International Women's Day 2011

[img via The Adventure Project]

From Jumo:
• Women perform 66% of the world’s work and produce 50% of the world’s food, yet they earn only 10% of the world’s income and own only 1% of the world’s property.
• According to the United Nations, girls make up the majority of the estimated 72 million children who are not in school.
• Close to 70% of the world’s 759 million adults who cannot read or write are women.

Today is International Women's Day! Unfortunately, this week is an insanely busy week for me so as much as I want to write a proper post dedicated to women, it will have to be slightly delayed.

However, I have been tweeting (or rather, RTing) for a good portion of today with posts revolving around #IWD11 :) When I get the time later this week to sit down and compile my thoughts, I will do so.

Before I go (and study my brains out about macroeconomics for international affairs), I just want to say that women should most certainly be celebrated, not oppressed! Honor the women in your life by pledging to make a difference in the lives of women across the globe :)

For a start, you can visit Google's IWD page (accessible by clicking on Google's doodle today) and seeing the various organizations dedicated to positively impacting our world through putting women's issues on the agenda.

And now I'm off. Have a fabulous rest of the week, folks! And remember that all of March is Women's Month!

Jacqueline Novogratz: Inspiring a life of immersion

Amazing woman.

If you don't want to watch the whole thing, I'd recommend going to 14:25 -- one of many of the great stories told by Jacqueline in this clip.

MTV EXIT: The Killers - Goodnight, Travel Well

Arianna Huffington & Sheryl Sandberg: On women & success

I watched two TED Talks so far this week. I highly recommend both, but if you don't have much time, at least check out the first one by Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post). It's only 4 minutes long.

Arianna Huffington: How to succeed? Get more sleep.
"We are literally going to sleep our way to the top."





Sheryl Sandberg: Why there are so few women leaders.
"I learned something today. I learned that I need to keep my hand up."

The Candy Shop (& other great films)

http://www.thedoorpost.com/

I came across the trailer for The Candy Shop not too long ago. Tonight, I discovered that the film was released recently & is being featured on The Doorpost Project, a film contest. I don't think it made it to the finalists, but I watched it anyways...really well-done.

I plan to watch more of these short films during my holiday on Long Island, which starts tomorrow. Yay.

Stand-up economist

Why didn't I get him for Microeconomics???

Tony Porter: on being a man

"My liberation as a man is tied to your liberation as a woman.
I remember asking a 9-year-old boy, 'What would life be like for you if you didn't have to adhere to this Man Box?' He said to me, 'I would be free.'"

- Tony Porter

Words that don't exist in the English language

In the midst of catching up on some blog reading, I came across this entry from Christine.

words that don’t exist in the english language
INTERESTING.

L’esprit de escalier: (French) The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Translated it means “the spirit of the staircase.”

Waldeinsamkeit: (German) The feeling of being alone in the woods.

Meraki: (Greek) Doing something with soul, creativity, or love.

Forelsket: (Norwegian) The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.

Gheegle: (Filipino) The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.

Pochemuchka: (Russian) A person who asks a lot of questions.

Pena ajena: (Mexican Spanish) The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation.

Cualacino: (Italian) The mark left on a table by a cold glass.

Ilunga: (Tshiluba, Congo) A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.

(Source: thenewinquiry.com)

I like "meraki."

Sunitha Krishnan: Sex slavery.

This gets me:

"We think it is easy money. We think it is shortcut. We think the person likes to do what she's doing. But the extra bonuses that she gets is various infections, sexually transmitted infections, HIV, AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea, you name it, substance abuse, drugs, everything under the sun. And one day she gives up on you and me, because we have no options for her. And therefore she starts normalizing this exploitation. She believes, 'Yes, this is it, this is what my destiny is about.' And this is normal, to get raped by 100 men a day. And it's abnormal to live in a shelter. It's abnormal to get rehabilitated."

At the end, Sunitha Krishnan adds:

"I'm not asking you all to become Mahatma Gandhis or Martin Luther Kings, or Medha Patkars, or something like that. I'm asking you, in your limited world, can you open your minds? Can you open your hearts? Can you just encompass these people too? Because they are also a part of us. They are also part of this world. I'm asking you, for these children, whose faces you see, they're no more. They died of AIDS last year. I'm asking you to help them, accept as human beings, not as philanthropy, not as charity, but as human beings who deserve all our support. I'm asking you this because no child, no human being, deserves what these children have gone through."

