Aidnography

Hi all, I am wrapping up a week in Ottawa and whether it's because of the different time zone, tweaks in algorithms or a different attention span, it seems that many interesting digital vignettes have caught my eye this week...or maybe it's just a busy week for #globaldev-related stuff...?? This week's highlights: Learning English in Kenya with Ellen DeGeneres; skin bleaching in Nigeria; feminism at a traditional Indian university; Dior discovering Africa; Coco-Cola & the history of globalization; working towards equitable #highered! Enjoy! Development news Social Justice Organization Seeks Summer Interns Who Can Afford to Be Unpaid Due to Privilege We hope one day to be able to pay our interns, but at the moment we aren’t in a financial position where we can fulfill our mission in terms of the hiring decisions we make in order to fulfill our mission. Sometimes, interns are able to find scholarship funds for summer opportunities through their college. Sometimes, they ...

Hi all, Happy Friday! Enjoy your #globaldev readings! Development news: Mozambique, DRC, Shell, World Bank, Zambia, Sudan, Blockchain, UNHCR, Inequality, Walter Rodney, Participatory budgeting, Slavery @ Cambridge. Our digital lives: Slack. Academia: Blogs, Airlines. Enjoy! P.S.: I'll be in Ottawa next week.   Development news 'Visual Chaos': A Photographer's View Of Cyclone Kenneth Imagine your house is gone. And yet the TV is still standing. That's one of the scenes that photojournalist Tommy Trenchard documented as he visited parts of Mozambique hit by Cyclone Kenneth on Thursday. Marc Silver & Tommy Trenchard for NPR Goats & Soda . Tommy Trenchard's pictures complement reporting from Mozambique and the aerial shots often shared by UN and other humanitarian agencies. I'm not sure I like the word 'angry' in the URL in reference to the storm. Cliches Can Kill in Congo If there is anything Congolese and international analysts a...

Hi all, I'm on my way to Copenhagen for two great events with David 'socialmedia4D' Girling and Olivier van Beemen's talk on his book Heineken in Africa . Development news: 'More Than Me' founder steps down; ICT4Bad playbook for Sudan; climate change inequalities; corporate water sustainability goals BS; UN scandals & bureaucratic culture; the WTF of 'immersive poverty experiences'; the complexity of private education; the missing billions of African gold revenue; NGO language barriers in Lebanon; is 'Volungearing' sustainable? Netflix all-female comic superheroes; decolonizing the return of ancestors from British museums. Our digital lives: Solutions journalism; TED-tech-industrial complex; inside China's live streaming culture. Publications: Core funding is great! Enjoy! New from aidnography Cross-Border (book review) I am basically repeating my previous praise for J’s writing. Cross-border is an entertaining read during your next...

I was looking for a way to introduce J.’s latest aid worker novel Cross-Border without sounding like a middle-aged academic, but it is hard to avoid some tropes about his writing endeavors, e.g. ‘how I followed his career’, ‘how a new book was long overdue’ or how the world, development and aid worker writing have changed over time. But as with most tropes, there is usually a grain of truth to them. My reviews of J.’s first novel Disastrous Passion appeared on Aidnography in 2012. Missionary, Mercenary, Mystic, Misfit followed in 2013 and his first non-fiction reflections about the aid industry, Letters Left Unsent in 2014. His science fiction novel Human was published in 2016. Now back with his latest novel, three broad themes quickly emerge that as always say a lot about the current state of affair of ‘our industry’: Borders have become a key part of the ‘infrastructure’ that governs humanitarian and development work. The novel (finally!) moves away from ‘the field’ to US he...

Hi all, Many readers will enjoy a long Easter weekend and I will contribute some food for thought with my latest link review! Development news: Food crisis in Zimbabwe ; the failure of development communication tropes; the conflict in Northern Nigeria is not 'empowering' victims; Charity Water hearts capitalism; US concerned over UNAIDS spending; the tragedy of contaminated water in Bangladesh ; will AI kill growth in developing countries (and is it really a bad thing)? Expat vs. local aid worker: Somali UN staff edition; how UN consultants struggle in Geneva ; pay transparency at Open Humanitarian Street Map; social media & emergencies; Melinda Gates likes taxes; 'solutions privilege' ; new book project on Rwanda . Our digital lives: 30 African communicators to follow. Academia: Does #highered internationalization produce global taxi drivers? Is academia a Multi-Level Marketing scheme/scam? Enjoy! New from aidnography Bavarian Prime Minister Markus ...