thinking about
In late January world leaders, both in politics, business and the social sector descend on Davos for the 2009 World Economic Forum. The event is like brain candy for the global citizen as one minute your in a conference room listening to Vladimir Putin and the next in an intimate coffee break discussing the future of Zimbabwe with opposition leader, Arthur Mutambara.
I'm fortunate enough to be invited as a Young Global Leader as I certainly not be able to make it otherwise. It turns out there is one other way to sneak in!
The folks at the World Economic Forum are offer a free trip. All you have to do is to do a You Tube video, many of which will be shown during the conference, and the best poster gets an all expenses trip to the event.
It has been three weeks since I've been back in my office and the inbox that read 406 unread messages is still pretty daunting. For those who are here after viewing the episode of Iconoclasts on Sundance - Hello, take a gander around and be sure to go to Architecture for Humanity and the Open Architecture Network.
A huge congratulations should also go out to Scott Fifer of TunaHAKI for hosting an amazing fundraiser in aid of the orphanage and performing arts center in Moshi, Tanzania. On November 21st Scott raised over $250,000 to construct tunaHAKI and other meaning full projects in Africa.
After three long years of working on the Gulf Coast our team has seen firsthand many well-crafted community led rebuilding projects squashed by outdated and poorly constructed policies. With funds yet to be distributed the health of families have deteriorated as they languish in FEMA trailers. Recently 7,000 of the 38,000 families in trailers were instructed to leave because of concerns of formaldehyde. This is considered a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. We began to try and understand why these trailers were seen as a 'the only viable solution' and during our initial research we hit upon something that impacts the lives millions of children.
Appearing as part of Gap Inc. Get out the vote campaign
