.

When corporations say what they do to shield profit from taxation is "legal" they're often right. And this is wrong.  

Everyone loves to hate a thief. And quite right, too. Google, Amazon and Starbucks - and many more like them - are certainly stealing from the UK [United Kingdom] and other countries by playing tax systems so aggressively.

Despite the Indian government recently banning domestic work till the age of 18 years, it persists in Chennai, like in many other parts of India. The majority of child domestic workers are girls - with few of them being residents and the majority being non-residents. The resident domestic workers come from another province and speak a different language from the local province. The non-resident domestic workers go to work and return home - with roughly half of them going to school and another half not going to school.

There is a problem in reducing the art of communication into a science with preset tools, processes and templates. It manifests itself in the avoidance / incapability of or aversion to examination of cultural, social and economic nuances that arise across diverse geographic spaces and adjusting standardized templates and best-practices for those variances.