Gilad Lotan » development

charitywater.org

Sun, 11 May 2008 07:58:11 +0000

I saw this video by charitywater during one of the Pangea day commercial breaks today and simply could not get it out of my head. After checking out their site and some of the amazing work they do around the world, I was sold on donating $20 for one of their projects. Clip and info below:

Most of us have never really been thirsty. Weâ€™ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 miles to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean. Yet more than 1.1 billion people on the planet donâ€™t have clean water.
Itâ€™s hard to imagine what a billion people looks like really, but one in six might be easier. One in six people in our world donâ€™t have access to the most basic of human needs. Something we canâ€™t imagine going 12 hours without.
Here, weâ€™d like to introduce you to a few of those billion people. They are very real, and they need our help. They didnâ€™t choose to be born into a village where the only source of water is a polluted swamp. And I didnâ€™t choose to be born in a country where even the homeless have access to clean water and a toilet.
I invite you to put yourself in their shoes. Follow them on their daily journey. Carry 80 pounds of water in yellow fuel cans. Dig with their children in sand for water. Line up at a well and wait 8 hours for a turn.
Now, make a decision to help. Weâ€™re not offering grand solutions and billion dollar schemes, but instead, simple things that work. Things like freshwater wells, rainwater catchments and sand filters. For about $20 a person, we know how to help millions of people.

Start by helping one.

[tags]charitywater,pangea day,donation,development,water[/tags]

Controversial Travel to Burma

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:30:27 +0000

…500 monks emerged in rows four across. They carried flags and overturned alms bowls. When the first group stopped and chanted a prayer, some people in the crowd dared to clap. It was timid at first, but as more monks emerged to begin their protest, the clapping grew louder until the whole crowd seemed overcome by it. A Burmese man leaned toward me. “They have never done this before“, he said. “They clap for freedom“.

The faces in the crowd were excited, part bliss, part terror…

…I noticed that CNN was scrambled. A veil was being lowered between Myanmar and the rest of the world. The Internet was cut, and soldiers from the country moved into the city. The morning I left, I heard that my young guide was looking for me. I canâ€™t be certain why. But a few days later, back in New York, as I was scouring blogs for news of the crisis, I saw his picture. The junta had finally lashed out against the protesters. His forehead was bandaged. His white shirt was spotted red. I have no way to ask him what happened. Heâ€™s inside a country a tourist was never meant to see.

These are the words of a tourist who happened to be in Burma during the recent October protests.

Tourism in Burma has been controversial ever since the Jounta’s military coup. There are may ways to maximize one’s positive influence while visiting Burma – from staying in locally owned guest houses, to bringing needed medicine to local communities. A worker gets $1 a day while a tour guide can make $50 a day. Money from tourism trickles down and benefits a larger number of people within local communities. However, I strongly believe that the most important reason to visit Burma is information: it is a closed country from which information hardly escapes. Tourists are usually the only link local people have to the outside world. By visiting, one has the power to make these stories visible, surface local information that has no other way to leave the country.
Thank Myint-U’s thoughts on the tourism boycott campaign: (he is the author of “River of Lost Foot Steps”)

Isolation is the regime’s default condition. It is what fuels the present system. Burma might not become a democracy overnight, but it will certainly improve with more outside interaction. Would Indonesia
be better off if no one had visited during its 30 years of military rule?

Through traveler’s eyes and experience, Burma becomes less isolated. Journalists and foreign aid workers are usually not allowed to work inside the country, but tourists are more than welcome. By taking advantage of this already existing stream of people that visit, experience and return to their homes I see the potential to create a constantly updated pool of information coming behind the country’s closed doors. The tools need to be developed, but the technology exists.

Here is some of what I saw, my stories through the lens, to which I will someday add words:

Beneath the surface, tourism also has its dark side, as Paul Strachan states:

â€˜the sad fact is that the bulk of Burmaâ€™s tourism revenue comes from gambling and prostitution, both controlled by drug cartels and their attendant mafias.â€™ He mentions that there are specialist travel agencies set up which offer sex package tours for Thai, South Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese groups of men. The girls â€˜suppliedâ€™ to them have been sold by their destitute and starving families into white slavery. It is claimed that some can be as young as twelve or thirteen years old.

Another tourist describes what he saw while in Burma during the October ‘07 protests:

AN AMERICAN tourist has told of seeing children and pregnant women among the families of pro-democracy supporters, chained together and under heavy guard on a river ferry deep inside Burma.

The encounter indicates for the first time that a crackdown on dissidents now probably extends to their relatives and is being carried out in a thorough and ruthless fashion by the ruling military junta, even in remote parts of the country.

Tourist Scott Herbstman, 41, from New York, said: “These were the families of people who had been arrested during the protests in Yangon. They were in fear for their lives. From the look on their faces and their frequent tears, it was clear that they believed they were travelling to almost certain death.”

One of the shackled women was nine months pregnant, he said. Another prisoner indicated through hand signals that she, too, was pregnant. Four children were among those chained, he added. A two-year-old child and the wife of one young prisoner, whom he believed to be a democracy activist, accompanied the group, free of handcuffs. (source)

[tags] burma, myanmar, travel, protests [/tags]

The state of Tabasco is 80% underwater: Mexico’s Katrina

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:17:57 +0000

Again I’m facing the same burning question that asked half a year ago when I was working on Indigi-Net – Looking at ways that travelers can serve as the extension of the network and participate in local initiatives. In my exploration last year, I found that it was extremely difficult to find information on causes and where one could help out while traveling. A lot of the “charity” organizations request a big sum of money from people who want to travel to a location and help out locally. I was hoping to find a way to use technology (web+mobile phones) to devise a grassroots method for this exchange to happen.

