"A diferencia de los otros animales, que no llegaron a ser capaces de transformar la vida en existencia, nosotros, en cuanto existentes, nos volvimos aptos para participar en la lucha en busca y en defensa de la igualdad de posibilidades por el hecho mismo de ser, como seres vivos, radicalmente diferentes unos de las otras y unas de los otros."

Sabiduría por Paulo Freire. (Pedagogía de la Esperanza, p.124)

Are Amnesty serious?

http://sendsocks.org/

#swedow seems alive and well

HT Tom

Reuters is stepping up to provide more comprehensive coverage of humanitarian aid. Recently, they launched the 'Future of Aid' section that is filled with graphics, stories and videos about humanitarian aid. The present focus of the section is centered around aid spending.

In a survey of 41 relief agencies, Reuters asked aid experts to weigh in on how money is spent and advise what ways the…

Don't miss the latest post at AidSpeak - the official blog of the AidSource network: 

Beyond Aid

This is a cross-post from the super-awesome, AidSource-affiliated Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like.

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Many of you have asked us to keep Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like up, so we’ll be morphing it a bit rather than closing it down completely as we had planned.

You’ve continued to send in…

Originally posted on "KM on a dollar a day" http://kmonadollaraday.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/working-with-one-hand-tied-behind-your-back/

“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”

“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it…

Numbers are dirty liars. They are like the sirens singing to tempt Odysseus to steer his boat towards the dangerous rocks. Unfortunately, we are not prepared enough to either employ beeswax or tie…

Necessity is the mother of invention.  Plato said that by the way...sort of.

What's locally available is what you end up cooking with.  On my first field…

What do the poor deserve? Well, "better", for starters...

My most recent post on the AidSpeak blog: What do the poor deserve?

Nothing beats a home cooked meal in a foreign country with exotic ingredients (bought at the super expensive expat store).  There is a pleasure (for me) to have friends sitting around the table instead of at the 'Chinese' in Ampara, …

This stuff really grinds my gears. Why is it so hard for journalists to understand privacy and protection when it comes to children in difficult circumstances? Here's more NY Times hardcore journalism.

If you know me, you'll know I think they are. So I was dismayed when I saw that Fast Company does a pretty decent article on how international NGOs are moving away from Poverty Porn, and then contradicts itself by holding up Falling Whistles and Invisible Children as examples of how to do it right. What the hell? A commenter says as much - will be interesting to see the reactions as FW and IC…

SEAWL's latest - because we are all sooooo busy.... 

I'm curious to get the AidSource take on this profile of Michael VanRooyen of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. 



Professionalizing the humanitarian sector is, of course, something that I've read many of you on before. VanRooyen has an interesting take on what that means. Knowing little about him other than the fact that he's infatuated with that Satellite Sentinel nonsense in Sudan, I wanted to see what my older, wiser…

Somehow in the back of my mind I knew it was only a matter of time before something like this happened:

"Haitians sue Jesuits, Connecticut school over aid worker abuse" (headline on CNN online this morning)

I think it's safe to assume this will not create more than a small glitch in the ongoing global outreach…

In Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like's latest, Dr. Kurtz [of Hand Relief International, sigh, how I miss him] guest posts about The Hub Nearby, where you can find everything you love to miss....

The season of giving passed by in a hurry to give way to a new year.  What did not change as we changed from a 1 to a 2 on the calendar is the desire to give stuff to people.  Whether it is doing a local giving tree, putting clothes in the large yellow bin or giving an extra few bucks to the panhandler on the street, everybody feels just a bit more…

I'm super excited to have J's latest post up on Shotgun Shack. What do Eminem and Rhianna have to do with donors and aid? Find out here.

What are your favorite bits of personal writing? Here's a list of my 8 favorite posts of all time on Shotgun Shack.