Fishing industry

"Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or to teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry." - Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka.

Is it time to MakeSense yet? (Almost!)

Jessica Jackley: Poverty, money -- & love.

Poverty, money -- & love [Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva]

"For me, the best way to be inspired...is to stop and to listen to someone else's story... Believing in each other, really being sure when push comes to shove that each one of us can do amazing things in the world. That is what can make our stories into love stories and our collective story into one that continually perpetuates hope and good things for all of us. So that, this belief in each other, knowing that without a doubt and practicing that every day in whatever you do, that's what I believe will change the world and make tomorrow better than today."

Love it.

Print is not dead.

I wanted to post this up a while back when Design*Sponge first presented the new design magazine Anthology.



I was reminded of this when I came across another video this morning. A piece created by Lane Smith titled It's a Book.



Not only are these videos adorable (I pretty much love everything about the Anthology one) but they remind me of why I have 2 bookshelves overflowing with printed pieces, about 10 more books strewn across my bedroom, and 3 more in the mail coming to me.

About Smith's book, Adam Gopnik writes in the New York Times:

“The moral of Smith’s book is the right one: not that screens are bad and books are good, but that what books do depends on the totality of what they are — their turning pages, their sturdy self-­sufficiency, above all the way they invite a child to withdraw from this world into a world alongside ours in an activity at once mentally strenuous and physically still.”

Perfect!

More water talk. #BlogActionDay2010

Just earlier, Mark and I were talking, and the fact came up that a lack of clean water kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. He mentioned that this was the fact that struck him the most about the water issue. It's pretty horrific and really puts into perspective how deadly water can be for many in this world (one in eight billion, actually). Not to sound callous, but it sounds about right. If over 38,000 children are dying every week because of water-related illnesses, then yeah, I can believe that the issue kills more people than all the wars and acts of violence occurring in our world.

Mark went on to comment that the Nobel Peace Price should go to the person who most alleviates the water problem.

Honestly though, there are so many who are working on this issue from so many levels. The solutions are already there. But it takes more than just organizations like Charity:water or Lifewater International to change the numbers. It takes people and mobilization. Unfortunately, for every great idea or solution we have out there, there is even more apathy and inaction.

I read this quote from Christian just yesterday as he was presenting MakeSense at the i7 Summit in Paris yesterday:

"Reward success. Celebrate failure. Punish inaction."

I know it was more in relation to the work that MakeSense is doing, but it made me think yesterday. Yeah, "punish" is a strong word but it's true that the biggest hindrance to development and progress in our society today is inaction, often driven by apathy. It is one of the things that keeps me up at night -- how can we motivate people to bring social change or to do social good?

It's been one of the things that has been on my mind a lot. It's one of the main reasons why The 3:18 Movement was birthed. And it so happens we're currently focused on the clean water issue.


Moving onward, I do have to say that I am incredibly glad for today. It has been such an inspiring day -- what with Blog Action Day (#BlogActionDay2010 #bad2010), The Feast conference (#feastongood), the RSA animation on Sir Ken Robinson's talk of social change, and a work meeting with some amazing & dedicated NYC women in fighting sex trafficking.

Today was the reminder I needed of why I do what I do and how much I love doing it.

Lastly, consider doing some of the following:

• Blog/tweet/FB/whatever about the water issue.
• Join The 3:18 Movement's campaign by either walking for a cause or joining the 3:18 team
• If you can't do the walk on October 23rd, consider sponsoring one of a walker. The money raised will bring clean water, health education, and community development to hundreds in Northern Uganda.
• Sign the petition below:

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

Let's change the world :)

RSA Animate: Changing Education Paradigms.

RSA Animation on Sir Ken Robinson's view of how to bring up young leaders and thinkers.

Everything about this is brilliant. The animation is impeccably done and perfectly in line with what the lecture is about too. And of course, the lecture by Sir Ken Robinson is spot on and makes me want to jump into education reform advocacy, ha.

It's not the entire talk but you can catch the full length of Sir Ken Robinson's presentation on changing our educational system on RSA's website.