Violence Today

When I think about violence today so many tragedies come flooding into my mind, so many injustices. So when I stumbled upon "Steven Pinker; A Brief History of Violence" (a TED talk from 2006) I had to consider that I had been denying the truth about modern violence. That, in fact, maybe we are living in one of the most peaceful times in history, that the rate at which people are being killed is declining. After a few graphs he persuaded me to believe that less people on average were being killed violently, but there were a few things he did not convince me of.......in response to his view that we live in peaceful times, the standards of peace have changed. Not only do lots of different groups and minorities have rights they have never had before, but we as a people are hopefully evolving in the way we view violence, and its role in our daily lives. Perhaps, the reason we live in a technically more peaceful time is not because there are less injustices, but because less violence is doing just as much damage as it ever was.

Zainab Salbi, the Iraqi founder of Women For Women International, works with women around the world in war-torn countries on what she considers to be the "backline of war". She sees every day what the reverberations of violence can be, and how not just physical violence but other forms can be resounding factors in an entire society for years to come. War, the ultimate collection of violence, is historically conducted by men, Salbi talks about what the women are doing. During a war, the women are the ones who arent raping, they arent fighting, the are just trying to survive and stay out of direct fire. I found her argument that women should be a much more respected entity in politics to be fascinating. It makes sense. Women, who are so often the first to be beaten down, are so often the first to get up, progress should start with women, if the war starts with men.

"If we do not stabilize Iraq we cannot stabilize America".
-Zainab Salbi

just these thoughts

Nelson

The Color of Freedom, or Goodbye Bafana, was a movie based on the memoirs of James Gregory. Gregory was a warder who got to know Mandela during his time as a prisoner. For many years Gregory was in charge of handling Mandela's mail, along with various other prisoners. And for years to come Gregory developed an unspoken bond with Mandela.

Goodbye Bafana, the African title, was taken from Gregory's book of memoirs, "Goodbye Bafana; Nelson Mandela, My Prisoner, My Friend". Bafana is a Zulu word meaning "boys", it is endearing to some, and a source of pride, but to others "bafana" can be linked back to more troubled times and holds some ties to prejudices and rascism. It is not only this that is controversal, Gregory himself is questionable. His connection to Mandela has been targeted as being fabricated, and an idealized version of the calculated nature of their relationship.

"Warrant Officer James Gregory was also there at the house, and I embraced him warmly. In the years that he had looked after me from Pollsmoor through Victor Verster, we had never discussed politics, but our bond was an unspoken one and I would miss his soothing presence". -Nelson Mandela

Whether or not the connection was 100% factual the focus of the movie should be upon the issues. The film was a beautiful illustration of Mandela's time in prison. You were able to see and understand the injustices, and get a glance of Mandela's heart and character.

Afghanistan Research Project

Here are some Illustrator layouts of research I did on Afghanistan, quite a bit of it is shocking.
The thing I found most devastating was the Maternal Death rate.

Design for the Other 90%

Design for the Other 90% is an exhibition with its roots at Cooper-Heweitt in NYC. It brings together designers, architects, intellectuals, and basically anyone who is anyone in the move towards socially-responsible design. It showcases design that solves serious problems in developing countries, such as providing shelter, or getting water from one place to another. The work that is being brought forward through this exhibit is the same work that is reducing disease and saving lives in places that many of us could not imagine.
Coincidentally I had personally discovered the exhibition online earlier this summer, when I was dreaming of developing a human rights design group at RISD. I cant imagine why RISD is not at the forefront of this type of work.
Design for the Other 90% offers anyone interested in learning about the hundreds of different projects and programs around the world the information they need to be inspired.

“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.”
—Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises

One of my personal favorites is definitely worth a closer look. The Bamboo Treadle Pump is an inexpensive water pump made of bamboo that allows farmers to access water at times when they normally would not be able. In Bangledesh, the pump has already generated $1.4 billion in net farmer income, read more about it at http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/Design/bamboo-treadle-pump.
And while your there explore the site, there are so many great things just like it.

My First Day as a Social Entrepeneur

So, the point of this post is to answer some questions, like what is the point of me having a blog?

For those of you who arent in my class, Design For Social Entrepeneurship, you can check it out at http://www.de-se.blogspot.com/ . But you dont have to, im going to try to make my blog interesting to anyone who might stop in even if they arent involved in the course.

In this first post im going to explain a little bit about myself in regards to the course, why i chose it, and how it relates to me.

If you had asked me two years ago what I wanted to do with my life I probably would have told you that I was going to design amusement park rides, or work for NASA. But when I got to RISD that all changed. One wintersession I took a course on human rights, and it really opened my eyes. And now I can only hope that one day I will be given the oppurtunity to help the people I learned about in that class. Human rights policies, and tragedies, organizations, and activists, have become somewhat of an obsession for me recently. I watch pretty much any documentary I can get my hands on and instead of reading Harry Potter I prefer books about political strategy, or the Shia Revival, just to give you a taste.

I do my best to learn as much as I can, but I feel like I am only testing the water. I am torn between a life of volunteer work, or a life in washington. I am hoping this course along with many more experiences at RISD can point me in the right direction.