Carina Maisel's Blog (14)

Now that this period of EVOKE is almost done, which topics should be next? Where should EVOKE go and how is it supposed to change?

Interesting topics I would like to know, research and talk about are especially topics like rising poverty and bad work conditions. There are so many countries in the world in which people work so hard and so long every day but still their wages are not enough to live. They still live below the poverty line. And also European companies do not respect those…

Even if you are not a doctor you can help people when they suffer diseases - when you have suffered them by yourself. You know all the symptoms you had during that time and how you felt. So who is a better one to help than you?

So if you can remember haw you felt during that time, try to help others. What helped you to feel better? What has harmed you even more? Do you know someone who has suffered a similar disease and who can help as well?

Think of how you felt an how much you…

To me, "How do People React in a Pandemic?" is the most important issue to deal with. The most useful thing I found in this context are the "Five principle bulwarks against denial". The author says that denial is worse than fear in a pandemic do not make things wors but they do not help to solve problems either. So he has five "easy" rules on how to deal with denial:

1. Legitimize fear: It it better to say: "Well, of course, you're afraid, I'm afraid too. We're all…

For the five Caribbean islands St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Tobago and Grenada, sustainability is an important issue, especially regarding economic sustainability. To find the right balance between the right use of the limited amount of natural ressources and the need to achive economic growth is a really hard challenge.

As the environmantal treatment and the political actions cannot be regarded seperately, the initiative National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSSDs) was…

Regarding the demographic and climatic change I can imagine that one day we will face a lack of food and other nurishments or medication or whatever. With a system like Ushahidi, it might be easier to connect to the rest of your town or country to use ressources effectively. When e.g. a farmer has some potatoes left over and somebody else in your town urgently needs some, they can connect via Ushahidi. Maybe now it seems to be exaggerated, but it might be neccessary one day!

I donated 20$ for a refuge camp in Malaysia. 20$ will provide 5 women with two meals per day at the Refuge. To me, this was the project which touched me the most because for a woman being abused is one of the worst things that can happen to you in your live. Therefore I think that it is important to support those women for that they have the time to deal with what has happened to them. Moreover, I think that I will keep supporting this project so I am glad EVOKE showed it to me!

Check…

On May 23 and 24, 2012 Egypt started the first round of electing a new president. The article I dealt with is about women and their role in the revolution and in the votes taking place at the moment.

In Egypt's Arab Spring, women played an important role fighting for freedom and for their gender's rights on the streets and on the internet. But what happened afterwards? Did their efforts pay off in the end?

For a little moment it seemed as if things would change, but then the…

I found an article which describes that people living in Brixton, an area in south London, developed their own money in the time of the big recession a few years ago. It did not become an officially accepted currency, but it was accepted in most of the local businesses. It helped to make people buy things they needed nearby and thus helped the local businesses through the recession. To me, this was a very simple, but effective way to make people strenghten their own, local economy and models…

I think of planning an event that is actually like those donation projects on Christmas when you can make a package which is sent to children in Africa or elsewhere. But instead of packages I want people to bring bottles of water and all of them are brought to countries in need. And to make people "donate" water posters and information walls should be put up to illustrate people that having fresh, drinkable water is not everywhere naturally!

I found out about an organisation called ClearWater Initiative which promotes simple, sustainable solutions for the provision of clean water in northern Uganda.

http://youtu.be/27S66NhAT2w

What I like about the organisation is that they obviously really try to understand the problem of the people living in those areas and try to find simple solutions to solve the problem instead of building up highly technical machines. They have helped…

Deva Arun Reddy, a young stundent, developed a system which generates electricity out of rice husks. He founded a company called Husk Power which was inspired by a simple conversation between two friends. The system makes it possible for farmers in India, who could not make use of their crop because of missing electrical power, to provide electricity at a staggeringly ecenomical price.

To me, this is an amazing innovation…

On Saturday, March 7, 2012 I will be home for dinner with my wh*** family. We are having fish which my cousin brought from the north coast.

Nowadays it has become better to take care of your food on your own. It is better to grow your vegetables in your garden because the quality of the food you can buy has gone extremely down. Most of the vegetables are not freah any more and contain harmful substances.

Therefore my family grows all kinds of vegetables and fruits during the…

I need to admit that in my hometown (Nuremberg, Germany) you do not see very much homeless people or people suffering hunger. Compared to other cities or countries you hardly see people on the street asking you for money or anything. This is why Germans going to other countries or continents are always very shocked by the poverty they face there.

Therefore I think there must be something done to show people how much they have and how little other people in the world have. To accieve…

I totally agree with "Make it inexpensive" and "Listen to the right people".

Make it inexpensive is acutally a good point to reduce prices for certain products. If you think about what products you have and what functions they need to fulfil you will probably figure out that there are so many functions you will never use!! So if you reduce a product to the original function it is supposed to fulfil you will be able to provide this product for a wh*** new target group.

And "Listen…