Aidnography

Hi all, I can't believe that this is already post no. 444 - and we are only one review away from the epic 200th anniversary! Development news: Why appoint an American to run the World Bank? Black Lives Matter receives unique philanthropic support; Let's drop 'sub-Saharan Africa'! #SWEDOW-broken medical equipment issue; Canadian mainstream media ignore corporate colonial history; UN struggling to play by the rules in CAR’s fragile environment; Uganda I: From adoption to foster care; Uganda II: Former women politician and their meaningful life after office; insights from working in a Syrian NGO start-up; women and media in Afghanistan-it’s complicated; Want to increase school attendance? Put washing machines in schools! Our digital lives: The complexities around digital gang activities Academia: Don’t write that 90 GBP hardcover book! Making public engagement count in academic promotions. Enjoy!   Development news A Non-Contest at the World Bank While Mr. Kim may be

Hi all, Development news: UN’s humanitarian balancing acts in Syria; Basra, a dystopian city; NIKE & the women in Vietnam; is paying workshop participants wrong?; how to develop organizational capacity beyond training; Rio’s favela journalism reloaded; Nepal’s roads and reconstruction-insights from a unaccountable country; challenging myths of women’s economic empowerment; Is the World Bank getting human rights in Zimbabwe wrong? Our digital lives: Non-Profit well-being & a need for a changing work ethic; the de- and re-politication of Burning Man Publication: Towards an alternative development management paradigm Academia: Following motivational clichés will not get you through a PhD! Enjoy!   New from aidnography Communicating development in a post-factual world: How to win against the Daily Mail But in post-factual world we are clearly reminded that ‘we’ teachers, researchers, communicators or journalists need to do more and better. Winning against the ‘them’ of the

This weekend the Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday was quite chuffed: This makes conservative commentator Ian Birrell quite happy, of course, and he is quick to compliment Priti Patel, the UK ’ s Secretary of State for International Development, in the same article : She is, after all, an uncompromising Right-winger known to harbour grave doubts about the wisdom of blowing so much money on aid. Ms Patel seems determined to shake up her sanctimonious department, though her room for manoeuvre will be limited. There is no doubt it makes sense to spend less on vainglorious aid projects and more on our own defence, given Middle East instability, jihadist atrocities and Russian provocations. We must hope Ms Patel does not become seduced by flawed concepts of saving the world. If you go through some of the contributions that are featured in the article and that have been part of the targeted campaign against development spending you get a glimpse of the Daily Mail ’ s post-factual filt

Hi all, Development news: JK Rowling takes on voluntourism; MSF, Kayla Mueller and caring for humanitarian aid workers; let’s talk fraud, NGOs! The overworked nonprofit employee is the new normal; are aid organizations wasting money in rural Nepal? Our digital lives: The differences between photo-op and policy Justin Trudeau; more critical Silicon Valley journalism needed; analyzing #Brexit tweets; surveillance as feminist issue Academia: Why don’t students read? Can you fix the academic conference business? Enjoy! New from aidnography This Present Darkness (book review) In the end, Ellis is careful not to buy into a simple globally organized crime narrative with Nigerians at the heart which ‘underestimates the degree to which business, organised crime and politics have become integrated through their mutual interests’ (p.229). But he does not let individuals off the hook by defending themselves that today’s crimes are somehow rectifying past wrongs and are justified by hist

As my academic summer break is coming to its end, I am keen on sharing another book review with you. This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organised Crime is one of the most extraordinary books I have read in a long time. The book follows, supported by stunning and meticulously analyzed archival data, about 100 years of Nigerian history through a wide, constantly refocusing lens on ‘organized crime’ from early 1920s mail order scams to the political corruption of the oil boom to today ’ s cyber scams. But if you are expecting a journalistic expose filled with juicy details of crime and corruption, a culture-deterministic review of ‘the Nigerians’ and their skills to defraud or steal or a singular narrative blaming things on colonialism and capitalistic natural resource governance you will be pleasantly disappointed. Stephen Ellis, who passed away shortly after the completion of the manuscript, has been conducting research on the continent since 1971. He asks in his introducti

Hi all, Happy World Humanitarian Day , happy Friday and happy reading with this week's link review! Development news: UN admits role in Haiti cholera epidemic; World Bank economist writes reflective blog post; New leader, old debate: Who’s going to head the Bank? Participation and inequality; Kenya’s NGO crackdown to silence critics? How academics and NGOs can work together; c ards against humanity; Pakistan’s truck art. Our digital lives: Photographing Justin Trudeau; Neglecting the floods in Louisiana. Academia: Female economists & patriarchal higher education; a long read on mindfulness and political self-exploitation. Enjoy! New from aidnography Today We Drop Bombs, Tomorrow We Build Bridges (book review) Gill’s very good blend of journalistic insights, reflections on the past and present of the humanitarian system and a measured appeal for a sustainable future of aid round off a book I can recommend highly as in introduction into the complexities of modern conflic