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Links & Contents I Liked 247

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Hi all, Development news: Louise ' In Congo's Shadow ' Linton is back! Bill Easterly admits that he was wrong! A special section on a ' Reading The Congo '; quitting Peace Corps ; how to get into the conservation industry? Reality TV & humanitarians; global health & men - and so much more! Our digital lives : Uruguayan Barbie; do advocacy documentaries work? The UK Home Office 'disrupted' NGO data; how men are shaping our contemporary cities. Publications: Agribusiness in Latin America. Enjoy! Development news In the line of fire Finally, we must provide better duty-of-care to all staff on the frontlines, particularly national staff. International aid agencies are increasingly providing aid remotely in highly insecure environments. This means they are delivering relief through local partners and transferring the risk to them. Local and national partner organizations face an inadequate level of security and support from their international partner

Links & Contents I Liked 246

Hi all, August still seems to be a bit quieter as we are slowly getting into gear for a new semester and new academic adventures! Nonetheless, there's always great food for thought and excellent weekend readings! Development news: UNICEF & the YouTube ambassador; China joins the pop-cultural discourse of White Saviors; Are ‘beg-packers’ a thing in Vietnam? Tanzania’s ghost safari-an old tale of modernization & development in today’s Africa; Africans are not waiting for their diaspora; new ways of being a digital Nigerian; chatbots & humanitarian assistance; ICC uses social media as evidence; Indonesia’s restrictions of the Internet also determine SDG success; how to involve communities in SDG monitoring; the history of foreign aid & American public opinion.  Our digital lives: Facebook & platform capitalism. Publications: Climate change meets humanitarian aid discourses; online protests harm companies; Nkrumah’s legacy of national self-determination. Academi

Links & Contents I Liked 245

Hi all, I'm wrapping up a fantastic week of teaching at a summer academy in Northern Germany! Lots of great discussions about the past, present & future of development and aid work! I even managed to get a new book review on the blog, but since I spent a bit less time online there are also fewer links in this week's review. Nonetheless, they are still worth exploring and provide ample food for thought as always! Development news: The ultimate guide to the cash-based aid debate; South Sudan's bleak humanitarian situation; a neat overview over the economic cost of accepting refugees; how feminist is Canada's new foreign policy really? Why do UN peacekeepers rape? the value of spiritual lives of aid workers; MUST-READS: A charter school travels to Thailand; the preservation of privilege in social activism. Our digital lives: UN Social 500; an archive on the history of the chemical-industrial complex.  Publications: New insights into participatory video; challeng

Reporting the Retreat (book review)

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To be honest, I am not much of a military history person. I am also not exactly a WWII person either when it comes to readings at the intersection of work and leisure. But Philip Woods’ Reporting the Retreat-War Correspondents in Burma intrigued me for its sub-title and I really enjoyed the reflections it sparked vis-à-vis today’s challenges of war reporting and the complexities of truth in media more generally. Philip Woods’ book about ‘the six-month, one thousand-mile retreat of the British and Chinese armies from Burma in the first half of 1942’ (p.1) is a very well researched historical case study of journalism, news media and the work of foreign correspondents. The book looks at a group of twenty-six correspondents who reported from Burma for newspapers and weekly newsreel broadcasts and, equally important, about half of the group wrote memoirs shortly after their assignment in South Asia. The discrepancies between their daily work, always impeded by military censorship, and t

Links & Contents I Liked 244

Hi all, Surrounded by moving boxes comes the latest link review! Development news: Did Angelina Jolie really do harm on her film set? What are the Clooneys up to in Lebanon? Haiti's sewage problem; climate change and suicide in India; crimes against women in India; electoral information campaigns don’t work anywhere; evidence-based policy-making in the tropics; sued over a critical facebook post; board trouble at Ushahidi? Corporate BS: Sending employees on voluntourism trips; aid workers as authors.      Our digital lives: Transparency & accountability at G4S; the ‘mind trap’ of social entrepreneurism: class and breastfeeding; the price of unpaid internships. Publications: New open access anthropological textbook Enjoy! Development news Angelina Jolie Refutes Vanity Fair’s Portrayal Of Controversial Auditions Jolie said in a statement Saturday that the audition scene had been taken out of context. According to the actress, there were parents, guardians and non-governm