Aidnography

Hi all, I am fortunate to have such a great & generous network! Giulio from NRC , Khalifa & Ragy from the Dignified Storytelling Alliance plus Val from Amnesty together with Dante from IFRC presented their work, shared reflections on digital humanitarian communication & discussed with our students on Thursday! Such a great day! It is also Friday so time for some food for reading-a lot on widening/broadening inequalities due to platform capitalism, but as always much more to explore... My quotes of the week The same economy of clicks determines the fates of refugees across the Middle East. Forced to adapt their sleeping patterns to meet the needs of firms on the other side of the planet and in different time zones, the largely Syrian population of Lebanon’s Shatila camp forgo their dreams to serve those of distant capitalists. (Refugees help power machine learning advances at Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon) We call this “Peace from the hands and in the likeness of w...

Hi all, Another week is wrapping up and between friendly, collegial editorial meetings, teaching on topics I really enjoy & discussing literature with students this academic life is sometimes not too bad...I hope you also had a great week; unfortunately, there is not a lot of light reading in this week's #globaldev review, but important topics from the rise of processed foods, to sexual violence in the UN & the emotional toll of 'dirty work' are yet another reminder that social change & justice efforts don't have breaks... My quotes of the week U.N. staffers past and present told me they feared that if they spoke up in the current atmosphere, they would be contributing to the dismantling of an organization many of them had first revered as Model U.N. participants. Several (...) described how their identities were enmeshed with an organization that was deeply flawed but also genuinely beloved. (The U.N.’s Own Humanitarian Crisis) Press’s cases are diverse an...

Listening to a 6-minute-long piece on German public radio Deutschlandfunk Kultur reminded me how truly global humanitarian responses have become. Journalist Vivien Leue visited the Ahrtal region that was hit by recent floods and spoke to residents and major charities aiding people about the challenges of rebuilding after July's disaster. A recent article by Deutsche Welle, German flood victims left traumatized as climate crisis looms, also highlights some of the key humanitarian issues that are emerging now. Even though the radio piece is relatively short I was struck how familiar many of the issues sounded compared to the discussions humanitarian and development experts have had for many years and after many crises. Waiting for money More than 430 million Euros have been raised for the victims of the flooding and one of the key questions about two months after the events that killed 103 people remains on how to connect people waiting for aid with the substantial donations. “I...

Hi all, Just when I thought 'well, looks like one of those normal weeks featuring saving philanthropy, Australia being a dick, digital #globaldev being complicated & more staggering numbers of the cost of forever-wars', someone decided to launch an actual reality TV show where activists compete against each other for social media traffic so they can win a competition & attend a global summit...you can't even meme stuff like this anymore... My quotes of the week Activists go head-to-head in challenges to promote their causes, with their success measured via online engagement, social metrics, and hosts’ input. The three teams have one ultimate goal: to create impactful movements that amplify their message, drive action, and advance them to the G20 Summit in Rome, Italy. There, they will meet with world leaders in the hope of securing funding and awareness for their causes. (Usher, Priyanka Chopra & Julianne Hough Set For ‘The Activist’, CBS Competition Series From...

Hi all, We welcomed almost 170 students to our ComDev courses this week, so the link review is a tad bit shorter than usual at the end of a long week...but from Afghanistan to Colombia, Mexico, Abu Dhabi, the UK, biometrics, the HR department & breast feeding we are visiting many contentious spaces around the globe... Enjoy! My quotes of the week We must also oppose the practice of the northern aid industry to consistently place themselves as the managers, implementers, intermediaries and monitors of aid, whether white or people of colour. (Racism doesn’t just exist within aid. It’s the structure the sector is built on) Insofar as keeping your staff happy makes sense for maintaining a productive and docile workforce, HR are our champions. But shorter hours, higher pay, more control? That’s not in the purview of a department with our employer’s interests at heart. (The HR department are not your friends) Development news How elite US institutions created Afghanistan’s neoliberal Pre...

Hi all,  We made it through another week & a great photo essay on outdoor women in Canada & a speculative humanitarian fiction story could help to take off your mind for a little bit, but we also must not forget Madagascar or Haiti & how language matters when we talk about #globaldev! My quotes of the week Nearly all respondents said they had attended large humanitarian gatherings attended by staff from international and local agencies. Did these encounters produce feelings of solidarity? No. (Power & solidarity in humanitarian governance – what aid workers really think) My biggest tip is to think about who has power and agency and ask yourself: are you using language that amplifies the power and worth of the people your work is supposedly done in service to, or is it taking away that power? (Devspeak: are the words we use doing more harm than good?) Maintaining the drug war thus reinforces the idea that Indigenous peoples are secondary; that the pain and sufferi...