Ideas & Values
1st Dec 2013
These briefing notes have been designed to remind us of the larger, more fundamental questions that underpin specific issue discussions. Do we have duties and responsibilities in the world
These briefing notes have been designed to remind us of the larger, more fundamental questions that underpin specific issue discussions. Do we have duties and responsibilities in the world
A few weeks ago we were treated to a letter by the The Irish Times’ new editor, Kevin O’Sullivan, welcoming the soon-to-take place birth of the 7 billionth person into our ‘work in progress’ unequal world. Cross-posted below in full, we think it is well worth a read. If you
4thought.tv is Channel 4’s daily moral and ethics opinion show and is on every day after the news. 4thought.tv states that it is about sharing diverse thoughts, ideas and points of view. Each week, a different theme is explored through short video clips covering a wide range of issues such
Overseas aid agendas of governments and proposed cuts in real spending on aid budgets are under review across donor countries. The prolonged global recession, rising unemployment and recovery difficulties ahve fueled many misconceptions, myths and stereotypes about aid and have made their way into classrooms, policy debates and recent ‘what
‘Her Zimbabwe is an alternative platform for Zimbabwean women to articulate their stories no matter what their background, no matter what their story. We want to hear the authentic voice of each and every woman in Zimbabwe, we want to count everyone. We want to say ‘here we are, here
Source: Joe Villion (as published in the New York Times) This article was written by Henning Mankell – better known as creator of Swedish detective Inspector Kurt Wallander – who divides his time between Moçambique and Sweden. Writing on topical issues such as HIV and AIDS, Henning is a pro-Palestinian
Artist – Robert Montgomerry (UK) // install in Bristol The central message to UK outfit ‘Brandalism’ who exploded onto the British scene in the past few days was in bringing their motto ‘taking the piss with a point’ to billboards up and down the country using guerrilla-style subervtising. 25 artists
Image: Cayman Islands 2005 084 (2006) by Salvatore.Fren, Flickr. A useful dictum to remember when trying to understand and analyse global inequality is ‘study the rich and powerful, not the poor and powerless’. We have become used to forensic studies focused on whether the poor are slightly less or more
On 4th March Kenyans will be going to the polls to vote in national elections. Memories of the post-election violence that gripped the country in 2007-08 are vivid, and many fear similar violence could occur again when the polls close. But political violence in Kenya is more than just a
“We are Transition Year students from Presentation College, Bray and what we would like to share with you is real and happening now. We and our classmates were shocked and angry upon hearing these facts.” *This blog was written by Patryk Labuzek, Andrew Dore and Conor Davenport as part of
So you donated a week’s lattes to save refugees from an African civil war; you suspect the refugees received only an ordinary cup of Joe… Julia Lewis, Area Manager, Democratic Republic of Congo in Concern Worldwide, presents a field report on four of the harsh realities in delivering aid assistance
At the recent July Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies/80:20 Human Rights Summer School in Malta, Roland Tormey of the Teaching Support Centre, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne reminded participants of the factors that influence ‘pro-social action’ (an extended version of his presentation will shortly be available on www.developmenteducation.ie). These factors
A tribute by cartoonist Zapiro from today’s Mail & Guardian newspaper to the life and times of Nelson Mandela, former lawyer, radical anti-apartheid activist, prisoner for 27 years, a canny politician and the first President in a fully democratic South Africa who died in his Johannesburg home last night at
It’s hard to escape the ‘devastation’ that the ‘adverse weather conditions’ have ‘ravaged’ across the UK and Ireland, to limit it closer to home. Writing from Dublin, we have ‘escaped’ the ‘worst’ of the storms, but the reality of the huge impact of the damage across the country is readily
Tom Roche makes the case that all of us – student groups, teachers, woodwork folk, parents and professionals – should be making online submissions to the European Commission’s public consultation on combating wildlife trafficking, which closes on the 10th April. _______________________________ Events marking the first World Wildlife Day took place in
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
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
‘First, never will even the most impressive television footage properly capture the depth of fear and despair felt in the homes and hearts of Gazans who are yet again facing death, devastation and displacement. Thousands of parents today have no more answers to give to their young children when they
Children play atop a bullet-riddled building in Gaza. 05/10/2011. Photo by UN Photo/Shareef Sarhan via Flickr CC-BY-NC-ND “I am constantly amazed by man’s inhumanity to man.” – Primo Levi*, If This Is a Man / The Truce The Holocaust was one of the negative icons of the 20th century. It provided
I can’t find my iPod. I can’t find it anywhere. Did I put it somewhere safe and now can’t remember? Perhaps someone has ‘taken’ it?! I wake up in the middle of the night and search for it. It’s not there. I can’t find it. For days now my mind
2015 is an important year for international development. This year, global leaders will hold two remarkable summits focusing on both people and the planet. One UN summit to be held in New York in September will result in a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to replace the previous
On the eve of International Women’s Day, I boarded a plane at Entebbe airport bound for my first stop in Doha. As I approached row 12, I noticed that someone else was sitting in my assigned seat. I politely asked the man whether he was in the right seat or
Climate change and climate justice are often seen as abstract concepts that are hard to get to grips with, especially for young people. The key to engaging this age group with these ideas is to approach them through active and experiential learning, which is why the Development Education team at
The project began with a series of workshops on Poverty and the MDG agenda in 2009. TY students wanted an action that would reflect their frustration and disappointment with the progress in the United Nations MDG programme. Two schools came up with a book project and Self Help Africa facilitated
Should people boycott Israeli products based on the siege of Gaza, stalled peace talks and expulsion of farmers from land in the West Bank?
Ten years after The Economist declared that Africa was ‘a basket case’ it was back with another headline: ‘Africa Rising…the hopeful continent’. If Africa is rising can it continue to do so, or will the many problems it still faces render its rising ‘a false dawn’?
South Africa 2010 For the first time in history, the FIFA World Cup was hosted on the continent of Africa, in South Africa. There was much to celebrate about – or was there? The country embarked on the mammoth task of upgrading and developing its infrastructure in order to ensure
With his encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (available online as a long-form letter) Pope Francis has entered the fray not just on the environment and its future but also more broadly on the ethics and impact of dominant models of economic development and ‘extreme’ consumption. His