Blog Post

I recently attended the 2010 Global Corporate Citizenship Conference organized by the US Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center. The theme is how corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and public-private partnerships can help address critical global development issues, including poverty alleviation, health care, economic development, education, women’s development, water sanitation, and disaster relief.

In honor of Conflict Resolution Day 2010 this Thursday, IREX is launching a new conflict mitigation program! This month, IREX is beginning the USAID/IREX Youth for Change: Building Peace in Rwandan Communities (Y4C) project. I met with Shannon Bruder, who will be managing the project, to get more information about the project’s goals and the current situation in Rwanda.
 

This week Secretary Clinton spoke to Balkan youth about the importance of cross-cultural exchange programs. “We should have more exchange programs with…other places in the world so that you can tell the story of Kosovo,” she told students in Pristina. Reports of Clinton's visit to Bosnia and Kosovo appeared alongside accounts of the Chilean miners emerging from their subterranean tunnel.

I recently returned from a brief and productive trip to the Middle East looking at the existing portfolio of programs IREX implements in the region and exploring possibilities for new opportunities.

With the ubiquity of Facebook and other social networking tools, most Internet users are accustomed now to divulging more personal information than they would have just a few short years ago. Privacy may not yet be a thing of the past, but technology seems to be pressing us in that direction. HTML5 is a new computer language designed to allow users to better surf the Web, but it also raises questions about how much more information it allows software developers and marketers to gather about users.

A few weeks ago I traveled to a conference on theater and conflict in connection with my work on IREX’s youth theater programs. Put on by the all-volunteer organization Theatre Without Borders, Acting Together on the World Stage drew a vibrant international crowd of performers, directors, playwrights, teachers and others who believe in the power of theater to change individuals, communities, and the world.

I recently got back from a two week trip in Indonesia, where I was doing research on civil society, religious tolerance, conflict resolution, women's rights, youth issues, and technology.

If anyone with a camera, computer, or blog can be considered a journalist, does it make sense for laws to create special protections for journalists? Or if a journalist must be someone employed by a media organization, someone who earns a regular salary and is specifically tasked with collecting and disseminating news and information, does it make sense to extend special legal protections only to that group? The question has been raised most recently in Iraq, South Africa and Turkey.

Twelve university administrators from Armenia, Georgia, Ghana, Russia and Ukraine arrived at IREX on September 27^th to begin their University Administration Support Program Fellowship.

I first heard the story of the intrepid Nebraksan teacher Minnie Freeman years ago.  During the blizzard of 1888, she tied her students together with a ball of twine and led them from her sod schoolhouse to the safety of a sturdier building. Because of these level-headed actions, Minnie’s students survived. This image of a teacher navigating crisis has stuck with me.