How is that in Australia in 2012, a time and place that by any measure must rank as one of the most prosperous and comfortable in history, our democracy seems so devoid of civility or trust? How is it that in the midst of one of the greatest periods of material wealth ever enjoyed in this country, our political leaders seem so inept?
Despite this, only 1 per cent of Australia’s total state and federal spend on drug policy is spent on harm reduction. Seven per cent goes to treatment, 10 per cent goes to efforts to reduce demand and approximately 75 per cent of all taxpayers’ money spent on drug policy goes to enforcement: customs, the police, the courts, and the prisons. It’s a mind-boggling waste of public funds.
According to Boo, this is a key problem for people in the developing world: making sense of what she calls "the infrastructure of opportunity," an infrastructure that can seem designed to keep them down.
"We talk a lot about infrastructure in cities, and it's talking about highways and it's talking about trains, but I think more important to people who are low income is, how do I get from here to there? How do I become part of the affluence that's surrounding me?" Boo says.
Hamilton developed a crush on a farmer, she recalls with a laugh — and that explains a lot. But there was something else that turned her on: "[the idea of] food and agriculture as this way of enacting your beliefs about the way the world should be," she says.
"Having a human involved in agriculture means that human is bringing these elements that only a human can — things like caring about history and caring about the future and being able to quantify value beyond dollars and bottom line."
In the United States, women make up only 16.9 percent of our national legislature (i.e., Congress). That places us 91st in the world. In a new report, Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox conclude that there are seven big reasons why women continue to lag so far behind men in the political world:
- Women are substantially more likely than men to perceive the electoral environment as highly competitive and biased against female candidates.
- Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin’s candidacies aggravated women’s perceptions of gender bias in the electoral arena.
- Women are much less likely than men to think they are qualified to run for office.
- Female potential candidates are less competitive, less confident, and more risk averse than their male counterparts.
- Women react more negatively than men to many aspects of modern campaigns.
- Women are less likely than men to receive the
suggestion to run for office—from anyone.
- Women are still responsible for the majority of childcare and household tasks.
Other positive characteristics—it’s a very socially responsible generation. When I was doing research for my book, I asked everybody I interviewed, which was 150-160 entrepreneurs, “Would you describe your company as having a social mission?” And 70 percent said yeah. I thought that was amazing. Previous generations may have said, “I’m going to make my money, and then I’m going to give back. And I’ll do it through donations or maybe donating a percentage of sales to my favorite charity.” But this generation has a stated social mission at the outset: “We’re not going to wait until we make profits.”
There’s a company in my book called HAPPYBABY Foods, which makes frozen, organic baby meals. From the very inception of their company, they were committed to feeding a kid in Malawi for every package of baby food they sold here. And that was before they had a dime in profits. That’s very typical that there’s a commitment to having a larger purpose beyond commerce; there’s not this separation of profit and not-for-profit. You find a lot of hybrid companies in this generation.
Another positive characteristic is flexibility, because you don’t have this expectation that you’re going to get a job and stay in it for 20 years. You’re more flexible about moving around and juggling a lot of balls at one time and kind of cobbling things together, more than people of older generations who kind of would freak out if they lost their job.
In the Horn of Africa, events in Somalia do make headlines, but are often stories of drought, famine, crisis, and insecurity. Al Jazeera launched a project called Somalia Speaks to help amplify stories from the ground of everyday life in the region. It did so by sending 5000 SMS messages to citizens in the region.
In the Horn of Africa, Somalia makes headlines but often only because of drought, famine, crisis, and insecurity. Al Jazeera launched Somalia Speaks to help amplify stories from people and their everyday lives in the region -- all via SMS.
Somalia Speaks is a collaboration between Souktel, a Palestinian-based organization providing SMS messaging services, Ushahidi, Al Jazeera, Crowdflower, and the African Diaspora Institute. Al Jazeera's Soud Hyder said in an interview with us, "We wanted to find out the perspective of normal Somali citizens to tell us how the crisis has affected them and the Somali diaspora."
“The notion was that when the food crisis erupted this summer, we wanted to get word out from the ground level as to what was going on in that region,” Souktel's Jacob Korenblum said.
The goal of Somalia Speaks is to aggregate unheard voices from inside the region as well as from the Somalia diaspora by asking via text message: How has the Somalia Conflict affected your life? Responses are translated into English and plotted on a map (view it here). Since the launch, approximately 3000 SMS messages have been received. Here is just example:
I was born in the city of Wanlaweyn, and some of the people there are destroying things. I am poor now.
For Al Jazeera, Somalia Speaks is also a chance to pilot and test innovative mobile approaches to citizen media and news gathering.
Yet the challenge that the sector faces in building a strong advocacy voice reflects more the extraordinary diversity of the community sector rather than competitive ruthlessness. There is, between those bodies which share a similar purpose, a willingness to cooperate and share good practice. Let’s remember that most powerful social movements of the last century have been driven by loose partnerships between larger numbers of community service or advocacy organisations, some international in orientation, others embedded in local neighbourhood.
There exists, in short, a desire for connectedness.
That is why the launch of the Connecting Up Directoryrepresents an important step forward in providing an on-line comprehensive listing of nonprofits. It will make consultation, communication, and cooperation much easier. It will connect nonprofits and those that support or fund them. It will be equally valuable to those who wish to regulate charities or those who seek to advocate on their behalf.
The Directory will, as it develops, provide a means by which to portray the growing significance of the raucous cacophony of interests that is the community sector.
Connectedness is a source of strength for the community sector. This Directory, which already lists 60,000 Australian nonprofits, represents a bold initiative in seeking to achieve that goal.
