Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UaGVDp9bDJo

Brian Weinberg of Blended Profit speaks with Sonal Shah, a Tides Fellow and former Director of the Office of Social Innovation at the White House.…

History is full of stories of harm done by people in the name of religion. Some people, therefore, see religion as constituting the gravest problem of humanity. They think of it as an obstacle to development, depriving people of freedom, and making them irresponsible by setting their minds on some heaven or after-life when they could take charge of their lives and bring about any required personal and societal change.  

If this is true, then religion is a curse. If it is true that…

Dear Colleagues,

My latest post for The Common Ground Blog on potential common ground between the tea party and the occupy movement is below. This is a cross-post, you can find the original here.

The problem with experts

As the movement was in its early stages, Occupy Wall Street played…

On the treadmill this morning (a time I usually reserve for non-development thinking), a story from Malawi popped up via This American Life on my ipod. They continue covering stories on aid issues in ways that are, for the most part, respectful and engaging, this one specifically related to HIV prevention programs.

This American Life 444: Gossip, Originally aired 8/26/11 Summary from…

The Universality of The Colonial Experience

of Different Parts of the World 

                                                      

'Erstwhile colonies of the world unite!' sounds a loud call. Nevertheless, the loudness of the call does not undermine its…

By Andrew Gavin Marshall

Introduction

As the purported assassination of Osama bin Laden has placed the focus on Pakistan, it is vital to assess the changing role of Pakistan in broad geostrategic terms, and in particular, of the changing American strategy toward Pakistan. The recently reported assassination was a propaganda ploy aimed at targeting Pakistan. To understand this, it is necessary to…

Last year the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues secured the first ever debate in the UK Parliament on conflict prevention (watch it here).

 …

By Mobeen chughtai - Look around you today and what do you see?

Confusion? Disorder? Apathy and distrust?

Is this the gist of the world? Is this the promised culmination of thousands of years of human progress? Have we been reduced to this? And perhaps the most important question of all: in this era of corporate prosperity why are we so empty?

In order to understand the world around us today we must accept that we, as human beings, have entered the era of capitalism. But…

Seeded from Red Diary - Ahmad Khan

Located in central Africa, the Congo is one of the largest, most populous countries in the continent. Strategically located it borders nine countries; Angola, the Congo-Brazzaville, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia. Economically, the Congo is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of resources, with the western Capitalist countries obtaining seven percent of their tin, nine percent…

By: Mary Kadi Manoah*

The current events in the Ivory Coast have certainly captured some attention. As soon as we are faced with the words ‘colonialism’ the words we associate with it pop up again all in negatives well

most…….’oppression, manipulation, exploitation to…

By: Mary Kadi Manoah*

The current events in the Ivory Coast have certainly captured some attention. As soon as we are faced with the words ‘colonialism’ the words we associate with it pop up again all in negatives well

most…….’oppression, manipulation, exploitation to…

World

• Are women in war-torn countries faring any better today than they did a decade ago? The UNFPA's 2010 State of World Population report, released on Wednesday attempted to answer this question inconclusively. The report suggests taking a broader look at the relationships between women and conflict, paying special attention to the…

I have been struggling to write this post. I wanted it to be succinct, eloquent and as respectful as possible. This has proven much more difficult than I had anticipated. It also would have made it a

heck of a lot easier to write if I had had an actual recording of the

meeting as I had requested. My meeting with MP Peter Braid was nearly a

month ago now, and I am still furious and beyond frustrated with him,

his actions and his words. I am still having trouble writing…