So I’m heading out to Mexico for thanksgiving break with a group of friends. We’ll be in Tulum for a couple of days, but have a few days to venture inland into Yucatan, and possibly Chiapas / Tabasco. I am sure there are so many things we could bring along with us and leave there: medicine and clothes. It wouldn’t take much for me to fill up part of my bag with some extra clothing and pills. If all ten of us (going to Mexico) do that, we can essentially have quite a large package of extremely useful items. The big question is WHERE do we bring this to? I’m browsing online, looking for information, but as expected, its either in Spanish, or non-existent!

** UPDATE **

Through a flickr account I found a link to someone who might be able to provide me with useful information. In his blog, Root Coffee, there’s a lot of information coming from his relatives in villahermosa.

***********

The wikipedia entry with lots of information.

Here is a link to a youtube video report on what’s happening in the region.

An enormous humanitarian crisis continues to unfold south of the border. Since the beginning of November, the state of Tabasco, Mexico has been hit by widespread flooding due to steady rains – currently, more than 80% of the state is completely flooded, leaving thousands homeless.

Recent reports from the Red Cross indicate:

- The evacuation phase of the operation has ceased
- Over 1 million people have been affected in Tasbsco and neighboring state, Chiapas
- Mexican officials estimate it will be another two to three weeks before water levels recede
- An estimated 70 percent of Tabascoâ€™s capital city, Villahermosa, remains under water
- An estimated 80,000 people remain in 365 official and unofficial shelters
- The flood has resulted in widespread destruction of homes, building, infrastructure, agricultural crops and livestock.
(source: shalomrav)

And here is HJ’s in-depth article from Global Voices, including translations from local Mexican blogs.

One Laptop Per Teacher (re: to HJ)

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:17:45 +0000

I really enjoyed reading your post HJ, and myself, had too many thoughts which turned into a post.

I asked HJ, a friend and activist from Monterrey (Mexico), about his insights on the OLPC project, specifically on its possible impact in Mexico. He mentioned that Carlos Slim spent 70 million for 250,000 XOs, which will be delivered to Ciudad NezahualcÃ³yotl in Mexico State, and Tuxtla GutiÃ©rrez in Chiapas. (Carlos Slim controls 90% of the Mexican landline telephone market, and a big chunk of the cellphone market in Latin America. He is one of the richest people on earth – his wealth is equal to roughly 7% of Mexico’s annual economic output!) He also mentioned stories surrounding corrupt Mexican politicians, specifically in Education – Elba Esther Gordillo’s ways to misappropriate funds from the SNTE (Mexican National Educational Workers Union) for her own personal benefit. HJ noted four important points to remember when dealing with education in Mexico – 1) teach teachers how to teach 2) open source materials – to lower costs 3) information literacy 4) tech infrastructure

No matter how much we invest in tech, without a clear evolution of our education models, all similar efforts (tech related) will be pretty much a failure…

HJ suggests to invest all funds on basic education facilities and capabilities before getting the tech tools. Concentrate first on ways to engage teachers, before trying to reach the students. I agree completely to this point – teachers in the dev. world are far from motivated nor educated. How can they be expected to educate when they themselves do not have the tools? I say why not distribute the laptops to teachers? Why not give them access to the pools of information the device offers and let them use that as a way to be better motivated when teaching kids at schools.

On the other hand there’s something truly audacious about leaping over the existing hurdles – not dealing with the corrupt education system in Mexico, by trying to affect kids directly. Provide kids a chance to learn on their own without any dependencies on an existing failing system.

When I studied Economics in Tel-Aviv, the most important concept that stuck to my mind was thinking about alternative potentials. Economic theory is based on the value of the alternatives – what else we could do with a sum of money dictates how much it is worth. And this is precisely where I’m torn. On the one side, I can’t help but wonder what could have happened if all the money used to develop the XOs was invested directly in food, clothing and shelter for rural areas. But economic theories don’t really deal well with exceptions. And even though corruption is NOT an exception in Mexico, it is still difficult to display within behavioral equations, along with innovation. I applaud OLPC as an initiative. I just hope there is a well-thought out plan to integrate the XOs within local culture. How will the OLPC movement make sure they are not sold for money or food?

I’m heading down to Mexico for a couple of days at the end of November. I would have loved to be able to visit schools on some of my days there, and show kids the values of having a laptop. Will that be possible in the near future? If I want to buy the XOs for kids I meet while traveling, how can I make sure they are used properly?

In the picture above, kids I met while visiting the village of Zinacantan in Chiapas, Mexico. We sat together for a while, chatted and read the English book together.

To evolve our education system is a relevant issue against poverty, (its the only way we have to fight poverty) while we shouldnâ€™t forget the basic need of our people, we cannot afford not to try to evolve it. I just hope we donâ€™t leave it in hands of the wrong people. Maybe its time the private sector and civil society take problems in their hand instead of trusting our most valuable resource to the governmentâ€¦ (HJ)