Blog.

‘Redrawing and re-writing’ World War 1

Developmenteducation.ie cartoonist Brick (aka John Clark) has teamed up with co-editor Jonathan Clode and 51 other contributors and graphic artists (including this author) to deliver a graphic anthology of 27 short stories on the First World War – To End All Wars  to be published July 2014 by Soaring Penguin.

What’s so scary about smart girls?

*This blog is crossposted  from the Half The Sky Movement website. Nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls were abducted in April. Malala Yousafzai was shot for speaking up about her right to an education. Every day around the world, girls are in danger simply because of their desire to get an education.

The meaning of development from “The Menstrual Man”

I recently came across an intriguing article in the BBC on-line magazine entitled: ‘The Indian Sanitary Pad Revolutionary’. It tells the ‘real life’ story of “A school dropout from a poor family in southern India [who] has revolutionised menstrual health for rural women in developing countries by inventing a simple

African tales on film is an antidote to hokum diamonds

Let’s get to the point – film isn’t real.  It can’t be.  You take a story and fiddle with it a bit, compress it, elongate it, fictionalise ten minutes here or there and before you know it you have a visual narrative that connects with an audience.  Sometimes this doesn’t

Harassing catcalls at women is okay as long as it’s done properly, right?

This advert is part of the Snickers Australia ‘You aren’t yourself when you’re hungry’ campaign and has drawn an equal mix of laughter and rage since it was posted online on 25th March. Some of the terms used to describe it include ‘empowering’… ’positive prejudice’… ‘obviously made by men!’. The

The Rohingya refugee making factory

If the production of refugees was an industry, Myanmar would be among the world’s market leaders. In the creation of the product, the Burmese regime has pulled out all the stops and ended up with something unique. For the Rohingya are more than refugees. They are also stateless, they are

7.1 Japans – getting ready for overshoot 2014

A date before August 20th 2014 will mark Earth Overshoot Day, the approximate date on which our resource consumption for this year will exceed the planet’s ability to replenish itself.  21 years ago, the date was October 21, by 2003 it was September 22nd and by 2013 it had moved