Aidnography

Hi all, A solid #globaldev round-up this week tackling Pakistan, climate change & lack of accountability, the forthcoming UNGA, bitcoin failure in El Salvador, Bill Gates bashing, the humanitarian system, ending capacity building, UNDP's 'flagship report' + Swedish elections & the positive thinking industry! My quotes of the week The world’s rich countries (...) have deprived Pakistan of the long-term climatic conditions on which it has built its economy, homes, farms, and infrastructure. If there was a global climate court, Pakistan’s government would have a strong case against the US and other high-income countries for failing to limit climate-changing greenhouse-gas emissions (GHGs). (Pakistan and the Fight for Climate Justice) “Capacity building is the consolation prize money that foundations offer when they are willing to pay for us to get advice, but they aren’t willing to resource us to help our people get free.” The second quote resonated with most of the f

Hi all, Just as the #globaldev community started to discuss the new UK government, including a new minister for development, another breaking news story may have appeared in your newsfeeds as well...even your trusted #globaldev link review kicks off with a thoughtful reflection on Queen Elizabeth's passing-but we are also looking at the state of the humanitarian system, UN politics, Eritrea & Nigeria plus long reads on global nomads & how Silicon Valley conquered the post-Cold War consensus. My quotes of the week Death is not the solution to injustice, nor does it heal the wounds caused by life for those who remain in the wake of a leader who refused to stand boldly against injustice. Collective change and each person benefitting from racial and economic castes surrendering that privilege is the answer. I warmly embrace the opportunity for change, and each of us seeing our part (not a monarch’s) in loving one another. (Xavier Ramey on the death of Queen Elizabeth II.) We d

Hi all, First full teaching week, welcoming 150+ students to our courses with our team, happy days :). #Globaldev also happened this week, featuring the US, Ukraine, Equatorial Guinea & Brazil, plus Ponzi schemes, UN movers + shakers, important charities, journalism-humanitarianism & the poetics of birth, loss and limbos. My quotes of the week the conflation of traditional protection programming aimed at addressing external threats with the internal risks posed by organisations and their staff; the fusion of abuses against beneficiaries with abuses against staff resulting in a detraction in focus from those most vulnerable and lacking in recourse; the pursuit of criminal justice solutions for behaviours that either do not reach the criminal threshold or do not have a realistic prospect of criminal conviction; and the blind transference of approaches used in stable Western democracies for tackling child abuse and sexual violence into war-torn contexts without any semblance of th

Hi all, After a little summer flu health break last week, Aidnography is almost back to the usual routines just as the new semester is about to start next week. From plastic waste in Ghana to urbanization in Nigeria, a lot of well-known #globaldev challenges (re)emerge this week, including adoptions from the periphery to the center, UN whistleblowing, exploitations of Jamaican migrant workers in Canada, or the persistence of the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh...and I won't become a fan of Effective Altruism and Longtermism; plus, 5 years ago Madonna helped Malawi... My quotes of the week For Biritwum, littering was a result of poverty and lack of proper housing, not slovenly behavior. Ghana was changing, he went on, because of habits imported from Europe and the United States (...). “We are becoming more throwaway, more takeaway,” he said. “We are becoming more like you.” ( West Africa Is Drowning in Plastic. Who Is Responsible?) “If my minister asks me whether it is safe to spend